WCH CH32V003 Tutorial Part 1 (Environment Setup)⌗

This section covers setting up the tool chain environment and connections needed to get started with the micro-controller.

The tutorial covers usage of FreeBSD, Linux and Windows as the host OS.

I’m working on another post detailing the setup of the GCC toolchain for risc-v so stay tuned for that.

Environment Setup⌗

The FreeBSD and Linux sections are basically the same; templates I’ve built for this work across both platforms with the caveat of built-in tools within your terminal emulator and shell of choice.

If you are using windows skip to the Windows section down below.

Tooling Installation:

  • rust nightly:: Tool chain needed for building the other two cli tools.
  • wlink:: Used to interact with the programmer/debugger.
  • wchisp:: If you want to use USB and/or UART ISP.
  • git:: Version Control, if you’re a programmer you should have this already.
  • template:: The fancy template I’ve created for the ch32v20x chips.

FreeBSD and Linux⌗

Install Rust⌗

To start you will need to install rust; we’re not going to be writing our firmware in rust for now, but it’s what the CLI tooling we’re going to use is written in.

If you need help with installing rust you can go over to the website and follow the platform dependent instructions; link Install-Rust.

Install tools⌗

To install the tooling you can run the commands below in your terminal.

cargo install --git https://github.com/ch32-rs/wlink
cargo install wchisp --git https://github.com/ch32-rs/wchisp

Now you’re all setup for being able to flash and interact with the programmer and debugger modules “wlinke” that are used with the RISC-V based WCH micro controllers.

Windows⌗

There are two options below depending on you’re goals. The IDE section is useful if you’re actually doing development on windows, while the WCH utility is a much smaller footprint program for flashing/programming only.

If you don’t need to do editing/development I would suggest using the WCH utility instead.

Installing IDE:

If you are running Windows as your OS of choice I would recommend just using the MRS software from the manufacturer.

NOTE!: The last version number of the eclipse based IDE is v192 as of 2025-03-08, This I’ve found is currently more functional than the newer VSCode based version. I would expect it to be more mature in the future.

  1. Navigate to MounRiver Studio in another tab.
  2. Click the button to display the site in English.
  3. Click the Download button.
  4. Select and download the second available zip file, not MRS2
  5. Extract the zip folder to a location of your choice.
  6. Run the executable file.

Installing The Utility:

  1. Navigate to WCH-LinkUtility
  2. Download the zip file by hitting the blue button.
  3. Extract the folder.
  4. Plug in your wlinke and run the program, it may update it’s firmware.

Debugger/Programmer Connections⌗

The programming/debugging device that is used is called the wlinke. You should have one that features a USB connection on one side and a set of 2.54mm male pin connectors on the other end.

WLINKE Connections⌗

There are multiple versions of the wlinke available, the most common one I’ve seen is the version 1.3 modules.

The pin out for the wlinke is defined as follows:

  • VCC:: 5v power line.
  • 3V3:: 3.3v power line.
  • GND:: Ground aka 0v
  • SWDIO:: Serial Wire Debug I/O, program/debug.
  • SWCLK:: Clock line
  • NRST:: The reset line; not always needed.
  • TX:: USART Transmit.
  • RX:: USART Receive.
  • TDO:: JTAG stuff, Not used for RISC-V
  • TDI:: JTAG stuff, Not used for RISC-V

The connections we need to keep in mind at a minimum are:

  • 3V3:: You’ll want to use/connect the 3.3v pin
  • GND:: This should connect directly to the CH32V003’s ground pin.
  • SWDIO:: Connect to pin PD1.
  • NRST:: Connect to pin PD7.

These connections should be broken out on a separate connector on the development board assuming you’re not using a breakout board.