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March 2, 2026
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Flashing error on NUCLEO-N657X0-Q in STM32Cube.AI Studio: missing External Loader for --split-weights?

  • March 2, 2026
  • 1 reply
  • 156 views

Hi everyone,

I'm using the new STM32Cube.AI Studio with a NUCLEO-N657X0-Q board. Since the STM32N6 is flashless, I used the --split-weights flag to allocate the NN weights to the external xSPI memory (address 0x71000000).

The project builds successfully, but the automated flashing step fails with Error: failed to download Sector[0]. It seems that STM32Cube.AI Studio calls STM32CubeProgrammer in the background without configuring the required External Loader for the external flash.

Is there a native way to set up the External Loader directly within STM32Cube.AI Studio's settings, or is the officially recommended workflow right now to flash the weights manually via the standalone CubeProgrammer?

Thanks in advance!

Best answer by hamitiya

Hello,

Actually, there is no way to select an External Loader for this step.

However, we are aware of this limitation for NUCLEO-N657X0-Q and it will be fixed in the next release of STM32Cube AI Studio.

 

Best regards,

Yanis 

1 reply

hamitiya
hamitiyaBest answer
ST Employee
March 2, 2026

Hello,

Actually, there is no way to select an External Loader for this step.

However, we are aware of this limitation for NUCLEO-N657X0-Q and it will be fixed in the next release of STM32Cube AI Studio.

 

Best regards,

Yanis 

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