I am completely new here, question-how is the best way to get started using the cube ide and my new stm32f401 series chips as far as manipulating the ports ?

[jstor.1the lost one]

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[Tesla DeLorean]

What "the ports" are you thinking about? In this ARM architecture the peripheral registers are accessed within the memory space of the MCU. Each peripheral also has its own clock enable, which must be enabled in the RCC_APBx and RCC_AHB registers.

I'd suggest reviewing the Reference Manual, and using that to understand the library code and how it interacts with the peripherals.

Might suggest starting with the GPIO pins, and perhaps the UARTs

[jstor.1the lost one]

GPIO pins, can you assign them different tasks or identity and is there doc i can go to to learn this ?