Wonder of wonders! The black pill finally arrived! Packaging was messed up but the part seems intact. It took three months and finally it's here.
Assuming it's functional, what do I do next?
Bob,
1. Solder the two 20-pin headers that came in the same anti-static pouch as the Black Pill and insert the Black Pill at the edge of a breadboard, as shown in one of my latest posts. Then please take pictures of your setup and the parts you have available, and post them here. Be careful with this step because if you mess up the soldering, you'll destroy the Black Pill. Note:
don't solder the 4-pin header for the SWD interface, only the two 20-pin headers along the sides of the Black Pill.
2. Install the Arduino IDE on your computer, install the STM32 package, and post a screenshot here. If your PC is running Windows (any version) I can't help you with this installation, so you'll need help from somebody else.
3. Make sure you have a USB C cable, connect it to the STM32, download the "blink" example from your PC to your Black Pill, and post a screenshot here.
4. Wire the GPS module on the breadboard and post a screenshot here. That involves 4 wires but they have to be correctly setup, otherwise you could destroy your GPS module and/or the Black Pill.
5. Test the GPS module with the example code that I will post here for you, once we have confirmed steps 1, 2, 3 and 4 above.
After step 5 we'll be around 50% done. Let's see how long that takes.