Golioth OpenThread Demo

This repository contains the firmware source code and pre-built release firmware images for the Golioth OpenThread Demo.

The full project details are available on the Golioth Thread Demo Project Page.

Requirements

• Golioth device PSK credentials
• A running Thread Border Router with NAT64 translation (we will be using the commercially available off-the-shelf GL-S200 Thread Border Router)
• Thread Network Name and Network Key

Supported Hardware

This firmware can be built for a variety of supported hardware platforms.

Important

In Zephyr, each of these different hardware variants is given a unique "board" identifier, which is used by the build system to generate firmware for that variant.

When building firmware using the instructions below, make sure to use the correct Zephyr board identifier that corresponds to your hardware platform.

Nordic Semiconductor Hardware

Development Borad	Zephyr Board
	nrf52840dk_nrf52840

Adafruit Hardware

Development Board	Zephyr Board
	adafruit_feather_nrf52840

Firmware Overview

This is a Reference Design for a Thread Protocol enabled device using Zephyr and connecting to Golioth over IPv6.

Configure prj.conf

Configure the following Kconfig options:

• OPENTHREAD_NETWORK_NAME - Name of your Thread network
• OPENTHREAD_NETWORKKEY - Network Key of your Thread network

by changing these lines in the prj.conf configuration file, e.g.:

CONFIG_OPENTHREAD_NETWORKKEY="00:11:22:33:44:55:66:77:88:99:aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff"
CONFIG_OPENTHREAD_NETWORK_NAME="golioth-thread"

CONFIG_OPENTHREAD_CHANNEL is set to 26.

Important

Make sure the Thread Network Name, Thread Network Key and Thread Channel match your Border Router configuration.

Supported Golioth Zephyr SDK Features

This firmware implements the following features from the Golioth Zephyr SDK:

• Device Settings Service
• LightDB State Client
• LightDB Stream Client
• Logging Client
• Over-the-Air (OTA) Firmware Upgrade
• Remote Procedure Call (RPC)

Device Settings Service

The following settings should be set in the Device Settings menu of the Golioth Console.

LOOP_DELAY_S

Adjusts the delay between sensor readings. Set to an integer value (seconds).

Default value is 60 seconds.

LightDB Stream Service

An up-counting timer is periodically sent to the sensor/counter endpoint of the LightDB Stream service to simulate sensor data.

LightDB State Service

The concept of Digital Twin is demonstrated with the LightDB State example_int0 and example_int1 variables that are members of the desired and state endpoints.

• desired values may be changed from the cloud side. The device will recognize these, validate them for [0..65535] bounding, and then reset these endpoints to -1
• state values will be updated by the device whenever a valid value is received from the desired endpoints. The cloud may read the state endpoints to determine device status, but only the device should ever write to the state endpoints.

Remote Procedure Call (RPC) Service

The following RPCs can be initiated in the Remote Procedure Call menu of the Golioth Console.

reboot

Reboot the system.

set_log_level

Set the log level.

The method takes a single parameter which can be one of the following integer values:

• 0: LOG_LEVEL_NONE
• 1: LOG_LEVEL_ERR
• 2: LOG_LEVEL_WRN
• 3: LOG_LEVEL_INF
• 4: LOG_LEVEL_DBG

Local set up

Do not clone this repo using git. Zephyr's west meta tool should be used to set up your local workspace.

Install the Python virtual environment (recommended)

cd ~
mkdir golioth-openthread-demo
python -m venv golioth-openthread-demo/.venv
source golioth-openthread-demo/.venv/bin/activate
pip install wheel west

Use west to initialize the workspace and install dependencies

cd ~/golioth-openthread-demo
west init -m git@github.com:golioth/golioth-openthread-demo.git .
west update
west zephyr-export
pip install -r deps/zephyr/scripts/requirements.txt

Building the application

Build the Zephyr sample application from the top-level workspace of your project. After a successful build you will see a new build/ directory.

Note that this git repository was cloned into the app folder, so any changes you make to the application itself should be committed inside this repository. The build and deps directories in the root of the workspace are managed outside of this git repository by the west meta-tool.

Prior to building, update CONFIG_MCUBOOT_IMGTOOL_SIGN_VERSION in the prj.conf file to reflect the firmware version number you want to assign to this build. Then run the following commands to build and program the firmware onto the device.

Important

When running the commands below, make sure to replace the placeholder <your_zephyr_board_id> with the actual Zephyr board from the table above that matches your hardware.

In addition, replace <your.semantic.version> with a SemVer-compliant version string (e.g. 1.2.3) that will be used by the DFU service when checking for firmware updates.

$ (.venv) west build -p -b <your_zephyr_board_id> app

For example, to build firmware for the Nordic nRF52840 DK-based follow-along hardware:

$ (.venv) west build -p -b nrf52840dk_nrf52840 app

Flash the firmware

$ (.venv) west flash

Provision the device

In order for the device to securely authenticate with the Golioth Cloud, we need to provision the device with a pre-shared key (PSK). This key will persist across reboots and only needs to be set once after the device firmware has been programmed. In addition, flashing new firmware images with west flash should not erase these stored settings unless the entire device flash is erased.

Configure the PSK-ID and PSK using the device UART shell and reboot the device:

uart:~$ settings set golioth/psk-id <my-psk-id@my-project>
uart:~$ settings set golioth/psk <my-psk>
uart:~$ kernel reboot cold

Pulling in updates from the Reference Design Template

This reference design was forked from the Reference Design Template repo. We recommend the following workflow to pull in future changes:

• Setup
  • Create a template remote based on the Reference Design Template repository
• Merge in template changes
  • Fetch template changes and tags
  • Merge template release tag into your main (or other branch)
  • Resolve merge conflicts (if any) and commit to your repository

# Setup
git remote add template https://github.com/golioth/reference-design-template.git
git fetch template --tags

# Merge in template changes
git fetch template --tags
git checkout your_local_branch
git merge template_v1.0.0

# Resolve merge conflicts if necessary
git add resolved_files
git commit