EFR32 Zephyr Application Examples

Silicon Labs Zephyr Applications

This repository contains example projects that demonstrate various applications running on Zephyr OS supported on Silicon Labs Development Kits. All examples in this repository are considered to be EXPERIMENTAL QUALITY, which implies that the code provided in the repository has not been formally tested and is provided as-is. It is not suitable for production environments.

Examples

No	Example name	Link to example
1	Zephyr - MikroBus Demo	Click Here
2	Zephyr - Si7210 Hall Effect Magnetic Sensor	Click Here
3	Zephyr - Qwiic Connector	Click Here
4	Zephyr - Simplicity Connect Demo - Blinky	Click Here
5	Zephyr - Modified SoC Thermometer	Click Here
6	Zephyr - SoC Throughput	Click Here
7	Zephyr - BTHome v2 - xG24/xG27 Dev Kit Sensors with LVGL	Click Here
8	Zephyr - OTA Firmware Update over BLE	Click Here
9	Zephyr - ST7789 Display Demo	Click Here

Requirements

• Zephyr 4.2.0
• Zephyr SDK 0.17.2

Setting up environment

Follow the getting started guide here: Zephyr Getting Started Guide with 2 sections:

1. Select and Update OS

2. Install dependencies
   The current minimum required version for the main dependencies are:

   Tool	Min. Version
   Cmake	3.20.5
   Python	3.10
   Devicetree complier	1.4.6

Setting up the workspace

The application structure is based on the Zephyr example application. Follow steps below to setup and build

1. Create a python virtual environment and activate that environment.

   • For Windows:

     • To create a python virtual environment on windows, run the following commands by using Batchfile or Powershell

       Command	Batchfile	Powershell
       Goto user home directory	cd %HOMEPATH%	cd $Env:HOMEPATH
       Create virtual environment	python -m venv zephyrproject\.venv	python -m venv zephyrproject\.venv
       Active virtual environment	zephyrproject\.venv\Scripts\activate.bat	zephyrproject\.venv\Scripts\activate.ps1

   • For Ubuntu:

     • python3 -m venv ~/zephyrproject/.venv
     • source ~/zephyrproject/.venv/bin/activate

   • For MacOS:

     • python3 -m venv ~/zephyrproject/.venv
     • source ~/zephyrproject/.venv/bin/activate

2. Install west.

   pip install west

3. Clone the Zephyr applications repository of Silicon Labs.

   cd zephyrproject

   git clone https://github.com/SiliconLabs/zephyr_applications.git

4. Initialize the workspace by running the following commands.

   west init -l zephyr_applications

   west update

5. Install additional Python dependencies.

   pip install -r zephyr/scripts/requirements.txt

6. Install the Zephyr SDK

   cd ~/zephyrproject/zephyr
west sdk install --version 0.17.2

7. Fetch and store the Silicon Labs pre-built libraries

   west blobs fetch hal_silabs

8. Build & running the example application

The example applications is located at applications folder. Use west command to build and flash to the board.

• Build:

  west build -p -b <board_id> <application_path>

Important

Ensure You're Using Zephyr SDK 0.17.2
If you have multiple versions of the Zephyr SDK installed, make sure to use version 0.17.2 when building examples. You can do this by explicitly setting the ZEPHYR_SDK_INSTALL_DIR environment variable

• macOS / Ubuntu: export ZEPHYR_SDK_INSTALL_DIR=path/to/zephyr-sdk-0.17.2
• Windows Command Line: set ZEPHYR_SDK_INSTALL_DIR=path\to\zephyr-sdk-0.17.2
• PowerShell: $env:ZEPHYR_SDK_INSTALL_DIR = "path\to\zephyr-sdk-0.17.2"

For more detailed instructions on how to set environment variables, please visit: Developing with Zephyr » Environment Variables
You can verify this by checking the build output log to confirm which Zephyr SDK version is being used.
-- Found host-tools: zephyr 0.17.2 (/path/to/zephyr-sdk-0.17.2)

• Flash:

  west flash

Tip

• Refer to the example application documentation (the README file) to get more details on how to build and run each example applications.
• For more information regarding setting up the environment, please refer to this guide on Zephyr's homepage.
• We would advise using the Python version 3.10.

How to make your own application

The following guides are relevant to how to be more familiar with Zephyr OS and make a simple application.

Getting started with basic examples

You can start with a variety of examples in the zephyrproject/zephyr/sample directory. It might be best to approach Zephyr and understand how it works.

The typical example outline as below:

  +--boards                       > Contains devicetree overlay files for each supported boards.
  +--build                        > Contains the binary and system files of the example.
  +--src                          > Contains source code files of the example.
  +--CmakeLists.txt               > Contains a set of directives and instructions describing the project's source files and targets
  +--Kconfig                      > Configure the Zephyr kernel and subsystems at build time to adapt them for specific application and platform needs.
  +--prj.config                   > This is a Kconfig fragment that specifies application-specific values for one or more Kconfig options.
  +--README.md                   > Readme file of the project.

If you want to develop your project, you should focus on some files that specify your projects, like the devicetree overlay file, CmakeLists.txt, Kconfig, and prj.conf.

Build the application

The build command helps you build Zephyr applications from the source. The easiest way is to go to your application’s root directory (i.e. the folder containing the application’s CMakeLists.txt file) and then run the following command:

west build -b <BOARD_ID>

In case, you don't know the exact board's ID, you can get the supported board list using the west boards command.

We recommend setting the application source directory explicitly and giving its path as a positional argument:

west build -b <BOARD_ID> <zephyr_applications/applications/...>

For further information related to building the application, see this section for more details.

Flash the application

Important

If you are using the Arduino Nano Matter board:

Refer to this guide for instructions on compiling, installing, and running OpenOCD for flashing and debugging.

From a Zephyr build directory, re-build the binary and flash it to your board:

west flash

To specify the build directory, you have to use --build-dir (or -d):

west flash --build-dir path/to/build/directory

If you don’t specify the build directory, west flash searches for one in the build directory in your current working directory.

Note

To flash the binary to the board, we advise installing and using the SEGGER RTT J-Link driver. You can download it here.

Logging data

You can launch Console, which is integrated into Simplicity Studio or use a third-party terminal tool such as Putty, TeraTerm or similar tools.

References

Getting started with the Developing with Zephyr section on Zephyr's homepage.

For more information, visit the Developer documentation portal of Silicon Laboratories.

Reporting Bugs/Issues and Posting Questions and Comments

To report bugs in the Application Examples projects, please create a new "Issue" in the "Issues" section of this repo. Please reference the board, project, and source files associated with the bug, and reference line numbers. If you are proposing a fix, also include information on the proposed fix. Since these examples are provided as-is, there is no guarantee that these examples will be updated to fix these issues.

Questions and comments related to these examples should be made by creating a new "Issue" in the "Issues" section of this repo.