Can an nRF54L15 DK Development kit be used to create a Thread Border Router?

[sanderhollaar]

Given that there are no nRF54L15 usb dongles available yet, can an nRF54L15 DK Development kit be used to create a Thread Border Router?

Background: Home automation is uncharted territory for me. The nRF54L series seems the most current technology for building a Thread and Matter network.

[LuDuda]

Hello @sanderhollaar

Yes, you can run the Thread Border Router using the nRF54L15 DK as an RCP over UART. Here’s how I did it on nRF Connect SDK v3.0.2:

1. Check out the correct SDK version and build the OpenThread coprocessor sample:

cd nrf
git checkout v3.0.2
west update
west build -p -b nrf54l15dk/nrf54l15/cpuapp samples/openthread/coprocessor/
west flash --erase

2. Identify the serial interface (pick the ACM port, usually the second one e.g. /dev/ttyACM1):

sudo ls -lia /dev/serial/by-id

3. Start the OpenThread Border Router in Docker (or set it up on a Raspberry Pi):

sudo modprobe ip6table_filter
sudo docker run -it --rm --privileged --name otbr --network otbr -p 8080:80 --sysctl "net.ipv6.conf.all.disable_ipv6=0 net.ipv4.conf.all.forwarding=1 net.ipv6.conf.all.forwarding=1" --volume /dev/ttyACM1:/dev/radio nrfconnect/otbr:fbde28a --radio-url spinel+hdlc+uart:///dev/radio?uart-baudrate=1000000

4. Open http://localhost:8080 in your browser to form the Thread network.

For further support, I would recommend you to create the DevZone ticket.

[sanderhollaar]

I've since ordered the nRF54L15 DK but for future readers Seeed Studio XIAO nRF54L15 USB-C boards support Matter, Thread, Zigbee, and Amazon Sidewalk might also be an option.

[sanderhollaar]

Thanks once more for your kind reply @LuDuda I finally found time to figure out all the steps required to flash my https://openthread.io/vendors/nordic-semiconductor#nrf54l15 and would like to share my notes. I could not make the steps work on NixOS so I'm using podman.

# requires elevated privileges for rw /sys
sudo podman run --rm -it --network=host --privileged --cap-add all --device /dev/ttyACM0 --device /dev/ttyACM1 debian:forky /bin/bash

apt update
apt upgrade -y
apt install -y curl cmake file generate-ninja git ninja-build python3-jsonschema udev vim west wget xz-utils

# zephyr sdk
# https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/sdk-ng/releases/
curl -sL https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/sdk-ng/releases/download/v1.0.0-beta1/zephyr-sdk-1.0.0-beta1_linux-x86_64_gnu.tar.xz | tar -xJC /usr/local/
cd /usr/local/zephyr-sdk-1.0.0-beta1
./setup.sh -t all -l -h -c

# J-Link (via browser)
# https://www.segger.com/downloads/jlink/JLink_Linux_x86_64.deb
/lib/systemd/systemd-udevd --daemon
dpkg -i ~/JLink_Linux_V896_x86_64.deb
apt --fix-broken install -y

# nrfutil
curl -so nrfutil https://files.nordicsemi.com/artifactory/swtools/external/nrfutil/executables/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/nrfutil
chmod 755 nrfutil; mv nrfutil /usr/bin/; nrfutil --version
nrfutil install completion
nrfutil install sdk-manager
nrfutil install device

# nRF Connect SDK
nrfutil sdk-manager search
nrfutil sdk-manager install v3.2.1
nrfutil sdk-manager toolchain launch --ncs-version v3.2.1 --shell

cd ~/ncs/v3.2.1/
west update
west zephyr-export
source zephyr/zephyr-env.sh
cd nrf

west build -p -b nrf54l15dk/nrf54l15/cpuapp samples/openthread/coprocessor/
west flash --erase