Boron running Zephyr RTOS

Firmware
1

Hello,

Can a Boron running Zephyr access the Particle Cloud?

I was thinking of trying out Zephyr on an old Boron. Thanks.

2

No, it cannot access the Particle cloud once you flash Zephyr. I don't think the Zephyr port enables the cellular modem; you have to do that manually from your code using commands over the UART serial port to it.

It is possible to use the Particle device restore hex files and a SWD/JTAG CMSIS-DAP or Segger J/LINK to restore a Boron to normal functionality. It's easiest if you don't erase the external SPI flash, which you won't do unless you go out of your way to do so because Zephyr doesn't natively use it.

3

In case you have an old Xenon around:

https://docs.zephyrproject.org/latest/boards/arm/particle_xenon/doc/index.html

Best

4

@rickkas7 Thank you. It's not an issue. I didn't expect we'd be allowed to access the Particle cloud. Just wanted an confirmation.

Zephyr does support the Boron cellular modem but I haven't dug into it more yet. I know folks are using the modem with other cloud services. I'll most likely give it a go once I've wrapped up a nRF9161 project.

5

@gusgonnet In the last few years, I've been running Zephyr on Xenons for nRF projects, and Zephyr on Raspberry Pi and ESP32-S3.

Xenons are my go to boards for nRF Connect SDK - Zephyr projects, esp. with the Segger Edu jlink. I have a few dozen Xenons for this purpose!

Most recently, I added low power Wi-Fi 6 to the Xenon. I constructed a couple of Feather HATs with nRF7002-EB Wi-Fi 6 boards. Pretty neat and work really well.

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6

oh that was you! I remember that project now.

7

Hi, I'd like, out of curiosity, to ask the following question:

Why would one want to run Zephyr on a boron?
(really, I'm just curious about Zephyr)

Thanks

8

Zephyr is an excellent RTOS with a very active code base and community, allows one to have a single code base & hardware abstraction that can easily be targeted to different SoC architectures (ARM, Xtensa, RISC-V) depending on your user cases, power requirements, costs, markets, etc. Zephyr's learning curve is somewhat steep but well worth it.

In addition, if you're focused on low power wireless - cellular, Wi-Fi, DECT NR+ (Private 5G), then the latest wireless SoCs and support chips from Nordic are fully supported.

Being able to run Zephyr on a Boron means I can open it up to the Zephyr code base, leverage more features and hardware, extend wireless connectivity options, and be cloud agnostic with relative ease.

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