Matter nRF Connect Pump Example Application#

Note: This example is intended only to perform smoke tests of a Matter solution integrated with nRF Connect SDK platform. The example quality is not production ready and it may contain minor bugs or use not optimal configuration. It is not recommended to use this example as a basis for creating a market ready product.

For the production ready and optimized Matter samples, see nRF Connect SDK samples. The Matter samples in nRF Connect SDK use various additional software components and provide multiple optional features that improve the developer and user experience. To read more about it, see Matter support in nRF Connect SDK page. Using Matter samples from nRF Connect SDK allows you to get a full Nordic technical support via DevZone portal.

The nRF Connect Pump Example demonstrates how to remotely control a pump device with basic start/stop functionality. It uses buttons to test changing the pump state and device states and LEDs to show the state of these changes. This example is inherited from the “lock-app” example but modified to simulate a pump device and can be used as a reference for creating your own pump application.

The example is based on Matter and Nordic Semiconductor’s nRF Connect SDK, and supports remote access and control of a simulated pump over a low-power, 802.15.4 Thread network.

The example behaves as a Matter accessory, that is a device that can be paired into an existing Matter network and can be controlled by this network. The device works as a Thread Minimal End Device.

Overview#

This example is running on the nRF Connect platform, which is based on Nordic Semiconductor’s nRF Connect SDK and Zephyr RTOS. Visit Matter’s nRF Connect platform overview to read more about the platform structure and dependencies.

The Matter device that runs the pump application is controlled by the Matter controller device over the Thread protocol. By default, the Matter accessory device has IPv6 networking disabled. You must pair it with the Matter controller over Bluetooth® LE to get the configuration from the controller to use the device within a Thread or Wi-Fi network. You have to make the device discoverable manually (for security reasons). See Bluetooth LE advertising to learn how to do this. The controller must get the commissioning information from the Matter accessory device and provision the device into the network.

You can test this application remotely over the Thread or the Wi-Fi protocol, which in either case requires more devices, including a Matter controller that you can configure either on a PC or a mobile device.

Bluetooth LE advertising#

In this example, to commission the device onto a Matter network, it must be discoverable over Bluetooth LE. For security reasons, you must start Bluetooth LE advertising manually after powering up the device by pressing Button 4.

Bluetooth LE rendezvous#

In this example, the commissioning procedure (called rendezvous) is done over Bluetooth LE between a Matter device and the Matter controller, where the controller has the commissioner role.

To start the rendezvous, the controller must get the commissioning information from the Matter device. The data payload is encoded within a QR code, printed to the UART console, and shared using an NFC tag. For security reasons, you must start NFC tag emulation manually after powering up the device by pressing Button 4.

Thread provisioning#

Last part of the rendezvous procedure, the provisioning operation involves sending the Thread network credentials from the Matter controller to the Matter device. As a result, device is able to join the Thread network and communicate with other Thread devices in the network.

Device Firmware Upgrade#

The example supports over-the-air (OTA) device firmware upgrade (DFU) using one of the two available methods:

Matter OTA update that is mandatory for Matter-compliant devices and enabled by default
Simple Management Protocol over Bluetooth LE, an optional proprietary method that can be enabled to work alongside the default Matter OTA update. Note that this protocol is not a part of the Matter specification.

For both methods, the MCUboot bootloader solution is used to replace the old firmware image with the new one.

Matter Over-the-Air Update#

The Matter over-the-air update distinguishes two types of nodes: OTA Provider and OTA Requestor.

An OTA Provider is a node that hosts a new firmware image and is able to respond on an OTA Requestor’s queries regarding availability of new firmware images or requests to start sending the update packages.

An OTA Requestor is a node that wants to download a new firmware image and sends requests to an OTA Provider to start the update process.

Simple Management Protocol#

Simple Management Protocol (SMP) is a basic transfer encoding that is used for device management purposes, including application image management. SMP supports using different transports, such as Bluetooth LE, UDP, or serial USB/UART.

In this example, the Matter device runs the SMP Server to download the application update image using the Bluetooth LE transport.

See the Building with Device Firmware Upgrade support section to learn how to enable SMP and use it for the DFU purpose in this example.

Bootloader#

MCUboot is a secure bootloader used for swapping firmware images of different versions and generating proper build output files that can be used in the device firmware upgrade process.

The bootloader solution requires an area of flash memory to swap application images during the firmware upgrade. Nordic Semiconductor devices use an external memory chip for this purpose. The memory chip communicates with the microcontroller through the QSPI bus.

See the Building with Device Firmware Upgrade support section to learn how to change MCUboot and flash configuration in this example.

Requirements#

The application requires a specific revision of the nRF Connect SDK to work correctly. See Setting up the environment for more information.

Supported devices#

The example supports building and running on the following devices:

Hardware platform	Build target	Platform image
nRF52840 DK	`nrf52840dk/nrf52840`	nRF52840 DK
nRF5340 DK	`nrf5340dk/nrf5340/cpuapp`	nRF5340 DK

Hardware platform

Build target

Platform image

nRF52840 DK

nrf52840dk/nrf52840

nRF52840 DK

nRF5340 DK

nrf5340dk/nrf5340/cpuapp

nRF5340 DK

Device UI#

This section lists the User Interface elements that you can use to control and monitor the state of the device. These correspond to PCB components on the platform image.

LED 1 shows the overall state of the device and its connectivity. The following states are possible:

Short Flash On (50 ms on/950 ms off) — The device is in the unprovisioned (unpaired) state and is waiting for a commissioning application to connect.
Rapid Even Flashing (100 ms on/100 ms off) — The device is in the unprovisioned state and a commissioning application is connected through Bluetooth LE.
Short Flash Off (950ms on/50ms off) — The device is fully provisioned, but does not yet have full connectivity for Thread or Wi-Fi network.
Solid On — The device is fully provisioned and has full Thread network and service connectivity.

LED 2 simulates the pump motor and shows the state of the pump. The following states are possible:

Solid On — The pump is running.
Off — The pump is stopped.
Rapid Even Flashing (100 ms on/100 ms off during 2 s) — The simulated pump motor is starting.

Button 1 can be used for the following purposes:

Pressed for 6 s — Initiates the factory reset of the device. Releasing the button within the 6-second window cancels the factory reset procedure. LEDs 1-4 blink in unison when the factory reset procedure is initiated.
Pressed for less than 3 s — Initiates the OTA software update process. This feature is not currently supported.

Button 2 — Pressing the button once changes the pump state to the opposite one.

Button 4 — Pressing the button once starts the NFC tag emulation and enables Bluetooth LE advertising for the predefined period of time (15 minutes by default).

SEGGER J-Link USB port can be used to get logs from the device or communicate with it using the command line interface.

NFC port with antenna attached can be used to start the rendezvous by providing the commissioning information from the Matter device in a data payload that can be shared using NFC.

Setting up the environment#

Before building the example, check out the Matter repository and sync submodules using the following command:

    $ python3 scripts/checkout_submodules.py --shallow --platform nrfconnect

Note:

For Linux operating system install SEGGER J-Link Software.

Install Command Line Tools#

With admin permissions enabled, download and install the nRF Command Line Tools.

Install Toolchain Manager#

Toolchain Manager is available from nRF Connect for Desktop, a cross-platform tool that provides different applications that simplify installing the nRF Connect SDK. Both the tool and the application are available for Windows, Linux, and macOS.

To install the Toolchain Manager app, complete the following steps:

Download nRF Connect for Desktop for your operating system.
Install and run the tool on your machine.
In the APPS section, click Install button on the Toolchain Manager tab.

Install nRF Connect SDK#

Complete the following steps to install the nRF Connect SDK:

Open Toolchain Manager in nRF Connect for Desktop.
Click the Install button next to the recommended version of the nRF Connect SDK.
A pop-up window will inform you about the current installation directory. If you want to change the directory, click the Change directory button. Otherwise, click the Continue installation button.
When the nRF Connect SDK is installed on your machine, the Install button changes to the Open VS Code button.
Click the dropdown menu next to the Open VS Code button for the installed nRF Connect SDK version, and select Open terminal.

Make sure that the nRF Connect SDK version is compatible with the Matter SDK version:

     $ cd {connectedhomeip directory}
     $ python3 scripts/setup/nrfconnect/update_ncs.py --update

Now you can proceed with the Building instruction.

Building#

Complete the following steps to build the sample:

Navigate to the example’s directory:
```
$ cd examples/pump-app/nrfconnect
```
Run the following command to build the example, with build-target replaced with the build target name of the Nordic Semiconductor’s kit you own, for example nrf52840dk/nrf52840:
```
 $ west build -b build-target --sysbuild
```
You only need to specify the build target on the first build. See Requirements for the build target names of compatible kits.

The output zephyr.hex file will be available in the build/nrfconnect/zephyr/ directory.

Removing build artifacts#

If you’re planning to build the example for a different kit or make changes to the configuration, remove all build artifacts before building. To do so, use the following command:

$ rm -r build

Building with release configuration#

To build the example with release configuration that disables the diagnostic features like logs and command-line interface, run the following command:

$ west build -b build-target --sysbuild -- -DFILE_SUFFIX=release

Remember to replace build-target with the build target name of the Nordic Semiconductor’s kit you own.

Building with Device Firmware Upgrade support#

Support for DFU using Matter OTA is enabled by default.

To enable DFU over Bluetooth LE, run the following command with build-target replaced with the build target name of the Nordic Semiconductor kit you are using (for example nrf52840dk/nrf52840):

$ west build -b build-target --sysbuild -- -DCONFIG_CHIP_DFU_OVER_BT_SMP=y

Note:

There are two types of Device Firmware Upgrade modes: single-image DFU and multi-image DFU. Single-image mode supports upgrading only one firmware image, the application image, and should be used for single-core nRF52840 DK devices. Multi-image mode allows to upgrade more firmware images and is suitable for upgrading the application core and network core firmware in two-core nRF5340 DK devices.

Currently the multi-image mode is only available for the DFU over Bluetooth LE method.

Changing bootloader configuration#

To change the default MCUboot configuration, edit the prj.conf file located in the sysbuild/mcuboot directory.

Make sure to keep the configuration consistent with changes made to the application configuration. This is necessary for the configuration to work, as the bootloader image is a separate application from the user application and it has its own configuration file.

Changing flash memory settings#

In the default configuration, the MCUboot uses the Partition Manager to configure flash partitions used for the bootloader application image slot purposes. You can change these settings by defining static partitions. This example uses this option to define using an external flash.

To modify the flash settings of your board (that is, your build-target, for example nrf52840dk/nrf52840), edit the pm_static_<build_target>.yml file (for example pm_static_nrf52840dk_nrf52840.yml), located in the main application directory.

Configuring the example#

The Zephyr ecosystem is based on Kconfig files and the settings can be modified using the menuconfig utility.

To open the menuconfig utility, run the following command from the example directory:

$ west build -b build-target --sysbuild -t menuconfig

Remember to replace build-target with the build target name of the Nordic Semiconductor’s kit you own.

Changes done with menuconfig will be lost if the build directory is deleted. To make them persistent, save the configuration options in the prj.conf file.

Example build types#

The example uses different configuration files depending on the supported features. Configuration files are provided for different build types and they are located in the application root directory.

The prj.conf file represents a debug build type. Other build types are covered by dedicated files with the build type added as a suffix to the prj part, as per the following list. For example, the release build type file name is prj_release.conf. If a board has other configuration files, for example associated with partition layout or child image configuration, these follow the same pattern.

Before you start testing the application, you can select one of the build types supported by the sample. This sample supports the following build types, depending on the selected board:

debug – Debug version of the application - can be used to enable additional features for verifying the application behavior, such as logs or command-line shell.
release – Release version of the application - can be used to enable only the necessary application functionalities to optimize its performance.

For more information, see the Configuring nRF Connect SDK examples page.

Flashing and debugging#

To flash the application to the device, use the west tool and run the following command from the example directory:

    $ west flash --erase

If you have multiple development kits connected, west will prompt you to pick the correct one.

To debug the application on target, run the following command from the example directory:

    $ west debug

Testing the example#

Check the CLI tutorial to learn how to use command-line interface of the application.

Testing using Linux CHIPTool#

Read the CHIP Tool user guide to see how to use CHIP Tool for Linux or mac OS to commission and control the application within a Matter-enabled Thread network.

Testing using Android CHIPTool#

Read the Android commissioning guide to see how to use CHIPTool for Android smartphones to commission and control the application within a Matter-enabled Thread network.

Matter nRF Connect Pump Example Application

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