Thread networking in nrf52840 dongle

[Alan Ajit]

Dear nordic,

1. Is it possible to create thread networking using dongle?

2. I want to create Thread CLI example in dongle but the problem here is UART pins and LEDS. what changes needed to work properly in dongle?

3. how i change nrflog uart to another pin(is that make any problem)?

4. Is it any application note for thread that its working( program work flow) ?

[awneil]

1. Yes.
2. It's just a matter of defining the appropriate pins to use
3. You simply edit the definitions as required
4. Have you looked at the Thread SDK documentation?

It is strongly recommended that you don't use the dongle to start your development; you will make your life far easier by starting on an nRF52840 DK - which has the built-in programmer, debugger, etc.

Once you have gained experience on the DK, and got your code working on the DK, you will be able to answer your questions!

[Hung Bui]

Hi Alan, 

Andrew answered most of your questions. I just want to give some additional information. Since our Thread SDK using OpenThread stack and the OpenThread stack is build on platform specific ( in this case PCA10056), if you want to use the stack for the dongle PCA10059 you would need to recompile the OpenThread stack. 

In particular you would need to modify the platform-config.h here, and recompile the openthread stack. 

In addition, on the dongle there is no UART-USB chip but the USBD integrated on the dongle. This requires some code change to use the USB peripheral on the chip. It may not straight forward, the workaround is to use another pin on the dongle and connect it to an external UART-USB chip/cable. 

As suggested by Andrew, it's better to start your development on a nRF52840 DK instead. When you need to test / demo on multiple nodes, you can use the dongle, but having UART/CLI on the dongle would need some extra work. 

[Alan Ajit]

Thanks for your replay. i think the nrf log uart use pin 6 and 8 as default is it right?

i want to change this pin for dongle till now i didn't get where i change this pin( i searched platform-config.h but not find). i need your help to change that pin. is it possible to change nrf log uart pin?

I tried to change log uart pin and send thread cli commands through that but now the default log pins are 8 and 6 but  in dongle that are not in use so i want to change that. can you help me where i change this pin?

[awneil]

logger documentation is here: 

https://www.nordicsemi.com/DocLib/Content/SDK_Doc/nRF5_SDK/v15-3-0/lib_nrf_log

backends are listed here: 

https://www.nordicsemi.com/DocLib/Content/SDK_Doc/nRF5_SDK/v15-3-0/group__nrf__log

UART backend:

https://www.nordicsemi.com/DocLib/Content/SDK_Doc/nRF5_SDK/v15-3-0/group__nrf__log__backend__uart

[Alan Ajit]

Thanks for your valid information. But stil iam struggling how i change this uart pins .

how to change uart settings in open thread library(which file i need to change) and recompile. can you guide me for achieve this?