52811 Zigbee support

[Darwand]

Hi, we are currently looking at making a zigbee light switch using the 52811. However since the zboss library files are compiled with FPU directives the only way to build the project is by enabling that (even though the 52811 is listed as not having a FPU). While looking in to this I noticed in the Infocenter only 52840 is stated to support zigbee while if you look at the Product page the 52811 states that it supports zigbee. So is the zboss library compiled for the 52811? Or would you need to build your own zigbee library

[Hung Bui]

Hi Darwand, 
Currently nRF52811 is not support by the ZBoss library. One of the main reason is the size of the application + stack is pretty big, >220kB (for router) and 160kB (for ZED). And usually you need some extra space for the bootloader to do DFU as well.It will be difficult to run the full stack on the NRF52811. 

So either you would need to base on the IEEE 802.15.4 MAC library to develop a light weight Zibgee library or you can better use the nRF52480 and nRF52833 for the purpose. 

[LarsH]

We are preparing some eval of the nRF52811 for a battery operated device. I was under the impression that at least a rudimentary implementation of the zigbee stack was included in nRF5-SDK for the nRF52811 as stated in the links below. Am I missing anything obvious here that enforces one to develop your own light weight Zibgee-library?

www.nordicsemi.com/.../nRF52811
www.nordicsemi.com/.../nRF5-SDK

[Hung Bui]

Hi Lars, 

We currently still don't have software support for running Zigbee on nRF52811 yet. The hardware supports it but no software available yet. The main issue is the flash size constrain, especially if you want to support DFU.

So for now it's recommended to use the nRF52833 or nRF52840 for Zigbee. 

[LarsH]

Hi there and thanks for the feedback!

DFU is not necessary. We are talking about a tiny end-point appliance that will be optimized for maximum battery life utilizing very simple application logic.

Regarding Zigbee support. I'm a bit confuced and might be missing some obvious piece of information here but according to the current nRF52811 product info there is support for ZigBee. "The nRF52811 SoC is supported by the nRF5 SDK, providing examples, libraries and drivers to get started. NRF5 SDK for Thread and Zigbee offers limited Thread support."

Is the product information misleading/wrong and is there an addendum somewhere that explains things in more detail?

[Hung Bui]

I'm sorry for the confusion. Pleas read the sentence as

"NRF5 SDK for Thread and Zigbee" offers limited Thread support. 

This means the SDK support only Thread for nRF52811. Zigbee was mentioned here just because it's the name of the SDK: "NRF5 SDK for Thread and Zigbee"

You can find the list of Zigbee supported devices in the SDK here: https://infocenter.nordicsemi.com/topic/sdk_tz_v4.0.0/thread_zigbee__intro.html?cp=7_3_1

[LarsH]

Aha, now it makes sense. Thank you!