nRF9160: nRF Cloud REST FOTA

The REST FOTA sample demonstrates how to use the nRF Cloud REST API to perform Firmware Over-the-Air (FOTA) updates on your device.

Requirements

The sample supports the following development kits:

Hardware platforms

PCA

Board name

Build target

nRF9160 DK

PCA10090

nrf9160dk_nrf9160

nrf9160dk_nrf9160_ns

When built for an _ns build target, the sample is configured to compile and run as a non-secure application with Cortex-M Security Extensions enabled. Therefore, it automatically includes Trusted Firmware-M that prepares the required peripherals and secure services to be available for the application.

Note

Full modem FOTA requires development kit version 0.14.0 or higher.

The sample requires an nRF Cloud account.

Note

This sample requires modem firmware v1.3.x or later.

Overview

You can update your device firmware on the nRF Cloud portal or directly through the nRF Cloud REST API. See the nRF Cloud Getting Started FOTA documentation for details.

Limitations

This sample requires the network carrier to provide date and time to the modem. Without a valid date and time, the modem cannot generate JWTs with an expiration time.

User interface

If you want to perform an update check immediately, press the button configured by the Kconfig option CONFIG_REST_FOTA_BUTTON_EVT_NUM. This will bypass the wait time specified by the CONFIG_REST_FOTA_JOB_CHECK_RATE_MIN option.

If you have the option CONFIG_REST_FOTA_DO_JITP enabled and you press the button configured by the CONFIG_REST_FOTA_BUTTON_EVT_NUM option when prompted at startup, it will request just-in-time provisioning (JITP) through REST with nRF Cloud. This is useful when initially provisioning and associating a device on nRF Cloud. You only need to do this once for each device.

When you start up your device and have not requested JITP, the sample will ask if FOTA should be enabled in the device’s shadow. Press the button configured by CONFIG_REST_FOTA_BUTTON_EVT_NUM to perform the shadow update. Depending on how you provisioned your device with nRF Cloud, this step might not be needed. You only need to do this once for each device.

If you have enabled the CONFIG_REST_FOTA_ENABLE_LED option, an LED configured by the CONFIG_REST_FOTA_LED_NUM option indicates the state of the connection to the LTE network.

Configuration

See Configuring your application for information about how to permanently or temporarily change the configuration.

Configuration options

Check and configure the following configuration options for the sample:

CONFIG_REST_FOTA_JOB_CHECK_RATE_MIN - Update check rate

This configuration option defines how often the sample checks for FOTA updates.

CONFIG_REST_FOTA_DL_TIMEOUT_MIN - Download timeout value

This configuration option defines how long to wait for a download to complete.

CONFIG_REST_FOTA_ENABLE_LED - Enable LED

This configuration option defines if the LED will be used to indicate connection to the LTE network.

CONFIG_REST_FOTA_LED_NUM - Enable LED

This configuration option defines if the LED is to be used.

CONFIG_REST_FOTA_BUTTON_EVT_NUM - Button number

This configuration option defines the button to use for device interactions.

CONFIG_REST_FOTA_DO_JITP - Enable prompt to perform JITP via REST

This configuration option defines if the application will prompt the user for just-in-time provisioning on startup.

Building and running

This sample can be found under samples/nrf9160/nrf_cloud_rest_fota in the nRF Connect SDK folder structure.

When built as firmware image for the _ns build target, the sample has Cortex-M Security Extensions (CMSE) enabled and separates the firmware between Non-Secure Processing Environment (NSPE) and Secure Processing Environment (SPE). Because of this, it automatically includes the Trusted Firmware-M (TF-M). To read more about CMSE, see Processing environments.

To build the sample with Visual Studio Code, follow the steps listed on the How to build an application page in the nRF Connect for VS Code extension documentation. See Building and programming an application for other building and programming scenarios and Testing and debugging an application for general information about testing and debugging in the nRF Connect SDK.

The configuration file for this sample is located in samples/nrf9160/nrf_cloud_rest_fota. See Configuring your application for information on how to configure the parameters.

To create a FOTA test version of this sample, add the following parameter to your build command:

-DOVERLAY_CONFIG=overlay_fota_test.conf

To enable full modem FOTA, add the following parameter to your build command:

-DOVERLAY_CONFIG=overlay_full_modem_fota.conf

Also, specify your development kit version by appending it to the board name. For example, if your development kit version is 1.0.1, use the board name nrf9160dk_nrf9160_ns@1_0_1 in your build command.

Dependencies

This sample uses the following nRF Connect SDK libraries:

In addition, it uses the following secure firmware component: