Thingy:53: Zigbee weather station

The Zigbee weather station is an out-of-the-box application for the Nordic Thingy:53. It allows you to build a weather station that uses the Thingy:53’s sensors to remotely gather different kinds of data, such as temperature, air pressure, and relative humidity. The application uses the Zigbee protocol, meaning the device can be paired and controlled remotely over a Zigbee network. You can use this application as a reference for creating your own application.

Note

Zigbee FOTA is not yet supported for this application. See the Limitations section on the Zigbee FOTA library page.

Application overview

The Zigbee weather station application acts as a Zigbee Sleepy End Device. During startup, it initializes the Thingy:53’s built-in sensors and starts periodic data readouts of temperature, pressure, and relative humidity. Each readout is followed by an update of Zigbee Cluster Library (ZCL) attributes associated with measurements. Attributes can be accessed over the Zigbee network according to the ZCL specification, meaning that you can read out a given attribute on demand or create a binding for periodic notifications.

Requirements

The application supports the following development kit:

Hardware platforms	PCA	Board name	Build target
Thingy:53	PCA20053	thingy53_nrf5340	thingy53_nrf5340_cpuapp

You also need to program a Zigbee network coordinator on a separate compatible development kit to commission the Zigbee weather station device and control it remotely through a Zigbee network. The Zigbee network coordinator forms the network that the weather station node will join and share its measurement data with. See the Setup section for more information.

To program a Thingy:53 device whose preprogrammed MCUboot bootloader has been erased, you need an external J-Link programmer. If you have an nRF5340 DK that has an onboard J-Link programmer, you can use it for this purpose.

If the Thingy:53 device is programmed with a Thingy:53-compatible sample or application, you can also update the firmware using MCUboot’s serial recovery or DFU over Bluetooth® Low Energy (LE). See Thingy:53 application guide for details.

For capturing packets while testing, you can use nRF Sniffer for 802.15.4 with Wireshark configured for Zigbee.

User interface

LED (LD1):

Shows the overall state of the device and its connectivity. The following states are possible:

• release build type

  • Even flashing (red color, 500 ms on/500 ms off) - The device is in the Identify mode (after network commissioning).

• debug build type

  • Constant light (blue) - The device is connected to a Zigbee network.

  • Even flashing (red color, 500 ms on/500 ms off) - The device is in the Identify mode (after network commissioning).

Note

Thingy:53 allows you to control RGB components of its single LED independently. This means that the listed color components can overlap, creating additional color effects. For example, LED (LD1) can indicate that the device is connected to a Zigbee network in blue, but if the device goes into the Identify mode at the same time, the flashing to indicate this will be purple, not red.

Power switch (SW1):

Used for switching Thingy:53 on and off.

Button (SW3):

Depending on how long the button is pressed:

• If pressed for less than five seconds, it starts or cancels the Identify mode.

• If pressed for five seconds, it initiates the factory reset of the device. The length of the button press can be edited using the CONFIG_FACTORY_RESET_PRESS_TIME_SECONDS Kconfig option from Zigbee application utilities. Releasing the button within this time does not trigger the factory reset procedure.

Additionally, pressing the button shortly or releasing it before five seconds has elapsed indicates user input, which allows a Sleepy End Device to start the network rejoin procedure if it was previously stopped (for example, after timeout).

USB port:

Used for getting logs from the device. It is enabled only for the debug build type of the application. See the Selecting a build type section to learn how to select the debug configuration.

Configuration

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

Setup

Use one of the following options to set up the Zigbee network coordinator:

• For Testing purposes, program the Zigbee shell sample as the network coordinator to be able to use the interactive shell for readings and bindings. Read the sample documentation for more information.

• For generic usage of the application, you can use the standard Zigbee network coordinator.

Configuration options

The following application-specific Kconfig option values can be set to custom values:

CONFIG_FIRST_WEATHER_CHECK_DELAY_SECONDS - Delay after application initialization

This configuration option defines the delay from the moment of the application initialization to the first sensor data readout. The value is provided in seconds, with the default value set to 5.

CONFIG_WEATHER_CHECK_PERIOD_SECONDS - How often sensor data is read

This configuration option defines the period of cyclic sensor readouts after the first readout. The value is provided in seconds, with the default value set to 60.

Zigbee weather station build types

The Zigbee weather station application does not use a single prj.conf file. Configuration files are provided for different build types, and they are located in the configuration/thingy53_nrf5340_cpuapp 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.

When the CONF_FILE variable contains a single file and this file follows the naming pattern prj_<buildtype>.conf, then the build type will be inferred to be <buildtype>. The build type cannot be set explicitly. The <buildtype> can be any string, but it is common to use release and debug.

For information about how to set variables, see Important Build System Variables in the Zephyr documentation.

The Partition Manager’s static configuration can also be made dependent on the build type. When the build type has been inferred, the file pm_static_<buildtype>.yml will have precedence over pm_static.yml.

The child image Kconfig configuration can also be made dependent on the build type. The child image Kconfig overlay file is named child_image/<child_image_name>.conf instead of prj.conf, but otherwise follows the same pattern as the parent Kconfig.

Alternatively, the child image Kconfig configuration file can be introduced as child_image/<child_image_name>/prj.conf and follow the same pattern as the parent Kconfig. For example, child_image/mcuboot/prj_release.conf can be used to define release build type for mcuboot child image.

Before you start testing the application, you can select one of the build types supported by the Zigbee weather station application, depending on the building method. This application supports the following build types:

• debug - Debug version of the application. Use this version to enable additional features for verifying the application behavior, such as logs.

• release - Release version of the application. Use this version to enable only the necessary application functionalities to optimize its performance.

Note

Selecting a build type is optional. The debug build type is used by default if no build type is explicitly selected.

Logging in the debug build type

In the debug build type, the application also uses serial console over USB for logging. Besides initialization logs, the following sets of measurement-related data are logged after a measurements update:

• Values measured by sensor. For example:

  [00:20:06.458,770] <inf> app: Sensor     T: 26.760000 [*C] P: 96.723000 [kPa] H: 23.178000 [%]
  

• Values set as corresponding ZCL attributes (transformed according to specification). For example:

  [00:20:06.458,801] <inf> app: Attributes T:      2676      P:       967       H:      2317
  

Building and running

This application can be found under applications/zigbee_weather_station in the nRF Connect SDK folder structure.

To build the application 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.

Selecting a build type

Before you start testing the application, you can select one of the Zigbee weather station build types, depending on your building method.

Selecting a build type in Visual Studio Code

To select the build type in the nRF Connect for VS Code extension:

1. When building an application as described in the nRF Connect for VS Code extension documentation, follow the steps for setting up the build configuration.

2. In the Add Build Configuration screen, select the desired .conf file from the Configuration drop-down menu.

3. Fill in other configuration options, if applicable, and click Build Configuration.

Selecting a build type from command line

To select the build type when building the application from command line, specify the build type by adding the following parameter to the west build command:

-- -DCONF_FILE=prj_selected_build_type.conf

For example, you can replace the selected_build_type variable to build the release firmware for thingy53_nrf5340_cpuapp by running the following command in the project directory:

west build -b thingy53_nrf5340_cpuapp -d build_thingy53_nrf5340_cpuapp -- -DCONF_FILE=prj_release.conf

The build_thingy53_nrf5340_cpuapp parameter specifies the output directory for the build files.

Note

If the selected board does not support the selected build type, the build is interrupted. For example, if the shell build type is not supported by the selected board, the following notification appears:

File not found: ./ncs/nrf/applications/zigbee_weather_station/configuration/thingy53_nrf5340_cpuapp/prj_shell.conf

Testing

Note

• Part of the testing procedure assumes you are using the debug build type, as it provides more feedback with LED (LD1) and logs through the USB console.

  These steps related to the debug build type mention the debug build type and are not required if you are using the release build type.

• The provided measurement data values depend on the Thingy:53 device’s surrounding conditions.

• If you want to capture packets with Wireshark, install nRF Sniffer for 802.15.4 and configure Wireshark for use with Zigbee.

  Wireshark response frame examples are provided below for reference.

After programming the application to your device, complete the following steps to test it:

1. debug build type: Connect the device to the computer using a USB cable. The device is assigned a COM port (Windows) or ttyACM device (Linux), which is visible in the Device Manager. The connection is needed for gathering logs from the Zigbee weather station application.

2. Turn on the Zigbee shell sample programmed as the network coordinator to one of the compatible development kits. See the Testing section of the sample to learn how to set it up as a coordinator. Once turned on, the network coordinator forms the network and opens it for other devices to join for 180 seconds.

3. Turn on the Thingy:53 device. The application tries to join the Zigbee network automatically.

4. Connect to the device with a terminal emulator (for example, PuTTY). See How to connect with PuTTY for the required settings. When the connection is established, initialization logs start to appear in the console. They can look like the following:

   [00:00:02.027,435] <inf> app: Starting...
   [00:00:02.027,526] <inf> app: Initializing sensor...
   [00:00:02.027,526] <inf> app: Initializing sensor...OK
   [00:00:02.027,862] <inf> app: Starting...OK
   

   Around 5 seconds after the initialization, periodic sensor readouts and attribute setting logs start to appear in the console. They will look similar to the following:

   [00:00:07.013,793] <inf> app: Sensor     T: 23.470000 [*C] P: 98.347000 [kPa] H: 33.344000 [%]
   [00:00:07.013,824] <inf> app: Attributes T:      2347      P:       983       H:      3334
   [00:01:07.002,777] <inf> app: Sensor     T: 23.520000 [*C] P: 98.344000 [kPa] H: 33.485000 [%]
   [00:01:07.002,807] <inf> app: Attributes T:      2352      P:       983       H:      3348
   [00:02:06.966,003] <inf> app: Sensor     T: 24.360000 [*C] P: 98.344000 [kPa] H: 32.410000 [%]
   [00:02:06.966,033] <inf> app: Attributes T:      2436      P:       983       H:      3241
   

   Note

   These logs appear regardless of whether the device has joined the network.

5. When the device joins the network, LED (LD1) lights up with a constant blue color.

   Additionally, with the debug build type and console used for logging, output similar to the following appears:

   [00:00:02.029,174] <inf> zigbee_app_utils: Zigbee stack initialized
   [00:00:02.035,003] <inf> zigbee_app_utils: Device started for the first time
   [00:00:02.035,003] <inf> zigbee_app_utils: Start network steering
   [00:00:02.035,064] <inf> zigbee_app_utils: Started network rejoin procedure.
   [00:00:05.637,512] <inf> zigbee_app_utils: Joined network successfully (Extended PAN ID: f4ce3655fc08bf6b, PAN ID: 0xbf9e)
   

   Note

   As timestamps in this snippet indicate, these logs are likely to appear before the periodic sensor or attribute logs.

You can now use the development kit with the Zigbee shell sample (the network coordinator) to read the weather attributes and create bindings for periodic notifications.

Reading the weather attributes

After the device has connected to the Zigbee network, you can read the weather attributes from it. Complete the following steps using the development kit programmed with the Zigbee shell sample (the network coordinator):

1. Run the following command to read the temperature attribute:

   uart:~$ zcl attr read 0x1ca9 42 0x0402 0x0104 0x0000
   

   In this command:

   • 0x1ca9 is the short network address of Thingy:53.

   • 42 is the endpoint number for aggregating the clusters.

   • 0x0402 is the temperature cluster ID.

   • 0x0104 is the Zigbee Home Automation profile ID.

   • 0x0000 is the short network address of the coordinator device.

   The output will be similar to the following one:

   ID: 0 Type: 29 Value: 2394
   

   Here, the value 2394 means 23.94 degrees Celsius.

   In Wireshark, the corresponding response frame for this output looks like as follows:

   ZigBee HA 2298    4756.825525     0x1ca9  0x0000  0x1ca9  0x0000  f4:ce:36:23:d7:4e:77:1d f4:ce:36:55:fc:08:bf:6b         0xbf9e  ZCL: Read Attributes Response, Seq: 0
   
   Frame 2298: 68 bytes on wire (544 bits), 68 bytes captured (544 bits)
   IEEE 802.15.4 Data, Dst: 0x0000, Src: 0x1ca9
   ZigBee Network Layer Data, Dst: 0x0000, Src: 0x1ca9
   ZigBee Application Support Layer Data, Dst Endpt: 64, Src Endpt: 42
   ZigBee Cluster Library Frame, Command: Read Attributes Response, Seq: 0
      Frame Control Field: Profile-wide (0x18)
      Sequence Number: 0
      Command: Read Attributes Response (0x01)
      Status Record
         Attribute: Measured Value (0x0000)
         Status: Success (0x00)
         Data Type: 16-Bit Signed Integer (0x29)
         Measured Value: 23.94 [°C]
   

2. Run the following command to read the pressure attribute:

   uart:~$ zcl attr read 0x1ca9 42 0x0403 0x0104 0x0000
   

   Compared with the previous command, 0x0403 in this command represents for the pressure cluster ID. The output will be similar to the following one:

   ID: 0 Type: 29 Value: 984
   

   Here, the value 984 means 98.4 kPa. In Wireshark, the corresponding response frame for this output looks like as follows:

   ZigBee HA 2608    5396.494835     0x1ca9  0x0000  0x1ca9  0x0000  f4:ce:36:23:d7:4e:77:1d f4:ce:36:55:fc:08:bf:6b         0xbf9e  ZCL: Read Attributes Response, Seq: 1
   
   Frame 2608: 68 bytes on wire (544 bits), 68 bytes captured (544 bits)
   IEEE 802.15.4 Data, Dst: 0x0000, Src: 0x1ca9
   ZigBee Network Layer Data, Dst: 0x0000, Src: 0x1ca9
   ZigBee Application Support Layer Data, Dst Endpt: 64, Src Endpt: 42
   ZigBee Cluster Library Frame, Command: Read Attributes Response, Seq: 1
      Frame Control Field: Profile-wide (0x18)
      Sequence Number: 1
      Command: Read Attributes Response (0x01)
      Status Record
         Attribute: Measured Value (0x0000)
         Status: Success (0x00)
         Data Type: 16-Bit Signed Integer (0x29)
         Measured Value: 98.4 [kPa]
   

3. Run the following command to read the relative humidity attribute:

   uart:~$ zcl attr read 0x1ca9 42 0x0405 0x0104 0x0000
   

   Compared with the previous command, 0x0405 in this command stands for the relative humidity cluster ID. The output will be similar to the following one:

   ID: 0 Type: 21 Value: 3293
   

   Here, the value 3293 means a humidity reading of 32.93%. In Wireshark, the corresponding response frame for this output looks like as follows:

   ZigBee HA 3014    6241.372769     0x1ca9  0x0000  0x1ca9  0x0000  f4:ce:36:23:d7:4e:77:1d f4:ce:36:55:fc:08:bf:6b         0xbf9e  ZCL: Read Attributes Response, Seq: 2
   
   Frame 3014: 68 bytes on wire (544 bits), 68 bytes captured (544 bits)
   IEEE 802.15.4 Data, Dst: 0x0000, Src: 0x1ca9
   ZigBee Network Layer Data, Dst: 0x0000, Src: 0x1ca9
   ZigBee Application Support Layer Data, Dst Endpt: 64, Src Endpt: 42
   ZigBee Cluster Library Frame, Command: Read Attributes Response, Seq: 2
      Frame Control Field: Profile-wide (0x18)
      Sequence Number: 2
      Command: Read Attributes Response (0x01)
      Status Record
         Attribute: Measured Value (0x0000)
         Status: Success (0x00)
         Data Type: 16-Bit Unsigned Integer (0x21)
         Measured Value: 32.93 [%]
   

Creating bindings for periodic notifications

After the device has connected to the Zigbee network, you can create bindings for periodic notifications. Complete the following steps using the development kit programmed with the Zigbee shell sample (the network coordinator):

1. Run the following commands to create the bindings for each weather attribute:

   • Temperature cluster binding:

     uart:~$ zdo bind on f4ce3623d74e771d 42 f4ce3655fc08bf6b 64 0x0402 0x1ca9
     

     In this command:

     • f4ce3623d74e771d is the long network address of Thingy:53.

     • 42 is the endpoint number for aggregating the clusters.

     • f4ce3655fc08bf6b is the long network address of the network coordinator device.

     • 64 is the endpoint number of the network coordinator device.

     • 0x0402 is the temperature cluster ID.

     • 0x1ca9 is the short network address of Thingy:53.

   • Pressure cluster binding:

     uart:~$ zdo bind on f4ce3623d74e771d 42 f4ce3655fc08bf6b 64 0x0403 0x1ca9
     

     Compared with the previous command, 0x0403 in this command stands for the pressure cluster ID.

   • Relative humidity cluster binding:

     uart:~$ zdo bind on f4ce3623d74e771d 42 f4ce3655fc08bf6b 64 0x0405 0x1ca9
     

     Compared with the previous command, 0x0405 in this command stands for the relative humidity cluster ID.

2. Observe periodic reports in Wireshark for the respective clusters:

   • Temperature cluster periodic report will look like as follows:

     ZigBee HA      3882    7705.599377     0x1ca9  0x0000  0x1ca9  0x0000  f4:ce:36:23:d7:4e:77:1d f4:ce:36:55:fc:08:bf:6b         0xbf9e  ZCL: Report Attributes, Seq: 128
     
     Frame 3882: 67 bytes on wire (536 bits), 67 bytes captured (536 bits)
     IEEE 802.15.4 Data, Dst: 0x0000, Src: 0x1ca9
     ZigBee Network Layer Data, Dst: 0x0000, Src: 0x1ca9
     ZigBee Application Support Layer Data, Dst Endpt: 64, Src Endpt: 42
     ZigBee Cluster Library Frame, Command: Report Attributes, Seq: 128
        Frame Control Field: Profile-wide (0x08)
        Sequence Number: 128
        Command: Report Attributes (0x0a)
        Attribute Field
           Attribute: Measured Value (0x0000)
           Data Type: 16-Bit Signed Integer (0x29)
           Measured Value: 24.26 [°C]
     

   • Pressure cluster periodic report will look like as follows:

     ZigBee HA      3888    7705.727682     0x1ca9  0x0000  0x1ca9  0x0000  f4:ce:36:23:d7:4e:77:1d f4:ce:36:55:fc:08:bf:6b         0xbf9e  ZCL: Report Attributes, Seq: 129
     
     Frame 3888: 67 bytes on wire (536 bits), 67 bytes captured (536 bits)
     IEEE 802.15.4 Data, Dst: 0x0000, Src: 0x1ca9
     ZigBee Network Layer Data, Dst: 0x0000, Src: 0x1ca9
     ZigBee Application Support Layer Data, Dst Endpt: 64, Src Endpt: 42
     ZigBee Cluster Library Frame, Command: Report Attributes, Seq: 129
        Frame Control Field: Profile-wide (0x08)
        Sequence Number: 129
        Command: Report Attributes (0x0a)
        Attribute Field
           Attribute: Measured Value (0x0000)
           Data Type: 16-Bit Signed Integer (0x29)
           Measured Value: 98.4 [kPa]
     

   • Relative humidity cluster periodic report will look like as follows:

     ZigBee HA      3894    7705.856763     0x1ca9  0x0000  0x1ca9  0x0000  f4:ce:36:23:d7:4e:77:1d f4:ce:36:55:fc:08:bf:6b         0xbf9e  ZCL: Report Attributes, Seq: 130
     
     Frame 3894: 67 bytes on wire (536 bits), 67 bytes captured (536 bits)
     IEEE 802.15.4 Data, Dst: 0x0000, Src: 0x1ca9
     ZigBee Network Layer Data, Dst: 0x0000, Src: 0x1ca9
     ZigBee Application Support Layer Data, Dst Endpt: 64, Src Endpt: 42
     ZigBee Cluster Library Frame, Command: Report Attributes, Seq: 130
        Frame Control Field: Profile-wide (0x08)
        Sequence Number: 130
        Command: Report Attributes (0x0a)
        Attribute Field
           Attribute: Measured Value (0x0000)
           Data Type: 16-Bit Unsigned Integer (0x21)
           Measured Value: 32.99 [%]
     

Dependencies

This application uses the following nRF Connect SDK libraries:

• Zigbee application utilities

• Zigbee error handler

• RAM power-down

• Zigbee subsystems:

  • zb_nrf_platform.h

• DK Buttons and LEDs

This application uses the following sdk-nrfxlib libraries:

• ZBOSS Zigbee stack 3.11.2.1 (API documentation)

• addons/zcl/zb_zcl_temp_measurement_addons.h

In addition, it uses the following Zephyr libraries:

• include/device.h

• include/drivers/sensor.h

• include/drivers/uart.h

• include/usb/usb_device.h

• include/zephyr.h

• Logging