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Thread CLI

The Thread CLI sample demonstrates how to send commands to a Thread device using the OpenThread Command Line Interface (CLI). The CLI is integrated into the Zephyr shell.

Sniffing packets from a Thread network

You can use nRF Sniffer for 802.15.4 to capture and analyze packets exchanged on a Thread network.

Requirements

Before you start, check that you have the required hardware and software:

Building the sample

Before you start building, remember to set up the environment first.

Use the following steps to build the Thread CLI sample on the command line.

  1. Open a terminal window.

  2. Go to my-workspace/ncs-playground directory created in the Setting up the environment section.

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    cd my-workspace/ncs-playground

  3. Build the sample using the west command, specifying the board (following the -b option) as dongle_nrf52840:

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    west build -p always -b dongle_nrf52840 samples/openthread/cli

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    west build -p always -b dongle_nrf52840 samples/openthread/cli -- -DOVERLAY_CONFIG=overlay-low_power.conf -DDTC_OVERLAY_FILE=low_power.overlay

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    west build -p always -b dongle_nrf52840 samples/openthread/cli -- -DOVERLAY_CONFIG=overlay-multiprotocol.conf

    Tip

    The -p always option forces a pristine build, and is recommended for new users. Users may also use the -p auto option, which will use heuristics to determine if a pristine build is required, such as when building another sample.

  4. After running the west build command, the build files can be found in build/zephyr.

Flashing the firmware

The sample is designed to work with the UF2 Bootloader, so that you can easily flash the sample using the UF2 Bootloader. The firmware can be found in build/zephyr with the name zephyr.uf2.

To flash the firmware, complete the following steps:

  1. Push and hold the button and plug your dongle into the USB port of your computer. Release the button after your dongle is connected. The RGB LED turns green.

  2. It will mount as a Mass Storage Device called UF2BOOT.

  3. Drag and drop zephyr.uf2 onto the UF2BOOT volume. The RGB LED blinks red fast during flashing.

  4. Re-plug the dongle and the sample will start running.

Testing

After flashing the firmware to your dongle, complete the following steps to test it:

  1. Plug the dongle into the USB port of your computer.

  2. Open up a serial terminal, specifying the correct serial port that your computer uses to communicate with the dongle:

    Open up a terminal and run:

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    screen <serial-port-name> 115200
    1. Start PuTTY.

    2. Configure the correct serial port and click Open:

  3. Configure the required Thread network parameters with the ot channel, ot panid, and ot networkkey commands. Make sure to use the same parameters for all nodes that you add to the network. The following example uses the default OpenThread parameters:

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    uart:~$ ot channel 11
Done
uart:~$ ot panid 0xabcd
Done
uart:~$ ot networkkey 00112233445566778899aabbccddeeff
Done

  4. Enable the Thread network with the ot ifconfig up and ot thread start commands:

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    uart:~$ ot ifconfig up
Done
uart:~$ ot thread start
Done

  5. Invoke some of the OpenThread commands:

    1. Test the state of the Thread network with the ot state command. For example:

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      uart:~$ ot state
leader
Done

    2. Get the Thread network name with the ot networkname command. For example:

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      uart:~$ ot networkname
OpenThread
Done

    3. Get the IP addresses of the current Thread network with the ot ipaddr command. For example:

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      uart:~$ ot ipaddr
fdde:ad00:beef:0:0:ff:fe00:fc00
fdde:ad00:beef:0:0:ff:fe00:1000
fdde:ad00:beef:0:a5b3:5dbd:97b2:474b
fe80:0:0:0:3cae:981b:5d24:3f00
Done

  6. Test communication between the dongles with the following command:

    ot ping ip_address_of_the_first_dongle

    For example:

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    uart:~$ ot ping fdde:ad00:beef:0:a5b3:5dbd:97b2:474b
16 bytes from fdde:ad00:beef:0:a5b3:5dbd:97b2:474b: icmp_seq=1 hlim=64 time=24ms
1 packets transmitted, 1 packets received. Packet loss = 0.0%. Round-trip min/avg/max = 24/24.0/24 ms.
Done