Matter nRF Connect All Clusters Example Application

The nRF All Clusters Example Application implements various ZCL clusters populated on three endpoints. You can use this example as a reference for creating your own application.

The example is based on Matter and Nordic Semiconductor's nRF Connect SDK, and was created to facilitate testing and certification of a Matter device communicating over a low-power, 802.15.4 Thread network.

The example behaves as a Matter accessory, that is a device that can be paired into an existing Matter network and can be controlled by this network. The device works as a Thread Minimal End Device.

• Overview
  • Bluetooth LE advertising
  • Bluetooth LE rendezvous
• Requirements
  • Supported devices
• Device UI
• Setting up the environment
  • Using Docker container for setup
  • Using native shell for setup
• Building
  • Removing build artifacts
  • Building with release configuration
  • Building with low-power configuration
  • Building with Device Firmware Upgrade support
• Configuring the example
  • Example build types
• Flashing and debugging
  • Flashing on the development kits
  • Flashing on the nRF52840 Dongle
• Testing the example
  • Testing using CHIPTool

Overview

This example is running on the nRF Connect platform, which is based on Nordic Semiconductor‘s nRF Connect SDK and Zephyr RTOS. Visit Matter’s nRF Connect platform overview to read more about the platform structure and dependencies.

The Matter device that runs the all clusters application is controlled by the Matter controller device over the Thread protocol. By default, the Matter device has Thread disabled, and it should be paired with Matter controller and get configuration from it. Some actions required before establishing full communication are described below.

Bluetooth LE advertising

In this example, to commission the device onto a Matter network, it must be discoverable over Bluetooth LE. For security reasons, you must start Bluetooth LE advertising manually after powering up the device by pressing Button 4.

Bluetooth LE rendezvous

In this example, the commissioning procedure is done over Bluetooth LE between a Matter device and the Matter controller, where the controller has the commissioner role.

To start the rendezvous, the controller must get the commissioning information from the Matter device. The data payload is encoded within a QR code, printed to the UART console.

Thread provisioning

Last part of the rendezvous procedure, the provisioning operation involves sending the Thread network credentials from the Matter controller to the Matter device. As a result, device is able to join the Thread network and communicate with other Thread devices in the network.

Requirements

The application requires a specific revision of the nRF Connect SDK to work correctly. See Setting up the environment for more information.

Supported devices

The example supports building and running on the following devices:

Hardware platform	Build target	Platform image
nRF52840 DK	nrf52840dk_nrf52840	nRF52840 DK
nRF5340 DK	nrf5340dk_nrf5340_cpuapp	nRF5340 DK
nRF52840 Dongle	nrf52840dongle_nrf52840	nRF52840 Dongle

Device UI

This section lists the User Interface elements that you can use to control and monitor the state of the device. These correspond to PCB components on the platform image.

Note:

The following Device UI elements are missing on the nRF52840 Dongle: Button 2, Button 3, Button 4, SEGGER J-Link USB port, and NFC port with antenna attached. You can collect logs from the nRF52840 Dongle using the nRF USB port instead of the SEGGER J-Link USB port. Functionalities associated with the remaining missing elements are inaccessible.

LED 1 shows the overall state of the device and its connectivity. The following states are possible:

• Short Flash On (50 ms on/950 ms off) — The device is in the unprovisioned (unpaired) state and is waiting for a commissioning application to connect.

• Rapid Even Flashing (100 ms on/100 ms off) — The device is in the unprovisioned state and a commissioning application is connected through Bluetooth LE.

• Short Flash Off (950ms on/50ms off) — The device is fully provisioned, but does not yet have full Thread network or service connectivity.

• Solid On — The device is fully provisioned and has full Thread network and service connectivity.

Button 1 can be used for the following purposes:

• Pressed for 6 s — Initiates the factory reset of the device. Releasing the button within the 6-second window cancels the factory reset procedure. LEDs 1-4 blink in unison when the factory reset procedure is initiated.

Button 4 — Pressing the button once starts Bluetooth LE advertising for the predefined period of time (15 minutes by default).

SEGGER J-Link USB port can be used to get logs from the device or communicate with it using the command line interface.

Setting up the environment

Before building the example, check out the Matter repository and sync submodules using the following command:

    $ git submodule update --init

The example requires a specific revision of the nRF Connect SDK. You can either install it along with the related tools directly on your system or use a Docker image that has the tools pre-installed.

If you are a macOS user, you won't be able to use the Docker container to flash the application onto a Nordic development kit due to certain limitations of Docker for macOS. Use the native shell for building instead.

Using Docker container for setup

To use the Docker container for setup, complete the following steps:

1. If you do not have the nRF Connect SDK installed yet, create a directory for it by running the following command:

   $ mkdir ~/nrfconnect
   

2. Download the latest version of the nRF Connect SDK Docker image by running the following command:

   $ docker pull nordicsemi/nrfconnect-chip
   

3. Start Docker with the downloaded image by running the following command, customized to your needs as described below:

    $ docker run --rm -it -e RUNAS=$(id -u) -v ~/nrfconnect:/var/ncs -v ~/connectedhomeip:/var/chip \
        -v /dev/bus/usb:/dev/bus/usb --device-cgroup-rule "c 189:* rmw" nordicsemi/nrfconnect-chip
   

   In this command:

   • ~/nrfconnect can be replaced with an absolute path to the nRF Connect SDK source directory.
   • ~/connectedhomeip must be replaced with an absolute path to the CHIP source directory.
   • -v /dev/bus/usb:/dev/bus/usb --device-cgroup-rule "c 189: rmw"* parameters can be omitted if you are not planning to flash the example onto hardware. These parameters give the container access to USB devices connected to your computer such as the nRF52840 DK.
   • --rm can be omitted if you do not want the container to be auto-removed when you exit the container shell session.
   • -e RUNAS=$(id -u) is needed to start the container session as the current user instead of root.

4. Update the nRF Connect SDK to the most recent supported revision, by running the following command:

    $ cd /var/chip
    $ python3 scripts/setup/nrfconnect/update_ncs.py --update
   

Now you can proceed with the Building instruction.

Using native shell for setup

To use the native shell for setup, complete the following steps:

1. Download and install the following additional software:

   • nRF Command Line Tools
   • GN meta-build system

2. If you do not have the nRF Connect SDK installed, follow the guide in the nRF Connect SDK documentation to install the latest stable nRF Connect SDK version. Since command-line tools will be used for building the example, installing SEGGER Embedded Studio is not required.

   If you have the SDK already installed, continue to the next step and update the nRF Connect SDK after initializing environment variables.

3. Initialize environment variables referred to by the CHIP and the nRF Connect SDK build scripts. Replace nrfconnect-dir with the path to your nRF Connect SDK installation directory, and toolchain-dir with the path to GNU Arm Embedded Toolchain.

    $ source nrfconnect-dir/zephyr/zephyr-env.sh
    $ export ZEPHYR_TOOLCHAIN_VARIANT=gnuarmemb
    $ export GNUARMEMB_TOOLCHAIN_PATH=toolchain-dir
   

4. Update the nRF Connect SDK to the most recent supported revision by running the following command (replace matter-dir with the path to Matter repository directory):

    $ cd matter-dir
    $ python3 scripts/setup/nrfconnect/update_ncs.py --update
   

Now you can proceed with the Building instruction.

Building

Complete the following steps, regardless of the method used for setting up the environment:

1. Navigate to the example's directory:

   $ cd examples/all-clusters-app/nrfconnect
   

2. Run the following command to build the example, with build-target replaced with the build target name of the Nordic Semiconductor's kit you own, for example nrf52840dk_nrf52840:

    $ west build -b build-target
   

   You only need to specify the build target on the first build. See Requirements for the build target names of compatible kits.

The output zephyr.hex file will be available in the build/zephyr/ directory.

Removing build artifacts

If you're planning to build the example for a different kit or make changes to the configuration, remove all build artifacts before building. To do so, use the following command:

$ rm -r build

Building with release configuration

To build the example with release configuration that disables the diagnostic features like logs and command-line interface, run the following command:

$ west build -b build-target -- -DCONF_FILE=prj_release.conf

Remember to replace build-target with the build target name of the Nordic Semiconductor's kit you own.

Building with Device Firmware Upgrade support

Support for DFU using Matter OTA is disabled by default.

To build the example with configuration that supports DFU, run the following command with build-target replaced with the build target name of the Nordic Semiconductor kit you are using (for example nrf52840dk_nrf52840):

$ west build -b build-target -- -DCONF_FILE=prj_dfu.conf

Note:

There are two types of Device Firmware Upgrade modes: single-image DFU and multi-image DFU. Single-image mode supports upgrading only one firmware image, the application image, and should be used for single-core nRF52840 DK devices. Multi-image mode allows to upgrade more firmware images and is suitable for upgrading the application core and network core firmware in two-core nRF5340 DK devices.

Currently the multi-image mode is not available for the Matter OTA DFU.

Changing bootloader configuration

To change the default MCUboot configuration, edit the prj.conf file located in the child_image/mcuboot directory.

Changing flash memory settings

In the default configuration, the MCUboot uses the Partition Manager to configure flash partitions used for the bootloader application image slot purposes. You can change these settings by defining static partitions. This example uses this option to define using an external flash.

To modify the flash settings of your board (that is, your build-target, for example nrf52840dk_nrf52840), edit the pm_static_dfu.yml file located in the configuration/build-target/ directory.

Configuring the example

The Zephyr ecosystem is based on Kconfig files and the settings can be modified using the menuconfig utility.

To open the menuconfig utility, run the following command from the example directory:

$ west build -b build-target -t menuconfig

Remember to replace build-target with the build target name of the Nordic Semiconductor's kit you own.

Changes done with menuconfig will be lost if the build directory is deleted. To make them persistent, save the configuration options in the prj.conf file.

Example build types

The example uses different configuration files depending on the supported features. Configuration files are provided for different build types and they are located in the application root 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.

Before you start testing the application, you can select one of the build types supported by the sample. This sample supports the following build types, depending on the selected board:

• debug -- Debug version of the application - can be used to enable additional features for verifying the application behavior, such as logs or command-line shell.
• release -- Release version of the application - can be used to enable only the necessary application functionalities to optimize its performance. It has Device Firmware Upgrade feature enabled. It can be used only for the nRF52840 DK and nRF5340 DK, as only those platforms support the DFU.
• dfu -- Debug version of the application with Device Firmware Upgrade feature support. It can be used only for the nRF52840 DK and nRF5340 DK, as only those platforms support the DFU.

For more information, see the Configuring nRF Connect SDK examples page.

Flashing and debugging

The flashing and debugging procedure is different for the development kits and the nRF52840 Dongle.

Flashing on the development kits

To flash the application to the device, use the west tool and run the following command from the example directory:

    $ west flash --erase

If you have multiple development kits connected, west will prompt you to pick the correct one.

To debug the application on target, run the following command from the example directory:

    $ west debug

Flashing on the nRF52840 Dongle

Visit Programming and Debugging nRF52840 Dongle to read more about flashing on the nRF52840 Dongle.

Testing the example

Check the CLI tutorial to learn how to use command-line interface of the application.

Testing using CHIPTool

Read the Android commissioning guide to see how to use CHIPTool for Android smartphones to commission and control the application within a Matter-enabled Thread network.