Command Line Example Application

Table of Contents

Introduction

This document discusses how to use the Over-the-Air Download enabled Command Line Example App. The OAD CLI example application functions identically to the Thread CLI FTD example application, with the added functionality of enabling download with BLE OAD. This example will allow you to download a Thread image from a BLE distributor to a BLE target, then form and join a network. The walk-through below will setup a basic ad-hoc Thread network between two CLI examples. Consult the Thread User's guide for information on the OAD process.

Hardware Prerequisites

Software Prerequisites

Functional Description

Software Overview

This section describes software components and the corresponding source file.

Application Files

Example Application

This application provides a simple debugging interface to the OpenThread stack. This application is used as the certification interface for the OpenThread stack to Thread test harness, but is also useful as an exploration tool.

Following is information on how to setup a simple network between two CLI examples. For a more in-depth explanation of the commands available, refer the README.md in the OpenThread source directory at <SDK_ROOT>/source/third_party/openthread/src/cli/README.md.

Configuration With SysConfig

SysConfig is a GUI configuration tool that allows for TI driver and stack configurations. In order to configure projects using SysConfig, use the SysConfig-enabled version of the Thread examples located in <SDK_ROOT>/examples

To configure using SysConfig, import the SysConfig-enabled project into CCS. Double click the *.syscfg file from the CCS project explorer, where * is the name of the example project. The SysConfig GUI window will appear, where Thread stack and TI driver configurations can be adjusted. These settings will be reflected in the generated files tiop_config.[ch].

The example project comes with working default settings for SysConfig. It is not recommended to change the default driver settings, as any changes may impact the functionality of the example. The Thread stack settings may be changed as required for your use case.

One important note about TI-OpenThread SysConfig is how SysConfig settings and non-volatile storage settings are applied. If the LaunchPad non-volatile holds a valid Thread dataset, SysConfig settings will not be applied on boot. SysConfig settings are only applied when non-volatile storage does not hold a valid Thread dataset. To guarantee SysConfig settings are applied, perform a factory reset of the non-volatile storage, as described below.

Usage

This section describes how to set up and run the CLI Example Application.

Buttons

Display

The command line interface will present on the device's UART, and can be displayed through a serial terminal emulator. To enable the serial terminal in CCS press Ctrl + Shift + Alt + T, select Serial Terminal under Choose terminal, select 115200 for Baud Rate and click OK.

Performing an OAD

Out of the box, the LaunchPad is programmed with a OAD enabled BLE example project. You should familiarize yourself with the "Over-the-Air Download (OAD)" section of the Thread User's Guide. Setting up the OAD environment is detailed in the "Setting up the BLE OAD Environment" section of the Thread User's Guide, consult this section for setting up the distributor. Performing an OAD is detailed in the "Performing a BLE OAD" section of the Thread User's guide.

  1. If you have programmed your LaunchPad since opening the box, program the BIM application and an OAD enabled BLE example application, like simple_peripheral or project_zero onto the target LaunchPad.

  2. Setup BTool and Host Test as a BLE OAD distributor as described in the Thread User's guide.

  3. Build the OAD CLI Thread example application.

  4. Use the BLE OAD distributor to download the Thread *.bin downloadable image to the target LaunchPad.

  5. Connect to the target LaunchPad's UART and press Enter to see the Thread CLI prompt >.

  6. You may now use the Thread example application like normal.

  7. (Optional) to download another image, follow the instructions in the [Buttons][#usage-buttons] section to reload the OAD enabled BLE factory image.

Setting up the Thread Network

This section describes how to set up a Thread network between two CLI devices. Program two LaunchPads with the CLI image and follow the steps below. One of the CLI examples must be a Full Thread Device (FTD).

On the first CLI example, press Enter to see a prompt >. Then use the channel command to set the desired channel. Use the panid command to set the current running PAN. Finally use the commands ifconfig up and thread start to start the Thread stack. Below is an example of bringing up a device on channel 14 and PANID 0xface.


> channel 14
Done
> panid 0xface
Done
> ifconfig up
Done
> thread start
Done
> state
detached
> state
leader
>

On the second CLI example, press Enter to see a prompt >. Then use the scan command to make sure that this LaunchPad can see the first one. The following prompt may be swallowed up by the output of the scan, press Enter to get the prompt again. Then use the channel and panid commands as in the first example to set the same channel and PANID. Finally, use the ifconfig up and thread start commands to start the Thread stack. The second example will connect to the first example as a child.


> scan
| J | Network Name     | Extended PAN     | PAN  | MAC Address      | Ch | dBm | LQI |
+---+------------------+------------------+------+------------------+----+-----+-----+
> | 0 | OpenThread       | dead00beef00cafe | face | 9e782c4394ca339f | 14 | -63 |  61 |
Done

> channel 14
Done
> panid 0xface
Done
> ifconfig up
Done
> thread start
Done
> state
child
>

Pinging between the CLI examples

Once you have setup the network as above, you can ping between the two nodes. Here we ping the IPv6 relm-local all nodes multicast address, and get a response from our leader's link local address.

> ping ff03::1
> 8 bytes from fe80:0:0:0:f423:af0:300:b057: icmp_seq=1 hlim=64 time=37ms

>