Zephyr - First Experiences

Show Notes

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• backstory
  • working on a project using freeRTOS on STM32H743
  • a lot of work integrating things like Ethernet/USB
  • code generation has tradeoffs
  • without one week, 1 engineer working part-time had Zephyr running with most drivers working
• Build
  • Kconfig (very granular)
  • Device Tree -> C headers
  • extensive use of Macros
  • no C++
• differences between other RTOS models
  • most MCU tooling takes RTOS, and MCU integrates and delivers
  • Zephyr does the opposite – they take MCU HAL, and then integrate and deliver directly to developers
• Support/Community
  • Discord
  • Github discussions
• Shell
  • is amazing
  • proper terminal with tab completion, proper backspace support, etc
  • keeps what you are typing at bottom of screen even if there are logging messages scrolling
  • list threads, memory used, %CPU, etc
  • Projects like Beagle Connect Freedom – they are piping shell over radio connection
• Logging
  • standard levels ERR, WRN, INF, DBG
  • easy to add a logging domain in any module
  • Macros automatically apply LOG_WRN() to current logging domain
  • can change log level of each domain at runtime in shell
• Tooling
  • well-integrated flashing
  • debugging uses the command line GDB
• Linux connections
• Performance
• challenges
  • configuration
  • tracing code through system calls
  • documentation is fairly good, but can be hard to find things
• opinion
  • The Zephyr project is a sustainable approach as MCUs become more complex

Discuss this episode at our community site.

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