This blog is written by Jonas Remmert, an IoT Embedded Systems Engineer at Phytec Messtechnik GmbH
On April 9th, there is a workshop on the Zephyr Project at the Embedded World Conference in Nuremberg, Germany. This workshop is tailored for participants interested in Zephyr and its application in low power IoT products.
The Zephyr Project is an IoT ecosystem that supports a wide range of development boards and SoCs, making it a versatile choice for IoT development. Phytec Messtechnik GmbH develops and manufactures Linux based systems and low power IoT products based on Zephyr. This workshop aims to share insights and experiences from real-world projects.
One of the workshop’s key resources is a dedicated GitHub repository https://github.com/jonas-rem/zephyr-workshop, which contains examples and exercises planned for the session. The workshop includes four hands-on sessions, covering the setup of the development environment, introduction to Zephyr’s key features, application customization for different hardware, and extension of an IoT application.
The IoT application shows how to build a modular firmware with Zbus, Zephyr’s messaging bus. The application only uses a button and an LED as hardware elements so it will run on most boards with Zephyr support. Various boards from different vendors will be available for participants to work with.In addition, the participants will be able to run firmware that has been built for a physical board in a simulation, the Open Source simulation framework Renode.
An important aspect of the workshop is the use of GitHub Codespaces, a cloud-hosted development environment that significantly simplifies the setup process for participants. While a local setup is usually superior for day-to-day development, the use of a cloud hosted environment allows attendees to focus on the workshop contents.
During the workshop, we will explore the Zephyr ecosystem, focusing on basic subsystems like logging and the shell. Hardware abstraction via vendor Hardware Abstraction Layers (HALs) and the devicetree simplify board support and interoperability.
Through the development experience with Yocto Linux, Phytec sees the importance of Open Source and vendor-neutral governance, which is a foundational principle of Zephyr. This increases both software supply chain resilience and the ability to innovate.
This workshop is an opportunity for developers to get a head start with Zephyr, engage with the community, and explore the project’s capabilities. Whether you’re experienced or new to Zephyr, the workshop will provide valuable insights into developing IoT applications and give a platform for interesting discussions.
We look forward to welcoming you to the workshop at the Embedded World Conference or seeing you at the Zephyr Project Booth (Hall 4-170) in the Exhibition Hall, where we can explore the possibilities of IoT development with Zephyr.
Learn more about the Zephyr Project Workshop here.