The Zephyr Project community is heading to Zurich, Switzerland!
Join us on Thursday, September 17, 2026, for an in-person Zephyr Project Meetup organized by Zoi TechCon GmbH. The meetup will take place at Westhive Kitchen, Hardturmstrasse 161, 8005 Zürich, Switzerland.
The event is open to developers, engineers, contributors, students, technology professionals, and anyone interested in open source and embedded systems. Whether you are an experienced Zephyr developer or are just beginning to explore embedded technologies, you are welcome to join. The primary language for group communication will be English.
About the Organizer: Zoi TechCon GmbH:
Zoi TechCon GmbH helps manufacturing and retail enterprises adopt AI and modern cloud technologies. The company develops, implements, and manages solutions across cloud infrastructure, AI-ready architecture, smart manufacturing, and composable retail. With more than 500 specialists across seven countries, Zoi combines local knowledge with global delivery capabilities.
What to Expect:
The evening will feature technical presentations about products and applications running Zephyr, subsystem developments, practical implementation experiences, developer tools, hardware support, and lesser-known Zephyr features. There will also be time to ask questions, exchange experiences, and connect with members of the local embedded systems community.
Event Details
- Date: September 17, 2026
- Time: 5:30 pm–9:30 pm
- Location: Westhive Kitchen
- Address: Hardturmstrasse 161, 8005 Zürich, Switzerland
- Organized by: Zoi TechCon GmbH
- Hardware board sponsor: Nordic Semiconductor
Agenda:
5:30 pm – 6:00 pm: Welcome Drinks, Snacks, and Networking
6:00 pm – 6:30 pm: Extending Zephyr’s Modem Module: Lessons Learned from the BG770 Integration – Mark Geiger, Embedded Software Engineer, Zoi TechCon GmbH.
In this talk, I’ll introduce Zephyr’s modem subsystem, present my upstream contributions including support for the Quectel BG770 modem and extensions to the modem shell, and demonstrate practical features such as CMUX for advanced modem setups. Along the way, I’ll share lessons learned from integrating a new modem into Zephyr and debugging real-world connectivity issues in the field. Finally, I’ll showcase an AI-powered debugging tool that integrates directly with the modem shell to simplify troubleshooting.
6:35 pm – 6:50 pm: The 10 cent micro and friends, two years later – Michael Hope, Software Engineer
A short talk on how the Zephyr support for the CH32V family has evolved over the last two years, including some applications they’ve been put to and areas of improvement.
6:55 pm–7:10 pm: One OTA Update to Zephyr: Migrating an ESP32 Firmware In Place – David Zerulla inovex GmbH Developer
One OTA Update to Zephyr: Migrating an ESP32 Firmware In Place – Can an already-deployed ESP32 application built on ESP-IDF be moved to Zephyr using only its existing OTA mechanism?
This talk shows an end-to-end migration where an ordinary ESP-IDF OTA installs a temporary migrator. It verifies and writes the Zephyr image, prepares the new flash layout, and finally replaces the ESP-IDF bootloader with MCUboot. After reboot, the same device runs Zephyr and can take its next update through Zephyr’s MCUboot-based OTA path.
At the same time, moving to Zephyr does not mean that ESP-IDF disappears completely: Zephyr’s ESP32 support still builds on Espressif components through hal_espressif.
The migration was developed and tested in QEMU on ESP32-C3 and then run end-to-end on a real ESP32. The irreversible step is deliberately performed as the last step: on hardware, the device is without a valid bootloader for a measured 0.85 seconds.
In 15 minutes, I’ll show what actually changes when moving an ESP-IDF-based firmware to Zephyr, the flash-layout constraints involved, and the write-ordering decisions that made an in-place migration possible.
7:15 pm–7:45 pm: Break time
7:45 pm–8:00 pm: Migrating to Zephyr: An IoT Lab Experience – Alejandro Horvat & Eduardo Valdés, Research Assistant, ZHAW
As part of an academic course on IoT and Wireless Communication at ZHAW, we recently migrated our laboratory activities from the legacy Nordic SDK for the nRF52840 dongle to Nordic’s Zephyr-based development ecosystem. The transition was driven by the end of support for the previous SDK and the need for a more sustainable platform that can support emerging wireless protocols and future hardware generations. Alongside the software migration, we modernized the development workflow by adopting Visual Studio Code as the primary toolchain, providing a more integrated and feature-rich environment for students and instructors.
Beyond functionality, our laboratories place strong emphasis on energy-efficient embedded design. Therefore, the migration offered an opportunity to compare the power consumption characteristics of equivalent applications implemented with the legacy SDK and with Zephyr under identical operating conditions. We also evaluated the new ecosystem’s impact on firmware development complexity, examining aspects such as project structure, code maintenance, portability, and development effort. This presentation summarizes the migration process, lessons learned, and the technical trade-offs observed in flexibility, usability, and energy performance.
8:05 pm–8:35 pm: Meeting Early-Bootup Requirements: Orchestrating Zephyr and Linux in AMP Systems – Stefan Kratochwil, Software Engineer, inovex GmbH
This talk will walk you through getting your realtime Zephyr cores booting up within milliseconds. Instead of waiting for Linux to fully boot and load the Zephyr application itself, this task is done by the bootloader. While the realtime core utilizes OpenAMP to wait for Linux to attach later, it is already able to execute business logic. As a result, even complex heterogeneous platforms with multiple processors can ensure that the realtime core is almost “instant-on”.
This talk focuses on the NXP i.MX8MP Plus. Yet, the presented approach is applicable to many other modern SoCs with heterogeneous processor platforms where boot time is a critical system design constraint.
8:45 pm–9:00 pm: Quiz and Board Giveaways
9:00 pm onwards – Networking
Registration:
Registration is required to help the organizers plan the space and event logistics. Seats are limited, so register soon to secure your place. Register for the meetup here.
Thank You to Our Supporters:
Thank you to Zoi TechCon GmbH for hosting the meetup, providing the event space, and sponsoring the food and beverages.
A special thank you to Nordic Semiconductor for sponsoring the development board giveaways and supporting learning and community engagement at the event.
We also appreciate the speakers, volunteers, and attendees whose participation makes this event possible.
About the Zephyr Community Meetups
This meetup is part of the Zephyr Community Meetup Series, a collection of local gatherings hosted by community members with support from the Zephyr Project.
These events provide a welcoming space for developers, students, researchers, and embedded systems enthusiasts to exchange technical knowledge, present real-world projects, discuss challenges, and build stronger local open source communities.
Whether you are based in Zurich, or another part of the world, we encourage community members, companies, universities, and developer groups to get involved.
Reach out to us and explore how you can bring Zephyr to your community and make a difference in the world of IoT development.
To keep up to date about the project, subscribe to the Zephyr quarterly newsletter or connect with us on @ZephyrIoT, Zephyr Project LinkedIn or the Zephyr Discord Channel to talk with community and TSC members.
We look forward to seeing everyone in Zurich!