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CC2652P: Implement an end-device application inside router device via ZStack MT-interface

Part Number: CC2652P
Other Parts Discussed in Thread: Z-STACK, CC1352P, SIMPLELINK-CC13XX-CC26XX-SDK

Good morning.
I'm trying to figure out the way to reach the following idea.

The device taken is the SONOFF Zigbee dongle equipped with CC2652P module, i would like to use one of them as Coordinator, and something about 300 other devices of the same type as Routers, each one with an application that in facts makes them act also as end-devices, with their sensors and actuators.

So my goal would be to create a big mesh network where each device (except the Coordinator) acts as a Router AND interacts with the physical environment while communicating with the others and eventually reaching (and be reached by) the cloud backend passing by the Coordinator

My idea is to host each Router module on another board equipped with a microcontroller which uses the Z-Stack MT-Interface enabled in the Router device to communicate inside the network and reach the cloud via the Coordinator.

  1. Is this possible? The Z-Stack overview documentation (here) does not seem to give any limitation about application specific uses of any logical device type like the one i have in mind. But is it true in the real world? (I think about latencies, protocol overhead, binding/addressing possible conflicts or uneasy configuration and topology structure modifications, opinions?)
  2. Is the MT-Interface way the right one? Enabling it on example projects like the zr_genericapp of the simplelink_cc13xx_cc26xx_sdk_6_20_00_29 SDK seems possible (here). but following the given tutorial and flashing the resulting hex on my module results in an unreachable device via the Z-Tool 2, the same thing happens when i try to compile the other example projects of the same SDK like zr_genericapp_CC1352P_2_LAUNCHXL_tirtos_ticlang and znp_CC1352P_2_LAUNCHXL_tirtos_ticlang, following the steps in this repository, which also contains Router and Coordinator precompiled hexs which instead works perfectly, with the coordinator one resulting in a communicating device with the Z-Tool 2 serial utility and with the Zigbee2Mqtt stack as well, but the router precompiled has no mt-interface anyway.
  3. Where could i find a specific guide to adaptation of a Router sample project to my needs? Given that the CC1352P_2 projects are really suitable also for the CC2652P of mine as specified here.
  4. When i try to compile an imported CCS project by the given sdk, i get this warning (Description Resource Path Location Type
    XDCpath repository 'C:/ti/simplelink_cc13xx_cc26xx_sdk_6_20_00_29/.;C:/ti/xdctools_3_62_01_15_core/packages' cannot be found! Visit project's 'Properties > General > Products' tab to adjust the XDCpath. znp_CC1352P_4_LAUNCHXL_tirtos_ticlang znp_CC1352P_4_LAUNCHXL_tirtos_ticlang Problem), when both paths are correctly translated. Any advice?

Thank You in advance for the clarifications and the help that You could provide.

Roberto

  • Hi Roberto,

    Please refer to the latest Z-Stack User's Guide documentation for your research.

    1. Using an external MCU to host your Zigbee application is certainly feasible and the common use-case of Zigbee gateways.  Please refer to the ZNP Guide.
    2. You should start with the ZNP project and confirm that you can communicate with Z-Tool before attempting to port the MT interface to GenericApp.
    3. Same as (2)
    4. Make sure you are using all of the correct Dependencies for the SIMPLELINK-CC13XX-CC26XX-SDK v6.20 as stated in the SDK Release Notes.  Based on your description, it appears that you require newer versions of CCS and XDCTools

    Regards,
    Ryan