Mike Szczys

https://chaos.social/@szczys

• Firmware Engineer at Golioth
• 15 years of firmware experience
• Previously: Editor in Chief of Hackaday

• We make it easy to connect MCUs to the internet

• Device Management

  • OTA, fleet settings, RPC, remote logging

• Data Routing

  • Time-series and stateful data
  • Cloud integrations with numerous cloud platforms and database hosts
  • REST API, Webhook, Websockets

• Our device SDK functions as a Zephyr module

• For a potential user to validate Golioth, they need to be able to build Zephyr applications

What if you could build Zephyr apps without any setup?

• Free monthly Zephyr training

• Enable prospective customers to build code samples without waiting

• Open standard easily added to repo

• Can be run locally (and easily) via VS Code

Building a Zephyr app within 90 seconds during free Golioth Zephyr trainning

(Try it yourself: https://github.com/golioth/zephyr-training)

GitHub repos that have devcontainers have a Codespaces tab

You get the VS Code with a complete build environment

Binaries must be downloaded and flashed locally

Docker + JSON Config

• Required: .devcontainer subdirectory
• Required: devcontainer.json
• Optional: helper files (we'll get to that)

The entirety of what was shown in the demo

• Debian-based image with bare minimum of Zephyr toolchain
• Optional:
  • Set a mount point for the parent repository
  • Set default path for the workspace

Perform the repo-setup steps

This is a manifest repository, so west update pulls in all dependencies (like the Zephyr tree).

Install extensions and configure settings

Custom west command used to rename binaries

• "West Extension" included in this repo
• west download finds correct binary, renames and timestamps, moves to a Download folder for easy location
• Local flashing tools used to program device after binary download

Speed up the creation process

A prebuild means the configuration step is already done.

You won't have to wait for west update to clone all repos each time you start a new instance.

VS Code recognizes the devcontainer and prompts:

• To install the dev container extension
• To build the container
• To reopen container on subsequent loads

What to know

• You must have Docker preinstalled

• Wait for download and build the first time

• Containers continue to run after you exit VS Code

• Windows: No

• Mac: No

• Linux: Yes*

*if you don't mind running in priviledged mode

• Connect USB to the container
• Give the container privileges to access the ports

• Better option: add these tools to the container image

Adding SEGGER/Nordic tools to container

What about WebUSB?

• WebUSB is a promising option, but...
  • Not currently supported in Codespaces
  • Only supported by Chrome Browser

What are they good for?

• Online Zephyr training using CodeSpaces

• Allow protential customers to build sample code

• Deliver version controlled build environments to target specific sdk-ng toolchains

Try Golioth: golioth.io

References:

• Try Codespaces: https://github.com/golioth/zephyr-training/
• Free Zephyr training: https://golioth.io/training-signup
• Development Containers: https://containers.dev/
• Codespaces: https://github.com/features/codespaces

Mike Szczys

mike@golioth.io

chaos.social/@szczys