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Thread (OpenThread) on ArduinoNRF

ArduinoNRF does Thread on the nRF52840's own 2.4 GHz radio — a full OpenThread FTD stack vendored into the separate NiusThread library, running on a register-level IEEE 802.15.4 driver written for this core. No SoftDevice, no nrfx, no external radio module.

The working path: the NiusThread library

  • Library: ArduinoNRF-Thread (NiusThread) — install it separately in the Arduino IDE. Four calls form or join a mesh (Thread.begin() / setNetwork() / start() / process()); the complete official OpenThread C API stays available via Thread.instance().
  • In-package shim: libraries/Thread/ keeps #include <Thread.h> building for existing sketches by forwarding to NiusThread.

Hardware-verified on two ProMicro nRF52840 boards: node 1 self-promotes to Leader, node 2 attaches as Child and is promoted to Router; bidirectional UDP multicast (ff03::1) delivers application data both ways. MLE advertisements were also cross-checked over the air with a CC2530 sniffer during bring-up.

Real commissioning is verified too (NiusThread 0.1.2): a factory-fresh board joins with only a passphrase — discovery, EC-JPAKE DTLS with the PSKd, KEK-secured Joiner Entrust, credentials stored to flash, attach as child. See the CommissionerNode / JoinerNode examples.

Quick use

  1. Install the ArduinoNRF board package and the NiusThread library.
  2. Flash Examples ▸ NiusThread ▸ FormNetwork to two or more boards (same network name / channel / PAN id / key on all of them).
  3. Watch the serial monitors: first board → leader, the rest → child / router.
  4. Move on to UdpBroadcast for real data across the mesh, CoapLamp for CoAP resource control (the boards toggle each other's LEDs), and NetworkInfo for a live neighbor dashboard.

Verified UdpBroadcast output

UdpBroadcast: attaching...
role -> detached
role -> child
TX  "hello #1 from 0xE401"
RX  from fd00:db8:0:0:535d:5645:501c:5ef2  "hello #31 from 0xE400"
TX  "hello #32 from 0xC000"          <- promoted from child to router
RX  from fd00:db8:0:0:535d:5645:501c:5ef2  "hello #62 from 0xE400"

Notes & gotchas

  • Peripheral conflicts: the stack claims RADIO (exclusive with NimBLE / the proprietary NrfRadio / future own-radio Zigbee), RTC2 (millisecond alarm) and TIMER3 (microsecond alarm + timestamps). One sketch = BLE or Thread, not both.
  • nice!nano-style bootloader layout: if INFO_UF2.TXT says SoftDevice: not found, build with a no-SoftDevice bootloader option (e.g. bootloader=promicroserialnosd) so the sketch links at 0x1000 — a SoftDevice layout uploads fine but never runs.
  • Footprint: ~226 KB flash, ~32 KB RAM with the CoAP example.
  • Settings persist in flash: the dataset, key sequence and frame counters live in two 4 KB pages directly below the bootloader (default 0xF2000, override NIUSTHREAD_SETTINGS_FLASH_BASE), so nodes re-attach by themselves after a reboot.
  • Channel choice matters: pick a channel clear of WiFi and neighboring 802.15.4 networks. The bundled examples use channel 25; channel 11 overlaps WiFi channel 1 and is a popular Zigbee default — on a noisy bench the long commissioning frames are the first casualties.
  • Still future work: CSL (sleepy-child long polling) and border-router roles.
  • Thread.process() must run every loop() pass — the whole stack (alarms, radio events, tasklets) is polled from thread context.

How it relates to the other 802.15.4 paths

Path Radio Status
Thread mesh nRF52840 own RADIO ✅ working via NiusThread
Raw 802.15.4 / sniffing external CC2530 over UART ✅ working via ArduinoNRF-Zigbee (ZIGBEE.md)
Zigbee PRO (own radio) nRF52840 own RADIO ⚠️ skeleton (libraries/Zigbee/, Zboss not vendored)