Getting Started#
About Simplicity Studio#
Silicon Labs has enhanced Z-Wave to work with Silicon Labs hardware. The Z-Wave stack library is available as a software development kit (SDK) installed as part of the Gecko SDK (GSDK), the suite of Silicon Labs SDKs. To quickly get started with the GSDK, start by installing Simplicity Studio 5 (SSv5), which will set up your development environment and walk you through the GSDK installation. Simplicity Studio 5 includes everything needed for IoT product development with Silicon Labs devices, including a resource and project launcher, software configuration tools, full IDE with GNU toolchain, and analysis tools. Installation instructions are provided in the Simplicity Studio 5 Online User's Guide.
SSv5 is the core development environment designed to support the Silicon Labs IoT portfolio of system-on-chips (SoCs) and modules. It provides access to target device-specific web and SDK resources; software and hardware configuration tools; an integrated development environment (IDE) featuring industry-standard code editors, compilers and debuggers; and advanced, value-add tools for network analysis and code-correlated energy profiling.
SSv5 is designed to simplify developer workflow. It intelligently recognizes all Silicon Labs evaluation and development kit parts and, based on the selected development target, presents appropriate software development kits (SDKs) and other development resources.
About the Silicon Labs Z-Wave SDK#
The Silicon Labs Z-Wave SDK is composed of the Z-Wave stack and example applications as well as the addition of metadata to allow for the seamless integration into Simplicity Studio 5.
The Silicon Labs Z-Wave SDK is based on the Gecko Platform component-based design, where each component provides a specific function. Components are made up of a collection of source files and properties. The component-based design enables customization by adding, configuring, and removing components. The application developer can use SSv5’s Project Configurator and Component Editor to easily assemble the desired features by including those components that match the required functionality and by configuring the various properties associated with those components.
The Silicon Labs Z-Wave SDK contains the Z-Wave stack in a library format.
For details on the Z-Wave stack version included within the Silicon Labs Z-Wave SDK, refer to the Z-Wave SDK release notes.
Gecko Bootloader#
A bootloader is a program stored in reserved flash memory that can initialize a device, update firmware images, and possibly perform some integrity checks. Silicon Labs networking devices use bootloaders that perform firmware updates in two different modes: standalone (also called standalone bootloaders) and application (also called application bootloaders). An application bootloader performs a firmware image update by reprogramming the flash with an update image stored in internal or external memory. The Gecko Bootloader is a code library configurable through Simplicity Studio’s IDE to generate bootloaders that can be used with a variety of Silicon Labs protocol stacks. For more information about bootloaders see Bootloader Fundamentals.
Gecko Platform#
The Gecko Platform is a set of drivers and other lower layer features that interact directly with Silicon Labs chips and modules. Gecko Platform components include EMLIB, EMDRV, RAIL Library, NVM3, etc. For more information about Gecko Platform, see release notes that can be found in SSv5’s Documentation tab, as well as online API documentation in https://docs.silabs.com/.
Connecting to Z-Wave 800 Thunderboard in Simplicity Studio#
In just a few click in Simplicity Studio, the board is ready to use. Please follow the steps below:
Start Simplicity Studio and connect the device via USB to the PC.
Install the required packages by clicking YES on the popup dialog in Studio.
When it’s finished, select the board from the connected devices and click Start.
