We already having a working Arduino Firmware codebase for the HealthyPi 5. Now, we are excited to announce Zephyr RTOS support for the HealthyPi 5. We have published our Zephyr port for the HealthyPi 5 in its own GitHub Repo.

What is Zephyr and Why Did We Choose It?

Zephyr is a small, scalable, open-source RTOS for connected, resource-constrained devices supporting multiple architectures (Source: Zephyr). It is based on a small-footprint kernel designed for use on resource-constrained systems, taking into account limited RAM and ROM, as well as modest processor speed. It supports multiple architectures, including ARM Cortex-M and RISC-V (both of which are used in the HealthyPi 5). This means that we can develop more efficient, faster, scalable, and secure code for the HealthyPi 5 that is not constrained by the limitations of the Arduino platform.

The main reason we chose Zephyr is because it is a mature, well-supported RTOS with a large community of developers and contributors. It is also backed by the Linux Foundation, which means it is well-funded and will be around with an open source license for a long time. It is also very well documented, with a lot of tutorials and examples available online.

You can follow the status of our Zephyr port’s development on our GitHub Repo. We intend to have all the development work done in the open and we welcome contributions from the community. We plan to have the first release of the Zephyr firmware ready before the HealthyPi 5 boards ship.

How to Get Started with Zephyr

Setting up Zephyr on your development computer can be a bit of a process, but the Zephyr Project has a great Getting Started Guide. The guide has detailed instructions for setting up Zephyr on Windows, Linux, and macOS. We recommend you follow the instructions in the guide to set up Zephyr on your computer.

Once you have Zephyr set up, you can clone our GitHub Repo and use the west tool for compiling. The HealthyPi 5 Zephyr firmware is developed as a Zephyr freestanding applicaiton model.

HealthyPi 5 Main PCB Has a New Revision

We also have the final board revision ready to go to our manufacturer. This new revision of the HealthyPi 5 board has a few minor changes, including:

• Addition of an SWD header for easy programming and debugging of the RP2040 microcontroller with the Raspberry Pi Debug Probe if you wish to do so. This is in addition to the existing USB-C port for programming and debugging the RP2040.
• A three-pin UART header for easy access to the UART console (especially useful for development with Zephyr)
• The SD card slot is now easily accessible from the outside of the enclosure
• The final design has 16 MB of flash memory (128 Mbit) instead of the usual 2 MB flash memory (16 Mbit) for more data storage and datalogging capacity

Healthy Pi 5 v.5.3