Raspberry Pi Setup

Install Raspbian Buster on Raspberry Pi 3B+

Use Raspberry Pi Imager v1.5 on Ubuntu 18.04 Linux
Download Raspbian/Raspberry Pi OS from https://downloads.raspberrypi.org/raspios_lite_armhf/images/raspios_lite_armhf-2021-03-25/2021-03-04-raspios-buster-armhf-lite.zip)

Preparation of Raspbian Buster

Raspi needs to be connected to the LAN via an Ethernet cable. For the first steps the Raspi is connected via HDMI to a monitor. After enabling SSH it is possible to connect via SSH/terminal from the Ubuntu Laptop to the Raspi.

Change default password of pi user:
- Default credentials: username: pi, password: raspberry

passwd
Changed password to comatrix

(Optionally) Change keyboard setting to German and reboot:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration

Configure static IP settings depending on your LAN setup:

sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.1.106
netmask 255.255.255.248
gateway 192.168.1.105
dns-nameservers 192.168.1.1

If eth0 still does not show up in ifconfig here is the magic:

sudo ifdown eth0 && sudo ifup eth0

Activate and start SSH on Raspi:

sudo systemctl start ssh
sudo systemctl enable ssh

Connect to the Raspi via SSH from ubuntu terminal:

ssh pi@192.168.1.106

Upgrade of Raspbian:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

Enable support for IEEE 802.15.4/LoWPAN devices

Plug the OpenLabs 802.15.4 radio module directly onto pins 15-26 of the Raspi’s P1 header (in the middle):

OpenLabs 802.15.4 radio module	Module connected to Raspi

Image source: https://openlabs.co/store/Raspberry-Pi-802.15.4-radio	Image source: https://openlabs.co/store/Raspberry-Pi-802.15.4-radio

There is an existing overlay for this transceiver shipped with Raspbian, should be in /boot/overlays/at86rf233-overlay.dtb or /boot/overlays/at86rf233.dtbo:

ls /boot/overlays/at86rf233.dtbo

Enable transceiver by modifying the /boot/config.txt file and reboot:

sudo nano /boot/config.txt
# enable OpenLabs 802.15.4 radio module
dtoverlay=at86rf233, speed=3000000

Installation of Linux WPAN tools

Source/Links:

First install git and clone the wpan-tools repo:

sudo apt install git
sudo mkdir /opt/src
sudo chown pi /opt/src
cd /opt/src
git clone https://github.com/linux-wpan/wpan-tools

Install some required packages before building the wpan-tools:

sudo apt install dh-autoreconf libnl-3-dev libnl-genl-3-dev

Configure, build and install wpan-tools:

cd /opt/src/wpan-tools
./autogen.sh
./configure CFLAGS='-g -O0' --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc --libdir=/usr/lib
make
sudo make install

Verification/test of wpan-tools installation:

iwpan dev

MANUAL WPAN interface configuration

Sources/Links::

Configure the default PAN ID of RIOT-OS/SAMR21-xpro: 0x23
Configure the default channel ID of RIOT-OS/SAMR21-xpro: 26

ip link set lowpan0 down
ip link set wpan0 down
iwpan phy phy0 set channel 0 26 # same network ID and channel as RIOT default
iwpan dev wpan0 set pan_id 0x23 # same network ID and channel as RIOT default
ip link add link wpan0 name lowpan0 type lowpan
ip link set wpan0 up
ip link set lowpan0 up

Afterwards the lowpan0 interface on Raspi has a link-local IPv6 address:

root@raspberrypi:~# ip a
1: lo: [...]
2: eth0: [...]
3: wlan0: [...]
4: wpan0: <BROADCAST,NOARP,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 123 qdisc pfifo_fast state UNKNOWN group default qlen 300
    link/ieee802.15.4 36:3a:07:cc:65:41:2b:31 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
5: lowpan0@wpan0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1280 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/6lowpan 36:3a:07:cc:65:41:2b:31 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet6 fe80::343a:7cc:6541:2b31/64 scope link
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

NOTE/CAUTION: Every reboot changes the link-local IPv6 address of the lowpan0 interface on the Raspi! See this section to configure a persistent link-local address.

There are also scripts available to create/delete a lowpan interface (or to create/delete a monitor interface): https://github.com/RIOT-Makers/wpan-raspbian

PERSISTENT wpan0 and lowpan0 configuration

with static long hardware address and static link-local IPv6 address (to avoid a random link-local IPv6 address on each reboot)

Sources/Links:

Clone riot-makers/wpan-raspbian git repo:

cd /opt/src
git clone https://github.com/riot-makers/wpan-raspbian
cd wpan-raspbian

Copy some helper (shell) scripts to a well-known location:

sudo cp -r usr/local/sbin/* /usr/local/sbin/.
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/sbin/*

Afterwards copy files for systemd integration:

sudo cp etc/default/lowpan /etc/default/.
sudo cp etc/systemd/system/lowpan.service /etc/systemd/system/.

Modify channel id and PAN id in /etc/default/lowpan as needed:

sudo nano /etc/default/lowpan
CHN="13"
PAN="0xbeef"
# set MAC to "" for random mac/hw address
MAC="02:0:0:0:0:0:0:1"
# set IP6 to "" if not required; note: set a prefix length
#IP6="fdaa:bb:cc:dd::1/64"
# Set ack requests (Only enable if all devices on your PAN support acks)
ACKREQ=0

MAC="02:0:0:0:0:0:0:1" was taken from https://jan.newmarch.name/IoT/LinuxJournal/Routing/, this results in a link-local address of fe80::1 for the Raspi.

Enable lowpan.service autostart, start 6LoWPAN service and verification:

sudo systemctl enable lowpan.service
sudo systemctl start lowpan.service
ifconfig
lowpan0: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST>  mtu 1280
    inet6 fe80::1  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x20<link>
    unspec 02-00-00-00-00-00-00-01-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00  txqueuelen 1000  (UNSPEC)
    RX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
    RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
    TX packets 19  bytes 2114 (2.0 KiB)
    TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

wpan0: flags=195<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,NOARP>  mtu 123
        unspec 02-00-00-00-00-00-00-01-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00  txqueuelen 300  (UNSPEC)
        RX packets 72  bytes 2016 (1.9 KiB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 74  bytes 5320 (5.1 KiB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0