Requirements and setup

This page outlines the requirements that you need to meet before you start working with the experimental support release of Zigbee R23 add-on and Zigbee R23 protocol.

Hardware requirements

The Zigbee R23 add-on supports the nRF52840, nRF52833, nRF5340, nRF54L15, nRF54L10, and nRF54L05 SoCs.

For the Quick start guide, you need three development kits of the following types:

Hardware platforms	PCA	Board name	Board target
nRF54L15 DK	PCA10156	nrf54l15dk	`nrf54l15dk/nrf54l15/cpuapp`
nRF54L10 emulation on the nRF54L15 DK	PCA10156	nrf54l15dk	`nrf54l15dk/nrf54l10/cpuapp`
nRF54L05 emulation on the nRF54L15 DK	PCA10156	nrf54l15dk	`nrf54l15dk/nrf54l05/cpuapp`
nRF52840 DK	PCA10056	nrf52840dk	`nrf52840dk/nrf52840`
nRF52833 DK	PCA10100	nrf52833dk	`nrf52833dk/nrf52833`
nRF5340 DK	PCA10095	nrf5340dk	`nrf5340dk/nrf5340/cpuapp`

You can mix different development kits.

Note

Make sure that you have three development kits before proceeding to the next steps.

Note

The nRF52833 SoC is supported only for NCP sample.

Software requirements

For libraries and code for Zigbee R23 add-on, see the ncs-zigbee repository.

To work with the Zigbee R23 add-on, you need to install the nRF Connect SDK, including all its prerequisites and the nRF Connect SDK toolchain. Follow the Installing the nRF Connect SDK instructions, with the following exception:

In the Get the nRF Connect SDK code section, click Create a new application. Select Browse nRF Connect SDK Add-on Index, then choose Zigbee R23. Select v1.3.0 of the Zigbee R23 add-on. This step also installs nRF Connect SDK v3.2.0.

You can initialize workspace in two alternative ways:

Initialize a new workspace:

In the Get the nRF Connect SDK code, run the following command to initialize west with Zigbee R23 add-on v1.3.0, which also initializes nRF Connect SDK v3.2.0:
1. Initialize ncs for the add-on:
```
west init -m "http://github.com/nrfconnect/ncs-zigbee" --mr v1.3.0
```
2. Update the nRF Connect SDK modules:
```
west update
```

Include add-on in the existing nRF Connect SDK workspace:

Assuming you have an existing nRF Connect SDK workspace in the ncs folder, run the following commands:
1. Navigate to the workspace folder:
```
cd ncs
```
2. Clone the add-on repository:
```
git clone https://github.com/nrfconnect/ncs-zigbee
```
3. Set manifest path to the add-on directory:
```
west config manifest.path ncs-zigbee
```
4. Update the nRF Connect SDK modules:
```
west update
```
Optionally, run these commands in case you need to go back to work on the nRF Connect SDK without the add-on:
1. Configure the manifest path back to the nRF Connect SDK directory
```
west config manifest.path nrf
```
2. Update nRF Connect SDK modules
```
west update
```
3. Check the current manifest path with the following command:
```
west config manifest.path
```
  The output should be:
```
nrf
```
This means that the current workspace is using the nRF Connect SDK.

To create an application, use Zigbee: Template sample as a starting point.