TRAINING

Zephyr RTOS Course: Understanding the Fundamentals

Our specialized Zephyr RTOS training provides a deep understanding of the Zephyr RTOS (real-time operating system) development fundamentals. The course covers the basics of Zephyr RTOS, making it suitable for beginners who want to build a strong foundation. Zephyr RTOS is a project supported by the Linux Foundation, which ensures the course is built on credible and industry-recognized standards.

Conducted by expert Mieszko Mierunski, this intensive 2-day training is based on the Zephyr Essentials course structure, ensuring a comprehensive foundation for all participants. The program combines carefully structured detailed presentations and practical exercises which let participants get a full understanding of application structure, kernel primitives, and device drivers, while gaining practical experience working with popular hardware platforms.

The training dives into many specifics of the Zephyr RTOS such as inter-task communication, memory management, and interrupt handling. You’ll also discover how to configure and build your own custom board definitions, empowering you to bring your unique embedded projects to life. It’s also useful to attendees working on nRF Connect SDK from Nordic Semiconductor.

A significant part of the course is dedicated to practical exercises. Lab sessions are structured to allow for direct, one-on-one interaction with the trainer on the course material and with practical implementation, covering Zephyr Essentials through hands-on labs.

TRAINING

Zephyr RTOS Fundamentals

Our Zephyr RTOS training provides a deep understanding of the Zephyr RTOS (real-time operating system) development fundamentals.

Conducted by expert Mieszko Mierunski, this intensive 2-day training combines carefully structured detailed presentations and practical exercises which let participants to get a full understanding of application structure, kernel primitives, and device drivers, while gaining practical experience working with popular hardware platforms.

The training dives into many specifics of the Zephyr RTOS such as inter-task communication, memory management, and interrupt handling. You'll also discover how to configure and build your own custom board definitions, empowering you to bring your unique embedded projects to life. It's also useful to attendees working on nRF Connect SDK from Nordic Semiconductor.

A significant part of the course is dedicated to practical exercises. Lab sessions are structured to allow for direct, one-on-one interaction with the trainer on the course material and with practical implementation.

GET STARTED

Who is this training for?

This training is ideal for embedded software engineers, developers, and students who want to learn how to develop applications using the Zephyr RTOS. No prior experience with Zephyr is required.

Certifications are obtained at the end of course.

Hands-on experience

Throughout the training, you’ll participate in hands-on exercises to reinforce your learning by connecting and working with various hardware components. You’ll work with real hardware platforms, including the NRF54L15 by Nordic Semiconductor and STMicroelectronics MCUs.
Participants will learn how to flash and update firmware on these devices as part of the embedded system development process. If supported by the hardware, you will also configure Wi-Fi connectivity during the hands-on labs.

Personalized training

Thanks to the fact that all our trainings are instructor led courses, we can create a personalized training program for you or your team, either on-site or remotely.
Contact us to discuss your specific needs.

Master application development for embedded systems using Zephyr RTOS.
Understand the embedded development workflow, including cross-platform firmware creation for IoT devices.
Learn to use essential tools such as CMake, Kconfig, Devicetree, and Docker for configuring, building, and managing Zephyr projects.
Setup local environment for Zephyr development, including modern IDEs like VS Code and workspace configurations.
Learn how to develop Zephyr applications efficiently using recommended tools and extensions.
Access and utilize resources for further learning, such as official Zephyr documentation and community guides.

Understand when and why to use Zephyr for professional embedded projects.
Learn how to develop, configure and debug Zephyr applications.
Understand hardware description using Device Tree Specification.
Learn to configure software components using Kconfig.
Discover how real time multitasking is done and what scheduling options are available.
Learn communication and synchronization mechanisms.
Understand Zephyr memory management and data structures.
Support your own hardware board.
Learn how kernel initialization happens.

Day 1:

Zephyr RTOS programming overview

What is Zephyr project and Zephyr RTOS
Differences with other RTOS (especially FreeRTOS)
Pros and cons of Zephyr
Real-Time Systems Fundamentals: Introduction to key RTOS concepts such as the scheduler, which is responsible for task management and multithreading in Zephyr RTOS, enabling efficient operation of embedded systems and IoT devices

Workshop - 5h

Introduction to Zephyr RTOS:

Building Zephyr Applications – Participants will have access to code examples to help them build and test features.
Setting up Zephyr Development Environment on Linux/Windows/Docker – The setup is performed on your computer, including installing necessary programs and tools.
How to use VS Code for Zephyr development – Learn to develop Zephyr applications using this environment.
Cross Compilation and Zephyr SDK
Our first Blinking LED
Exercise: Our first Zephyr application, including writing code within the IDE.

Application configuration - based on nRF devices:

Device Tree and overlays – Includes the process of writing and integrating a custom device driver.
KConfig and custom options, config overlays
Zephyr Device Driver Model
Custom device tree specification

Console and logging

Zephyr’s printk
Introduction to Zephyr’s Log Module
Exercise: Using logger module in applications

Real-Time Concepts and Task Management:

Real-Time Systems Fundamentals - Task scheduling and pre-emption patterns
Thread management and Task lifecycles
Workqueues and their applications
Exercise: Threads and workqueue cooperation

Day 2:

Workshop - 5h

Kernel Boot sequence:

Early Boot sequence
Kernel initialization

Inter-Task Communication and Synchronization

Intertask communication mechanisms (FIFO, LIFO, Message queues…)
Semaphores and Mutexes
Polling API and multiple events
Periodic threads
Asynchronous and synchronous communication

Timers

Creating a kernel Timer
Using Expiry Function
Exercise: Using timers and semaphores

Inter-Task Communication and Synchronization

Queues
Stacks
Mailboxes
Pipes

Interrupts

Basic interrupt handling based on Button GPIO Interrupt
Exercise: Using GPIO interrupt handler
Exercise: Producing messages in interrupt and handling in thread

West meta tool overview

Introduction to west commands
Introduction to west manifests
Application configuration regarding Hardware Model
Creating out of tree applications
Creating custom basic modules
Exercise: Creating west manifest application repository

Memory Management and Timers

Memory Management (Heaps, Slabs, Pools)
Memory-based inter-process communication

Adding your custom board to Zephyr

Creating custom board files
Integrating board into application
Make board detectable by Zephyr build system
Exercise: Add custom board files based on existing development kit

ABOUT THE TRAINER

Mieszko Mierunski

Low Power Wireless Expert | CEO at Hacod | IoT, LwM2M & Zephyr

Mieszko Mierunski has a unique set of qualifications and experience that ensure that course participants receive training of a very high standard:

Involved with Zephyr RTOS since 2018 when in Nordic Semiconductor he was responsible for integrating nRF series MCUs with Zephyr.
Actively contributed to how device drivers extract information from Device Tree Specification.
Author and maintainer of UART Asynchronous API in Zephyr RTOS.
Began teaching Zephyr RTOS programming courses in 2021.
Regular Zephyr Developer Summit speaker and Zephyr Technical Steering Committee member from 2021 to 2024.
Involved with LwM2M protocol development and product creation since 2021.

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ABOUT THE TRAINER

Jakub Zimnol

Embedded System Engineer & Trainer @ Hacod
Teaching Assistant @ AGH University of Krakow

Tutor since 2017. Low-level programming enthusiast since 2021 (because someone has to love registers and memory maps). Zephyr programmer and contributor since 2022. Teaching assistant at AGH University of Krakow since 2024.

Organized and self-motivated Master's Electronics & Telecommunication graduate with 3+ years of combined internship and industry experience. Fluent in C (the language of embedded dreams) and capable of convincing even the most stubborn processors to follow instructions.

Speaks UART, I2C, Bluetooth, LwM2M, MQTT, and a few other machine dialects - usually more fluently than human languages. Enjoys a good three-day debugging marathon. Constantly learning and building new things, often just for the challenge (because who doesn't want to write their own bootloader?).

Loves teaching, explaining complex topics simply, and helping others navigate the tangled world of embedded systems - preferably without tears.

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Shailendra Singh

Co Founder at FarmSense Inc.

“Working with Hacod significantly accelerated our device development. Our product greatly benefited from the expertise and skills provided by Hacod's engineers. Thanks to our collaboration, we were able to achieve results twice as fast as anticipated. The development work was executed at the highest level, and the outcome far exceeded our expectations.“

Artur Wróbel

Sales director, CEO at Synergy Partners

“Mieszko's commitment to supporting sales opportunities is truly commendable. He is always receptive to customer requirements, engaging in thoughtful discussions, and ensuring that our solutions align seamlessly with their needs.“

Natalie Slaba

Software Engineer at ETC connect

"The two-day HACOD training balanced structure with flexibility —Mieszko adapted the content to both my needs as someone newer to MCUs and those of my colleagues with extensive experience with embedded systems. The hands-on, follow-along Zephyr exercises used the exact hardware we needed — the nRF52840 — and were especially helpful in solidifying the concepts. Mieszko is highly knowledgeable and responded to questions with just the right level of depth for each participant.“

Damien Declercq

Entrepreneur, Founder of Template Systems

“Working with Mieszko has been a pleasure. His deep expertise in Zephyr allowed him to quickly grasp our needs and contribute effectively from the start. He’s also demonstrated great flexibility in scaling his support as required.”

Zephyr RTOS Course: Understanding the Fundamentals

Zephyr RTOS Fundamentals

Who is this training for?

Hands-on experience

Personalized training

Objectives

Zephyr Course Program

Day 1:

Zephyr RTOS programming overview

Workshop - 5h

Day 2:

Workshop - 5h

Need a training?

Our Trainers

Mieszko Mierunski

Jakub Zimnol

Need a training?

Training Materials

What our customers say

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