Raspberry Pi 3B

OpenThread Border Router (OTBR) provides support for the Raspberry Pi 3B (RPi3B) platform.

Hardware requirements:

• External 5V AC adapter for power
• A supported OpenThread platform for Thread network connectivity in an RCP design
• A microSD card and microSD card reader ("SD card" in this guide)

Access the RPi3B with an external monitor (via HDMI) and keyboard (via USB), or connect a serial cable from the RPi3B to your computer and enable the serial console.

To use RPi3B with OTBR:

1. Download and install the OS.
2. Build and install OTBR.
3. Set up a Wi-Fi access point.

Download and install the OS

The RPi3B does not include any on-board flash memory, and requires an SD card with a bootable image to operate.

1. Download the Raspberry Pi OS Lite image to a local machine with a built-in or external SD card reader.
   • If using OTBR Docker on the RPi3B, download Raspberry Pi OS with Desktop instead.
2. Install the OS image on an SD card:
   • Linux
   • Mac OS
   • Windows
3. Insert the SD card with the Raspberry OS image into the RPi3B.
4. Boot the RPi3B to go through the OS installation.

For more detailed information on setup and configuration, see the Raspberry Pi 3B documentation.

Build and install OTBR

See Build and Configuration for instructions on building and installing OTBR. This includes automatic setup of a Wi-Fi access point by Network Manager to connect the Thread network to the internet.

Set up a Wi-Fi access point

If automatic setup of the Wi-Fi access point by Network Manager is skipped, see Wi-Fi Access Point Setup for manual configuration instructions.