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CCS/MSP430FR6047: ultrasonic water flow meter, GUI issue and software

Part Number: MSP430FR6047
Other Parts Discussed in Thread: EVM430-FR6047

Tool/software: Code Composer Studio

I want to calibrate the ultrasonic flow sensor with the GUI for water flow measurement (ultrasonic sensing design center) but the general calibration does not return a new meter constant. Neather it gives an other Mean VFR value than 0. I added corresponding screenshots. Maybe the data transport between my chip and the computer does not work correctly. Or it does not calculate anything at all. However, the program does not generate an error.

In addition to that all return values of a VFR Flow+Temperature measurement are zero.

I was able to configure the EVM430-FR6047 board and got waveform, capture and frequency sweep graphs that were reacting to changes of my configuration. So there is some connection between the GUI and my board.

 

I added additional information about my compter.

Please give me advice to solve this problem.

 

I also have some questions about the Ultrasonic Sensing Design Center itself. For the general calibration the program asks for the expected volume flow rate and after measuring for the average flow rate of my reference flowmeter. What is the difference between these two values? After all I am not changing the flow during the calibration.

The meaning of the meter calibration parameters are explained in the description of the Design Center. For Slope and Offset there is exactly the same explenation in the Design Center. So what is the difference between them both?

 

Please explain this to me. If there is a file that specially treates the calibration of the ultrasonic flow sensor, please send me the corresponding link.

 

Now, there is an other problem. I started with the Code Composer Studio and tried a self-written "hello world" program. Unfortunately I have not found an example project for this.

The problem is, that I have not found the original firmaware (default or demo firmware) to reset the board and continue the measurement. Where do I find it? I would also need the project archive to learn from the original code.

I would be glad for answers for any of my problems.

Best regards,

Kathrin

  • UPDATE:

    I think I found the UltrasonicWater- Firmware that I need. I can import it in CCS as "Existing Projects into workspace" but then I can not debug or flash it as a project.

    When I try to import it with "CCS Projects" I get an error: "Import failed for project 'USS_Water_Demo' because its meta-data cannot be interpreted. Please contact support." So that' what I'm doing.

    I already read in previous forum posts that this error could have many reasons and made shure to have the right version of CCS. The release notes told me that CCS 10.0.0 is needed and I totally uninstalled all CCS 10.1.x versions before installing the right version.

    Additionally I am not shure which subfolder has to be selected. Normally I get the error I quoted above but when I choose the path C:\ti\msp\UltrasonicWaterFR604x_02_40_00_00 I get this error:  "Import failed for project 'UltrasonicWaterFR604x_02_40_00_00' because its compiler definition is not available. The project does not appear to be a CCS Project. Please try importing it using the 'General > Existing Projects into Workspace' wizard."

    I think I need to be able to import the project that I can debug an flash it.

  • Hi Kathrin,

    • the calibration or meter constant update will not be done if the Mean VFR = 0. It usually means that when the user is trying to run the general calibration, something is wrong with the transducer connections etc. or the signal received on the waveforms panel including the VFR.

     

    • “I also have some questions about the Ultrasonic Sensing Design Center itself. For the general calibration the program asks for the expected volume flow rate and after measuring for the average flow rate of my reference flowmeter. What is the difference between these two values? After all I am not changing the flow during the calibration.”

      ANSWER: The “expected volume flow rate” is the nominal setting of the flow rate. In gneral, the actual flow rate measured by the reference flowmeter might not be exactly equal to that value. For example, I might try to set it to 500 LPH but in reality the flow rate as measured by the reference flow meter might be 495 LPH. For logging purposes, we gave the user the option to record it.

     

    • “The meaning of the meter calibration parameters are explained in the description of the Design Center. For Slope and Offset there is exactly the same explenation in the Design Center. So what is the difference between them both?”

      ANSWER: Looks like a typo in the documentation. The calibration algorithm finds a linear fit of the form y=mx+c of all the measured values (x) in a given range, with y being the reference flow rate. The slope and offset are m & c respectively.

     

    • “Please explain this to me. If there is a file that specially treates the calibration of the ultrasonic flow sensor, please send me the corresponding link.”

      ANSWER: These coefficients (slope & offsets) are displayed in the GUI and also generated in .h files when user selects the “Generate Headers” button on the main configuration panel. See the description for “Header File Generation” in file:///C:/ti/msp/USS_02_40_00_00/USS/docs/UserGuide/UserGuide/ch_config.html

     

    • “The problem is, that I have not found the original firmaware (default or demo firmware) to reset the board and continue the measurement. Where do I find it? I would also need the project archive to learn from the original code.”

     ANSWER: The original code can be downloaded from https://www.ti.com/tool/MSP-ULTRASONIC-DESIGN-CENTER and use the link for “Water Metering” (MSP-USSSWLIB_Water) -> https://software-dl.ti.com/msp430/msp430_public_sw/mcu/msp430/USSSWLib/USSSWLibWater/latest/index_FDS.html . The USS-02_40_00_00-windows-installer.exe has the GUI and the USS SW Library. The UltrasonicWaterFR604x_02_40_00_00_windows_installer.exe has the water demo application that interfaces to the GUI and includes the source code of the application and can be imported into CCS.

  • Thank you very much for these informations. It helped a lot.

    I now realized that I need to choose the folder "rollbackBackupDirectory" of your linked file that CCS can import the software as CCS project.

    I also managed that USS calculates new Meter constants. I need to start the waveform plot.

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