AWR1843BOOST: Beam steering in OOB demo

Wajih Youssef

Part Number: AWR1843BOOST

Hi everyone,

I am working on the out-of-box demo and I was wondering about the possibility of implementing beam steering into the demo and if yes does it work by changing the value of the parameter TX phase shifter in the cfg file.

over 3 years ago

+1 Aniket Mahajan over 3 years ago

TI__Genius 15046 points

Hi,

This use case hasn't been tested by TI, however, I think it should be possible to program a single chirp, enable all TX's and program in the right phase values to accomplish this. You can start by trying to enable all TX's in a single chirp and seeing how the OOB demo performs.

Regards,

Aayush

0 Wajih Youssef over 3 years ago in reply to Aniket Mahajan

Intellectual 535 points

Hi Aayush,

I tried to enable all TX's in a single chirp like you told me by using this configuration which I found in ti/mmwave_industrial_toolbox_4_8_0/labs/long_range_people_detection/68xx_long_range_people_det/docs/Beamforming_in_LRPD page 4

this is the config file I loaded into the mmwave visualizer :

Fullscreen 3733.profile.cfg (4).txt Download

%This file was updated by script C:\ti\mmwave_sdk_03_05_00_04\packages\ti\demo\xwr18xx\mmw\profiles\mmwDemo_xwr18xx_update_config.pl version:1.1
%This file is compatible with Visualizer Version:3.5.0
% Carrier frequency     GHz                           77
% Ramp Slope    MHz/us                                100
% Num ADC Samples                                     256
% ADC Sampling Rate Msps                              7.2
% ADC Collection Time   us                            35.56
% Extra ramp time required (start time) us            7
% Chirp time (end time - start time)    us            36
% Chirp duration (end time) us                        39
% Sweep BW (useful) MHz                               3555.56
% Total BW  MHz                                       3900
% Max beat freq (80% of ADC sampling rate)  MHz       5.76
% Max distance (80%)    m                             8.64
% Range resolution  m                                 0.042
% Range resolution (meter per 1D-FFT bin)   m/bin     0.042
%                                                     
% Inter-chirp duration  us                            7
% Number of chirp intervals in frame    -             64
% Number of TX (TDM MIMO)                             2
% Number of Tx elevation antennas                     1
% Number of RX channels -                             4
% Max umambiguous relative velocity kmph              38.11
%   mileph                                            23.82
% Max extended relative velocity    kmph              76.23
%   mileph                                            47.64
% Frame time (total)    ms                            2.944
% Frame time (active)   ms                            2.496
% Range FFT size    -                                 256
% Doppler FFT size  -                                 32
% Radar data memory required    KB                    272
% Velocity resolution   m/s                           0.66
% Velocity resolution (m/s per 2D-FFT bin)  m/s/bin   0.66
% Velocity Maximum  m/s                               10.59
% Extended Maximum Velocity m/s                       21.17
% Maximum sweep accorss range bins  range bin         0.74
%
sensorStop
flushCfg
dfeDataOutputMode 3
channelCfg 15 7 0
adcCfg 2 1
adcbufCfg -1 0 1 1 1
lowPower 0 0
profileCfg 0 77 7 3 39 0 14970880 100 1 256 7200 0 0 30
profileCfg 1 77 7 3 39 0 10276864 100 1 256 7200 0 0 30
profileCfg 2 77 7 3 39 0 6565888 100 1 256 7200 0 0 30
profileCfg 3 77 7 3 39 0 1871872 100 1 256 7200 0 0 30
chirpCfg 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 7   
chirpCfg 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 7  
chirpCfg 2 2 2 0 0 0 0 7
chirpCfg 3 3 3 0 0 0 0 7
advFrameCfg 4 0 0 1 0
subFrameCfg 0 0 0 1 32 100 0 1 1 100
subFrameCfg 1 0 1 1 32 100 0 1 1 100
subFrameCfg 2 0 2 1 32 100 0 1 1 100
subFrameCfg 3 0 3 1 32 100 0 1 1 100
guiMonitor -1 1 1 1 0 0 1
cfarCfg -1 0 2 8 4 3 0 15.0 1
cfarCfg -1 1 0 4 2 3 1 15.0 1
multiObjBeamForming -1 1 0.5
calibDcRangeSig -1 0 -5 8 256
clutterRemoval -1 0
compRangeBiasAndRxChanPhase 0.0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0
measureRangeBiasAndRxChanPhase 0 1. 0.2
aoaFovCfg -1 -90 90 -90 90
cfarFovCfg -1 0 0.25 8.64
cfarFovCfg -1 1 -10.59 10.59
extendedMaxVelocity -1 0
CQRxSatMonitor 0 3 11 121 0
CQSigImgMonitor 0 127 8
analogMonitor 0 0
lvdsStreamCfg -1 0 0 0
calibData 0 0 0
sensorStart

the problem is that it does not detect any value of Z ( all points detected possess z = 0 almost)

any help ?

+1 Aniket Mahajan over 3 years ago in reply to Wajih Youssef

TI__Genius 15046 points

Hi Wajih,

With all TX's enabled, you will not be able to gather elevation information. The behavior would be similar to having a single transmit antenna, that is, the benefit of having multiple TX's in terms of extra virtual antennae (including elevation antennae) will be lost. In your chirp configuration, each subframe has a single chirp programmed. The single chirp enables all 3TX's at the same time. So, the configuration you have is of 4 RX antenna acting as 4 azimuth antennas. There are no virtual elevation antennas.

There will be 4 RX antenna still capable of discerning azimuth information, but as there is no dedicated elevation virtual antennae, you will not get elevation information

Regards,

Aayush

Sensors

Sensors forum

AWR1843BOOST: Beam steering in OOB demo