IWR6843ISK: Point Cloud Demo: Leakage?

Hi,

First, can you verify that you see these points on the People Counting visulizer from the mmWave Industrial Toolbox?

Best Regards,
Alec

Hi Alec,

Sorry for late reply. No I cannot see those points during the 3D people counting program.
However if i use the "SDK Out of Box Demo" on the TI visualiser yes I can see some stationary points. They present as a vee infront of the radar unit.

This image is looking top down with Plot point by height, the red line is the radar unit.


Regards,

Aston

Hi,

Understood. Can you share the configuration information that you are using?

Best Regards,
Alec

Hi Alec,

Here it is,

xwr68xx_AOP_profile_2022_05_19T05_14_34_579.cfg

Thanks,

Aston

Hi,

Can you clarify what EVM you are using? The post here says IWR6843ISKEVM, but the configuration you sent over says AOP.

Best Regards,
Alec

Hi,

I think I showed the wrong config file then I gave you the wrong config file. 
The config file I use is attached here again, sorry.

profile_2022_01_18T20_30_28_862.cfg

I'm fairly certain that I'm using the IWR6843ISK not the aop version, but for clarity I have attached images of the system.

As a comparison to the earlier post I attempted to use a different version of the visualiser and code for the IWR6843, so used 4.10.0 for both, with the config file above.
I will try 4.11 to see if that makes any difference. If it's of interest, I was using 3.6.2 out of box demo for the original question.
This gives a result much more like my original issue, image below, with the two static points just infront of the antenna.

As an aside my python mmWave People Counting GUI seems to have a bug where if I click on "Select Configuration" a new window should open but nothing happens, but it happily connects to the device. 
A fresh install of the visualiser doesn't seem to help.

Thanks,

Aston

Hi,

Yes, that is an IWR6843ISK. Can you try using the config included in the mmWave SDK, at the location

<mmWave SDK 3.5.0.4>\packages\ti\demo\xwr68xx\mmw\profiles\profile_3d.cfg

This will help isolate if the issue is just configuration related. 

Best Regards,
Alec

In regards to the python GUI issue, we have had a couple reports of this but havent found a way to replicate it. If you are interested/have time, could you execute the GUI from a terminal (ie, if using the .exe on windows, call the executable from a cmd line) and see if there is any error messages sent to the console when you hit the button?

Best Regards,
Alec

Hi Alec,

Attempting to flash this program gives the below error,

Regards,
Aston

Hi Alec,

I ran from terminal as suggested but there was no output.
It has fixed itself on my laptop, however it is still non functional on my desktop.

Regards,
Aston

Hi,

The cfg file that I referred to is not meant to be flashed onto the device. Please follow the steps that are detailed in the mmWave Out of Box User's Guide, which can be found in the mmWave Industrial Toolbox under <mmWave Industrial Toolbox>/Labs/Out_Of_Box_Demo/docs/Out_of_Box_Demo_User_Guide.hyml

Best Regards,
Alec

Hi Alec,

I don't think this has fixed the issue.
I have reflashed the radar unit with the xwr6843ISK_mmw_demo.bin and then run it with the profile_3d.cfg you suggested and get the below (image, Top down view with radar at the lower edge of the image) result.
I had to make new cfg profiles (as the old profiles would not start) from the online visualiser but they also show the same point right next to the antenna.

Hi, 

Could you try following the steps for Range Bias compensation that are detailed in the mmWave SDK user's guide? This can be found in the section titled Range Bias and Rx Channel Gain/Offset Measurement and Compensation. Please let me know the results that you see.

Best Regards,
Alec

Hi,

The point is till there. But, if I tick the "remove static clutter" button on the online visualiser it will now disappear, I'm not sure if this has fixed the issue or masked it? 

I am a bit confused though. I understand the IWR6843ISK has an elevation field of view of 30°, however the GUI is showing points that are at greater than ±15° from boresight? The system is mounted vertically and this is a side view.

Thanks,

Aston

Hi,

Got it. Can you take a look at your cfg file and tell me the values for the command cfarFovCfg? This command should be in the cfg file twice. In regards to the points appearing outside of the EVM fov, this is likely just a small discrepancy in the visualizer. 

Best Regards,
Alec

Hi Alec,

The cfarFovCfg read;
cfarFovCfg -1 0 0 8.92
cfarFovCfg -1 1 -1 1.00

Thanks,

Aston

Hi Alec,

This has prevented the data point "on" the radar unit from showing, I assume that the change from 0 to 0.2 shifted the detection window, thereby ignoring the leakage?

Thanks,

Aston

Correct, when limiting the CFAR fov in the range direction, it removes that range bin from the point selection. 

Best Regards,
Alec

Thanks for your help Alec.