AWR6843AOPEVM: Cannot save the point cloud output while running 3D People Counting lab

Hi,

I have modified this frame number from 1000 to 100, and it show "TLV Header Parsing Failure" message on command line while self.saveBinary is 1. And it show "Point Cloud TLV Parser Failed" message while self.saveTextFile is 1.

How to fix this issue?

Thanks,

Shihyu.

Hi Shihyu,

Are you resetting the device between runs? ITB 4.11 should work with this feature. Also make sure you're using device code and python code both from toolbox 4.11 too. There was an output format change between 4.10 and 4.11.

Best,

Nate

Hi, Nate

Still cannot save either the binary nor csv file after retry. Here are my whole setup steps and please give me some hints if I miss anything:

1. Flash my AWR6843AoP wih firmware in "mmwave_industrial_toolbox_4_11_0\labs\People_Counting\3D_People_Counting\prebuilt_binaries\3D_people_count_68xx_demo.bin"

2. Install "python-3.6.0-amd64.exe" and also run the script "setupEnvironment.bat".

3. Using "AOP_6m_default.cfg" while running the lab, which works well and be able to see point clouds shown on GUI.

4. Turn on the self.saveBinary and self.saveTextFile in oob_parser.py file in "mmwave_industrial_toolbox_4_11_0\labs\People_Counting\visualizer" folder.

Results:

• Still have "TLV Header Parsing Failure" issue.
• Sometimes it emerge IndexError while running the lab after running about 2~3000 frames.

And I also add another codes to print the self.frameNum every 100 frames, but it seems didn't work!

Can't figure out the reason.

Thanks.

Shihyu.

Hi Shihyu,

Your steps look correct to me. Does that TLV Parsing error happen on each frame? Or only once in a while?

Additionally, maybe you could place a breakpoint at the line that's supposed to save the frames to see what's going on? I'm able to get it working with the same hardware/software without an issue.

Best,

Nate

Hi, Nate,

Now I can save out the point cloud data in csv file finally.

However, after I retry this lab twice time again, it still output error messages, which looks very similar in both tries, following figures are the my description:

1. I modified 2 python source codes according to the "TLV Header Parsing Failure" and "Point Cloud TLV Parser Failed" to show the current variable values:

2. The error messages while lab is running and saving csv file are:

My questions are:

1. It seems that both 2 Parsing Fail error happen once in a while, are those errors related to the missing TLV header data during UART is transferring? Or even the FW even don't transfer the TLV header data in these specific frames? (Because most of them belong the the 4th numTLVs.)

2. "Point Cloud TLV Parser Failed" happened after the file starts to write, and "TLV HeaderParsing Failure" happened before it. Are these two errors are related to the same reason?

3. I found there is very few missing frames in the csv file, (this also happens once in a while and not in every save files.) is this the root cause of the error messages?

Thanks.

Shihyu.

Hi Shihyu, 

Have you made any changes to the code running on the IWR device? Please run the prebuilt binary file for the people counting lab with an unmodified configuration from the toolbox to make sure. Additionally, are there many processing running on your computer concurrently with the visualizer? We don't get nearly this many errors per frame (if we get any at all) when we run this demo.

Best,

Nate

Hi, Nate,

I do sure I didn't change any codes. I use the prebuilt binary file and the AOP_6m_default.cfg configuration directly .

I only modified those 2 codes I mentioned above in oob_parser.py to the print out error messages.

And I found those error messages always appear during the first file starts to save. I think it relate to the #detected points. See my video:

Shihyu.

Hi Shihyu,

Are you running other programs on your computer at the same time? Please run the python and keep the other processes on your computer to a minimum. Additionally, have you run the batch script setUpEnvironment.bat? Finally, what cables are you using to connect the devices? Are they relatively short? 

This error is not reproducible on our end, but you could also trace it deeper in the tlvHeaderDecode function to learn more.

Best,

Nate

Hi Nate,

I have re-run the setUpEnvironment.bat script to make sure those 5 libraries have been correctly installed already.

I did not run anything else at the same time, and also use the cable which was original equipped.

After checking the contents of saved csv files, I found that there are some un-expected values as following figure:

=> It appears all zeros of the decoded frame header structure!

Is this to be the root cause of the error message?

Shihyu.

Hi Shihyu,

How did those csv files get generated? Those appear to be generated by the saveTextFile flag. Please turn this flag off and only save the binary. This is what I do. If this does not generate any errors, I can give you a script to decode the binary into a readable format.

Best,

Nate

Hi Nate,

Those csv files were generate through saveTextFile flag is set to 1.

And I have tried another save binary file solution, those Point Cloud TLV Parser Failure messages didn't show anymore after the first binary file starts to save.

However, TLV Header Parsing Failure still exists, and there are some missing frames. Is it normal?

BTW, would you please sent me the binary file decoder script, I can make sure which frames were missing.

Thanks a lot.

Shihyu.

Hi Shihyu,

Please set the saveTextFile flag to 0 and the saveBinaryFile flag to 1 and see if the errors still occur. This is the format I use for testing and it works fine for me.

Best,

Nate

Hi Nate,

I have turned the saveTextFile flag off already!

Shihyu

Hi Shihyu,

The picture you have shown above indicates to me that the visualizer is failing about every 200 frames, is that correct? If so, I think the problem is likely with the compatibility between the visualizer and your computer, and I would suggest just using the data that it's giving, seeing as it only loses one frame out of every 200.

Best,

Nate

HI Nathan,

I'm waiting for his reply because this will also resolve my issue.

Nathan Block said:

If this does not generate any errors, I can give you a script to decode the binary into a readable format.

Can you please upload the script for us?

I have a question as well.

> This all things only available in ITB 4.10 or 4.11 but how we can save data by using ITB 4.12 as there was no saveTextFile flag or saveBinaryfile flag in gui_parser.py. So how we get UART output and parser script for it.

Thank you.

Fahad

Hi Nate,

Thank you very much for your response. I understand and I'm looking through python script but I didn't understand it fully because we have to add different things in the scripts because ITB 4.11 is long enough. So better from your side will be highly appreciated. so is there any way in 4.12 to save the data.

> I'm just thinking and want to ask if possible that I run the gui_main.py and at the same time call the parser function as well for 4.11 or 4.12? so it can save the UART data or read the data so we can then add script to get the data saved.

kind regards,

Fahad

Hi Nate,

Is that possible to modify the baud rate of UART in those python codes?

BTW, you mentioned about the compatibility, can I ask both the hardware spec. of your used computer? (e.g. USB 2.0 or 3.0, etc.)

Shihyu.

Hi Nate,

So if possible, would you please tell me how and where to modify the baud rate in codes?

Thanks

Shihyu.

Hi Nate,

Please also check my question as well and also please give me some suggestion that after getting the bin file from people counting lab how we can parse that data for readable purpose.

Kind regards,

Fahad

Hi Nate,

Thank you for sharing. Can this script is also useful when I collect UART data through tera term and then parse through script is it work? or Data through DCA1000 or data through the above suggestion when we set flag of savebin file to 1.

Kind regards,

Fahad

Hi Nate,

I saved some of the data as shown below through set self.savebin file flag to 1. But I have a question what does this so many file means by name of phistbytes?

Second question is that I put all details in matlab script is this correct as shown below.

Third question I ran the script and got an error and also .mat file is empty shown below.

Last question is: Can this script is also useful when I collect UART data through tera term and then parse through script is it work? or Data through DCA1000 or data through the above suggestion when we set flag of savebin file to 1.

Your help is highly appreciated.

Kind regards,

Fahad

Hi Nate,

I'm still waiting the answer about how to modify the UART baud rate in codes.

Would you please give me the steps to achieve, thanks.

Shihyu.

Hi Nate,

Would it be possible that provide another Matlab script; bin2fhist_3DPC.m for me which can decode the point cloud data in binary file for "mmwave_industrial_toolbox_4_11_0" version?

I found that this script can only feasible for version 4.12. Since the Frame Header structure is different and some variables used in codes make the error while running.

Thanks a lot.

Shihyu.

Hi Nate,

Nathan Block said:

In the python code, you will see that every 1000 frames (or whatever number you set to) the code saves a file of the previous 1000 (or however many) frames. 

It means if I set 10 frames so it gives me 10 pHistbytes_0.bin files. From pHistbytes_0 to pHistBytes_10 right?

You cannot give me my second question answer also attached here. Is this correct? I just made these changes.

Nathan Block said:

This looks like a bad file path. You can debug it in MATLAB. You may be missing a backslash or you have an extra one in your filename.

So I attached my filename above and also please clarify it more to me please. I tries by adding and removing the backslash in the above filename and file path but the same error I got.

> Please also help me about the different bin files as given in question 1 above. How I can parse them and get readable results.

Kind regards,

Fahad

Hi Nate,

Thank you for your response.

Nathan Block said:

This is not correct. If you set to 10 frames, then the file will save every 10 frames, and you will have pHistBytes files containing 10 frames each, with a number that depends on how long the sensor runs for.

Alright I understand now, it means I got 20 different files with name of pHistBytes.bin and all these files contains 10 frames of data each. After every 10 frames it creates 1 bin file right? and it depends how long sensor runs and creates a bin files that contains 10 frames of data and so on. 

Fahad Ayaz said:

You cannot give me my second question answer also attached here. Is this correct? I just made these changes.

> please also help me in parsing the pHistbytes files.

Kind regards,

Fahad

Hi Nate,

Please also told me about the MATLAB version best for it I found that my matlab version is not good for the TI scripts or the scripts you share with me. Currently I'm using 2022a.

Thank you very much for your support and help.

Fahad

Hi Nate,

As from the above error I solved it but again found a new error which is:

Index exceeds the number of array elements (0).

Error in bin2fhist_3DPC (line 123)
magicBytes = typecast(uint8(rxHeader(1:8)), 'uint64');

I tried it alot but never solved it.

kind regards,

Fahad