AWR1443BOOST: Unstable Serial Connection for Raw Capture with DCA1000

$Yuval Goldfracht$

Yuval Goldfracht

Part Number: AWR1443BOOST
Other Parts Discussed in Thread: AWR1443, AWR1843

Hi,

My setup includes an AWR1443Boost radar and a DCA1000 capturing device. I'm trying to capture the raw ADC data on a linux desktop using Python.

Currently I get very inconsistent behavior of the serial port, It occasionally works but too often I get an "Error" response when sending the 'sensorStart' command followed by an LVDS stream error indicator.

For the serial communication, I kept a 0.01 seconds delay between characters when sending the cfg characters and a 0.1 between commands. I use the following cfg file:

sensorStop
flushCfg
dfeDataOutputMode 1
channelCfg 15 5 0
adcCfg 2 1
profileCfg 0 77 58 7 40 0 0 100 1 304 9499 0 0 30
chirpCfg 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
frameCfg 0 1 32 0 33.333 1 0
lowPower 0 0
teskFmkCfg 0 0 0 1
setProfileCfg disable ADC disable
sensorStart

Any advice on how to debug this on make improvements? In addition, Is there a resource which explains the ADC data structure (not only the individual UDP package) and how to apply the FFT processing on top of it?

Thanks

Yuval

over 2 years ago

0 Cesar over 2 years ago

TI__Guru*** 148804 points

Hi,

For the ADC data structure collected with DCA1000, please see this application note

https://www.ti.com/lit/an/swra581b/swra581b.pdf

Thank you

Cesar

$Yuval Goldfracht$

0 Yuval Goldfracht over 2 years ago in reply to Cesar

Prodigy 20 points

Thanks, this is very helpful.

$Yuval Goldfracht$

0 Yuval Goldfracht over 2 years ago in reply to Cesar

Prodigy 20 points

Unfortunately, I still get errors every time I sent a 'sensorStart' command. Any advice?

0 Cesar over 2 years ago in reply to Yuval Goldfracht

TI__Guru*** 148804 points

Hi,

What software are you running on AWR1443?

There may have been some discussion in the past that LVDS data capture is not working on AWR1443 with SDK demo

Thank you

Cesar

$Yuval Goldfracht$

0 Yuval Goldfracht over 2 years ago in reply to Cesar

Prodigy 20 points

I assume you are referring to the MSS .. I tried multiple ones such as:

1. mmWaveSDK MSS - Serial communication works fine with my python code but AFAIK it is not meant to capture the raw adc data.

2. mmWaveStudio MSS - raw data capture works well when using the mmWaveStudio but serial communication with python is not stable (it works ~1/50 attempts)

3. MMS from github.com/.../iwr_raw_rosnode - Again inconsistent behavior with the python code (it works ~1/50 attempts).

Do you have a working MSS for LVDS capturing? Is it the mmw_lvds_stream.h/c found in the mmWaveSDK?

I addition, can you provide more information on how to customize/compile the MSS?

Thanks

Yuval

$Yuval Goldfracht$

0 Yuval Goldfracht over 2 years ago in reply to Cesar

Prodigy 20 points

Looking deeper into this subject it seems that the V3.0 SDK Demo MSS supports LVDS data for XWR16XX using the CLI LVDSCfg but V2.0 SDK Demo MSS does not provide the same capabilities for the XWR14XX. So I assume a custom MSS is required. Can you provide additional examples/overviews of the MSS in order to enable LVDS data?

0 Cesar over 2 years ago in reply to Yuval Goldfracht

TI__Guru*** 148804 points

Hi,

Capturing raw data is only supported with mmWave Studio tool.

For AWR1432 LVDS streaming from MSS is not supported

This is supported in other devices such as AWR1843

thank you

Cesar

$Yuval Goldfracht$

0 Yuval Goldfracht over 2 years ago in reply to Cesar

Prodigy 20 points

I must say I'm extremely surprised by this answer as it it not mentioned in any of the documents.

Before I spend more money and buy a AWR1843 can you confirm the following:

1. I will be able to capture raw adc data using the SDK Demo MSS with the lvdsCfg CLI command?

2. Will this work without the mmWaveStudio?

3. Can you provide an official example for such pipeline?

As I specified in the beginning, I did managed to capture raw adc data using the AWR1443 but the performance was not consistent, i.e it worked sometimes but often failed. To achive this I used a custom MSS from https://github.com/moodoki/iwr_raw_rosnode so I very surprised with the answer.

Can you please provide some documentation on customizing MSS files? I feel that documentation in this field is a bit lacking with examples and working principals.

Thanks

Yuval

0 Cesar over 2 years ago in reply to Yuval Goldfracht

TI__Guru*** 148804 points

Hi,

It is possible to develop support for AWR1443 and LVDS streaming. This is probably implemented in the github code. However the SDK 2.1 AWR1443 OOB demo does not support this.

Please see

https://e2e.ti.com/support/sensors-group/sensors/f/sensors-forum/933748/awr1443boost-lvds-streaming

For SDK 3.x, please see the User Guide

C:\ti\mmwave_sdk_03_05_00_04\docs\mmwave_sdk_user_guide.pdf

Section "3.3.2 mmWave demo with LVDS-based instrumentation"

The User Guide also provides information on how to re-build the demo.

Please let us know questions you have before buying a new board.

thank you

Cesar

$Yuval Goldfracht$

0 Yuval Goldfracht over 2 years ago in reply to Cesar

Prodigy 20 points

Ok, so the only thing I'm missing is some guidance/examples on the inner workings of the MSS. I see this issue repeats itself quite a bit as it is extremely unclear how to develop an MSS which will allow raw data capture for the AWR1443.

$Yuval Goldfracht$

0 Yuval Goldfracht over 2 years ago in reply to Yuval Goldfracht

Prodigy 20 points

Several more things I would like to clarify ..

1. The MSS provided with the MMWave Studio allows capturing adc data, can it be used to interface with the AWR1433 using python/serial or it is targeted to work only with the MMWaveStudio?

2. I see two examples in the drivers folder that might be relevant (csi_capture and mem_capture), can you elaborate on the use cases of them?

3. What would be the best starting point in order to enable the AWR1443 to pass the lvds raw data?

Thanks

Yuval

0 Cesar over 2 years ago in reply to Yuval Goldfracht

TI__Guru*** 148804 points

Hi,

No, mmWave studio uses SPI to configure the RF front end. This is a different configuration procedure and can't be used to run on the MSS. It can only used with mmWave studio.

Yuval Goldfracht said:
1. The MSS provided with the MMWave Studio allows capturing adc data, can it be used to interface with the AWR1433 using python/serial or it is targeted to work only with the MMWaveStudio?

mem_capture can be used to capture one frame of raw data.

csi_capture can send data through CSI interface

Yuval Goldfracht said:
2. I see two examples in the drivers folder that might be relevant (csi_capture and mem_capture), can you elaborate on the use cases of them?

Hi, this would not be a simple task. You would need to understand the SDK 3.x xwr18xx demo and port the LVDS communication to the SDK 2.1 xwr14xx demo

Yuval Goldfracht said:
3. What would be the best starting point in order to enable the AWR1443 to pass the lvds raw data?

Thank you

Cesar

$Yuval Goldfracht$

0 Yuval Goldfracht over 2 years ago in reply to Cesar

Prodigy 20 points

Thanks for the detailed answer!

looking at the code from https://github.com/moodoki/iwr_raw_rosnode it seems like this was written within TI (I can't imagine someone outside TI with such detailed knowledge about the innerworkings of the firmware), can you provide some support for this code?

Since I did manage to capture some raw adc data using this code (but no consistently) I assume it only needs some debugging rather than a re-implementation of the LVDS, Where can I find detailed tutorials regarding the customization of the MSS or usage of CCS? I found some in the "Industrial Toolbox" but none of them involve raw adc measurements.