DCA1000EVM: DCA1000EVM raw data capture

Hello Yakov,

Could you please explain this with more details? your final use case as well.

Yakov Miron said:

Is it possible to do that without using the CLI tool e.g using the any of the commands listed below through the configuration port?

Regards,
Saswat Kumar

Yes,

Looking at the mmsdk docs, In order to record LVDS Data, I should use the following configuration in the json file when using the DCA CLI tool:

"dataFormatConfig": {
 "MSBToggle": 0,
 "reorderEnable": 1,
 "laneFmtMap": 0,
 "dataPortConfig": [
 {
 "portIdx": 0,
 "dataType": "complex"
 },
 {
 "portIdx": 1,
 "dataType": "complex"
 },
 {
 "portIdx": 2,
 "dataType": "complex"
 },
 {
 "portIdx": 3,
 "dataType": "complex"
 },
 {
 "portIdx": 4,
 "dataType": "complex"
 }
 ]
 }
 }

OK, then let me know what the ideal solution for the following scenario would be:

1. I would like to capture raw LVDS data using the AWR1843 and DCA1000 on an embedded platform (Nvidia's Jetson) together with data coming from different sources i.e. camera, lidar etc. That is my ultimate goal (!)

2. I would like to be able to do real-time post processing on the LVDS data and display the results (in real-time).

Please let me know what combination of the CLI tool, dll API and ethernet commands I need in order to make this happen. 

Hello Yakov,

1. This is possible. The data comes out of the DCA1000 via ethernet. Your software on the Jetson should be able to intercept and process this data. Support outside of the DCA1000EVM will not be provided as it is not within the purview of the device.
2. There is no direct support on this from TI. You will have to write your own software (using something like Studio CLI) to capture the data and perform processing. This software would have to accommodate for buffering schemes and such for real time processing. Please note that Realtime processing was not tested and recommended by TI and you will have to try it at your own risk. You might encounter problems with respect to latency, packet loss etc. which will have to be handled in your software.

Regards,

Saswat 

All of these things have been taken into account and I've already written most of the software that captures the data. 
What I'm missing is the correct way to configure the DCA with native UDP commands as opposed to internal functions used in the cli_tool

RESET_FPGA_CMD_CODE 0x01
RESET_AR_DEV_CMD_CODE 0x02
CONFIG_FPGA_GEN_CMD_CODE 0x03
CONFIG_EEPROM_CMD_CODE 0x04
RECORD_START_CMD_CODE 0x05
RECORD_STOP_CMD_CODE 0x06
PLAYBACK_START_CMD_CODE 0x07
PLAYBACK_STOP_CMD_CODE 0x08
SYSTEM_CONNECT_CMD_CODE 0x09
SYSTEM_ERROR_CMD_CODE 0x0A
CONFIG_PACKET_DATA_CMD_CODE 0x0B
CONFIG_DATA_MODE_AR_DEV_CMD_CODE

specifically, the configuration that involves setting the ports to accept complex numbers (shown in the mmwave sdk) seems to be tricky

"dataFormatConfig": {
"MSBToggle": 0,
"reorderEnable": 1,
"laneFmtMap": 0,
"dataPortConfig": [
{
"portIdx": 0,
"dataType": "complex"
},
{
"portIdx": 1,
"dataType": "complex"
},
{
"portIdx": 2,
"dataType": "complex"
},
{
"portIdx": 3,
"dataType": "complex"
},
{
"portIdx": 4,
"dataType": "complex"
}
]
}
}

Looking at the source code of cli_tool these parameters are not passed to the DCA (as opposed to MSBToggle, reorder), However, I couldn't find any documentation on how to use the UDP commands to configure this aspect of the DCA. Currentl, the captured data on the Jetson is not identical to the one that comes from the cli_tool and I'm trying to solve that.   

Hi Yakov,

Have you tried using the DCA control and capture tool directly? This should give you access over the configurations mentioned above.

Regards,

Kaushik

OK, I think I understand what you mean. sending the commands usin the DCA API and receiving the data using a standard UDP protocol (without the DCA API) . Is this possible?

Hello Yakov, I am trying to implement something similar with a different board (IWR1443BOOST), would you be available to share the code you are using so far?

PS: I found useful to use WireShark to dump the commands when working with the DCA board

Hi, Initially I tried to do the same and working with the IWR1443. After a lot of reading I realized that the default mmwave_sdk firmware for the AWR1443 does not support RAW transfer in this way. I found an alternative github with some custom firmaware but that didn't work reliably enough. 

Eventually, I moved to the AWR1843 where raw transfer is officially supported and I did manage to extract the data after quite a bit of effort. I can check whether our repo is public or not. If not I will gladly write back in this forum and do my best to save you some time 

Thank you, I would really appreciate it. Could you also send me the git repo for the 1443 board in case you find it? I might give it a try as well.

Hi, as far as I recall it was this: https://github.com/moodoki/iwr_raw_rosnode/tree/master
there are several repos that aim to do the same thing i.e real-time raw data capture from the XWR devices using the DCA. Unfortunately, most of them are not maintained or don't do exactly as promised.