AWRL6432BOOST: out of the box demo for longer range

Hi,

That's an older version of the Radar toolbox that you linked to. The AWRL6432 out of box demo is now the Motion and Presence demo (linked below). Please follow up if you have questions after working through this example.

https://dev.ti.com/tirex/content/radar_toolbox_1_20_00_11/source/ti/examples/Presence_and_Motion_Detection/docs/Presence_and_motion_users_guide.html

Thanks,

Clinton

Hi,

I used the new version of the Radar toolbox that you suggested, yet this doesn't answer my questions...:

1. is there any out-of-the-box configuation that will allow me to detect a person at 30m?

in the mmWave sensing estimator it seems very reasonable with this board...

2. how can I see range-Doppler map?

thanks

Hi,

I apologize for the delay. We were not able to respond before E2E was down for maintenance the last two days of last week. We'll provide some feedback in the next day or so.

Thanks,

Clinton

Hi, Dan:

The motion and presence detection only compute range-azimuth heatmap.  

For range-Doppler heatmap, you will need to use mmwave-demo at the latest SDK L 05.03.00.02.  

C:\ti\MMWAVE_L_SDK_05_03_00_02\examples\mmw_demo\mmwave_demo

You can also find the users guide at:

C:\ti\MMWAVE_L_SDK_05_03_00_02\docs\MmwaveDemo_documentation.pdf

Heatmap information can be found at section 11.1.5 Range-Doppler Heatmap TLV

Inside that demo, we only have a configuration example to cover 5m.   

In your sensingEstimator figure, I notice that you have a range solution of 10cm, and range FFT size of 128.  Which will only give you about 0.1*128/2 *0.85 = 5.44m of max range.   To increase to 30m, you can reduce the slope to 1/6 of your current slope, and it will increase your range resolution to 0.6m, and a maximum range of 0.6*128/2 *0.85 = 32.64m, enough to cover 30meter max range. 

Best,

Zigang

thanks for the reply.

1. regarding range-Doppler map: the solution you suggested requires compilation of example project? 

2. in order to increase range: can you send me a configuration to be loaded in the mmWave Radar Visualizer?

thanks!

HI, there:

1) No, you do not need to recompile.  If you open the configuration file, you will find the guiMonitor CLI information below.  So, you will need to enable the corresponding output.  

%<pointCloud>
%<rangeProfile>
%<noiseProfile>
%<rangeAzimuthHeatMap>
%<rangeDopplerHeatMap>
%<statsInfo>
%<presenceInfo>
%<adcSamples>
%<trackerInfo>
%<microDopplerInfo>
%<classifierInfo>
guiMonitor 2 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0

2)  You can use the sensing estimator to create the configuration you need.   https://www.ti.com/mmWaveSensingEstimator

- First, copy the configuration you have created in your original post. 

- Then go to "Advanced Chirp Design and Tuning" tab, select the right device (xWRL6432). 

- Paste the configuration you create in the first step into the "Configuration I/O" window. and click on auto-populate button.

- Since you are happy with everything else other than the maximum range, you can modify the chirpRFFreqSlope as I mentioned in the previous reply to get until the output window shows the maximum range beyond 30m. 

Best,

Zigang

hi,

1. I changed the parking_5m.cfg configuration file as you requested. now, where should I see the added rangeDoppler heatmap? is it in the visualizer? (i.e. C:\ti\MMWAVE_L_SDK_05_03_00_02\tools\visualizer\Low_power_visualizer_5.3.0.0\visualizer.exe)

2. I used sensingEstimator and changed the chirpRFFreqSlope  value as you said:

now I saved cfg file by pressing "SAVE CONFIG (.CFG)".

I tried loading this cfg in visualizer, and got an error:

what am I doing wrong?

thanks!

HI, there:

Sensing estimator only gives the configurations for the chirp/frame configuration.  You will need to copy back those four lines (chirpCommCfg, channelCfg, chirpTimingCfg, frameCfg) back to parking_5m.cfg to make a complete CLI configuration.  

And then you can change guiMoninor CLI below to enable the rangeDopplerHeatmap

%<pointCloud>
%<rangeProfile>
%<noiseProfile>
%<rangeAzimuthHeatMap>
%<rangeDopplerHeatMap>
%<statsInfo>
%<presenceInfo>
%<adcSamples>
%<trackerInfo>
%<microDopplerInfo>
%<classifierInfo>
guiMonitor 2 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0

Best,

Zigang

I modified parking_5m.cfg as you asked (see attached below)

I flashed the device with file" the C:\ti\MMWAVE_L_SDK_05_03_00_02\examples\mmw_demo\mmwave_demo\prebuilt_binaries\xwrL64xx\mmwave_demo.release.appimage 

I loaded the configuration of parking_5m.cfg  using configuaration dashboard.

it seems that configuration was loaded (max range increased to ~33m), but no frames are being visualized:

also, no range-Doppler map

what am I doing wrong?

sensorStop 0

% <RxChCtrlBitMask>-<TxChCtrlBitMask>-<MiscCtrl>
channelCfg 7 3 0

% <DigOutputSampRate>-<DigOutputBitsSel>-<DfeFirSel>-<NumOfAdcSamples>-<ChirpTxMimoPatSel>-<ChirpRampEndTime>-<ChirpRxHpfSel> 
chirpComnCfg 20 0 0 128 4 31 0

% <ChirpIdleTime>-<ChirpAdcSkipSamples>-<ChirpTxStartTime>-<ChirpRfFreqSlope>-<ChirpRfFreqStart>     
chirpTimingCfg 6 23 0 10 60

% <NumOfChirpsInBurst>-<NumOfChirpsAccum>-<BurstPeriodicity>-<NumOfBurstsInFrame>-<FramePeriodicity>-<NumOfFrames>
frameCfg 3 0 226 20 66.67 0

%This argument describes the antenna layout of the device. This is the default (TI EVM) pattern.
%       A1  A4
%   A0  A3  A2  A5
%<row0> <col0> <row1> <col1> <row2> <col2> <row3> <col3> <row4> <col4> <row5> <col5> <antDistX> <antDistY>
antGeometryCfg 0 0 1 1 0 2 0 1 1 2 0 3 

%<pointCloud> 
%<rangeProfile> 
%<noiseProfile> 
%<rangeAzimuthHeatMap> 
%<rangeDopplerHeatMap> 
%<statsInfo> 
%<presenceInfo> 
%<adcSamples> 
%<trackerInfo> 
%<microDopplerInfo>
%<classifierInfo>
guiMonitor 2 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0

%<azimuthFftSize> 
%<elevationFftSize> 
%<motDetMode 1-major, 2-minor, 3-auto> 
%<coherentDoppler> 
%<numFrmPerMinorMotProc> 
%<numMinorMotionChirpsPerFrame>
%<forceMinorMotionVelocityToZero> 
%<minorMotionVelocityInclusionThr> 
sigProcChainCfg 64 32 1 0 0 0 0 0

sensorPosition 0 0 0.3 0 0

cfarCfg 2 8 4 3 0 12.0 0 0.95 0 1 1 1 
aoaFovCfg -80 80 -20 20
rangeSelCfg 0.1 10.0
clutterRemoval 0
compRangeBiasAndRxChanPhase 0.0 1.00000 0.00000 -1.00000 0.00000 1.00000 0.00000 -1.00000 0.00000 1.00000 0.00000 -1.00000 0.00000

adcDataSource 0 adc_data_0001_CtestAdc6Ant.bin
adcLogging 0
lowPowerCfg 1
factoryCalibCfg 0 0 40 0 0x1ff000
baudRate 1250000
sensorStart 0 0 0 0

HI, there:

Since you are working with parking demo, I will reassign this ticket.  Our expert will contact you soon.

Best,

Zigang

By the way,

can you explain what application you are working on with this radar device so that I can assign it to the right group to support. 

Best,

Zigang

my goal is to test the radar so it would detect a small active tag (RCS of about -30dBsm) at a distance of 10-30m.

I don't mind using other available demo application other than parking demo, with the custom config file I created...

Hi,

Yes, please use the mmwave demo for this experiment

C:\ti\MMWAVE_L_SDK_05_03_00_02\examples\mmw_demo\mmwave_demo

Can you please try to first detect the tag at 8-9m using the attached profile?

Thank you

Cesarparking_9m.cfg

the 9m cfg you sent is working

1. there is no RangeDoppler plot. I tried to enable it in the cfg file at the "guiMonitor" line, but all stopped working. how can I enable it properly?

2. the detections (as in the 5m defualt config) are very jumpy and not coherent... I tried moving a metal obstacle around the FOV of the radar, and can't see any consistent behvaiour of the detections. maybe the transmit power is low, or number of active RXs, TXs is low?

Hi,

dan ohev zion said:

1. there is no RangeDoppler plot. I tried to enable it in the cfg file at the "guiMonitor" line, but all stopped working. how can I enable it properly?

It is important to understand that the Range Doppler heatmap usually has a significant larger size than the standard detected object data. As a consequence there is more time required to send this data over UART to the PC. So, when we enable RangeDoppler transfer, we will not be able to sustain the same frame rate because more time is required to transfer the data over UART.

So, when enabling RangeDoppler plot, one should increase the frame period to maybe 500ms. If the RangeDoppler plot works, than try to decrease to frame period to 400ms and check if it still work. It is also possible to estimate how long the transfer of the RangeDoppler data over UART would take by computing the size of the transfer and considering the baud rate of the UART.

dan ohev zion said:

2. the detections (as in the 5m defualt config) are very jumpy and not coherent... I tried moving a metal obstacle around the FOV of the radar, and can't see any consistent behvaiour of the detections. maybe the transmit power is low, or number of active RXs, TXs is low?

This behavior is probably related to the SNR of the signal. With some objects the SNR is too low and the object may not be detected

thank you

Cesar

Issue 1: thanks, I will try.

Issue 2:  are we sure all TXs and RXs are on at the cfg file (9m parking) you sent me? also is it max transmit power?