DCA1000EVM: ftdi port problem

Hello,

Could you confirm that you have followed how the steps exactly and in order as is shown in the DCA1000 User Guide in the Radar Toolbox on TI's Developer Zone? If you are not seeing the four DevPack ports in Device Manager, can you confirm what lights are/are not lit on the DCA1000? Have you tried having the power cable connected to the DCA1000 and having the switch in a position that allows lights to be lit on DCA1000, mmWave sensor, and MMWAVEICBOOST? Is your power supply 5V 3A? Have you tried different USB cables to connect to the DCA1000's RADAR_FTDI USB port?

https://dev.ti.com/tirex/explore/node?a=1AslXXD__1.30.01.03&node=A__AGTrhNYW8jE6cMxbovlfaA__radar_toolbox__1AslXXD__1.30.01.03&placeholder=true

Best Regards,

Pedrhom

Hi Pedrhom:

I followed all the steps in the user guide and got the results I showed in my post. In my set up, the power supply was connected to the MMWAVEICBOOST and I can see two green LED lights on on the DCA1000EVM board. In the device manager, I can only see two XDS ports, no ftdi ports, There is one unknown USB device in the list.

After reading your reply, I tried to connect the power supply to DCA1000EVM board and set the power switch to DC_Jack_5V_in, now I can see all 4 ftdi ports correctly recognized, but now the MMWAVEICBOOST board is not powered on, no lights are on and I can't see the two XDS ports. Should I use another 5V power supply to power on the MMWAVEICBOOST board?

Thanks for the help.

Hank 

Hi Pedrhom:

I've been able to see all the ports correctly on my laptop. According to the DCA1000 user guide, what I need to do next is to open and edit LUA script example in the package under mmwave_studio directory. However there is no such a sub-directory called MatlabExamples under my mmWaveStudio directory. The mmWaveStudio version I installed was mmwave_studio_02_01_01_00, and I am using iWR6843ISK plus mmWaveICBoost board with DCA1000. 

What I see in my mmwave_studio directory is:

There is no MatlabExamples directory. Please help.

Also, I couldn't find any firmwave directory under my ti directory. Do I need to install other softwares other than mmWaveStudio?

Thanks,

Hank

Hi Pedrhom, I did find the MatlabExample directory, however under the MatlabExample directory, I only saw three sub-directories: 4chip_cascade_MIMO_example, 4chip_cascade_TxBF_example and  singlechip_raw_data_reader_example, the user guide says I need to edit the file common_device_setup.lua under directory LUA_examples, but I couldn't find the LUA_examples directory nor the file common_device_setup.lua under any of those three sub-directories. 

Also, under the rf_eval_firmware directory, I only saw two sub-directories: masterss and radarss, but in the user guide, it's said I need to "modify the firmware directory to match the firmware directory", then there is an example with directories like:

C:\ti\MMWAVE_L_SDK_05_02_00_02\firmware\mmwave_dfp

rfevalfirmware\appss\mmwave_plt_rfeval_rprc.bin

rfsfirmware\xWRL6432\mmwave_rfs_rprc.bin

rfevalfirmware\rfsatecal\xWRL6432\mmwave_rfs_atecal_rprc.bin

I couldn't find all these files and paths at all. Do I need to install any other files on my PC? Also, I am using DCA1000EVM to extract real time data from IWR6843ISK board with mmwaveICBoost., are the above directories and files the correct set up?

Thanks,

Hank

Hello Hank,

The section you are referring to in the user guide is not for your device. There are two sections for Running mmWaveStudio, the first one which is for xWRLx432BOOST devices, and the second which is for all other devices.

In the second section which header says only "Running mmWaveStudio", it will correctly mention what to do with the masterss and radarss firmware.

Best Regards,

Pedrhom

Got it, thank you.

Hi Pedrhom, thanks for your help, I"ve got to the last step of the data capture. I finished all the steps before successfully, not in the last step, user guide says I need to click on "DCA1000 ARM", then  "Trigger Frame", then "Post Proc", but I couldn't find all these buttons in the mmWave Studio window, could you point me the way? Thanks a lot!

Hello,

It is in the SensorConfig tab.

Best Regards,

Pedrhom

Hi Pedrhom, I've successfully captured the ADC raw data. I found out the raw data is saved into a .bin file specified on the SensorConfig page and later I can use Matlab to process the data in the bin file, however, I need to find a way that I can process the raw data real time, is there a way to do it? I can't take the saved data and then start Matlab to process it, I need to do it in real time, no delay or very small delay. Thanks!

Hello,

Raw data is not intended for real time processing and thus is not supported by the DCA1000. There are multiple conversations on this forum already on this topic so feel free to look at those for more discussion points.

Ex.

https://e2e.ti.com/support/sensors-group/sensors/f/sensors-forum/999245/dca1000evm-configuring-the-dca1000evm-for-real-time-data-capturing-and-processing

https://e2e.ti.com/support/sensors-group/sensors/f/sensors-forum/735982/dca1000evm-streams-output-in-real-time-with-dca1000

Best Regards,

Pedrhom

Hi Pedrhom, thanks for pointing me to those conversations. Now I understand through DCA1000, I can only take the .bin data file and further process it. What I am wondering is when I run some sample projects provided by TI and use vitualizer to see the results, I can do see the real time results including continuos updating figures. What I am trying to do is to get similar results but with my own post processing on the data. Is there anyway to do it? Thanks!

Hello,

It will depend on what data you want to do your own post processing on. Take a look at our Understanding UART Output page to see all the kinds of data our sample projects can output. Many of these TLVs you can access their input data to change the way the output is calculated.

Best Regards,

Pedrhom

Pedrhom, thanks. I'll read the link you sent. Actually I want to do is very simple, I want to use the IWR6843 board to detect a moving object, once it's detected, I can generate and send out a one bit data to another program installed on the PC, i.e. 1 means detection, 0 means non-detection.

Pedrhom, could you point me where to find the documents for Small Obstacle Detection project ? I looked in the Example Projects inside Radar Toolbox and didn't see this project. Thanks.

I need to find the example for IWR6843 board. Thanks!

Hi Pedrhom, I found the Small Obstacle Detection project and have tried it. I think it is what I need, but I encounter some problems also. I first tried to run the example in the Robotics library, I burnt the prebuilt_binaries .bin code under mmwave_industrial_toolbox/labs/Robotics/Small_Obstacle_Detection into the iWR6843ISK board, then used the configuration file under Small_Obstacle_Detection/Chirp_configs to see how the board works in visualizer, everything worked very well, I could see the two zones showing in the visualizer window and turned red from green when objects are placed in front of the board, everything works fine. Then, I tried to follow the Small Obstacle Detection User's Guide to modify the source for the demo and visualizer, that's when I encounter problems. I first import and build the project in CCS, it went well, both the DSS and MSS projects were built in the workspace directory. I also successfully burnt the .bin code generated in the MSS project directory to the board, but when I tried to use visualizer to see how the board works, I run into problems, first I don't know which configuration file should I use, I tried to use the same configuration file in the Small_Obstacle_Detection/Chirp_configs directory as I used when I run the demo, but it didn't work, I got this Index out of range error on the terminal window:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "gui_threads.py", line 40, in run
outputDict = self.parser.readAndParseUart()
File "gui_parser.py", line 74, in readAndParseUart
if (magicByte[0] == magicWord[index]):
IndexError: index out of range
Traceback (most recent call last):

then I tried to use the .cfg files under the newly built project directory in workspace, there is one file called mmw_mss.cfg under workspace/small_obstacle_detection_68xx_mss, and also a file called mmw_mss_per4ft.cfg under workspace/small_obstacle_detection_68xx_mss/Debug/configPkg/package/cfg, I tried to use both cfg file in visualizer, but both didn't work, it's showing "No cfg file selected!" in the terminal window.

Could you help me to move forward? Thanks a lot!

Hello,

Could you please make a new thread as this topic has moved far away from the original forum post

Best Regards,

Pedrhom

sure, will do.