AWR2243: format of the raw bin file collected from the cascaded 2243 radar (MMWCAS-RF-EVM / MMWCAS-DSP-EVM)

Dear Ritesh - 

Thanks for the post and welcome to E2E!

Please see this similar post which should assist you in parsing the data correctly: https://e2e.ti.com/support/sensors-group/sensors/f/sensors-forum/1023401/awr2243-convert-bin-files-to-raw-adc-data-cube-using-tda2xx-capture-hardware 

Dear Josh, Thank you for your swift reply. Can you please help me understand how the data are saved. or can you refer any document where I can get the detail about this. 

Dear Ritesh - 

The data is captured on the SSD. See Section 7.3.3 and Section 8 of the mmWave Studio Cascade User Guide, here: 

https://software-dl.ti.com/ra-processors/esd/MMWAVE-STUDIO/latest/exports/mmwave_studio_cascade_user_guide.pdf 

Dear Josh I gone through the document already you are mentioning. But nowhere I found the data structure. As I mentioned you earlier,  as I read a file "master_0000_data.bin", it outputs a array of 207618048 x 1 and all are of real valued. I want to know the structure in detail. How can I make the complex channels from it. The section 7.3.3 in the document is related to capturing data and section 8 is about transferring the data in PC from SSD and post processing the data in mmWave GUI. I want to understand a different thing as I mentioned above. 

how data is stored when there is only one Tx, and how it is stored when there is more than one. I want to know the details. 

Dear Ritesh - 

Please see the AWR1xx and AWR22xx Data Path Programmer's Guide, here: https://www.ti.com/lit/an/swra555a/swra555a.pdf. 

Hello Josh. I gone through the document, still I am not understanding. Can you please tell how many channels are there if I am operating all the TX and RX of all four radars in the 2243 cascaded module. 

Ritesh - 

Each AWR2243 has three TX and four RX channels, so with four chip cascade arrangement, there are twelve TX'ers and sixteen channels of RX data.

from: 

https://www.ti.com/lit/an/swra574b/swra574b.pdf

Hello Josh.

There should be 12x16=192 channels right? If for one transmitter there is 16 rx available, then for 12 it should be 192, isn't it? If this is not true, then,

number of channel only depends on the number of receiver? I mean if I am using four receiver, then number of channel is four irrespective of the any number of transmitter?

Ritesh - 

Each IC has three physical transmitters and four physical receivers, all of which can be operated simultaneously, per your application requirements.

Josh, whatever you are saying I know. My question is about number of channels. Normally we know number of channel is equal to (number of transmitter x number of receiver). But when we do the post processing using given code by TI, there they only consider channels equal to number of receiver. Kindly clarify this matter. 

Ritesh - 

I suppose you are really asking about the data handling based on configuration of system with TXn vs RXn antennas. 

See this Academy topic, which i think will help you out: https://dev.ti.com/tirex/explore/node?node=A__AUAJwr4zBXhyz-M3VG2cUg__RADAR-ACADEMY__GwxShWe__LATEST 

Thank you Josh for the reply.

In the same page I found 'overview of mimo radar.pdf', where i came to know about two Multiplexing Strategies for the MIMO Radar, i.e., tdm-mimo and bpm-mimo. Also now I understand that it is possible to get the separate tx-rx pair data, i.e., virtual antenna. So, here is my questions:
1. How to set multiplexing strategies, tdm or bpm?
2. after setting the strategies, how to separate each virtual antenna data? is there any code available for that? 

Dear Ritesh - 

For #1, please see this application note, written by one of our experts on the topic of MIMO RADAR. 

https://www.ti.com/lit/an/swra554a/swra554a.pdf 

For #2, going back to the mmWave Cascade User guide, section 8.2 and on should help you there and has path to matlab examples: https://software-dl.ti.com/ra-processors/esd/MMWAVE-STUDIO/latest/exports/mmwave_studio_cascade_user_guide.pdf 

Dear Josh,

For #1, I already saw the process, but through GUI how to follow all these steps, I dont understand. 

For #2, In the document it is described how to do post processing with GUI, but i want to read raw files. For that I followed some of the matlab codes available in the mmwave files. But could not read it. So I need a clear explanation how to read raw files.

Dear Ritesh - 

Please see this post: https://e2e.ti.com/support/sensors-group/sensors/f/sensors-forum/1001352/awr2243boost-dca1000-radarcube-data-format 

Hello Josh. I am using the cascaded radar and the post you are referring is about single chip awr2243 with dca1000.