IWRL6432AOP: IWRL6432AOP

Hello.

Rampratap Chauhan said:

Does the radar sensor(Part No. XI6432BRQAAMY) sends the Processed TLV Point Cloud data after processing on the UART XDS_DCA_RS232_TX bus and XDS_DCA_RS232_RX bus? 

This is correct.

Rampratap Chauhan said:

If we won't include the MCU(TM4C1294NCPDTT3) what are the other ways we can flash the application/demo image in the radar sensor(XI6432BRQAAMY).

If you are planning on using QSPI flash, you can use UniFlash to flash the application you want onto your board.  If you are planning to use boot over SPI, the external MCU would be the best way, but you could also use the PC and interface to the SPI via FTDI.

Let me look into the other two questions and will provide an update by the end of the day tomorrow.

Sincerely,

Santosh

Hi Santosh, thanks for your response.

Santosh_Krishnan said:If you are planning on using QSPI flash, you can use UniFlash to flash the application you want onto your board.  

I am considering this approach. Does flashing with UniFlash happens directly on the UART pins of the radar sensor ? and we have to use the USB-UART(TTL)  converter to flash with PC and USB for this method? 

Santosh_Krishnan said: If you are planning to use boot over SPI, the external MCU would be the best way.

Here boot over SPI means the external MCU will provide the application image to the radar sensor through SPI interface? 

Santosh_Krishnan said: but you could also use the PC and interface to the SPI via FTDI.

I think PC is used in first approach as well, so what is the difference between 1st and 3rd approach? Is there detailed documentation available that explains the difference between the approaches and suggestion to implement these?

Mean while I am also waiting for the answer of the other 2 questions from the first query.

Thank You.

Hi Santosh there is small doubt.

As you said -> "This MCU is not removable; the radar chip and the MCU are part of the same silicon."

It means the main processor that does the radar signal processing and provides the TLV data is the part of the same silicon dye/package on which radar sensor  XWRL6432AoP/XI6432BRQAAMY is also placed, right? If yes, I did not mean to remove this processing unit that is not possible. 

I was referring to another MCU on the  evaluation kit IWRL6432AOPEVM whose part number is TM4C1294NCPDTT3. As per the datasheet of IWRL6432AOP, The MCU specifications of the MCU doing radar signal processing is different than the specification of TM4C1294NCPDTT3 on the EVM board. From the schematic I found that the EVM board MCU is used for PC interfacing through FTDI chip, capturing RAW data, debugging and helping the new users to understand how things work. Is it right ? If yes, therefore it seemed okay for us to exclude this EVM board MCU from our final PCB layout.

If no, Please explain the process and what other things the EVM board MCU does? Do we need to include this MCU as per our requirement of getting distance data each 5 minutes, using LPDS with a GPIO, operating on battery and later on we might use it as a people counter or tracker with power supply etc.

Thanks.

Hi Rampratap,

The TIVA MCU TM4C on the EVM is only used for UART (RS232) and JTAG connectivity only. This is also used for GPIO toggling for SOP mode automation. The scope of the EVM may not have feature to get distance data each 5 minutes, using LPDS with a GPIO. But in the custom board design you can certainly do so.

Please find below the datasheet. I will pass the thread to TIVA MCU team to answer further.

Tiva C Series TM4C1294NCPDT Microcontroller Data Sheet datasheet (Rev. B)

Regards

Ankit

Rampratap Chauhan said:

I was referring to another MCU on the  evaluation kit IWRL6432AOPEVM whose part number is TM4C1294NCPDTT3. As per the datasheet of IWRL6432AOP, The MCU specifications of the MCU doing radar signal processing is different than the specification of TM4C1294NCPDTT3 on the EVM board. From the schematic I found that the EVM board MCU is used for PC interfacing through FTDI chip, capturing RAW data, debugging and helping the new users to understand how things work. Is it right ? If yes, therefore it seemed okay for us to exclude this EVM board MCU from our final PCB layout.

The TM4C1294NCPDT MCU on the EVM board serves as a debug probe so customers who are evaluating IWRL6432AOPEVM do not need to purchase an external debug probe (e.g. XDS110) separately. The TM4C129's purpose on the EVM is for user to debug and flash the code. On your custom board, you don't need the TM4C129. You just need to populate a JTAG connector to your IWR IC so that you can use any external debug probe (XDS110, XDS200, etc) of your choice to debug and program the firmware. 

Hi, Thanks for the clarification. Below I have a couple of questions.

1. Do we have to use the external debug probe(XDS110 with JTAG connector PCB interface) to flash/program the firmware/appimage when using the UNIFLASH app? Or it can be done by using a usb to uart converter chip (FTDI) connecting with UART pins of IWRL6432AOP's and then with USB interface UNIFLASH could flash the firmware?
2. If we are not using the MCU TM4C129, To debug the IWRL6432AOP with CCS IDE after flashing the app image we have to use the external debug probe (XDS110) and connect the pins of external debug probe to the IWRL6432AOP's JTAG connector(that we populate on our PCB), Right?