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RTOS/AWR1642BOOST: mmWave Demo Noise Floor Measurement

Samuel Miller99
Expert 1005 points
Part Number: AWR1642BOOST
Other Parts Discussed in Thread: MMWAVE-STUDIO

Tool/software: TI-RTOS

The mmWave demo application (xwr16xx_mmw_demo.bin) is capable of taking a noise floor measurement, yet unable to accept the following configuration: 

dfeDataOutputMode 1
channelCfg 15 3 0
adcCfg 2 1
adcbufCfg -1 0 0 1 1

profileCfg 0 77 429 7 57.14 0 0 0 1 256 5209 0 0 30
chirpCfg 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
chirpCfg 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
frameCfg 0 1 16 0 100 1 0

Basically, I am trying to send the FMCW signal to the mixer without transmitting it out of the device to collect an accurate noise floor measurement. How can I configure the device to disable its transmitters for a period of time while still sending the FMCW signal to the mixer for noise floor processing? Clearly, the device is already doing this because I am able to plot the noise floor in the mmWave Demo Visualizer, but I would like to have more control of the period in which it disables its transmitter. What do you suggest?

  • 0
    TI__Expert 7215 points
    Samuel,

    Noise floor on mmWave Demo Visualizer plots the highest velocity bins and not really the data with Transmitters OFF.

    Technically you should be able to switch the transmitter and take measurements. Can you let us know what error are you getting with above sequence.

    Regards,
    Kaushal
  • 0 in reply to Kaushal Kukkar
    Expert 1005 points
    Kaushal,

    Thank you for your response. I would like to reference another TI post of mine in my answer: e2e.ti.com/.../730001
    Here, I asked a similar question and cited the error, but the TI employee suggested that the only way I could turn the transmitters off with the demo application was to modify the source code itself. However, the source code for the mmWave demo is very intricate and I wouldn't even know where to begin to troubleshoot the DSS error that I received when trying to configure the test to have 0 transmitters on. Any guidance or help would be much appreciated.

    Sam
  • 0 in reply to Samuel Miller99
    TI__Expert 7215 points
    Hi Sam,

    Yes since demo application is meant for object detection, it might have some checks so that it runs as expected.

    Also since, you need to look at noise floor, its best if you look at RAW ADC data. Do you have DCA1000-EVM to collect Raw ADC Data?

    Regards,
    Kaushal
  • 0 in reply to Kaushal Kukkar
    Expert 1005 points
    No I do not yet have the DCA1000-EVM to collect Raw ADC data. Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't I still be unable to collect ADC data readings of the noise floor even with the DCA1000-EVM if I don't change the software application from the demo to something else? Because if the demo does not enable me to turn off the transmitters while still sending the VCO signal to the mixer, won't I have to find (or modify) an existing software flash that would allow me to do this?

    My question is:
    1) Is there a software flash that you would suggest using with the DCA1000-EVM to get a true noise floor reading?
    2) If not, how do you suggest modifying the code of an existing flash (like the demo) to function with no transmitters enabled?

    Thank you very much for your help.
  • 0 in reply to Samuel Miller99
    TI__Expert 7215 points
    Hi Samuel,

    You need MMWAVE-STUDIO along with DCA1000-EVM to measure the noise floor and other RF parameters.

    Regards,
    Kaushal