AWR1243BOOST: DCA1000EVM RS232 communication: connection failed

Jitendra,

Thank you for the suggestion. 

I downloaded and installed Uniflash.  When I plug in the USB connected to the AWR1243boost board, the UniFlash program detects the XDS110 USB debug probe. However, when I select the XDS probe, the available device list does not include the AWR1243.  

Starting over, I can select the device straight away (AWR1243Boost), then in the flash session I chose the xwr12xx_xwr14xx_radarss.bin and xwr12xx_xwr14xx_masterss.bin files. 

(My installation of mmWave studio does not have _ES3.0.bin files.  Perhaps that is a problem.  I will try seeing if there is an update to mmWave studio. )

Even with the non ES3.0 bins files though, the uniflash program cannot connect to my AWR via the Comm port.  With just the usb connection to the AWR1243 boost installed, there are only 3 com ports: COM1 (generic), COM11 (XDS110 Class Application/User UART), and COM12 (XDS110 Class Auxillary Data Port).  I have the SOP[5] selected (that is SOP0 and SOP2 closed, SOP1 is open).  I then cycled power, and tried to flash using COM11 (ive tried all three out of desperation) but UniFlash reports that it cannot communicate using the serial port. 

Jitendra,

I did finally manage to erase the sFlash of the EVM using Uniflash.  It took many attempts.

However I still cannot communicate with the AWR board via the XDS110 board to establish the RS232 comm.  I also cannot flash the sFlash with the associated bin files using Uniflash.  Both mmWaveStudio and Uniflash cannot establish communication on the comm port.  

Hi James,
I guess, here you are missing SOP settings while connecting with mmWave Studio.

After you erase the sFlash of the EVM, now you need to set EVM into development mode (jumpers on SOP0 and SOP1) and do the power cycle. In this state you need to connect DCA1000 with AWR1243 EVM over 60-pin radar connector (comes along with DCA1000 board).
Now you need to use mmWave-Studio v2.0 (as this version supports AWR1243 ES3.0) GUI to connect over RS232 (XDS1000 Application/UART COM Port).
After this you need to download the firmware (BSS and MSS) provided in rf_eval_firmware directory under mmWave-studio 2.0 installation to further do the SPI connect and device configuration.

These all steps are given in mmWave-Studio user guide for your future reference.

Regards,
Jitendra

Jitendra,

Actually, I already put the SOP jumpers in the correct places (SOP0 and SOP1), and mmWave-Studio (2.0.0.2) continues to Error on attempting to connect via the XDS comm port. 

Current steps:

• power up the AWR1243boost and DCA1000EVM together with a power strip.
• start mmWave.   
• ensure the jumpers are correctly placed and then perform a board reset.
• check the device manager to determine the COM port of the XDS uart (currently COM6). 
• select that Com port (
  currently COM6) in the RS232 Operations section of mmWave studio. 
• Click Set(1) in the Reset Control section of mmWave studio (the output tab reports that all the operations pass successfully)
• Click Connect(2).  the output shows [15:56:33]  [RadarAPI]: Error: Connection failed: Calling_ConnectTarget returned 3

I have tried both baud rates, but they return the same error.

Are there any debug steps I can take to check where the problem is?  any debug commands in the mmWave studio I could issue to better check what isnt working?

thanks,

James

Hello James,
Could you try connecting TeraTerm or other serial terminal to device's COM port (Application/UART COM port) at 115200/921600 baud rate, just to make sure if COM port is connectable.
And try the same experiment on other system.

Regards,
Jitendra