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IWR1642BOOST: Radar unit for 50 meter range

Part Number: IWR1642BOOST
Other Parts Discussed in Thread: IWR6843, IWR1642

I am looking for a radar unit I can use to look 50 meters downwards at the ground. I need to be able to see the topology of the terrain, Flat level / slope angle and how uneven the terrain is. Can you suggest a Radar unit that would be good for this task?

I have looked at IWR1642BOOST and found it very good at up to 6 meters but I found that when it is in long range mode it does not have much resolution/accuracy. At 50 meters I found that its detection is not very convincing for this task. The unit has lots of options to improve range and optimise for range but I am not getting a good detection of reasonable static items at 50 meters.

At shorter ranges (up to 6 meters) the IWR1642BOOST is very impressive.

Please can you let me know if you have got the IWR1642BOOST to work well at 50 meters?

Please can you suggest a better unit to use for range of 50 Meters looking at the ground from above? For my task the radar unit will be on a hovering platform so quite still but not fully static. The ground below will be static with the exception of wind through the grass.

Hope you can assist.

  • Hi Stephan,

    I'd recommend looking at the App Note for Object vs. Range detection that lists performance of the sensor at different ranges, www.ti.com/.../swra593.pdf

    Of course there will be trade offs at further ranges but it is also possible to alter your chirp configuration to provide better performance at further ranges. Are you using the same chirp configuration at both near and far ranges?

    The mmWave Sensing estimator is a great resource for this, dev.ti.com/.../

    Another solid resource is the Chirp Database that is available on the TI Resource Explorer, dev.ti.com/.../node


    Cheers,
    Akash
  • Thank you for the reply.

    I think the app notes are telling me that if we are using this unit long range then forget 2D. At long range It is just didtance and reflected energy, no angle info.

    The mmWave Sensing estimator is great. Question, is there such a divice as the IWR6843. The estimator defaults to IWR6843 but I do not see any such device. Shame as it seems to perform well on the estimator.

    Thanks again, the chirp data base looks good.

  • Hi Stephan,

    Yes the IWR6843 is the 60 GHz variant of the mmWave sensor and is recommended for most industrial applications.

    For IWR1642 you simply need to select the device from the drop-down menu on the sensing estimator.


    Cheers,
    Akash