[FAQ] IWR6843AOPEVM WITH A ON-BOARD HEAT SINK UNFITS MMWAVEICBOOST

JAMES YU

Part Number: IWR6843AOPEVM
Other Parts Discussed in Thread: MMWAVEICBOOST, IWR6843AOP

Hi TI Sensors Support Team,

I bought and received a IWR6843AOPEVM made by Mistral recently. This board with a on-board heat sink looks different from pictures on TI website. I found it unfits MMWAVEICBOOST and the J2 of IWR6843AOPEVM (a yellow rectangular area in Fig. 1) cannot be dropped in J4 of MMWAVEICBOOST due to the heat sink against J17 on MMWAVEICBOOST (a red circle area in Fig. 1 and a red rectangular area in Fig. 2 ). Per my observation, the displacement of the heat sink results from an uneven PCB edge (a green oval area in Fig 3). Who can I contact to resolve this issue? Thanks

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

Fig. 3

CHIEN-CHUNG YU

over 4 years ago

0 Charles Oladimeji over 4 years ago

TI__Mastermind 33805 points

Hello,

Does it fit without the heat sink? if yes, then you can operate the board without it.

Although it is recommended, the Heat sink is not a mandatory requirement for the EVM use. Due to the smaller size of the IWR6843AOPEVM it is likely to get warmer than other larger sized EVMs on the mmWave Radar portfolio, therefore care needs to be taken to ensure the junction temperature does not exceed 105 deg C.

The plot below shows measurement of junction temperature vs duty cycle taken with and without the heat sink. As seen in the plot the EVM can safely operate up to 50% duty cycle.

When using the EVM for custom applications the duty cycle can be adjusted as needed, heat sink provided with the kit can be used, customer can also design their own heat sink.

Regards,

Charles O

0 JAMES YU over 4 years ago

Prodigy 165 points

Hi Charles

Thanks for providing info regarding the heat sink issue. I removed it carefully then dropped in the EVM on the carrier board without any issue.

I would like to ask you help check my procedures and setup shown below for flashing a bin file into the Start kit because of image flashing failed. Did I do anything wrong? Thanks

James

Setup1.png

Setup2.png

Setup3.png

0 Charles Oladimeji over 4 years ago in reply to JAMES YU

TI__Mastermind 33805 points

Hi,

The setup looks good.

Please ensure you hit reset after setting the SOP pin and also confirm that there are not other applications connected to the COM ports.

Regards,

Charles O

0 JAMES YU over 4 years ago

Prodigy 165 points

Hi Charles,

I hit reset SW2 after setting the SOP pin and there are not other applications connected to the COM ports. The image flashing still failed. Even I tried in the different computer, it showed failure. Is it possible the EVM is out of order? If true, what can I do? So far, I haven't made any progress since I received the Start kit. Please provide your suggestions. Thank you

James

0 Charles Oladimeji over 4 years ago in reply to JAMES YU

TI__Mastermind 33805 points

James,

Can you try flashing the EVM in standalone mode?

Section 4.5 of the user's guide has more details on this.

Regards,

Charles O

0 JAMES YU over 4 years ago

Prodigy 165 points

Hi,

I'm using IWR6843AOPEVM on standalone mode. I can't get it to program. Please help read the log message shown below. Thanks

2019/10/1 上午10:23:55] [INFO] Cortex_R4_0: Initialization complete.

[2019/10/1 上午10:23:55] [INFO] Cortex_R4_0: Flashing process starting...

[2019/10/1 上午10:23:55] [INFO] Cortex_R4_0: Connecting to COM Port COM8...

[2019/10/1 上午10:23:55] [INFO] Cortex_R4_0: Reset connection to device

[2019/10/1 上午10:23:55] [INFO] Cortex_R4_0: Set break signal

[2019/10/1 上午10:23:55] [INFO] Cortex_R4_0: Connection to COM port succeeded. Flashing can proceed.

[2019/10/1 上午10:23:55] [INFO] Cortex_R4_0: Reading device version info...

[2019/10/1 上午10:23:55] [INFO] Cortex_R4_0: ** 1 files specified for flashing.

[2019/10/1 上午10:23:55] [INFO] Cortex_R4_0: Checking file C:/ti/mmwave_sdk_03_02_00_06_AOP/firmware/radarss/iwr6xxx_radarss_rprc.bin for correct header for IWR6843AOP.

[2019/10/1 上午10:23:55] [INFO] Cortex_R4_0: Header of C:/ti/mmwave_sdk_03_02_00_06_AOP/firmware/radarss/iwr6xxx_radarss_rprc.bin file indicates it is not a valid file to flash to IWR6843AOP: 0x43525052

[2019/10/1 上午10:23:55] [ERROR] Cortex_R4_0: !!! Aborting flashing of specified files!!!

[2019/10/1 上午10:23:55] [INFO] Cortex_R4_0: Disconnecting from device on COM port COM8...

[2019/10/1 上午10:23:55] [INFO] Cortex_R4_0: Flashing instance clean-up initiated...

[2019/10/1 上午10:23:55] [INFO] Cortex_R4_0: Instance deinitialized!

0 Charles Oladimeji over 4 years ago in reply to JAMES YU

TI__Mastermind 33805 points

Hi,

It appears you are attempting to flash the wrong binary to the device.

please follow the instructions on the link below

http://dev.ti.com/tirex/explore/node?node=AIHy77joqu3jXFmjqwkBKQ__VLyFKFf__LATEST

Regards,

Charles O

0 JAMES YU over 4 years ago

Prodigy 165 points

Hi Charles,

Yes, I can program the EVM in both standalone and MMWEICBOOT modes after you pointed out the incorrect bin file used in my programming. Thank you

The bin file shown below was used for programming. Then, I ran mmWave Demo Visualizer (IWR6843AOP) App. for testing the EVM.

The data port can't be connected. Please advise what the reason is for this issue.

Thanks again

USB connected with PC.

mmWave Demo Visualizer (IWR6843AOP) App. was applied for testing the IWR6843AOPEVM + MMWAVEICBOOT.

Serial port configured as the attached picture.

Data_Port can't be connected.

0 Charles Oladimeji over 4 years ago in reply to JAMES YU

TI__Mastermind 33805 points

is it failing when you send the config?

0 JAMES YU over 4 years ago in reply to Charles Oladimeji

Prodigy 165 points

There was no response even though I clicked "SEND CONFIG TO MMWAVE DEVICE". "COM5:115200, COM6:921600 connecting to 2 of targets" was shown and the red bar line kept running.

0 JAMES YU over 4 years ago in reply to Charles Oladimeji

Prodigy 165 points

Yes, it failed when I sent the config. There was no response even though I clicked "SEND CONFIG TO MMWAVE DEVICE". "COM5:115200, COM6:921600 connecting to 2 of targets" was shown and the red bar line kept running.

I saw other people had the similar issue posted (https://e2e.ti.com/support/sensors/f/1023/p/771214/2852012). but I couldn't tell if the issue has been solved or how to resolve it. Any suggestions?

Thanks

0 Charles Oladimeji over 4 years ago in reply to JAMES YU

TI__Mastermind 33805 points

Hi,

Please see post with solution linked below

https://e2e.ti.com/support/sensors/f/1023/p/845162/3126348#3126348

Regards,

Charles O

0 JAMES YU over 4 years ago

Prodigy 165 points

Hi Charles,

It is a good news that the issue was identified. The issue is related the current Demo firmware (xwr64xxAOP_mmw_demo.bin) in SDK (MMWAVE-SDK 3.2.0.6_AOP) and the hardware (ES1.0???). Per the post, " The fix will be eventually included in a future SDK release for AOP devices." is dedicated. So, is the pre-complied updated binary file available for sharing now?

Thanks

0 Charles Oladimeji over 4 years ago in reply to JAMES YU

TI__Mastermind 33805 points

Per the linked post, the updated C file and AOP demo binary: xwr64xxAOP_mmw_demo.bin are available in the 68xx AoP - mmWave SDK Demo Lab in mmWave Industrial Toolbox 4.0.1

0 JAMES YU over 4 years ago

Prodigy 165 points

Hi Charles,

I downloaded the mmWave Industrial Toolbox 4.0.1 then found the updated bin file. It works with the demo API.

Thank you

James

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[FAQ] IWR6843AOPEVM WITH A ON-BOARD HEAT SINK UNFITS MMWAVEICBOOST