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Original question:

IWR6843: Point cloud generation capability.

IWR6843: ROS Point Cloud Visualizer questions

Ryan Sarver
Intellectual 540 points
Part Number: IWR6843
Other Parts Discussed in Thread: IWR1443,

Hi,

I'm experimenting with the 3D ROS Point Cloud Visualizer lab, using the IWR6843ISK. I'm using a chirp cfg that I saved from mmWave demo visualizer, using the settings shown in the .png image included in the 'ti_mmwave_rospkg/cfg' folder. I've tested with two different SDKs: 3.0.0.8 (the one that the ROS driver says to use), and 3.1.1.2 (the newest one that I happened to have installed on my computer - figured I'd give it a try). They both seem to give similar results; the newer one might give a marginally more 'stable' cloud, although that's by no means scientific, just an impression. Anyway, either one seems to be working very well within a range of about 1 meter, but beyond that, I'm not able to detect anything. The demo video online showing TI's testing with the IWR1443 seems to show detection at a greater distance (judging from where the point cloud shows up on the grid), so just wondering what could be causing my detection range to be more limited?

I did some additional testing using a custom PCB (fabricated using my own Gerbers), also with an IWR6843, but with the antenna copied from the TI ODS (wider range) board. The results are pretty significantly worse with that module (using the same SDK and parameters). The clouds are sparser, and more spurious. Just wondering if the decreased performance is likely to be from poor antenna fabrication, or if there are some other parameters that would need to be fine-tuned for that antenna to work properly?

thanks

Ryan

  • 0
    TI__Mastermind 33805 points

    Hi,

    it might be the antenna, the configuration you are using or the scene.

    1. You can run RF test to determine the quality and characteristics of the antenna
    2. You can also try tuning the configuration file parameters to see if it produces better performance. Please see linked document for more details on this

    regards,

    Charles O

  • 0 in reply to Charles Oladimeji
    Intellectual 540 points

    When you say the scene, could you be more specific? Do you mean environmental characteristics, or whether there are a lot of objects, or something else?

  • 0 in reply to Ryan Sarver
    TI__Mastermind 33805 points

    The noise floor for the Online demo video may have lower compared to the environment you are running your demo.  Running the demo in a less RF noisy environment eg. Anechoic Chamber provides a better bench bank for performance of the board, The layout of you board, signal routing etc can also contribute to the noise

    Like i said in previous post, you need to run some test on the custom board to characterize/benchmark the performance.  

    Regards,

    Charles O