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MMWCAS-RF-EVM: BSS Firmware Programming

robert hoff
Intellectual 390 points
Part Number: MMWCAS-RF-EVM
Other Parts Discussed in Thread: AWR1243, MMWCAS-DSP-EVM

Hello,

I am trying to set up the Cascade RF board using the the "mmwave_studio_cascade_user_guide" document.  In section 7.3.2 it says to select the Meta Image from the BSS FW Selection and click Load.  When I use the file located at "C:\ti\mmwave_studio_02_00_00_02\rf_eval_firmware\radarss\xwr12xx_xwr14xx_radarss.bin" I get the following output from the console: 

[15:39:11] [RadarAPI]: ar1.DownloadBssFwOvSPI_mult(1, C:\\ti\\mmwave_studio_02_00_00_02\\rf_eval_firmware\\radarss\\xwr12xx_xwr14xx_radarss.bin)
[15:39:11] [RadarAPI]: Error: Download FW failed with error 64

Is this the correct FW file or am I missing something else here?

Thanks,

Robert

  • 0
    TI__Guru*** 141174 points

    HI,

    Please let us know where did you download the document "mmwave_studio_cascade_user_guide" from?

    thank you

    Cesar

  • 0 in reply to Cesar
    Intellectual 390 points

    Cesar,

    The link is on this page under the "MMWAVE STDUIO Cascade User Guide".

    http://software-dl.ti.com/ra-processors/esd/MMWAVE-STUDIO/latest/index_FDS.html

    Thanks,

    Robert

  • 0 in reply to robert hoff
    TI__Guru*** 141174 points

    Hi,

    You also need to download the latest mmWave studio. The firmware included in "mmwave_studio_02_00_00_02" will not work

    thank you

    Cesar

  • 0 in reply to Cesar
    Intellectual 390 points

    Hi Cesar,

    Using the 2.01 version of MMWave Studio and the 2.01 version of the firmware gives me the same error as before.

    [RadarAPI]: ar1.DownloadBssFwOvSPI_mult(1, C:\\ti\\mmwave_studio_02_01_00_00\\rf_eval_firmware\\radarss\\xwr12xx_xwr14xx_radarss.bin)
    [12:46:44] [RadarAPI]: Error: Download FW failed with error 64

    Robert

  • 0 in reply to robert hoff
    TI__Guru*** 141174 points

    Do you have a serial number for the boards you are using?

    I have to check with our team which fw version would apply

    Thank you

    Cesar

  • 0 in reply to Cesar
    Intellectual 390 points

    The serial number for the DSP board is 003.  I do not see a s/n anywhere on the RF board.   Is there another label it is under?

    Robert

  • 0
    TI__Guru*** 141174 points
    Does the RF board have a Rev?
     
    Thank you
    Cesar
  • 0 in reply to Cesar
    Intellectual 390 points

    Yes, it is Rev-C

    PROC054

  • 0 in reply to robert hoff
    TI__Genius 17820 points

    Hi Robert, 

    Let me see if I can clarify some things here.

    Please make sure to get the latest AWR1243 DFP package from: http://www.ti.com/tool/MMWAVE-DFP (DFP 1.2.5 is compatible with the mmWave Studio 2.1 release).  

    The Cascade Host board (MMWCAS-DSP-EVM) only supports loading the combined BSS/MSS "metaimage" binary on the AWRx devices. This is done using the ar1.DownloadBssFwOvSPI_mult() function as you called out. The problem is that you are pointing to the BSS binary, and not the metaimage binary.

    I think this is confusing since we do not have a dedicated MetaImage loading function call, but rather re-utilize the BSS loading function call. 

    For DFP 1.2.5, after installation into the default path, the metaimage binary can be found here: C:\ti\mmwave_dfp_01_02_05_01\firmware\xwr12xx_metaImage.bin 

    The below lua script call would load in the metaimage from the default 1.2.5 install path: 

    ar1.DownloadBssFwOvSPI_mult(1, C:\\ti\\mmwave_dfp_01_02_05_01\\firmware\\xwr12xx_metaImage.bin)

    We have also included a few example Cascade configuration scripts for reference to help new users get started. They are located here: C:\ti\mmwave_studio_02_01_00_00\mmWaveStudio\Scripts\Cascade

    As a sanity check, I typically just run the C:\ti\mmwave_studio_02_01_00_00\mmWaveStudio\Scripts\Cascade\Cascade_Configuration_MIMO.lua script to verify everything is working. 

    The user guide has details on modifying that script to point to your MMWCAS-DSP-EVM over Ethernet and the local path to the DFP metaimage. 

    Please let me know if that solves your problem. 

    Thanks,

    -Randy

  • 0 in reply to Randy Rosales
    Intellectual 390 points

    Hi Randy,

     

    Appreciate the post on the forum.  It did get me past the error I was having, but I later hit a snag using the GUI setup when triggering a frame.  There is a line in the guide that states that "The other configuration API’s are similar to the sequence followed in single chip apart from the frame configuration," which I was unclear on.  Do I need to follow the guide for setting up a single chip for this part?

     

    I also tried to run the lua script you mentioned and got the following error:

    "\Lua\5.1\lua.exe: ...tudio\Scripts\Cascade\Cascade_Configuration_MIMO.lua:517: attempt to call global 'WriteToLog' (a nil value)stack traceback: ...tudio\Scripts\Cascade\Cascade_Configuration_MIMO.lua:517: in main chunk"

     

    I have never used lua before, but am running the script from the command line once the board is powered on and the cascade option is selected in MMWave Studio.  Please let me know if I am doing that wrong or if there is a different way I need to be running the script.

     

    Thanks again for the help,

    Robert

  • 0 in reply to robert hoff
    TI__Genius 17820 points

    Hi Robert, 

    I think there is some confusion here. The example lua scripts are meant to be run from within the mmWave Studio GUI itself. I do not think you can run these from the lua interpreter directly on the command line since these scripts expect additional lua dependancies which the Studio GUI provides.

    To run these scripts, use the lua script run command and text input box at the bottom of the GUI. The script that is to the right of the "Run!" button will be executed when you hit "Run!". 

    Can you also please verify, when you installed mmWave Studio 2.1, did you install all of the runtime dependencies as well? These are listed in the mmWave Studio User Guide. http://software-dl.ti.com/ra-processors/esd/MMWAVE-STUDIO/latest/exports/mmwave_studio_user_guide.pdf. See the section 2.1 "Installation" for details.  

    Can you please try it through that script run interface in the GUI and let me know if you see any problems?

    Regarding your frame triggering question, the Cascade_Capture.lua script provides an example of setting up the TDA2x host processor and the AWRx master and slave devices for capture and triggering the capture. It will be in that same script example path: C:\ti\mmwave_studio_02_01_00_00\mmWaveStudio\Scripts\Cascade\Cascade_Capture.lua

    You can use the GUI buttons to run through all of those steps, but I do not recommend it. I recommend just setting up a config and capture script like the example scripts provided. 

    The cascade capture sequence can be summarized as: 

    1. ar1.TDACaptureCard_StartRecord_mult()
      1. This arms the TDA2x host processor, getting it ready to record the frames which will be sent over by the AWRx devices
      2. Pause to let the TDA2x finish this setup task (just a second is fine, probably could do less)
    2. ar1.StartFrame_mult() 
      1. Run the frame start command on each slave AWRx device first 
      2. In cascade slave mode, each device is hardware triggered, not software triggered, so after this command, the devices are waiting for a hardware trigger

    3. ar1.StartFrame_mult
      1. Run the frame start command on the master AWRx device
      2. In cascade master mode, this will trigger the master, which will issue a digital hardware sync pulse back to itself and the three slave devices starting the frame sequence
    4. Pause to allow the number of frames to execute plus some additional margin (just a second is fine, probably could do less)
    5. ar1.StopFrame_mult
      1. Run the frame stop command on all the AWRx master and slave devices
    6. Data should now be present on the SSD disk waiting to be transferred