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Original question:

AWR1243BOOST: Connecting multiple boards to one PC

AWR1243BOOST: Connecting multiple DCA1000EVMs to one PC

huangyaohui
Intellectual 520 points
Part Number: AWR1243BOOST
Other Parts Discussed in Thread: AWR1243, DCA1000EVM

Hi,

I discovered the possibility of connecting multiple DCA1000EVMs to one PC from this thread

'AWR1243BOOST: Connecting multiple boards to one PC' :

I understand that multiple AWR1243 need a MCU to recieve command from PC.

But I wonder that how connecting multiple DCA1000EVMs to one PC?

First, I know using CLI tool can change the DCA1000EVM IP adress. If I connecting multiple DCA1000EVMs, do I need to change the MAC adress, configPort and dataPort ？

Second, one PC can only communicate with one Internet device at the one time. How to set PC configuratiuon to recieve multiple record data from multiple DCA1000EVMs

Third, I find I can use the start command and stop command to control DCA1000EVM. So what the DCA1000EVM state is when DCA1000EVM  reviceves the start command?Is DCA1000EVM waiting to receive AWR1243's data or transmitting empty data?

Last , what the RADAR_FTD1 function is ? Does it still need a connection to pc in the situation that multiple AWR1243 connecting to one PC?

  • 0
    TI__Guru 69960 points

    Hi,

    As DCA1000EVM is destined to communicate with a single system so we never tried this scenario of connecting two DCA1000. Let me provide few suggestion to this usecase-

    1) If you are able to connect two DCA1000 with single system then you need to change both of ports, I'm not sure to change the MAC address but based on you experiment you may need to change this if required.

    2) When you use different network ports with those two DCA1000 then it should dump the adc data to a seperate file. You need to modify the CLI tool to accommodate this multi DCA1000 connection. In the latest Studio we provide the source code of DCA1000 communicate tool

    C:\ti\mmwave_studio_02_01_00_00\mmWaveStudio\ReferenceCode\DCA1000

    3) Please refer the documentation and source file from the above mentioned path to get more detail about these commands.

    4) Refer documentation and to connect multiple AWR1243 over the SPI you need to modify the FTDI library as with existing library it looks for fixed FTDI SPI instance. Refer this similar thread for this concern-

    https://e2e.ti.com/support/sensors/f/1023/p/847172/3164018#3164018

    Regards,

    Jitendra

  • 0 in reply to Jitendra Gupta
    Intellectual 520 points

    Thank for your replying.

    But I still have some question.

    The FTDI is used to charge USB to SPI. So I can use USB cable to communicate with AWR1243 by FTDI driver. If I use another MCU like MSP430 as the controller that  transmite command by SPI, do I not need to use FTDI?

    If I change the MAC adress, configPort and dataPort ,can the device work normally when only one DCA1000EVM is connected?

    Looking forward to your reply

  • 0 in reply to huangyaohui
    TI__Guru 69960 points

    Hi,

    On DCA1000EVM's FTDI is mainly used for SPI communication from PC to AWR1243, whereas DCA1000EVM is configured over ethernet.

    So with MPS430 connection with AWR1243 over SPI, you don't need to connect over FTDI (it need not to be connected).

    You can change IP, MAC address and both of ports of DCA100EVM using cli exe using below command and new network detail should be set under 'ethernetConfigUpdate' of json file.

    DCA1000EVM_CLI_Control.exe eeprom dca1000_config.json

    Make sure while capturing the data you set new network details under 'ethernetConfig' tag of json file.

    Regards,

    Jitendra

  • 0 in reply to Jitendra Gupta
    Intellectual 520 points

    Thanks for your replying.

    I have known the function of FTDI chirp.

    I still wonder that how to set the configuration of the FPGA to connect multiple DCA1000EVMs.

    For example, I discovered the follow description:

    "Multiple instances of the CLI_Control tool can be instantiated on the PC to control multiple EVMs while using unique UDP Ports for each EVM."

    How to understand "unique UDP Ports" ?  Is the data port of PC in the UDP protocl?

    Does it mean CLI_Control tool can control multiple DCA1000EVMs by only set IP, MAC address and both of ports?

    And does it mean CLI_record tool can recieve data from multiple DCA1000EVMs?

    Please let me know if I understand you wrong.

    Thanks.

  • 0 in reply to huangyaohui
    TI__Guru 69960 points

    Hi,

    Connecting and communicating multiple DCA1000EVM from single PC was not primary requirement/use-case of this board and CLI_control tool.

    Although you can do that by using different network detail of DCA1000EVM. (your understanding is correct : yellow marked line above).

    As I mentioned in last reply with eeprom command and with different IP, config & Data port in *.json file you can change the network setting of DCA1000EVM. Then on the PC while communicating to DCA1000EVM you need to use latest network info.

    I tried above step at my end with a single DCA1000EVM and I was able to communicate with board with different IP and ports.

    To connect with two boards you need to have two ethernet connection on the PC (second one can be added using USB convertor) and have access to both of the IP address at a time.

    you can execute two instances of CLI_control.exe with different cf.json file having different network info of DCA1000EVM. You need to use different IP addresses and config & data Port for both of DCA1000.

    Regards,

    Jitendra