• State Resolved
  • Locked Locked
  • Replies 10 replies
  • Answers 1 answer
  • Subscribers 30 subscribers
  • Views 1715 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Support feedback
Options
Options
Related

This thread has been locked.

If you have a related question, please click the "Ask a related question" button in the top right corner. The newly created question will be automatically linked to this question.

IWR1443BOOST: Raw ADC Data Capture - TSW1400 // MMWave Devpack // FPGA SerDes

Michele Marconi
Intellectual 385 points
Part Number: IWR1443BOOST
Other Parts Discussed in Thread: AWR1443, IWR1443, IWR1843

Hello,

it would be my interest to acquire the raw adc samples coming from xWR1443 over LVDS lanes.

I own a TSW1400 and a mmWave-DevPack, but my requirement is to have a non-stop (real time? continuous?) streaming of the data to my microcontroller or FPGA.


I have read a lot of literature about this subject, but it seems confusing.


My awr1443 is ES3.0 so I cannot seem to use the capture demo, which has been discontinued in the meanwhile.

I can connect to LVDS pins on MMwave devpack if needed and associate a receiver FPGA Subsystem for deserializing the samples, if that is the way.


But I am a bit confused with all of the suggested approaches.

I have read the faq ( and  felt even more confused, if possible.

I do not know if any of the informations are outdated.


Would it be possible to replicate what the DCA1000 board does, with my own custom firmware?

If so, how would I be able to control the radar (deciding chirp configurations, frame configuration, HSI LVDS enable, etc?)?
May I use a .cfg style sintax and a Command Line Interface, maybe developing similarly to the DCA1000-CLI tool?

  • 0
    TI__Mastermind 40335 points

    HI, 

    For xwr1843, xwr1642, xwr6843, the new SDK 03.03.00.03 support the LVDS streaming feature in the demo code located at C:\ti\mmwave_sdk_03_03_00_03\packages\ti\demo.   

    But it did not have a directory for xwr1443.  I will need to check with the designer to see whether LVDS streaming is supported for xwr1443.

    If it is supported, you can search for lvdsStreamCfg in SDK users guide, section 3.3.2.  located at: C:\ti\mmwave_sdk_03_03_00_03\docs\mmwave_sdk_user_guide.pdf.  

    With binary running on EVM to enable lvds streaming, I guess you can develop your firmware on FPGA something similar to DCA1000 firmware to get real time data out.   

    Best,

    Zigang 

  • 0 in reply to zigang Yang
    Intellectual 385 points

    Hello and thank you for your answer Zigang.


    I will now download and install this SDK version and check that code.


    One clarification: would such code also let me control and configure my xwr1443 board with .cfg style files, or at least json style commands?

    thanks in advance

  • 0 in reply to Michele Marconi
    TI__Mastermind 40335 points

    HI, 

    Yes, basically, the out of box demo is running on the EVM board (your flash it first).   And you send the configuration file for the binary to start the sensor.  It can be sent over UART through out of box visualizer, TeraTerm and etc.

    Best,

    Zigang

  • 0 in reply to zigang Yang
    Intellectual 385 points

    hello and thank you,

    what firmware am I supposed to use, since there is no folder for xwr1443 board?



  • 0 in reply to Michele Marconi
    TI__Mastermind 40335 points

    Hi, 

    Just got confirmation from the team that xwr14xx has hardware limitation and cannot stream and process ADC data simultaneously and hence ADC streaming can never be integrated with a real demo. SDK 2.1 supports lvds streaming for xwr14xx, but only limited to s/w data (point cloud data).   

    For ADC data capture, you will have to go back to radar studio through DCA1000. 

    Best,

    Zigang

  • 0 in reply to zigang Yang
    Intellectual 385 points

    Hello and thanks.
    Iwr datasheet talks about CSI-2 output data format for raw a2d samples.

     Specifically at page 58-59 of SWRS211C  manual

    Can you confirm if that functionality is supported ,or not?

    Your latest post seems to signal that it is NOT working, but then, why is it mentioned as an output for A2D samples in the manual?


    If it works, which firmware should we use, and how should we configure the chirps on the radar?

    The information on the datasheet is a little lackluster.

  • 0 in reply to Michele Marconi
    TI__Mastermind 40335 points

    Hi,

    IWR1443 does have LVDS lanes that you can output ADC raw data.   And it is supported by radar studio. 

    However, our LVDS streaming feature is doing point cloud detection and doing LVDS ADC data streaming at the same time, which is not supported on IWR1443. 

    Therefore, you have to go back to radar studio for raw ADC data capture for IWR1443. 

    Best,

    Zigang 

  • 0 in reply to zigang Yang
    Intellectual 385 points

    Hello Zigang, and thanks again.

    Since I have to report to my company, before accepting your reply as a final answer I would like to ask confirmation.


    Our IWR1443 has LVDS / CSI-2 lanes for output raw data capturing.


    Since the hardware on IWR 1443 is limited, we cannot use such lanes with the most recent streaming capture demo from SDK3.3 which allows a "real-time" reception of the raw data.


    The only way to work on raw data, is through Radar Studio. Radar Studio would be used to flash the firmware inside the board, to configure the LVDS lanes, the chirping profiles, and so on and so forth.


    Then we can trigger acquisition of data (less than 10 seconds), which then gets saved in a .bin file, open it with Matlab, and decode it with the source code indicated in the manual through post-elaboration, and work on those samples in Matlab.

    Can you confirm that our desired functionality of real-time LVDS (or CSI-2) raw A2D samples data streaming (no time or amount of data limitations) is IMPOSSIBLE with IWR1443, in ANY configuration, with ANY firmware, OR with ANY external board (dca100 nor tsw1400)?

    If there is a way, then I have not understood how: could you clarify on this specific point?


    Sorry if I am being pedantic, but I have been asked an official answer.

     

    thanks,Michele

  • 0 in reply to Michele Marconi
    TI__Mastermind 40335 points

    Hi, Michele:

    Your understanding of radar studio is correct.   And you can save as many frames as you want. 

    For the LVDS streaming, we do not support a demo for iwr1443.  Because the LVDS streaming demo are doing ADC raw data streaming as well as all the post processing (FFT, detection, angle of arrival estimation) simultaneously, and iwr1443 do not have resource to do all these together.   But it is possible to just do ADC raw data streaming.  We do not have such a demo yet but here are some code base you can use to change from: 

    14xx does have CSI2 lanes and can be used for streaming raw ADC data. Reference code is provided in ti/drivers/test/csi_stream in SDK 2.x and SDK 3.x. However, we don’t have the official h/w to connect CSI to PC – that’s something customer will need to manage.   For LVDS, one could ideally convert csi stream application to use LVDS instead – will need some code changes.

    Best,

    Zigang

  • 0 in reply to zigang Yang
    TI__Mastermind 40335 points

    Hi, Michele:

    By the way, I feel you can try LVDS streaming on iwr1843 first.  IWR1843 boost and IWR1443 boost has the same antenna pattern, and same RF frequency range.   The main difference is IWR1843 has DSP process power.   You can use IWR1843 for your real-time demo.  

    Note that current DCA1000 CLI control interface also saved the raw data into a file.  You will need to change the source code to support real-time streaming.  

    The source code and document is located at: 

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

    You need to download radar studio 02.01.00.00 first.

    Best,

    Zigang