IWR6843: EVM with single chip microcomputers

Tosin Babarinde

Part Number: IWR6843
Other Parts Discussed in Thread: MMWAVEICBOOST

Hi,

I was wondering if it will be possible to connect/control my IWR6843EVM and the MMWAVEICBOOST card from the GPIOs of a single chip microcomputer such as the Raspberry Pi or Arduino board. I am interested in toggling SPOs and capturing data on UART/SPI pins of the Boost card with connections to the microcomputer.

I understand from the MMWAVEICBOOST handbook that there is an interface on the J5 and J6 headers but not so clear on the use of the TI Launchpad. Could you please explain how this connection can be setup? What is the use of the Launchpad (which I understand to be another breakout board)?

I did try out the use of simple jumper wires to connect the UART pins on the Boost card (on J5.5, J5.7 and J5.4) to the UART on a Raspberry Pi, but could not get to send or receive any data from the connections. I was using pyserial library on Raspberry Pi and not sure if TI provided any library for any of these devices.

Looking forward to your guide and assistance.

-Tosin

over 4 years ago

0 Sabeeh Khan1 over 4 years ago

TI__Mastermind 30140 points

Hi Tosin,

You might have an easier time with Raspberry Pi if you connect the EVM to the Pi via USB. Then it should be much easier to use with pyserial. Recall that there are 2 USB devices from the EVM (CFG and DATA). We currently do not have software that supports such functionality.

You should be able to see data on those pins. Have you configured the switches correctly as described in the devices user guide. Are you using ISK or AOP?

The Launchpad features simply make use of TI's launchpad platform. These allow you to connect other TI microcontrollers to the ICBOOST. These microcontrollers feature options like BLE, Wi-Fi, etc. Find more about the launchpad platform here: https://www.ti.com/design-resources/embedded-development/hardware-kits-boards.html

0 Tosin Babarinde over 4 years ago in reply to Sabeeh Khan1

Intellectual 435 points

Thanks Sabeeh,

I should have mentioned that I was able to use a USB connection from the Boost board to the Raspberry Pi and easily got my data and could send .cfg file.

I am using the ISK-ODS EVM board in my development and task is to find means to 'automate' flashing the sensor, which required physically putting/removing the SOP jumpers. I was wondering if this can be automated using the GPIOs on the Raspberry Pi and the Launchpad interface on the Boost board.

-Tosin

0 Sabeeh Khan1 over 4 years ago in reply to Tosin Babarinde

TI__Mastermind 30140 points

I would recommend you have a look at the SBL (secondary bootloader) module in the mmwave SDK.

0 Tosin Babarinde over 4 years ago in reply to Sabeeh Khan1

Intellectual 435 points

Thanks for the suggestion.

Looks a lot more difficult than I thought. But will try to explore this.

0 Sabeeh Khan1 over 4 years ago in reply to Tosin Babarinde

TI__Mastermind 30140 points

Ofcourse, if you run into issues please feel free to post again. Thank you.

0 Tosin Babarinde over 4 years ago in reply to Sabeeh Khan1

Intellectual 435 points

BTW Sabeeh,

Will i require the LaunchPad to be able to use SBL with my microcomputer?

-Tosin

0 Sabeeh Khan1 over 4 years ago in reply to Tosin Babarinde

TI__Mastermind 30140 points

Hi Tosin,

The SBL runs on the mmWave sensor. Please read through the "SBL_design.pdf" in the mmWave SDK, location below. It describes how the SBL works and how you can use it to send a new binary without changing the SOP jumpers.

At boot time, the SBL will wait for a specific command that will allow a new binary to be sent over UART. The sensor board has a USB-UART transceiver, so a launchpad is optional. I suggest you test out the SBL using your windows machine first, then try the same with a raspberry pi, etc.

After installing the mmWave SDK, location of documentation is here: C:\ti\mmwave_sdk_03_05_00_04\packages\ti\utils\sbl\docs

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IWR6843: EVM with single chip microcomputers