AWR2243BOOST: flashed without connecting the board to the mmWave studio

Hello Roland,

Yes, you can flash the binary to the AWR2243 device without using mmWave Studio.

AWR2243 supports a feature where firmware can be flashed to sFlash via SPI interface. In another option, Uniflash tool can be used to flash the firmware but over UART interface.

- If using Uniflash, you don't have to separately load the RSS and the MSS binary images. There is a single metaimage that is required --  xwr22xx_metaImage.bin.

Please use the correct firmware based on your device silicon version.

[AWR2243 ES1.0 -- DFP 02_02_00_03]

[AWR2243 ES1.1 -- DFP 02_02_02_01].

- If using the SPI Interface: 

In DFP we provide an example to showcase how to load firmware to sflash by sending firmware data over SPI.

Please refer to the example at the following location : ..\mmwave_dfp_<version>\ti\example\mmWaveLink_SFlash_FW_Example

The mmWave DFP user guide also talks about that. Refer to section 8.4

Roland Melad said:

The SDK guide never mentions any information about the AWR2243BOOST or at least the AWR1243BOOST, nor, based on what I've seen, have a sample code for such boards. The SDK guide is mainly focused on programmable boards like AWR1843. If I'm missing something, please show me where to find such a demo in the SDK.

For your above concern, please refer to the below thread previously answered by our expert : 

https://e2e.ti.com/support/sensors/f/sensors-forum/907932/awr2243boost-binary-files 

Please let us know if you need any further clarifications.

Regards,

Ishita

Hello Ishita,

Many thanks for your support.

Following your reply regarding the case of using the SDK with the AWR2243BOOST, and following the link you provided (https://e2e.ti.com/support/sensors/f/sensors-forum/907932/awr2243boost-binary-files ), it is confirmed for me now, as I understood, that the SDK doesn't support the AWR2243BOOST. So, the tools and demos mentioned in the SDK guide won't work with the AWR2243BOOST. Please correct me If I'm wrong.

On the other hand, your answer regarding flashing the AWR2243BOOST without using the mmWave software was indeed helpful, as I haven't noticed the example already provided in the DFP. To follow on this, I would like to know if we can also use the mmWaveLink to configure the radar parameters (chirp parameters, frame configurations, etc..).

So, In other words, I can flash the Flash in the AWR2243BOOST using the mmWaveLink, but after flashing the firmware provided, how can update or change the radar parameters I mentioned before? Is this also possible using the mmWaveLink? or I should only use the mmWave software for that?

Hello Ali,

Yes, you can use mmWaveLink to configure the RF front end. Please refer to the DFP user guide for this purpose (Section 8 can help you understand this).

"mmWaveLink_SingleChip_Example" demonstrates a basic demo to achieve that. API parameters for all the commands are read from mmwaveconfig.txt which can be accordingly programmed by you.

And then if you want to capture data as well, you can use the DCA1000 CLI tool along with mmWave Link for that purpose. This way you would bypass using mmWave studio altogether.

Regards,

Ishita

Hello Ishita,

Many thanks for your response. Your indications were very helpful.

Does the mmWaveLink work with Linux also? I see it is the case for the DCA1000 CLI tool but not sure if it also the case for the mmWaveLink too?

In the DFP directory (C:\ti\mmwave_dfp_02_02_02_01\ti\control\mmwavelink), exists all the header and source files along with the make file to build the mmWaveLink tool for windows. So can this make file also be used to build the tool for Linux?

Hello Ali,

Yes, you can port mmWaveLink to linux as well.

These kind of questions have been addressed by our software team on this forum in the past. Please search for similar threads for additional guidance on this.

You can either use the E2E search engine or type "e2e.ti.com <Your query>" in your local search engine.

Here is a thread produced using the same method for your reference : https://e2e.ti.com/support/sensors/f/sensors-forum/915603/awr1243boost-port-mmwavelink-to-linux

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Ishita

Hello Ishita,

Many thanks for your response.

As a follow-up to my question. In my case, I have already developed my own processing chain starting from the calibration, FMCW processing, tracking, and multi-target classification. I tested the processing chain with some data I collected with the AWR2243BOOST using the DCA1000 and the mmWave studio.

Till this point, everything is good for me. However, my final target of the project is to build a remote radar target classification system. 

To do that I need to get rid of the mmWave studio dependencies and use an external processor  (mainly a Raspberry PI PC), to collect the raw data from the UDP port of the DCA1000 and process it in real-time.

As you have shown me, the DCA1000 CLI is a useful tool I can use to trigger the data collection and TI already provides the necessary files to build that tool in Linux. On the other hand, You also mentioned that the mmWaveLink can be used to flash the firmware to the radar EVM and configure the radar front end, and it can be also ported to Linux.

 Based on that, I have some questions that I would appreciate if you could answer for me.

1- Do I require to flash the firmware to the sFlash of the AWR2243 every time I use the mmWaveLink or this is only done in the first connection and then the firmware will be saved on the sFlash and I can skip the firmware download step following what is mentioned in the configuration file??

2- If this is the case then does that mean that I can close the mmWaveLink and proceed to collect the radar data only using the DCA1000 CLI  tool. In other words, does the CLI tool require the mmWaveLink to be active as well so they should be used together at the same time for data collection, or I can just use the mmWaveLink to configure the Radar front end, close it once finished, then use the CLI tool separately to collect the radar raw data??

3- what are the mmWaveLink configuration file (mmwaveconfig.txt), specifically the chirp profile configuration parameters. I'm a bit confused on this side if they follow the same units used in the mmWave studio, especially for the start freq which is (startFreqConst=1439117143) instead of 77 that appears in the mmWave GUI.

Best regards.

Hello Ali,

Sorry for the delay.

Here are my comments :

1. You can use the uniflash tool to flash the firmware in the external flash in SOP 5 mode as one time to the device. After that the device boots up in SOP4 mode and loads the firmware to the device directly from flash.

2. I believe there is a confusion here, the firmware code doesn't include the configuration of RF parameters of the AWR device. So even if you load the firmware in SFLASH, you would still need to communicate the RF configuration to the device everytime after power up.

Also, just to bring to your notice, we have launched new a Studio CLI tool (alternative to mmwave studio) which can be used for device configuration and capture. Here is the link to that : https://dev.ti.com/tirex/explore/node?node=AD9z.2Ydz0RjPF.ZURidPg__Z2F8GEn__LATEST

3.That is because the LSB = 53.644GHz,

You can find all details about the parameters in mmwaveconfig.txt at the below location:

..\mmwave_dfp_<version>\ti\control\mmwavelink\docs\doxygen\html\index.html

Regards,

Ishita

Hello Ishita,

Many thanks for your response.

Regarding my last comments:

1- I have already tried the UNIFLASH tool before and raised a case to TI support discussing that the tool doesn't work with the AWR2243BOOST. The UNIFLASH tool fails to flash the RSS and MSS firmware as well as the meta image option. Please check the UNIFLASH log error below:

2- I'm already aware that the firmware doesn't include the configuration of RF parameters of the AWR device. That's why I was asking if the mmWaveLink can be used as a one-time flashing tool to flash the firmware and configure the RF parameters as they are provided in the mmwaveconfig.txt. I only thought that because of the provided option to enable/disable the firmware download.

Many thanks again for notifying me about the new mmWave CLI tool. The tool seems very interesting and useful, but the only drawback is that it seems to only work with windows which don't support my end goal of the project as I wanna work with Linux.

3- I missed that part so thanks again for the information. I'll check it and let you know if I have any more questions

Best regards and many thanks for your support.

Hello Ali,

Regarding point 1 of your query, what is the silicon version of your AWR2243BOOST board? Please make sure you're using the correct firmware based on silicon. 

Since you said, you've already raised a concern for that in another thread, I'm assuming you're getting our expert assistance there. 

Regards,

Ishita

Hello Ishita,

The following are what is written on the chip of my AWR2243BOOST:

AWR2243P

BG

07ZCZW9

583A        ABL    G1

The older thread is already closed and my case was not solved. Actually, I'm a bit confused about the UNIFLASH tool, since, from what I have seen in the older thread I have concluded that the UNIFLASH tool doesn't support the AWR2243BOOST. So, Just to confirm my point I have tested again all the provided firmware for the AWR2243 ([AWR2243 ES1.0 -- DFP 02_02_00_03], [AWR2243 ES1.1 -- DFP 02_02_02_01], and finally the meta image  xwr22xx_metaImage.bin) but still got the same error as before.

Hello Ali,

You can refer to the Device Markings section in AWR2243 errata document to understand this nomenclature.

FYI, you have AWR2243 ES1.1 device and hence you need to use DFP 02_02_02_01.

Ali Rizik said:

I have concluded that the UNIFLASH tool doesn't support the AWR2243BOOST

And this is not true. Uniflash does support AWR2243 BOOST.

Can you open UNIFLASH (version 6.2.0), select AWR1243BOOST (NOT AWR2243BOOST, even though this is what Uniflash will auto detect) and let us know your observations.

Regards,

Ishita

Hello Ishita,

Sorry for the late reply as I was busy with some other project.

Thank you for the valuable information, this makes more sense for me now. I'll try it and let you know.

I have one final question that I would appreciate if you could give a clear answer to it. 

I want to use my own chirp and radar front end configuration with the AWR2243, but the problem I face is that every time I connect the board I need to go through the steps of firmware download and the reconfiguration of the RF parameters.

So, is there any way or any tool that permits me to configure the radar RF parameters and saves my configurations so that every time I connect the radar and the DCA1000 to the PC I can skip the RF configuration step and I can directly go on with the data capture using, for example, the HW feature of the DCA1000?

In other words, is it possible to fix my RF configuration to the board so that with every new connection to the PC I can be sure that my set configurations are already there and I can go on directly with capturing the raw data?

Hello Ali,

I'm afraid fixing the RF configuration to the board is not possible, you will have to reconfigure the device for RF parameters after every power cycle. You can have a script do that for you and run that every time before capturing data using DCA1000...this is the best you can do. 

Although you can save time by loading the firmware in the SFLASH, this way you would not need to atleast download the firmware each time.

Regards,

Ishita