AWR1843BOOST: Problem in loading BSS and MSS firmware into AWR1843BOOST with mmWave Studio

Amirkhosro Vosughi

Part Number: AWR1843BOOST
Other Parts Discussed in Thread: DCA1000EVM, UNIFLASH

Hi,
I am trying to connect AWR1843BOOST and DCA1000EVM with mmWave Studio. I am struggling to download binary files to BSS and MSS. I made it to reset board and get RS232 connected. BSS FW is downleaded, but indicated version for that is 0.0.0.0 which shows it is not done correctly. When I tried to load binary file to MSS, it causes the program to get stuck displaying "0% Downloading Firmware to device ..." and nothing happens. Please see the picture of RadarAPI GUI after that. As I checked in device manager, all necessary 6 COM files are detected successfully (see fig 2) and I can ping IP address 192.168.33.30 without any problem. SOP switches are adjusted as mentioned in mmWave_studio_user_guide (SOP0 and SOP1 are OFF, SOP2 in ON).

I see very similar post in TI forum which apparently is solved just by using two separate supply power for DCA and AWR, however, I am already using two supply power for them (SW3 in DCA1000 in on DC_JACK_5V_IN) so it is not my case.

e2e.ti.com/.../dca1000evm-awr1443boost-mmwave-studio

In another post, it was suggested to clear leash using Uniflash, I tried it but it doesn't help.

e2e.ti.com/.../3529801

Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks
Amir

over 4 years ago

+1 Ishita Kochar over 4 years ago

TI__Mastermind 31680 points

Hello Amir,

Yes, in SOP2 mode, jumpers have to be placed on SOP0 and SOP1 of the EVM.

These kind of issues are usually resolved after clearing the flash. Did you get a success message after clearing? Make sure you're using SOP5 (jumpers on SOP0 and SOP2 of the EVM) mode while using uniflash.

Also, please reset the board by pressing the nReset button 2-3 times after clearing the flash, so that it boots up in the correct SOP mode.

Regards,

Ishita

0 Amirkhosro Vosughi over 4 years ago in reply to Ishita Kochar

Prodigy 20 points

Thanks Ishita!

I did all of that and now beside flash clearing and rebooting everything and it works now.

Best,

Amir

0 Ishita Kochar over 4 years ago in reply to Amirkhosro Vosughi

TI__Mastermind 31680 points

Helllo Amir,

Glad to hear it works now.

Please let us know if you have any questions in future.

Regards,

Ishita

0 Amirkhosro Vosughi over 4 years ago in reply to Ishita Kochar

Prodigy 20 points

Hi Ishita,

Thank you very much! I have one other question for you that might be a little bit more general. If you think it is more appropriate, I can make an inquiry about it in another thread.

I am wondering to know if it is possible to use mmWave Studio for parameter tuning of the .cfg file that is used in mmWave Demo Visualizer.

What I am interested to do is collecting a set of data using DCA1000 and try different configurations on CLI commands that correspond to data analyzing including "cfar", "multiObjBeamForming", ... .

At the moment my understanding is that for accomplishing that, I need to enter correspond info of "channelCfg", "adcCfg", "adcbufCfg", "profileCfg", "chirpCfg", "frameCfg" in .cfg file into sensorConfig tap of mmWave Studio manually. And then in post-processing, make sure that all of the parameters that I set for "cfar", "multiObjBeamForming" and other data processing CLI of .cfg file, are currently interpenetrated setting of CFAR algorithm in mmWave Studio. Although the above procedure might be possible, it is cumbersome and prone to mistake.

Wondering to know if there is an alternative to do that in a more automatic approach which will be faster and more reliable. I have searched the forum for that but I have not found any related topic. It would be great if you let me know about this.

Have a great weekend!

Best,

Amir

0 Ishita Kochar over 4 years ago in reply to Amirkhosro Vosughi

TI__Mastermind 31680 points

Hello Amir,

If I understood your concerns correct, I believe you want to import/export configuration data from mmWave Studio to simultaneously use that in mmWave Demo visualizer as well, right?

For that purpose, the "Import_export" tab in mmWave studio can help you achieve that.

You can read more about the programmability of this tab in mmWave_studio_user_guide.pdf (Chapter 19).

Hope this gets you started. Please let me know if you were looking for something else.

Regards,

Ishita

0 Amirkhosro Vosughi over 4 years ago in reply to Ishita Kochar

Prodigy 20 points

Hi Ishata,

Thank you for your response! As I understood, "Import/export" tab in mmWave studio use the file in .json format; however, mmWave Demo Visualizer, saves the configuration in .cfg format. So it is not practical to load the configuration file for mmWave Demo Visualizer (.cfg format) to into mmWave Studio (.json format) directly.

I searched TI forum for ways to converting .json file to .cfg and vice versa and find the below posts:

e2e.ti.com/.../awr1642-generating-cfg-file-from-json-file-that-mmwave-sensor-estimator-gives

e2e.ti.com/.../2363699

e2e.ti.com/.../iwr1443-relevance-and-translation-of-json-estimator-and-cfg-visualizer--file

https://e2e.ti.com/support/sensors/f/sensors-forum/619663/awr1642-about-mmwave-sensing-estimator-for-awr1642

From those posts, I think it is necessary to do the conversion of the .cfg file to .json files manually. However, I wanted to double-check it with you just in case if there is any new tool developed to convert those types of files since all the above posts are 3-4 years old.

Thanks

Amir

+1 Ishita Kochar over 4 years ago in reply to Amirkhosro Vosughi

TI__Mastermind 31680 points

Hello Amir,

The Studio CLI tool converts JSON to cfg file and then uses cfg file to send each commands over UART to the AWR device.

Here is the link to the user guide : https://dev.ti.com/tirex/explore/node?node=AD9z.2Ydz0RjPF.ZURidPg__Z2F8GEn__LATEST

Also, in case you have any further questions regarding this tool, I would request you to create a new thread.

Regards,

Ishita

0 Amirkhosro Vosughi over 4 years ago in reply to Ishita Kochar

Prodigy 20 points

Hi Ishita,

Thank you very much for letting me know about this tool! I will go through it and let you know if I had any issues. Have a great day!

Best,

Amir

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AWR1843BOOST: Problem in loading BSS and MSS firmware into AWR1843BOOST with mmWave Studio