[FAQ] AWR1642: DCA1000 Output Raw Data Format FAQ

Question1
What type of output data do I get from DCA1000 board?

Answer1
The purpose of the DCA1000 board is to capture raw ADC data from an xWR1xxx sensor (this applies to xWR1243, xWR1443, xWR1642, xWR1843).
The output of the DCA1000 board is not processed data. This means that the output of the DCA1000 board is not range FFT, doppler FFT, heatmap ... data. The raw data captured with DCA1000 board would have to be processed with radar signal processing algorithms with tools such as matlab in order to compute range FFT, doppler FFT, heatmap ... data.

Question2
What are the resources that explain the DCA1000 Output Raw Data Format?

Answer2
There are two resources that explain the DCA1000 Output Raw Data Format:

1) Mmwave Radar Device ADC Raw Data Capture
www.ti.com/.../swra581b.pdf

2) mmwave_studio_user_guide.pdf (provided with mmWave Studio installation "C:\ti\mmwave_studio_02_00_00_02\docs")
Section 23 Format of the raw captured file

Hi Cesar,

Thank you for posting this!


Cheers,
Akash