MMWCAS-RF-EVM + MMWCAS-DSP-EVM

[mereschenko]

Hello,

First of all, I want to express my immense admiration for the work you've done on your repository. It's truly impressive!

Your contribution to the community is invaluable, and I am particularly inspired by the level of detail and expertise evident in your work. It's a cool job indeed!!!

I am currently working with MMWCAS-RF-EVM + MMWCAS-DSP-EVM, and I hope you'll forgive me for potentially asking what might seem like a simple question to an expert like you. Your insights would be incredibly helpful to me.

I am curious to know if it's possible to display data in real time in a stream with this setup. I am eagerly looking forward to your guidance and advice on this matter. Your expertise in this field is something I deeply respect, and any assistance you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you so much for your time and for sharing your knowledge with the community.

[azinke]

Hi @mereschenko !
Thank you for the nice words! 😄 I'm not sure if expert is correct in defining my knowledge of the topic but I do have some experience working this the MMWCAS evaluation boards (in the frame of my Master's Thesis).

There are no examples provided by TI for real-time data recording with the MMWCAS to my knowledge. From my understanding, the firmware delivered by default with the DSP board does not support real-time data recording (if it does, it hasn't been documented). Hence, to achieve real-time recording, a firmware capable of data streaming should be developed (it could be for streaming directly point clouds or raw ADC data depending on the end goal)

[mereschenko]

Hardware

TIDEP-01012: MMWCAS-DSP-EVM, MMWCAS-RF-EVM
(Revision D – AWR2243 ES1.1)

⸻

Flashing Firmware Image for AWR2243 (instead of AR12xx)

Reference:
https://e2e.ti.com/support/sensors-group/sensors/f/sensors-forum/882929/awr2243-the-appimage-form-sdk3-7-and-sdk3-8-can-not-running-in-cascade-radar-with-awr2243/3344366#3344366

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Static IP Configuration

Configuration file path:
C:\PROCESSOR_SDK_RADAR_03_08_00_00\vision_sdk\links_fw\src\rtos\bios_app_common\tda2xx\cfg\NDK_config.cfg

Enable static IP:

var enableStaticIpEth0 = 1; /* set to 1 to enable */

You can then change the IP settings as required:

if (enableStaticIpEth0)
{
Ip.address = "192.168.1.200";
Ip.mask = "255.255.255.0";
Ip.gatewayIpAddr = "192.168.1.1";
Ip.ifIdx = 1;
}

⸻

ProcessorSDKRadar_UserGuide Instructions

Building the Application

Navigate to:

PROCESSOR_SDK_RADAR/vision_sdk/build

Open Rules.make and set:

MAKEAPPNAME=apps
MAKECONFIG=tda2xx_cascade_bios_radar

Run build commands from:

C:\PROCESSOR_SDK_RADAR_03_08_00_00\vision_sdk\build

gmake -s -j4 depend
gmake -s -j4

The generated binaries will be located at:

C:\PROCESSOR_SDK_RADAR_03_08_00_00\vision_sdk\binaries\apps\tda2xx_cascade_bios_radar

Show configuration:

gmake -s showconfig

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MLO Generation (Section 3.6.3)

MLO (2nd Stage Boot Loader)
According to VisionSDK_UserGuide_TDA2xx.pdf (Section 3.6.3, page 19):

gmake -s sbl

The output should be located at:

vision_sdk/binaries/$(MAKEAPPNAME)/$(MAKECONFIG)/sbl/sd

Example path:

C:\PROCESSOR_SDK_RADAR_03_08_00_00\vision_sdk\binaries\apps\tda2xx_cascade_bios_radar\sbl\sd\opp_nom\tda2xx-cascade-radar

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AppImage Generation (Section 3.6.4)

Generated after a successful build of executables:

gmake -s appimage

Uses configuration file:

vision_sdk/$(MAKEAPPNAME)/configs/$(MAKECONFIG)/cfg.mk

Output path:

C:\PROCESSOR_SDK_RADAR_03_08_00_00\vision_sdk\binaries\apps\tda2xx_cascade_bios_radar\vision_sdk\bin\tda2xx-evm\sbl_boot

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Diagnostics

gmake -s showdeps # show dependencies
gmake -s showbuildcmd # show build commands

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Program Boot Procedure

See ProcessorSDKRadar_UserGuide.pdf

2.3.2.3 Boot Pin Settings for Cascade Radar Board
• AWR2243 (new device type) — requires changes from code_changes.7z
• TDA2xx is used as the base platform

For cascaded configuration (TDA2xx):
• Refer to Section 3.7 (page 24)

Load Using SD Card

(Applicable only to TDA2xx)

Refer to Section 3.5 “Load using SD card” in VisionSDK_UserGuide_TDA2xx.pdf

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SD Card Preparation (VisionSDK_UserGuide_TDA2xx.pdf, Section 3.6, pages 19–20)
• SD card size: 4 GB
• Create a primary FAT partition
• Sector size: 512 bytes
• Partition must be marked Active

Formatting options:
• Option 1 — Section 3.6.1
• Option 2 — Section 3.6.2 (using DISKPART)

⸻

Project Cleanup and Rebuild

cd /c/PROCESSOR_SDK_RADAR_03_08_00_00/vision_sdk

Remove temporary files

find . -name ".o" -delete
find . -name ".d" -delete
find . -name ".obj" -delete
find . -name ".out" -delete
find . -name ".pch" -delete
find . -name ".ilk" -delete
find . -name ".idb" -delete
find . -name ".pdb" -delete
find . -name ".map" -delete
find . -name ".lst" -delete
rm -rf generated/
rm -rf gen/

cd build
rm -rf temp/
rm -rf cache/
rm -rf binaries/
rm -rf obj/

chmod -R 644 apps/src/rtos/radar/include/alglink_api/.h
chmod -R 644 apps/src/rtos/radar/src/alg_plugins//.c
chmod -R 644 apps/src/rtos/radar/src/alg_plugins//*.h

cd build
gmake -s clean

⸻

Additional Reference

Performance issues with cascaded radar:
https://e2e.ti.com/support/sensors-group/sensors/f/sensors-forum/1218120/mmwcas-rf-evm-performance-issues-with-cascaded-radar