IWR6843ISK + DCA1000EVM + LRPD demo — capturing ADC data via MATLAB dca1000 interface

I am using the following setup:

Sensor: IWR6843ISK

Capture card: DCA1000EVM

Firmware: Long Range People Detection (LRPD) demo

Goal: capture raw ADC IQ data via LVDS and process it in MATLAB.

When using the MATLAB interface:

dca = dca1000("IWR6843ISK");

I receive the error:

MMWAVE SDK version 03.05.00.04 obtained from the TI Radar board

does not match the expected MMWAVE SDK version 03.06.00.00

The LRPD demo appears to be built using SDK 3.5, while MATLAB expects SDK 3.6.

Questions:

1. Is LRPD compatible with LVDS streaming and DCA1000?
2. Is it possible to capture raw ADC data while running LRPD?
3. Is MATLAB dca1000 limited to OOB demo firmware only?
4. What is the recommended method to capture raw ADC data with LRPD configuration?

Answer 1

[Satyam]

Hi,

The error occurs because the MATLAB dca1000 interface expects firmware built with MMWAVE SDK 3.6, while the Long Range People Detection (LRPD) demo for IWR6843ISK is typically built with SDK 3.5, leading to the version mismatch.

• The LRPD demo is not designed for LVDS raw ADC streaming, since it performs onboard processing and outputs processed detections rather than raw samples.
• Therefore capturing raw ADC data while running LRPD is generally not supported. The MATLAB workflow with DCA1000EVM is mainly validated with firmware that enables LVDS streaming (such as OOB-style firmware).
• Recommended approach is to run firmware that supports LVDS streaming, use the same LRPD chirp/profile configuration, and capture ADC data in MATLAB using dca1000 for offline processing. Example workflow: https://www.mathworks.com/help/radar/ug/getting-started-realtime-adc-dca1000evm-example.html