DWM1001 access to DW1000 IC registers

Hi there,

I’m starting with the DWM1001 and developed a custom board using this module. My question is… is it possible to access the content of some DW1000 IC registers from an external host by using the SPI or UART external interface of the DWM1001 (without adding new code to the embedded DWM1001 firmware) ?

Thanks.

Hi Yo Hidden,

Are you using PANS ? The firmware provided with the dwm1001 ?

In this case it’s not really possible. The reason is that when reading a DW1000 register, you are performing a SPI transaction that may interfere with the expected behavior of the DW1000 ans basically corrupt the UWB scheme.

What are you exactly trying to achieve ?

Thanks
Yves

Thanks for your answer @Yves_Bernard_Qorvo.
Yes, I’m using PANS. I do not pretend to acess DW1000 drectly through SPI because, as you stated, this would probably interfere with UWB operation. What I had in mind was if there was any command (TLV or shell) which would allow access to any of the DW1000 IC internal registers. If not for modyfing it, at least for reading (for example… get radio registers configuration, antenna calibration value, …).

Thanks.

Hi YoHidden,

Well such a TCL/SHELL command allowing to read DW1000 registers would actually be a SPI read between the nrf52832 mcu and the dw1000 transceiver. The reason such an API is not provided is because it would interfer with the DW1000 during normal operation.

Yves

Hi @Yves_Bernard_Qorvo,

Well… yes, but I guess that if it were a command embedded into the PANS firmware (like the other TCL/SHELL related functions) then it could be coexist and have access when allowed to). I mean, if firmware running on nrf5832 controls SPI operation to DW1000 IC, then it could manage every SPI access (whatever the origin of the request is) avoiding any interference.

Anyway, then there’s no command currently available to do this, and that was my question.

Thanks Yves for your clarifications.