Working with SparkFun Pulsed Coherent Radar Sensor - Acconeer XM125 (Qwiic)

Sensors Distance
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I have been working with the exploration tool by Acconeer for the radar and I like the results. But I had a couple of questions:

Q1.What is the difference between SparkFun Pulsed Coherent Radar Sensor - Acconeer XM125 (Qwiic) and the XE125 by Acconeer(as far as purpose, technical details and capabilities go)?

Q2. Is what I wrote below possible and is my understanding correct of the module and how it would interface with an arudino? (feel free to correct my statements and use the correct terminology where needed)

  • The pre-built code for the human presence detector from the exploration tool(firmware already developed by Acconeer) can be downloaded onto the XM125 which has the Cortex M4.
  • as a result all the radar data processing would be done on the XM125 itself
  • If I have an arduino connected to the spark fun pulse coherent radar sensor, Once say a human is detected the radar will output ‘true’ and simply send that to the arduino where it can make its decisions based on that. So for example, say there is an LED connected to the Arduino and it turns ON whenever a human is detected.

Q3. If I wanted to change the parameters(changing the range) for the presence detector that is downloaded onto the XM125, can I do so? If so how would I do it exactly?

Q4. Will I have more control and ability to change additional parameters than the ones listed in the exploration tool?

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  1. Not much, other than ease-of-use/interfacing features

  2. Yep

  3. Eh, sorta - poke through the examples SparkFun_Qwiic_XM125_Arduino_Library/examples at main · sparkfun/SparkFun_Qwiic_XM125_Arduino_Library · GitHub (most presence detection uses a boolean style function as far as I can tell, but you might be able to edit those examples a bit…or use the distance settings example, and edit its code to output via GPIO (like ex2))

  4. Not without writing custom firmware…but you can use all the functions in here! (maybe not all at once, but alas)

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Dear SparkFun Support Team,

I hope this message finds you well. I am currently using the SparkFun Pulsed Coherent Radar Sensor – Acconeer XM125 (Qwiic) module for a project. I attempted to develop custom firmware for this module instead of relying on the pre-compiled files from the out directory. However, I encountered several issues with the libraries, which prevented me from modifying or updating the firmware on the XM125 module entirely.

Despite multiple attempts, I was unable to successfully make any changes to the code due to what seems to be compatibility or library restrictions. Additionally, I faced significant challenges when trying to adapt the firmware framework for the STM32L431 microcontroller integrated within this module.

I would like to ask:

  1. Are the libraries designed to work exclusively with Acconeer’s predefined firmware setup?
  2. Is there any restriction or limitation preventing developers from creating custom firmware or modifying the existing firmware for the XM125 module?
  3. Do you have a separate project, firmware, or solution developed by your team that provides an alternative to the current firmware setup for the XM125?

Your support and guidance on this matter would be greatly appreciated, as I wish to continue my development work using this sensor module.

Thank you for your time and assistance.

Kind regards,

4
  1. Yes, with the added components of our breakout board
  2. Not that I’m aware of, but you could try asking Acconeer the same thing and see what they say https://developer.acconeer.com/ (we didn’t ‘lock’ it on our side AFAIK)
  3. Just the Acconeer firmwares and our versions of the same