Change App Target for DWM3001CDK

Wireless Connectivity Ultra-Wideband
1

Hello,

I am trying to develop an app to work with Apple’s nearby interaction protocol and I’m wanting to use the DWM3001CDK development kit to test the app functionality.

The development kit already follows the procedure the apple has established for third party devices to use the nearby interaction functionality. I was wondering if it is somehow possible to modify the already existing firmware to simply shift the app target instead of generating something from scratch to expedite the process and also read what Qorvo already had in place.

Thanks.

2

the cdk board only contains a single uwb antenna. it is the sender in the protocol.

the phone device ( iphone 11-13 only) provides two antennas so it can calculate the angles to the cdk device.

you can run the fira twr scripts provided by qorvo with different firmware on two cdk boards, but you will only get distance.

that firmware is not compatible with the apple ni firmware

3

I’m slightly confused. What do you mean when you say the firmware is not compatible with the apple ni firmware? Like you said you can test the ni functionality with the Qorvo app and initiate at TWR session with an Iphone. The iphone will display both angle and distance on the app.

What is the protocol when working with iphone 14 and 15 models? I recently upgraded to the 15 model and had the 13 before and my phone no longer works with the development kit.

Reading Apple’s Nearby Interaction Accessory protocol Specification I don’t understand what you mean by it isn’t compatible.

Thanks for you response

4

if you want to do fira between CDK boards, then u need to load a different firmware version than the NI.
that other firmware provides serial port(usb) access to control the operations… and python scripts to do the operations. (UCI or CLI)
but that firmware doesn’t work with the Apple NI software. the specs are different.

you need 2 antennas somewhere to be able to do TDOA/PDOA for angle calculation (time diff, or phase diff)
the CDK board only has one UWB antenna, so it can never do that… (fira term controller)…
you can load the fira firmware on the CDK and use two of them, and you will get distances only.

on the iphone 11-13, there are two UWB antennas and the phone does all the work to calculate the angles.

on the 14 and up, Apple removed 1 UWB antenna, so you can’t get ‘UWB’ angles, and they require using the camera in a Virtual Reality session (ARKit) to do the angle calc. you can see that in the updated Qorvo NI sample app source.

from the apple developer doc

Enable Precision Finding for stationary objects
In iOS 16, you can combine the visual-spatial power of ARKit with the radio sensitivity of the Ultra Wideband (UWB) chip to locate stationary nearby objects with considerable precision. To do that, set isCameraAssistanceEnabled to true and optionally provide the interaction session with an ARSession instance through setARSession(_:) before running the session. Together, the UWB chip and ARKit’s assistance enable Nearby Interaction to provide the same Precision Finding capabilities present in AirTag.

the ARKit doesn’t work for us… our users are blind, and the ARSession HAS to be ON SCREEN, which kills our voice navigation. in addition it doesn’t work in low light, AND it cannot ‘see’ our cdk devices are as they are not line of sight

the two Development kits from the CDK page

this is the apple NI stuff and firmware
Qorvo_Nearby_Interaction Software package v.3.2 (03/2024) and documentation (embedded firmware, example application, mobile application)

this is the Fira stuff and firmware
QM33 DK Software, Sources, Tools and Developer Guide
5

Okay that’s helpful to know about the removal of antenna for the 14 model and up.

Based on my understanding I should be fine. All I need is to be able to initiate a TWR session from the CDK board to an iphone and determine the distance. I’m going to take in the distance data and then utilize the distance to initiate other features on the app. So I should be good right?

That stinks about the ARKit, seems many features have been affected by changes they decided to make

6

i dont think you can initiate twr from the cdk to iphone
iphone must be controller

also there is no user interface to the cdk board standalone unless you modify the firmware

7

Yeah, I did see that in the documentation. I only need the CDK kit as an anchor so don’t need a user interface for the CDK that will be on the mobile app on the phone.

I think I’ve got a better understanding on it, thanks.

8

you said initiate a session from cdk to phone

thst is not possible w the ni firmware.
its only phone to cdk. phone is master.
cdk is ‘accessory’ in apples view

9

oh, I meant to ask about the inverse but thank you for the info.