DW3XXX dwt_uwb_driver Library

Wireless Connectivity Ultra-Wideband
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Hello everyone, Wassim_Qorvo

Back in the days of DW1000 series Decawave ICs & modules, the radio driver source code was accessible. It was very easy to hook up the radio to any MCU with an SPI bus. With the new Qorvo UWB ICs, especially those with AoA features, I had hoped for a similar accessibility. Unfortunately, the DW3XXX dwt_uwb_driver seems to be available only as a compiled library for Cortex M4 and M33 processors.

I have a couple of quick queries:

  • Although a stupid question. Has anyone figured out a workaround to utilize this library on a Raspberry Pi Pico (Cortex M0+)? Is it impossible or there could be a work around?

  • Are there any plans for a compiled library for Cortex M0+ to be released in the near future?

Thanks in advance!

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There was an early version of the DW3000 driver released as source code. The later versions they removed the source.
Which is particularly annoying since the user manual tells you to refer to the driver for details on certain things and then the driver was changing bits that were flagged as reserved in the manual or registers that weren’t even listed.

I’m not sure if the older version is still on their web site somewhere but this is the internet, nothing is ever truly gone forever.

1 Like
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AndyA Big thanks :pray:. I spent quite a sometime on the new driver version, trying to make it work. It is a shame that Qorvo has limited the driver use to a specific set of MCU platforms. Even bigger shame is you only discover this limitation after serious digging through the Qorvo documentation. I can understand the motivation behind, such IP protection, exclusivity agreements, etc. Why not stating it clearly in the IC datasheet and user-manual?

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The older, source-included driver also seems to be a newer version??

An older driver I have with source has in its deca_version.h file:

DW3XXX Device Driver Version 07.10.01

In the one I just downloaded from the Qorvo site, DW3xxx_XR6.0C_24Feb2022, extracted from DW3xxx_QM33_XR6.0C.zip, has in the same location:

DW3XXX Device Driver Version 06.00.07

So I guess the take-away here is don’t upgrade?