Hello everyone,
I am currently researching the comparative positioning performance of the IEEE 802.15.4z and IEEE 802.15.4a (legacy) standards for precise IoT localization. I am using the QM33120W DK, and because only the UCI (Unified Client Interface) pair of my equipment was properly calibrated during my initial laboratory measurements, I need to configure the legacy standard strictly through this interface.
I am encountering an issue where I cannot disable the FiRa-specific features required to evaluate the older 802.15.4a standard. Here is a breakdown of the problem:
- GUI Limitation: The Qorvo UWB Explorer GUI does not allow modifying the Number of STS Segments or the STS Length to 0.
- CLI Workaround Attempt: To bypass this, I used CLI mode via Tera Term. I successfully configured the Responder (Anchor) to legacy mode using:
LCFG -CHAN=5 -SFDTYPE=0 -STSMODE=0 - The Issue: When applying the same configuration to the Initiator (Tag) and executing the
INITFcommand to start ranging, the devices fail to communicate.
Looking at the logs, the INITF command seems to override the manual legacy adjustments, forcing the session back to a preset, FiRa-compliant configuration with an active STS:
[2026-05-21 12:14:26.690] LCFG -CHAN=5 -SFDTYPE=0 -STSMODE=0JS00A6{“LCFG PARAM”:{
…
[2026-05-21 12:14:41.634] “SFDTYPE”:0,
…
[2026-05-21 12:14:41.634] “STSMODE”:0,
…
[2026-05-21 12:14:50.162] INITF -CHAN=5 -ADDR=0 -PADDR=1 -RRU=DSTWRFiRa Session Parameters: {
…
[2026-05-21 12:16:18.252] RFRAME_CONFIG: SP3,
[2026-05-21 12:16:18.252] SFD_ID: 2,
…
[2026-05-21 12:16:18.401] [mac_address=0x0001, status=“RX_TIMEOUT”]}
Is there a way to circumvent this restriction? Specifically, I am looking for:
- A specific UCI hexadecimal command sequence.
- An alternative CLI command to initiate ranging without overriding the
LCFGparameters. - A legacy-specific firmware example within the Qorvo SDK.
Any technical guidance would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
Diego