ADF7021 Tx/Rx SPI details

Hi Allfather,

Thanks for the help from before! I haven't actually gotten around to doing Tx/Rx on the ADF7021 transceiver since I'm currently just working with the microcontroller and the purpose of the microcontroller in my setup is to program the registers and other configuration related things. But, I can try and answer your questions from what I know/guess at least.

1. There's a flow chart (as well as a regular chart) in the Revision D data sheet that talks about setting up the Tx/Rx modes detailing which registers to set up and in what order on pages 41,42, and 43. My best bet would be to follow this, so Register 2 for Tx and Register 4 for Rx. Secretly, I think it's whenever you set Tx or Rx mode on Register 0 but without setting up Register 2 or Register 4, your Tx/Rx mode won't be very useful. Without the power amping from Register 2, you probably don't have enough transmit power for a good signal, and without the demodulation from Register 4, you probably won't be receiving any useful info from a modulated carrier wave.

2. I don't think the STM32 itself will know when exactly the latency bits have passed, but there's a transmit latency chart you can refer to in the Transmit Latency section. If you know your modulation scheme and your baud rate, you can write a delay function for your STM32 to account for the latency before disabling the ADF7021. If you don't need to deal with precise timing, you can just write a general delay function that works for all modulation schemes and baud rates by delaying a longer time period, say a second or longer if necessary (could be shorter too, as long as it works).

3. Looking at Figure 53, my guess would be that the preamble and sync word are clocked out as they are included in the transmit packet structure. It also makes sense that the sync word is clocked out since the sync word is generally used to show that the preamble has ended and that the next bits are the actual data payload. If you've got 2 ADF7021s, you could try sending a message from one to the other, and store the bits on the microcontroller for you to look at and verify if the sync word and preamble are clocked out. For the last question, what you could maybe do is use the SPI receive interrupt and use it to receive and store the data somewhere so you can process it after receiving your data packet. Keep the interrupt function short so you don't miss out on data and just continuously store the data byte by byte.

4. I don't really understand your question. Doesn't the transceiver stop clocking out the data when the transmit packet is fully sent? Or are you asking if the clock is still provided? For the second question, I imagine you won't properly receive the packet of data after a transmission if you don't change from Tx to Rx. For the last question, best bet for your clock questions would be to take a look at CKLOUT on an oscilloscope.

I'll let you know more if I learn anything more. Hope this is a little helpful.

Hi Allfather,

Thanks for the help from before! I haven't actually gotten around to doing Tx/Rx on the ADF7021 transceiver since I'm currently just working with the microcontroller and the purpose of the microcontroller in my setup is to program the registers and other configuration related things. But, I can try and answer your questions from what I know/guess at least.

1. There's a flow chart (as well as a regular chart) in the Revision D data sheet that talks about setting up the Tx/Rx modes detailing which registers to set up and in what order on pages 41,42, and 43. My best bet would be to follow this, so Register 2 for Tx and Register 4 for Rx. Secretly, I think it's whenever you set Tx or Rx mode on Register 0 but without setting up Register 2 or Register 4, your Tx/Rx mode won't be very useful. Without the power amping from Register 2, you probably don't have enough transmit power for a good signal, and without the demodulation from Register 4, you probably won't be receiving any useful info from a modulated carrier wave.

2. I don't think the STM32 itself will know when exactly the latency bits have passed, but there's a transmit latency chart you can refer to in the Transmit Latency section. If you know your modulation scheme and your baud rate, you can write a delay function for your STM32 to account for the latency before disabling the ADF7021. If you don't need to deal with precise timing, you can just write a general delay function that works for all modulation schemes and baud rates by delaying a longer time period, say a second or longer if necessary (could be shorter too, as long as it works).

3. Looking at Figure 53, my guess would be that the preamble and sync word are clocked out as they are included in the transmit packet structure. It also makes sense that the sync word is clocked out since the sync word is generally used to show that the preamble has ended and that the next bits are the actual data payload. If you've got 2 ADF7021s, you could try sending a message from one to the other, and store the bits on the microcontroller for you to look at and verify if the sync word and preamble are clocked out. For the last question, what you could maybe do is use the SPI receive interrupt and use it to receive and store the data somewhere so you can process it after receiving your data packet. Keep the interrupt function short so you don't miss out on data and just continuously store the data byte by byte.

4. I don't really understand your question. Doesn't the transceiver stop clocking out the data when the transmit packet is fully sent? Or are you asking if the clock is still provided? For the second question, I imagine you won't properly receive the packet of data after a transmission if you don't change from Tx to Rx. For the last question, best bet for your clock questions would be to take a look at CKLOUT on an oscilloscope.

I'll let you know more if I learn anything more. Hope this is a little helpful.

Thank you very much for taking a look at my questions! I'll keep your answers in mind while working further.