DWM3000EVB appears unresponsive when driven from ESP32 (no SPI response)

------Question for DWM3000EVB Please Put your question below------

I am evaluating a Qorvo DWM3000EVB UWB Arduino shield (DigiKey part 2312-DWM3000EVB-ND) as an SPI peripheral to an ESP32 dev module, and I’m not getting any valid response from the UWB module over SPI.​

The module appears to power up: 3.3 V is present on the EVB, and current draw looks reasonable for an idle UWB module. The board’s 3.3 V power selection jumper (J1) is in the factory/default position (using the on‑board DC‑DC), with J2 and J3 left in their factory “not populated / reserved” state.​

From firmware side on the ESP32, chip select toggles, SCK, MOSI, and MISO waveforms look clean on a scope, and the SPI configuration (mode, speed, bit order) matches the DWM3000 data sheet requirements for the DW3110-based SPI slave.​

However, all read attempts from the DWM3000EVB return zeros (or otherwise invalid data), and the device never appears to assert an interrupt or show any sign of a successful register access.

My wiring (important):

I am not using the DWM3000EVB stacked on an Arduino/NUCLEO/Nordic DK. Instead, I manually wired the shield to an ESP32 dev board by going GPIO‑to‑GPIO, using jumper wires. In other words, I connected:

  • ESP32 SPI SCK GPIO directly to the EVB pin I believed to be SCK

  • ESP32 SPI MOSI GPIO directly to the EVB pin I believed to be MOSI

  • ESP32 SPI MISO GPIO directly to the EVB pin I believed to be MISO

  • ESP32 CS (chip select) GPIO directly to the EVB’s module CS pin

  • ESP32 IRQ‑input GPIO directly to the EVB’s IRQ pin

  • ESP32 RST‑output GPIO directly to the EVB’s RESET pin

  • ESP32 3V3 to the EVB 3V3, and ESP32 GND to the EVB GND so that ESP32 GND and the EVB/module GND are common.

These connections were done by hand on the Arduino‑form‑factor headers of the DWM3000EVB (not via test pads or a mating Arduino).​

What I need to confirm is:

  1. The exact Arduino/ICSP header pin mapping for the DWM3000EVB (which header pins are SPI SCK, MOSI, MISO, CS, IRQ, and RESET for the module), so I can verify that my “GPIO‑to‑GPIO” hand wiring matches the intended host interface.​

  2. The required jumper and power configuration (J1, and confirmation that J2/J3 should remain unused) when the EVB is powered and controlled from an external MCU like an ESP32, instead of a plug‑in Arduino or NUCLEO board.​

  3. Any additional enable or configuration pins on the EVB that must be strapped to a defined level for the module to respond on SPI.​

If you have an application note, reference schematic, or a minimal “known‑good” wiring example of DWM3000EVB connected to a generic MCU over SPI (not stacked as a shield), that would be very helpful as well.​

Thanks for posting, I’m not terribly familiar with this unit but I’m looking into it. I may have to ask around the department, we should be able to provide some more detailed answers soon.

At least as far as the pinout is concerned, that is answered in the datasheet:

Hi rental,

Here’s where you can find all of the documentation for the DWM3000EVB.

Among them includes the following: