Binary format for timed sequence - bluetooth-lowenergy

I am creating a BLE firmware implementing the Automation IO Service, which is able to accept commands to toggle output pins.
Also, I want to be able to send a sequence of outputs with delays in one single packet.
So, one packet could contain this information:
LED0(High),LED1(HIGH),LED2(HIGH)
-> delay(1000)
-> LED0(High),LED1(LOW),LED2(HIGH)
-> delay(1000)
-> LED0(LOW),LED1(HIGH),LED2(LOW)
-> delay(1000)
-> LED0(LOW),LED1(LOW),LED2(LOW)
Due to BLE's limitations the Packet format should be as space-efficient as possible.
The number of output pins is known in advance, so no need to encode the number or indices of outputs.
Creating this format sounds doable, but I hope to find a known, efficient and wide-spread standardized format for that.
Does such a format exist?

Related

Zigbee communication among 3 devices is carrying garbage along with the actual data transmitted

I am broadcasting Hello using one Xbee (say A).....Xbee (say B) and Xbee (say C) are receiving a lot of garbage values before and after Hello.
All the baudrates are 9600...where am I going wrong?
It would help if you posted an example of the data you see, perhaps the hex values of each byte.
My guess is that you've configured the modules for "API mode" which wraps payloads with a header (starting with 0x7E, the character ~) and footer. It's useful for "smart" devices because it supports multiple packet types.
Check your settings, and make sure you're using ATAP=0. You can use XCTU to change the settings, or from a terminal use the escape sequence (1 second pause, +++, 1 second pause then module should respond with OK) to enter command mode. In command mode, first set ATAP0 and then ATWR to save the changes.

Need to write multiple commands on device 1 by 1

Its taking too long to write a single command on characteristics. I am using below code for a single command and a loop on it.
getConnObservable()
.first()
.flatMap(rxBleConnection -> rxBleConnection.writeCharacteristic(characteristics, command))
.observeOn(AndroidSchedulers.mainThread())
.subscribe(
bytes -> onWriteSuccess(),
this::onWriteFailure
);
Its taking almost 600ms to write on device. I need to write like 100 of commands 1 by 1.
Can anyone please explain what is the best way to do that batch operation
The best way to get the highest performance possible over BLE is to use the same RxBleConnection to carry out all writes—this means to mitigate the overhead of RxJava i.e.:
getConnObservable()
.first()
.flatMapCompletable(rxBleConnection -> Completable.merge(
rxBleConnection.writeCharacteristic(characteristics, command0)).toCompletable(),
rxBleConnection.writeCharacteristic(characteristics, command1)).toCompletable(),
(...)
rxBleConnection.writeCharacteristic(characteristics, command99)).toCompletable(),
))
.observeOn(AndroidSchedulers.mainThread())
.subscribe(
this::onWriteSuccess,
this::onWriteFailure
);
Additionally one could try to negotiate the shortest possible Connection Interval (CI) by subscribing to rxBleConnection.requestConnectionPriority(BluetoothGatt.CONNECTION_PRIORITY_HIGH, delay, timeUnit)
Further speedup can be achieved by setting bluetoothGattCharacteristic.setWriteType(BluetoothGattCharacteristic.WRITE_TYPE‌​_WITHOUT_RESPONSE) if the peripheral/characteristic supports this write type.*
*Be aware that the internal buffer for writes without response is limited and depending on the API level behaves a bit differently. It should not matter for ~100 writes though.
In regards to this conversation:
RxAndroidBle is a Bluetooth Low Energy library and comparing it to Blue2Serial (which uses standard Bluetooth) in terms of performance is not the best thing to do. These have different use-cases—just like using a WiFi or Ethernet cable to get access to the Internet.
Best Regards

read a well defined frame with qtserialport

I'm developing a desktop application with qt which communicates with stm32 to send and receive data.
The thing is, the data to transfer, follow a well-defined shape, with a previously defined fields. My problem is that I can't find how read () or readall() work or how Qserialport even treats the data. So my question is how can I read data (in real time, whenever there is data in the buffer) and analyze it field by field (or per byte) in order to be displayed in the GUI.
There's nothing to it. read() and readAll() give you bytes, optionally wrapped in a QByteArray. How you deal with those bytes is up to you. The serial port doesn't "treat" or interpret the data in any way.
The major point of confusion is that somehow people think of a serial port as if it was a packet oriented interface. It's not. When the readyRead() signal fires, all that you're guaranteed is that there's at least one new byte available to read. You must cope with such fragmentation.

How to extract raw data from TCP packets using Wireshark

Completely new to Wireshark and wondering how to extract the data from the TCP packets which I receive on wireshark.
I am currently using a raspberry pi with grove sensors and getting the values of pressure and temperature. I am sending these values to a server in cloud and it is working. I am using wireshark to trace the packets.
Now I want to extract the data (i.e the pressure value and temperature value) from the packets and store them in a file for further implementation. Is there a way to do it? If yes, then can anyone please explain? It will be helpful.
Thanks.
Most convenient way is saving whole TCP stream into file. Right click on any TCP packet of desired stream, choose "Follow -> TCP stream" and you will see window for managing stream data. You can choose, which data to save (one-direction, or both), which format will be used for output and so on. Check pict below:
The other way is saving data from any packet individually. Since you aren't interested in whole packet, you can select only payload part. Check picture below, where I selected HTTP part of the packet (I marked field with red arrow for clearance). In your case, it will be some field with raw data. Once highlighted the right field, right click on it, choose "copy" and select desired format. Data will be placed into buffer, so you need to paste it into some application. If raw binary is chosen for format, you need application capable of pasting binary data. I use frhed for this task.

GnuRadio tcp_sink data values are garbled

I'm developing a web front end for a GNU Radio application developed by a colleague.
I have a TCP client connecting to the output of two TCP Sink blocks, and the data encoding is not as I expect it to be.
One TCP Sink is sending complex data and the other is sending float data.
I'm decoding the data at the client by reading each 4-byte chunk as a float32 value. The server and the client are both little-endian systems, but I also tried byte swapping (with the GNU Radio Endian Swap block and also manually at the client), and the data is still not right. Actually it's much worse then, confirming there is no byte order mismatch.
When I execute the flow graph in GNU Radio Companion with appropriate GUI elements, the plots look correct. The data values are shown as expected to between 0 and 10.
However the values decoded at the client are generally around 0.00xxxxx, and the plot looks like noise rather than showing a simple tone as is seen in GNU Radio. If I manually scale the data by multiplying by 1000 it still looks like noise.
I'll describe the pre-D path in GNU Radio since it's shorter, but I see the same problem on the post-D path, where a WBFM Receive and a Rational Resampler are added, followed by a Throttle block and then a TCP Sink block sending float data.
File Source (Output Type: complex, vector length: 1) =>
Throttle (vector length: 1) =>
Low Pass Filter (FIR Type: Complex->Complex (Decimating)) =>
Throttle (vector length: 1) =>
TCP Sink (input type: complex, vector length: 1).
This seems to be the correct way to specify the stream parameters (and indeed Companion shows errors if I make changes which mismatch the stream items), but I can find no way to decode the data correctly on the other end of the stream.
"the historic RFC 1700 (also known as Internet standard STD 2) has defined the network order for protocols in the Internet protocol suite to be big-endian , hence the use of the term 'network byte order' for big-endian byte order."
see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endianness
having mentioned the network order for protocols being big-endian, this actually says nothing about the byte order of network payload itself.
also note: Sun Microsystems made big-endian native byte order computers (upon which much Internet protocol development was done).
i am surprised the previous answer has gone this long without a lesson on network byte order versus native byte order.
GNURadio appears to assume native byte order from a UDP Source block.
Examining the datatype color codes in Help->Types of GNURadio Companion, the orange colored 'float' connections are float32.
To verify a computer's native byte order, in Python, do:
from sys import byteorder
byteorder
the result will be 'little' or 'big'
It might be possible that no matter what type floats you are sending, when bytes get on network they get ordered in little endian. I had similar problem with udp connection, and I solved it by parsing floats as little endian on client side.

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