How do I convert bytes to seconds? - ruby

I have a socket server listening for UDP packets from a GSM device. Some of the data comes in as multibytes, such as time, which requires multibytes for accuracy. This is an example:
179,248,164,14
The bytes are represented in decimal notation. My goal is to convert that into seconds:
245692595
I am trying to do that and was told:
"You must take those 4 bytes and place them into a single long integer in little endian format. If you are using Python to read and encode the data, you will need to look at using the .read() and struct.unpack() methods to successfully convert it to an integer. The resulting value is the number of seconds since 01/01/2000."
So, I tried to do this:
%w(179 248 164 14).sort.map(&:to_i).inject(&:+)
=> 605
And I obviously am getting the wrong answer.

You should use the pack and unpack methods to do this:
[179,248,164,14].pack('C*').unpack('I')[0]
# => 245692595
It's not about adding them together, though. You're doing the math wrong. The correct way to do it with inject is this:
[179,248,164,14].reverse.inject { |s,v| s * 256 + v }
# => 245692595
Note you will have to account for byte ordering when representing binary numbers that are more than one byte long.
If the original data is already a binary string you won't have to perform the pack operation and can proceed directly to the unpack phase.

Related

How do I interpret a python byte string coming from F1 2020 game UDP packet?

Title may be wildly incorrect for what I'm trying to work out.
I'm trying to interpret packets I am recieving from a racing game in a way that I understand, but I honestly don't really know what I'm looking at, or what to search to understand it.
Information on the packets I am recieving here:
https://forums.codemasters.com/topic/54423-f1%C2%AE-2020-udp-specification/?tab=comments#comment-532560
I'm using python to print the packets, here's a snippet of the output, which I don't understand how to interpret.
received message: b'\xe4\x07\x01\x03\x01\x07O\x90.\xea\xc2!7\x16\xa5\xbb\x02C\xda\n\x00\x00\x00\xff\x01\x00\x03:\x00\x00\x00 A\x00\x00\xdcB\xb5+\xc1#\xc82\xcc\x10\t\x00\xd9\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x12\x10\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00$tJ\x03\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x01
I'm very new to coding, and not sure what my next step is, so a nudge in the right direction will help loads, thanks.
This is the python code:
import socket
UDP_IP = "127.0.0.1"
UDP_PORT = 20777
sock = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, # Internet
socket.SOCK_DGRAM) # UDP
sock.bind((UDP_IP, UDP_PORT))
while True:
data, addr = sock.recvfrom(4096)
print ("received message:", data)
The website you link to is describing the data format. All data represented as a series of 1's and 0's. A byte is a series of 8 1's and 0's. However, just because you have a series of bytes doesn't mean you know how to interpret them. Do they represent a character? An integer? Can that integer be negative? All of that is defined by whoever crafted the data in the first place.
The type descriptions you see at the top are telling you how to actually interpret that series of 1's and 0's. When you see "unit8", that is an "unsigned integer that is 8 bits (1 byte) long". In other words, a positive number between 0 and 255. An "int8" on the other hand is an "8-bit integer", or a number that can be positive or negative (so the range is -128 to 127). The same basic idea applies to the *16 and *64 variants, just with 16 bits or 64 bits. A float represent a floating point number (a number with a fractional part, such as 1.2345), generally 4 bytes long. Additionally, you need to know the order to interpret the bytes within a word (left-to-right or right-to-left). This is referred to as the endianness, and every computer architecture has a native endianness (big-endian or little-endian).
Given all of that, you can interpret the PacketHeader. The easiest way is probably to use the struct package in Python. Details can be found here:
https://docs.python.org/3/library/struct.html
As a proof of concept, the following will interpret the first 24 bytes:
import struct
data = b'\xe4\x07\x01\x03\x01\x07O\x90.\xea\xc2!7\x16\xa5\xbb\x02C\xda\n\x00\x00\x00\xff\x01\x00\x03:\x00\x00\x00 A\x00\x00\xdcB\xb5+\xc1#\xc82\xcc\x10\t\x00\xd9\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x12\x10\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00$tJ\x03\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x01'
#Note that I am only taking the first 24 bytes. You must pass data that is
#the appropriate length to the unpack function. We don't know what everything
#else is until after we parse out the header
header = struct.unpack('<HBBBBQfIBB', data[:24])
print(header)
You basically want to read the first 24 bytes to get the header of the message. From there, you need to use the m_packetId field to determine what the rest of the message is. As an example, this particular packet has a packetId of 7, which is a "Car Status" packet. So you would look at the packing format for the struct CarStatus further down on that page to figure out how to interpret the rest of the message. Rinse and repeat as data arrives.
Update: In the format string, the < tells you to interpret the bytes as little-endian with no alignment (based on the fact that the documentation says it is little-endian and packed). I would recommend reading through the entire section on Format Characters in the documentation above to fully understand what all is happening regarding alignment, but in a nutshell it will try to align those bytes with their representation in memory, which may not match exactly the format you specify. In this case, HBBBBQ takes up 2 bytes more than you'd expect. This is because your computer will try to pack structs in memory so that they are word-aligned. Your computer architecture determines the word alignment (on a 64-bit computer, words are 64-bits, or 8 bytes, long). A Q takes a full word, so the packer will try to align everything before the Q to a word. However, HBBBB only requires 6 bytes; so, Python will, by default, pad an extra 2 bytes to make sure everything lines up. Using < at the front both ensures that the bytes will be interpreted in the correct order, and that it won't try to align the bytes.
Just for information if someone else is looking for this. In python there is the library f1-2019-telemetry existing. On the documentation, there is a missing part about the "how to use" so here is a snippet:
from f1_2020_telemetry.packets import *
...
udp_socket = socket.socket(family=socket.AF_INET, type=socket.SOCK_DGRAM)
udp_socket.bind((host, port))
while True:
udp_packet = udp_socket.recv(2048)
packet = unpack_udp_packet(udp_packet)
if isinstance(packet, PacketSessionData_V1): # refer to doc for classes / attribute
print(packet.trackTemperature) # for example
if isinstance(packet, PacketParticipantsData_V1):
for i, participant in enumerate(packet.participants):
print(DriverIDs[participant.driverId]) # the library has some mapping for pilot name / track name / ...
Regards,
Nicolas

Extract custom data format in TCP payload using golang

I have an industrial sensor which is connected to a Interface Module that provides information to the end user via telnet.
Telnet Configuration
Port: 10001
Data Format: Little-Endian
Data payload
Preamble - 32 bit
Article number - 32 bit
Serial number - 32 bit
Channels - 64 bit
Status - 32 bit
Frame number M / - 16 bit/ 16 bit
bytes per frame
Measuring value counter - 32 bit
Measuring value frame 1 - N * 32 bit
..
..
This should be available after the TCP headers (if I understand correctly) i.e. Payload.
I am trying to learn golang with more practical examples and I am thinking in the following direction:
Create a TCP server for listening to the sensor's Interface module IP and port number
Extract the payload and just print it out as seperate parameters like preamble, article number etc. as a beginners task
I have gone through some blog-posts about TCP server/client creations but they only address string in their payload. How can I extract such a byte orientated custom payload as mentioned above?
P.S.
I can understand that this can be achieved in python probably via struct.pack and struct.unpack hence some correlation as understanding would be appreciated
In section 6.2 of your linked pdf document above there is a table listing the data you seem to list in the question
I would convert that table into a struct and then read into it with the encoding/binary module. See https://golang.org/pkg/encoding/binary/#example_Read for a relevant example
"All measuring values are transmitted as Int32, Uint32 or Float depending on the connected sensor" probably easiest to get them as uint32 and then convert them later

What is the most efficient protobuf type (in C++) for storing ipv4 or ipv6 address? My address is a boost::asio::ip::address_v4 (or v6)

I read that protobuf has a type called "bytes" which can store arbitrary number of bytes and is the equivalent of "C++ string". The reason why I don't prefer to use "bytes" is that it expects input as a C++ string i.e., boost IP will need to be converted to a string. Now my concern lies here : I want to perform serialize and send the encoded protobuf message over TCP socket. I want to ensure that the encoded message size is as small as possible.
Currently, I am using the below .proto file :
syntax = "proto2";
message profile
{
repeated **uint32** localEndpoint = 1;
repeated **uint32** remoteEndpoint = 2;
}
In order to save boost IP in the protobuf message, I am first converting boost IP into byte-format array by using "boost::asio::ip::address_v4::to_bytes()". So for a v4 IP, resultant array size is 4. Then I am converting 1st 4 bytes from the resultant byte-array into one uint32_t number and then storing in "localEndpoint" field of the protobuf message. Likewise, I repeat for the next 4 bytes (for v6). I am taking 4 bytes at a time so as to utilize full 32 bits of the uint32.
Hence for a v4 address, 1 occurrence of "localEndpoint" field is used.
Similarly, for a v6 address, 4 occurrence of "localEndpoint" field is used.
Please allow me to highlight that if I had used "bytes" here, my input string itself would have been of size 15 bytes for a v4 ip like 111.111.111.111
Using uint32 instead of "bytes" does save me some encoded-data-size but I am looking for a more efficient protobuf type requiring lesser number of bytes.
Sorry for a long description but I wanted to explain my query in details. Please help me.. Thanks a lot in advance :)
An ipv4 address should require exactly 4 bytes. If you're somehow getting 8, you're doing something wrong - are you perhaps hex-encoding it? You don't need that here. Likewise, ipv6 should be 16 bytes.
4 bytes with a usually-set high byte is most effectively stored as fixed32 - varint would be overhead here, due to the high bits. 16 bytes is more subtle - I'd go with bytes (field header plus length), since it is simpler to form into a union, and if the field-number is large, it avoids having to pay for multiple multi-byte field headers (a length prefix of 16 will always be single-byte).
I'd then create a union of these via oneof:
oneof ip_addr {
fixed32 v4 = 1;
bytes v6 = 2;
}

ASCII control of VFD

All,
I am a new user here, and thought I would see if the experts could help me with something I am new to.
I have been given the following statement to try and solve:
The Variable Frequency Drive (VFD) is connected to the PLC by RS485 communication. The speed of the motor (M2) can be adjusted by sending the following command:
STX N DATA ETX , with each separate value having the <> symbols around them.
Data : Length of data is 1 byte, in which the value of S (Slow), M (Medium) or F (Fast) can be sent.
N : Node number of the VFD, with a data length of two byte ASCII.
My question is, how would I type to send this data? It doesn't say whether to use a specific data type to represent, so surely I could just type the data as it is, e.g. STX 1 S ETX?
Othwerside, I'm not sure how to combine the byte representations of the data, representing them in hex, binary or decimal. I'm not sure what is meant by two byte ASCII, is this not UNICODE-16? Also, I'm not sure if I need to send the values of STX or ETX with the data string or not
I hope someone can shed some light on this.
Thanks in advance.
Since the frequency goes from 0-50 Hz, I think we should send data in this range.
So if we want the frequency to be half maximal, we will send 25.
To send this to VFD, we first need to split that number into 2 and 5
The message should read STX 2 5 ETX?
Now we look at the ASCII code table and find 2 and 5.
0x50 = 2
0x53 = 5
We convey everything in a message that reads
STX 0x50 0x53 ETX
The aforementioned S7-300 is recommended for operation. You can also solve this through his TIA portal.
All,
I managed to figure this out with a bit of digging. I simulated it using Siemens S7-300 on TIA portal, and set up communications on a module. I sent the values I wanted using a "move" block, to a value set in the Data Block.
I repeated this for the Node value, making sure the correct data type was chosen, and sent the data through a Send_ptp command block.
Must have got a bit flustered and tired the other night when I was trying it. Hopefully it might help someone in the future.

when ParseFromArray return true in protocol buffer

I ParseFromArray the protocol buffer's protocol, the protocol is not lack any filed. But the ParseFromArray function returns false. Why?
I'm assuming you are using C++. ParseFromArray() fails if:
The input data is not in valid protobuf format.
The input data is lacking a required field.
If you are sure that all required fields are set, then it must be the case that your input data is corrupted. You should verify that the bytes and size you are passing into ParseFromArray() are exactly the bytes and size that you got from SerializeToArray() and ByteSize() on the sending side. You will probably find that you are losing some bytes somewhere, or that some bytes got corrupted.
Common reasons for corruption include:
Passing the encoded bytes over a text-only channel. E.g. if you write the data to (or read it from) a file that is not opened in "binary" mode, or if you at some point store the bytes in a Java String, the data will become corrupted, as these channels expect text, and encoded protobufs are not text.
Passing the bytes as a char*, i.e. assuming NUL-termination. Encoded protobufs can contain '\0' bytes, meaning that you cannot represent one as a char* alone -- you must include the size separately.
Serializing to an array that is larger than needed, and then forgetting to pay attention to how much data was actually written. When you call SerializeToArray(), you must also call ByteSize() to see how large the message is, and you must make sure the receiving end receives that size and passes it to ParseFromArray(). Otherwise, the parser will think that the extra bytes at the end of the buffer are part of the message, and will fail to parse them.

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