Binary Data for UDP

[weirddave]

I want to construct a data payload based on a whole load of things which set the individual bits in the bytes.

Ideally I'd like to access the bytes in the form:

$TxData [ $ByteNo ]

Followed by:
UDPSend ( $TxSocket, $TxData )

How do I specify $TxData[] as an array of bytes?

 

[RTFC]

DLLstructCreate assigns a struct to a variable, which can contain lots of bytes. However if you're using fewer than 33 flags, I would just store a single (32-bit) integer in a variable and set its individual bits with $var=BitOr($var,2^<yourbit>).

Edited September 20, 2016 by RTFC
typo

[weirddave]

Thanks for the replay
I shall take a look at DLLstructCreate, I have 54 bytes (some are values, others are flag bits) at the moment and that is likely to increase.

Had a look, would:

$TxData = DLLStructCreate ( "struct; byte myTxData[54] ;endstruct" )

do the trick? Set the bytes like so:

DllStructSetData ( $TxData, myTxData, n )

where 'n' is the byte I want to set. I assume this starts at 0?
When receiving packets, what should I do to read individual bytes?

[RTFC]

See DllstructGetData. The index is base-1 though, and refers to the entire chunk of bytes you defined. If you want 54 separately addressable bytes you need to define them individually (byte;byte;byte...). Then you could also name each flag individually (byte flag1; byte flag2...). But you're still wasting bandwidth by a factor 8 this way; I would define two dwords or one int64 instead (= 64 bit flags), and set/test/reset their individual bits (and not use entire bytes). Up to you, of course.

[weirddave]

The flags are grouped into bytes already, there's only a few spare bits in those 54 bytes.

I can see how to use  DllstructGetDat, but how do I get the data into it from UDPRECV()? I will probably want to check the IP address so my command was going to be along the lines of:

$sReceived = UDPRECV( $RxSocket, $RxDataLength, 3 )

The autoit examples really aren't helping me

[RTFC]

2 hours ago, weirddave said:

The flags are grouped into bytes already

That's a lot of flags!

Yeah, the examples tend to show the most basic usage only. Having had to write several Help docs for my own software, I can relate to the inclination to leave it at that.

There's some user-generated content on UDP on the forum (google: "site:autoitscript.com UDP"), or you could study my fairly densely annotated Pool environment (link in signature) for example, which does UDP (amongst a few other things). It's neither small nor simple though, so maybe you'd best study some of the other examples instead/first.

Edited September 21, 2016 by RTFC

[weirddave]

A lot of the data is just values, there's only about 40 flags  
The 'other end' will be an arduino style device (based on the Due micro), connected to a FPGA which in turn communicates with a bunch of other stuff, hence all the data and flags.
I took a little look at Pool, I think I need to keep it light, I'm aiming for 1ms loop times. 'This end' will be replaced with Arduino style hardware as well, the purpose of the autoit code is to emulate either end to help debug it  

I shall see what google throws my way...

Cheers.

[weirddave]

I've managed to send some data using:

$TxStruct = String("struct;byte myTxData[54];endstruct")
$TxData = DLLStructCreate ( $TxStruct )
$BinTxData = DLLStructGetData($TxData, "myTxData")
UDPSend($TxSocket, $BinTxData)

Is that the right way to do it?

If I were to create a more meaningful structure, such as:

$TxStruct = String("struct;byte flags;byte data;endstruct")

how would I send the whole structure?

Google really isn't finding the information I want

[funkey]

Global $tData = DllStructCreate("byte myTxData[54]")

Global $tMeaningfulStruct = DllStructCreate("byte flags[6];byte data[6]", DllStructGetPtr($tData)) ; point to the data struct

DllStructSetData($tMeaningfulStruct, "flags", _SetBit(0, 0), 2) ; set bit 0 of second flag byte
DllStructSetData($tMeaningfulStruct, "flags", _SetBit(0, 1), 3) ; set bit 1 of third flag byte

DllStructSetData($tMeaningfulStruct, "data", 0xff, 2) ; set 0xff to second data byte


Global $bData = DllStructGetData($tData, "myTxData")
ConsoleWrite($bData & @CRLF)


Func _SetBit($bVal, $iPos)
    Return BitOR($bVal, 2^$iPos)
EndFunc

 

[weirddave]

I'm speechless, thanks for that, you've helped massively.
If I have received a block of data, can I use the same method?

Global $tDataRx = DllStructCreate("byte myRxData[4]")

$sReceived = UDPRECV($RxSocket, $RxDataLength, $RxUDPStyle); this contains the data block (4 bytes)
$tMeaningfulStructRx = DllStructCreate("byte flagsRx[2];byte dataRx[2]", DllStructGetPtr($sReceived)) ; point to the data struct

$temp = DllStructGetData($tMeaningfulStructRx, "dataRx",1) ; get the first data byte
msgbox(0,"",$temp)

 

[weirddave]

I think I have that all wrong

Global $tDataRx = DllStructCreate("byte myRxData[4]")
$tMeaningfulStructRx = DllStructCreate("byte flagsRx[2];byte dataRx[2]", DllStructGetPtr($tDataRx)) ; point to the data struct

$sReceived = UDPRECV($RxSocket, $RxDataLength, $RxUDPStyle); this contains the data block (4 bytes)
DllStructSetData($tDataRx, "myRxData", $sReceived) ;

$temp = DllStructGetData($tMeaningfulStructRx, "dataRx",1) ; get the first data byte
msgbox(0,"",$temp)

I think this is the right way to do it. Hopefully I can write a piece of test code to prove it

 

[funkey]

Looks good.

[weirddave]

I've created a file with all the byte names in which I read in to create the struct so that I can change things without diving into the code. This appears to be working but has the side effect of creating the 'meaningful' struct first then using its pointer for the packet data struct (I need the length from the meaningful struct before I can create the packet struct). I think this works because the structs are 'real' and not some autoit version of reality, is this correct?

[funkey]

You are right. It does not matter what structure points to the other one. DllStructCreate without pointer allocates the real memory. DllStructCreate with pointer points to the real memory location allocated first.