This repository contains a platform-independent, Python-based simulator for the Zephyr Onboard Computer (OBC) for the CNES Strateole 2 campaign. This simulator adds the ability to receive and display debug messages from LASP instruments over the same serial connection as the XML-based OBC communications.
The simulator uses the PySimpleGUI library to provide multiple input and output windows that allow the user to interact with the instrument under test.
On startup, the user has the following options:
Example ports: (Windows) COM3, (Linux/MacOS) /dev/ttyUSB0
If the user responds "Yes" to the "Automatically respond with ACKs?" prompt, then in response to S, RA, and TM XML messages, the simulator will send affirmative SAck, RAAck, and TMAck messages respectively. This is the default option. Otherwise, the user must manually send these commands.
To send a command, the user must simply click the corresponding button in the Command Menu window and then complete any follow-up prompt windows as applicable.
The commands that are sent and simulator decisions that are made are displayed in the Debug window. Note that certain commands are color-coded. The exact time of each command is prepended in square brackets.
The Instrument Output window has two scrolling text outputs: the instrument debug output, and the XML output. The instrument debug displays the StratoCore-specific debug messages, where errors are colored red. The XML output shows a succinct one-line message for each type of XML message received. The exact time of each message is prepended in square brackets.
Each time an OBC Simulator session is successfully started, a directory under the sessions/ directory is created. Each session's directory will be named according to the date and instrument: INST_DD-Mmm-YY_HH-MM-SS/.
INST_CMD_DD-Mmm-YY_HH-MM-SS.txt: logs all of the commands sent to the instrument
INST_DBG_DD-Mmm-YY_HH-MM-SS.txt: logs all of the debug messages received from the instrument
INST_XML_DD-Mmm-YY_HH-MM-SS.txt: logs all of the XML messages received from the instrument
TM: directory containing individual, timestamped files for each telemetry message in the same format as found on the CCMZ
sessions/
|---RACHUTS_04-Jun-20_12-04-32/
| | RACHUTS_CMD_04-Jun-20_12-04-32.txt
| | RACHUTS_DBG_04-Jun-20_12-04-32.txt
| | RACHUTS_XML_04-Jun-20_12-04-32.txt
| |---TM/
| | TM_04-Jun-20_12-04-37.RACHUTS.dat
| | TM_04-Jun-20_12-04-43.RACHUTS.dat
|---LPC_05-Jun-20_13-07-32/
| | LPC_CMD_05-Jun-20_13-07-32.txt
| | LPC_DBG_05-Jun-20_13-07-32.txt
| | LPC_XML_05-Jun-20_13-07-32.txt
| |---TM/
| | TM_05-Jun-20_13-07-37.LPC.dat
| | TM_05-Jun-20_13-07-43.LPC.dat
|---etc...
The Legacy/ directory contains old scripts used to run the original simulator code. The advantage of using scripting is automation. In the future, this could be achieved with the new architecture by writing out a list of commands with along with timing in a file to be parsed and sent.