C#•2y ago

❔ Deserialize serial data to struct (port from C)

Hello, I'm not sure how you do this in C#: I have this code I'm porting to C#. It's basically a stream from a serial port that needs to be de-serialized into a struct. This is the C code for the struct:

#define AETHER_X6100CTRL_BB_FRAME_IQ_SAMPLES_COUNT 512
#define AETHER_X6100CTRL_BB_FRAME_MAGIC 0xAA5555AA

typedef struct
{
    bool resync : 1;
    bool tx : 1;
    bool chg : 1;
    bool vext : 1;
    uint32_t reserved : 28;
} aether_x6100ctrl_bb_frame_flags_t;

typedef struct AETHER_X6100CTRL_PACKED
{
    uint32_t magic; /*!< Every frame starts with AETHER_X6100CTRL_BB_FRAME_MAGIC */
    aether_x6100ctrl_fcomplex_t bb_iq_samples[AETHER_X6100CTRL_BB_FRAME_IQ_SAMPLES_COUNT];
    aether_x6100ctrl_bb_frame_flags_t flags;
    uint8_t reserved_1;
    uint8_t tx_power;
    uint8_t vswr;
    uint8_t alc_level;
    uint8_t vext;
    uint8_t vbat;
    uint8_t batcap;
    uint8_t reserved_2;
    uint32_t atu_params;
    uint32_t reserved_3;
    uint32_t reserved_4;
    uint32_t reserved_5;
    uint32_t reserved_6;
    uint32_t crc;
} aether_x6100ctrl_bb_frame_t;

#define AETHER_X6100CTRL_BB_FRAME_IQ_SAMPLES_COUNT 512
#define AETHER_X6100CTRL_BB_FRAME_MAGIC 0xAA5555AA

typedef struct
{
    bool resync : 1;
    bool tx : 1;
    bool chg : 1;
    bool vext : 1;
    uint32_t reserved : 28;
} aether_x6100ctrl_bb_frame_flags_t;

typedef struct AETHER_X6100CTRL_PACKED
{
    uint32_t magic; /*!< Every frame starts with AETHER_X6100CTRL_BB_FRAME_MAGIC */
    aether_x6100ctrl_fcomplex_t bb_iq_samples[AETHER_X6100CTRL_BB_FRAME_IQ_SAMPLES_COUNT];
    aether_x6100ctrl_bb_frame_flags_t flags;
    uint8_t reserved_1;
    uint8_t tx_power;
    uint8_t vswr;
    uint8_t alc_level;
    uint8_t vext;
    uint8_t vbat;
    uint8_t batcap;
    uint8_t reserved_2;
    uint32_t atu_params;
    uint32_t reserved_3;
    uint32_t reserved_4;
    uint32_t reserved_5;
    uint32_t reserved_6;
    uint32_t crc;
} aether_x6100ctrl_bb_frame_t;

You can explore the code better if you want on this header file and this C file. This is a bit of an on-going work that's a bit rough. Since I want to move to C# and all the code is doing is writing and reading to serial, I thought I could just do away with the base C(++) library. What tools in C# do you use to define and de-serialize a struct like this? Thanks

5 Replies

james441•2y ago

This is for hardware control for sending/ recieving radio signals right? I've done a bit of this before for hobby stuff, not professional so take this with a big pinch of salt. You might get struggle using C# for this work. Radio sigal sending and recieving relies on quite precise timings that garbage collected languages might not work reliably for. Languages like C and C++ are really the ideal tool for this kind of job.

james441•2y ago

Having said that, if you want to try out C#, I'd take a look at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.runtime.serialization.formatters.binary.binaryformatter.deserialize?view=net-7.0 - it says obsolete beacuse of potential security risks, but I think it's the only choice you have, and hopefully you are reading from hardware you trust 😛

BinaryFormatter.Deserialize Method (System.Runtime.Serialization.Fo...

Deserializes a stream into an object graph.

LordKalma (CT7ALW)•2y ago

it's for controlling the actual radio 🙂 but yeah, thanks for the tip 🙂

james441•2y ago

So you want to transmit or recieve a struct that looks like the one you posted through the radio module?

Accord•2y ago

Was this issue resolved? If so, run /close - otherwise I will mark this as stale and this post will be archived until there is new activity.

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❔ Deserialize serial data to struct (port from C)