Hello,
As I've been explaining, there are various ways of sending data but the most important way is that both parties (or more) both understand how the communication is done.
One can divide this into semantics and syntax. Semantics, will be the meaning of what is sent... both sides are expecting ASCII or binary. And syntax is the order in which data is sent so that both sides know what they mean.
A good example of this is a call to a function. Let's take for example itoa().
An example call to itoa() would be:
itoa (val, str, 10 );
Obviously by looking at the variables one can understand that val is the value to be converted, str is the string in which the result will be stored and 10 is the numerical base. But imagine that this is what you had in front of you:
itoa (var1, var2, var3);
Without knowing what should go into var1, 2 and 3, it would be impossible to get the function to work properly.
With protocols and communication is the same thing. Both sides need to know that after parameter A, comes parameter B. These "parameters", normally called fields, can either be separated by characters or have fixed length.
Normally, a message will have a Header and a Body (if you know HTML, this will not be a surprise). The header will normally carry information about the message (sender, destination, ID, Type, Code, Checksum) and the body will carry the data.
In the NTP protocol (to get time from the internet), the body will carry the number of seconds since Epoch (1/1/1970).
So, one possible implementation of a message could be:
char MessageStart - A character for synchronizing the communication.
char Type - Type of message. This can be a request or command. A request can be marked by a '?' and a command by '!', a status or reply could be marked by '.'.
char Code - Code of the message. This will define which parameter the system is requesting or issuing a command to.
char * Data - Data to be sent.
char MessageEnd - A character to know the message has ended.
So if I sent <?T> to the Arduino it could mean that I was requesting the current temperature. In this case, since I was just asking, there's no Data to be sent.
The Arduino could then reply with <.T23>.
And this is where the problem starts... should we send it in binary or ASCII?
Stay tuned for the next post... data types.
As I've been explaining, there are various ways of sending data but the most important way is that both parties (or more) both understand how the communication is done.
One can divide this into semantics and syntax. Semantics, will be the meaning of what is sent... both sides are expecting ASCII or binary. And syntax is the order in which data is sent so that both sides know what they mean.
A good example of this is a call to a function. Let's take for example itoa().
An example call to itoa() would be:
itoa (val, str, 10 );
Obviously by looking at the variables one can understand that val is the value to be converted, str is the string in which the result will be stored and 10 is the numerical base. But imagine that this is what you had in front of you:
itoa (var1, var2, var3);
Without knowing what should go into var1, 2 and 3, it would be impossible to get the function to work properly.
With protocols and communication is the same thing. Both sides need to know that after parameter A, comes parameter B. These "parameters", normally called fields, can either be separated by characters or have fixed length.
Normally, a message will have a Header and a Body (if you know HTML, this will not be a surprise). The header will normally carry information about the message (sender, destination, ID, Type, Code, Checksum) and the body will carry the data.
In the NTP protocol (to get time from the internet), the body will carry the number of seconds since Epoch (1/1/1970).
So, one possible implementation of a message could be:
char MessageStart - A character for synchronizing the communication.
char Type - Type of message. This can be a request or command. A request can be marked by a '?' and a command by '!', a status or reply could be marked by '.'.
char Code - Code of the message. This will define which parameter the system is requesting or issuing a command to.
char * Data - Data to be sent.
char MessageEnd - A character to know the message has ended.
So if I sent <?T> to the Arduino it could mean that I was requesting the current temperature. In this case, since I was just asking, there's no Data to be sent.
The Arduino could then reply with <.T23>.
And this is where the problem starts... should we send it in binary or ASCII?
Stay tuned for the next post... data types.
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