Serial (RS232) Protocol

Serial String Format

Message format: 

$VBOX3i,nnnn0000,stttaaaaoooovvhheeezzyyxxffffjjjj1111222233334444lpddddddqqrrii77778888kkmmmgggg559966cc

The $VBOX3i and commas are in ASCII, the rest is in binary. 

The byte ordering format is big-endian (Motorola). 

Although not all of the channels listed below are present in the serial stream by default (you can select them in the VBOX Setup software), the following table shows the order in which they will appear in the data stream.

Click on the highlighted descriptions to see the specifications for each channel. 

Note: If you are using VBOX 3i Firmware Version 3.0 or later, you can find more information about selecting channels to send over serial here.

Enter first 4 bytes (nnnn) as 8 characters of hexadecimal:  

*This channel is not available on VBOX 3i ADAS units.

NEWPOS Serial String Format

This is a message that contains additional channels to the serial message. Information in this message will provide you with an exact position in Longitude and Latitude. 

If your VBOX 3i unit has RTK enabled and configured for 2cm DGPS (CMR, RTCM V3, NTRIP), and you have set either the Latitude or Longitude channel to be sent over serial, the NEWPOS message will be added to the serial string and the data stream will look like the following example:

$VBOX3i,nnnn0000,stttaaaaoooovvhheeezzmmmggggcc$NEWPOS,aaaaaaaabbbbbbbbcc

$NEWPOS,aaaaaaaabbbbbbbbcc is the additional exact Longitude and Latitude information to the serial data stream.

NEWCAN Serial String Format

This is a message that contains additional channels to the serial message. Information in this message can be linked to anything that is not covered in standard serial, such as modules, ADAS channels, etc. This information is either configured in the setup software or requested by VBOX Test Suite.

You can use VBOX Setup to configure additional channels, by adding modules, CAN channels, and ADAS systems and by ticking the advanced box and selecting send to serial.

When any of these channels are selected to be present in the Serial data stream the data stream will look like the following example:

$VBOX3i,nnnn0000,stttaaaaoooovvhheeezzmmmggggcc$NEWCAN,####,1111.....wwwwzz

$NEWCAN,####,1111.....wwwwzz  is the additional CAN channel information to the serial data stream.

Note: The order in which the data will come across depends upon the order in which you select the channels from the set-up screen. For example, if the first channel you choose to log is FIM Channel 1 then the first 4 bytes will contain the data from the FIM. If the second channel was ADC02 Channel 4 then the next 4 bytes will contain data for the ADC02. If you then remove (choose not to log) FIM Channel 1 and select ADC02 Channel 1 then the first 4 bytes will now contain the data for ADC02 Channel 1.

The data transmitted for each channel is in a standard IEEE 32-bit Float format.

The byte ordering format is big-endian (Motorola).