VBOX 3i Serial (RS232) Protocol

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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:

Part of String	Format	Bytes	Description	nnnn, bit mask.
nnnn		4	Reserved to indicate channel presence
0000		4	Reserved
s	Integer	1	Satellites Number of satellites	0x00000001
ttt	Integer	3	UTC Time Number of 10 ms ticks since midnight UTC	0x00000002
aaaa	Signed	4	Latitude (MMMM.MMMMM * 100,000) Signed Integer of Decimal minutes *100,000 Positive = North, Negative = South	0x00000004
oooo	Signed	4	Longitude (MMMMM.MMMMM * 100,000) Signed Integer of Decimal minutes *100,000 Positive = West, Negative = East	0x00000008
vv	Integer	2	Speed Velocity in Knots * 100	0x00000010
hh	Integer	2	Heading Degrees from true north * 100	0x00000020
eee	Integer	3	Height Altitude. In metres WGS84 * 100 True signed 24 bit number	0x00000040
zz	Signed	2	Vertical Velocity Vertical velocity in m/s * 100	0x00000080
yy	Signed	2	Lateral Acceleration (GPS) Lateral acceleration in g * 100	0x00000100
xx	Signed	2	Longitudinal Acceleration (GPS) Longitudinal acceleration in g * 100	0x00000200
ffff	Integer	4	Brake Distance (m *12800)	0x00000400
jjjj	Integer	4	Distance (m*12800)	0x00000800
1111	Float	4	Internal analogue ch1	0x00001000
2222	Float	4	Internal analogue ch2	0x00002000
3333	Float	4	Internal analogue ch3	0x00004000
4444	Float	4	Internal analogue ch4	0x00008000
l	Integer	1	GLONASS satellites*	0x00010000
p	Integer	1	GPS satellites	0x00020000
dd		2	Reserved	0x00040000
dd		2	Reserved	0x00080000
dd		2	Reserved	0x00100000
qq	Integer	2	VBOX Serial Number	0x00200000
rr	Integer	2	Kalman Filter Status	0x00400000
ii	Integer	2	Solution Type	0x00800000
7777	Integer	4	Velocity Quality	0x01000000
8888		4	Reserved	0x02000000
kk		2	Reserved	0x04000000
mmm		3	Reserved	0x08000000
gggg	Float	4	Event Time	0x10000000
55		2	Reserved	0x20000000
99		2	Reserved	0x40000000
66		2	Reserved	0x80000000
cc		2	Checksum

*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.

Part of string	Bytes	Description
$NEWPOS	7	String header
,	1	comma separator
aaaaaaaa	8	Longitude 64-bit float. little-endian (Intel). The least-significant byte is stored first.
bbbbbbbb	8	Latitude 64-bit float.
cc	2	Checksum

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).

Part of string	Bytes	Description	####, bit mask
$NEWCAN	7	String header
####	4	Reserved to indicate channel presence
,	1	comma separator
1111	4	Additional Channel 1	0x00000001
2222	4	Additional Channel 2	0x00000002
3333	4	Additional Channel 3	0x00000004
4444	4	Additional Channel 4	0x00000008
5555	4	Additional Channel 5	0x00000010
6666	4	Additional Channel 6	0x00000020
7777	4	Additional Channel 7	0x00000040
8888	4	Additional Channel 8	0x00000080
9999	4	Additional Channel 9	0x00000100
aaaa	4	Additional Channel 10	0x00000200
bbbb	4	Additional Channel 11	0x00000400
cccc	4	Additional Channel 12	0x00000800
dddd	4	Additional Channel 13	0x00001000
eeee	4	Additional Channel 14	0x00002000
ffff	4	Additional channel 15	0x00004000
gggg	4	Additional Channel 16	0x00008000
hhhh	4	Additional Channel 17	0x00010000
iiii	4	Additional Channel 18	0x00020000
jjjj	4	Additional Channel 19	0x00040000
kkkk	4	Additional Channel 20	0x00080000
llll	4	Additional Channel 21	0x00100000
mmmm	4	Additional Channel 22	0x00200000
nnnn	4	Additional Channel 23	0x00400000
oooo	4	Additional Channel 24	0x00800000
pppp	4	Additional Channel 25	0x01000000
qqqq	4	Additional Channel 26	0x02000000
rrrr	4	Additional Channel 27	0x04000000
ssss	4	Additional Channel 28	0x08000000
tttt	4	Additional Channel 29	0x10000000
uuuu	4	Additional Channel 30	0x20000000
vvvv	4	Additional Channel 31	0x40000000
wwww	4	Additional Channel 32	0x80000000
zz	2	Checksum