Helios COTS Telemetry Decoder

A Python-based telemetry decoder for COTS (Commercial Off-The-Shelf) satellite systems, providing packet decoding, parsing, and logging capabilities.

Features

• Protocol Buffer Support: Message serialization and deserialization using Protocol Buffers
• Serial Communication: Read and decode telemetry data from serial interfaces
• Multiple Output Formats: CSV logging and structured data formatting
• COBS Encoding: Support for Consistent Overhead Byte Stuffing
• CRC Validation: Data integrity checking with CRC module
• Dockerized: Containerized deployment support

Prerequisites

• Python 3.13 or higher
• pip or uv package manager

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/UBC-Rocket/helios-cots-telemetry
cd helios-cots-telemetry

2. Install dependencies:

make deps

Or using uv:

uv sync

Usage

Running the Decoder

# Basic usage - read from serial port
uv run src/main.py -p /dev/ttyUSB0

# With custom baud rate (default: 115200)
uv run src/main.py -p /dev/ttyACM0 -b 9600

# Verbose mode (shows raw hex data)
uv run src/main.py -p /dev/ttyUSB0 -v

# With custom timeout (in seconds)
uv run src/main.py -p /dev/ttyUSB0 -t 2.0

# Log output to CSV file
uv run src/main.py -p /dev/ttyUSB0 -o telemetry.csv

# Using environment variables
SERIAL_PORT=/dev/ttyUSB0 SERIAL_BAUD=115200 uv run src/main.py

Configuration via Environment Variables

The decoder can be configured using environment variables (useful for Docker):

• SERIAL_BAUD - Baud rate (default: 115200)
• SERIAL_TIMEOUT - Per-byte read timeout in seconds (default: 1.0)
• CSV_OUTPUT_PATH - Path for CSV log file (optional)

Docker

Build and run using Docker:

docker build -t helios-telemetry .
docker run -e SERIAL_PORT=/dev/ttyUSB0 helios-telemetry

Or using the Makefile:

make run  

Configuration

Edit config.json to customize:

• Serial port settings
• Baud rate
• Output file paths
• Logging parameters