Sending commads and parameters via UDP

Using Arduino Programming Questions
1

Hi,
I'm trying to figure out how to implement a pretty simple protocol for sending commands + parameters to an arduino board via UDP datagrams.

The part where I send UDP packets is working fine ... My arduino receive the data... But where I need help is to interpret these commands+params.

At the moment my protocol is simple and may become more complex in the future as I wand to be able to add checksum and stuff like that.

For the moment it's like that:

first 3 character is the function number
All the other character excluding the 3 first ones is the parameter

simple example:

001test will print test to the LCD ...

This 'sort of protocol' works well when I have a command and 1 parameter.. but if I want to send more parameter for the same command or if I would like to add checksumming it start to be more difficult..

here is my actual code:

// Check if new UDP packet arrived 

  int packetSize = Udp.parsePacket();
  if(packetSize)
  {
    Serial.print("[DEBUG] Received packet: [");
    Serial.print(packetSize);
    Serial.print("] From: ");
   
    IPAddress remote = Udp.remoteIP();
    for (int i =0; i < 4; i++)
    {
      Serial.print(remote[i], DEC);
      if (i < 3)
      {
         Serial.print(".");
      }
    }
    
    Serial.print("  port:");
    Serial.print(Udp.remotePort());

    Udp.read(packetBuffer,packetSize);

    Serial.print(" Content:");
    Serial.println(packetBuffer);

  // read packet
    Serial.println("[DEBUG] Looping packet start");
    char command[4];
    char param[packetSize -2];
    int index=0;
    for (int i = 0; i < packetSize; i++)
    {
      if (i < 3)
      {
        command[i] = packetBuffer[i];
        command[i+1] = NULL;
      }
      else
      {
        param[i-3] = packetBuffer[i];
        param[i-2] = NULL;
      }
    }
  
   Serial.print("Command:");
   Serial.println(command);
   Serial.print("Param:");
   Serial.println(param);
  
   Serial.println("[DEBUG] Looping packet end");

I would like to have more comments before I continue just to see if there is better way to do it...

I thought about using the cmdMessenger library but I never been able to make it work with UDP messages.

All idea are welcome !

Thanks all

2

My first thought is that when I type a response, it does not look like this:
MyfirstthoughtisthatwhenItypearesponseitdoesnotlooklikethis:

So, then I wonder why you jam stuff together. Much simpler to parse things when there are delimiters.

If you were sending stuff like:
001 test string for the LCD
you would easily parse the arguments. That's what the strtok() function is made for.

3

Thanks PaulS,

I didn't know about the strtok() function, I'm going to read about it right now and see how it could help me.

I'll post my findings when I've mastered strtok function :slight_smile:

Thanks for your quick answer