Procedure to define a new format for FoxTelem

FoxTelem decodes fixed length frames that are encoded with Reed Solomon Forward Error correction. It has to know in advance how long a frame is before it can be decoded. It also needs to know how to find the FoxId. The other details of the frame layout are then defined in the Spacecraft File.

Format files have the extension .format and are stored in the spacecraft directory. As of version 1.09e the available formats are hard coded into FoxTelem and are selectable from the Input Tab. In future we will make all .format files in the spacecraft folder automatically available for selection.

The .format file is a Java Properties File. Each row contains a key and value.

It has the following rows:

Key	Value	Description
name	String
mode	String
bps	Integer	Number of bits per second
frame_length	Integer
data_length	Integer
header_length	Integer
header_layout_file	String
trailer_length	Integer
word_length	Integer
sync_word_length	Integer
rs_words	Integer
rs_padding	CSV list of Integers