Concepts

What is NorAir Frame

The NorAir Frame is a protocol designed to establish communication between a user computer and Northern Aircraft Labs hardware. It is based on a message engine consisting of instructions and responses that function similarly to a ping-pong scheme.

The Northern Aircraft Labs hardware comprises an On-Board Computer System (OBCS) and its peripherals. Messages are sent via the OBCS, which autonomously determines their routing destinations. Any peripheral can be a message target, including the OBCS itself. Importantly, there is always a response except for a few types of instructions, such as hard resets. These responses may consist of general data, confirmation of a setting, or error messages.

Received messages are those received by the OBCS from an external source, such as a user computer. Sent messages are the responses dispatched by the hardware. The Frame is viewed from the hardware's point of view.

Received messages are UTF-8 sequences of bytes with a minimum length of 2 bytes and a maximum length of 32 bytes. Sent messages are always fixed 32-byte sequences and are not nullterminated. Additionally, if the OBCS receives a character, such as an alphanumeric one, it will interpret it using its ASCII code. For example, 'A' is represented as 0x41.

Furthermore, there will always be a response except when explicitly stated otherwise