DiagMsg:

Author/Contact: miklos.maroti@vanderbilt.edu (Miklos Maroti, ISIS, Vanderbilt)

DESCRIPTION:

The DiagMsg component allows messages to be sent back to the base station 
containing several diagnostic or debugging values together with their type 
information. The base station must run the GenericBase or TOSBase application 
which forwards all messages to a PC connected to the base station. A java 
programm (PrintDiagMsgs) displays the messages on the screen according to 
the formating rules contained in the message.

The following data types are supported: 1,2, 4 and 8 byte long signed, unsigned and 
hexadecimal integers, characters, floating point numbers, strings and arrays 
of the previous types (of length up to 15). Each field requires an additional 
4 bit type descriptor.

USAGE:

When you want to report some data, write code something like this:

	if( call DiagMsg.record() )
	{
		call DiagMsg.str("test");
		call DiagMsg.uint8(17);
		call DiagMsg.int16(1973);
		call DiagMsg.real(12.345);
		call DiagMsg.chr('Z');
		call DiagMsg.uint32(123456789);
		call DiagMsg.send();
	}

The DiagMsg component will record the message and will send it as soon 
as possible. You can record up to 29 bytes of data in a single message.
Each field uses and additional 4-bit type descriptor. For arrays, including
strings, there is an additional 1-byte length descriptor as well. The diag 
message above, for example, uses

	5+1+1+2+4+1+4+7*0.5 = 21.5

that is 22 bytes. If the message cannot hold more fields, then additional 
fields will be silently ignored. 

THE JAVA PROGRAM:

The java program (DiagMsgs) displays each DiagMsg in a line. The program 
can connect to a SerialForward application, or can use the serial port directly.

TUNABLE PARAMETERS:

The DiagMsg component can be configured by defining the following values in 
your make file:

DIAGMSG_BASE_STATION: The node ID of the base station or 0xFFFF to broadcast
the message. The default value is to broadcast the message.

DIAGMSG_RETRY_COUNT: The DiagMsg component will retry messages this many times 
before dropping them. The base station must acknowledge them (this is done 
automatically).

DIAGMSG_RECORDED_MSGS: The DiagMsg component keeps an internal buffer of this 
many messages. This allows sending several small messages without waiting for 
their completion.