Commit Graph
17 Commits
Author SHA1 Message Date
serversdownandClaude Opus 5 ebcc55e2ec docs(series4): the schedule<->config coupling is Thor's, not the protocol's
In Thor, a schedule entry that starts monitoring forces you to attach a setup,
and sending the schedule pushes that setup too, overwriting anything with the
same name.  The protocol requires none of it.

Evidence from the scheduler capture:

  * The two writes are separate operations, not one transaction.  The config
    write ends at frame 18, Thor sends a fresh POLL preamble, and only then opens
    the schedule at frame 20.  Different commands, different paths:
        config    0xDA -> 0x68/0x73 -> 0x82/0x83 -> 0x71/0x72
        schedule  0x8D -> 0x8E
  * The schedule stores a length-prefixed NAME, not a config blob.  It is a
    reference, and a reference does not require rewriting its referent.
  * The config Thor pushed was already on the unit unchanged -- its 2,090-byte
    0x71 payload is byte-identical to the previous capture's, zero differences.
    Thor spent a whole block write re-sending a setup the device already had.

So SFM can, with today's protocol: enumerate setups with 0x3F/0x40, write ONLY
the schedule when the referenced setup already exists, and push a config only
when it is genuinely missing or deliberately edited.  Common case drops from
524 + 2090 bytes to 524, and the write disappears entirely.

It also removes a real hazard.  Because the reference is by name, and a same-name
write overwrites silently with an indistinguishable ack, Thor's pattern means
scheduling something can quietly rewrite a setup that other schedules or the
operator's own work depend on.  Validating the reference instead of rewriting the
referent avoids the class of problem.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01Ru8Lg9HkkYvX9VWWo65SmL
2026-09-24 19:46:09 -04:00
serversdownandClaude Opus 5 bd876b6752 docs(series4): separate Thor's conventions from the protocol's requirements
SFM is not meant to reimplement Thor.  Thor is the only available teacher of the
wire protocol, but almost nothing about how it sequences its work has been shown
to be required by the device, and this document was starting to blur the two --
it said "a client should mirror it" where the honest claim is "Thor does this and
we have not checked whether the unit cares."

Adds a table separating the two, with required / not-required / unknown marked
honestly, and corrects the two places that gave Thor-copying advice.

The consequential unknowns, all testable:

  * Thor's POLL -> 0x15 -> 0x49 -> POLL preamble before EVERY operation.
    Plausibly required (Series III needed POLL x3 before 5A) but Thor sends it
    before trivial reads too.
  * 0x68 and 0x82 appear in every setup push carrying near-zero payloads that
    changed nothing in either capture.  If optional, our setup write is 3 frames
    instead of 7 with less to get wrong.  Worth settling BEFORE building the
    writer.
  * Whether a narrower write than the full 2,090-byte block is accepted.

One place Thor's shortcut is probably worse than the alternative: it reads with
offset=0xFFFF and skips the probe, but the probe works and reports the length
rather than making us trust a fixed one.

Two reliability problems to design against, both observed rather than assumed:
a zero ack does not mean a write applied (no failing write has ever been seen),
and nothing warns before clobbering a monitoring unit's active setup.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01Ru8Lg9HkkYvX9VWWo65SmL
2026-09-24 19:44:05 -04:00
serversdownandClaude Opus 5 c5eed6fa46 docs(series4): RETRACT "no file transfer" -- 0x94/0x48/0x8D/0x8E read and write by path
The scheduler capture caught a generic file transfer in the open, and it
invalidates a claim made earlier today.

RETRACTION.  The "Setups are FILES" section concluded "no generic file-transfer
command is exposed on the wire", reasoning from the absence of firmware strings.
Wrong.  The commands exist, they carry a full filesystem path in plain ASCII,
and they were the first thing Thor did when asked for the schedule:

    0x94 <path>  -> 0x6B   open for read
    0x48         -> 0xB7   read next page, until an all-zero response = EOF
    0x8D <path>  -> 0x72   open for write
    0x8E <body>  -> 0x71   write the body

Path is unpadded with offset = its exact length; 0x94 and 0x8D sent byte-
identical payloads for "\system\schedule\schedule.dat".  The 0x48 read is paged
with the page number in the response header at payload[3:5].

The lesson: absence of a firmware string is not absence of a command.  Dispatch
is a 68K jump table and these carry no strings.  The setups half of the original
claim survives -- setups go via 0xDA plus the config block, not via this.

Why it matters beyond the scheduler: callhome.MMB is a file too, and call-home
is the last unsolved goal.  Reading it may be a matter of pointing 0x94 at the
right path.  Recorded as a lead -- no path but schedule.dat has been tried.

The schedule file: an entry carries a length-prefixed SETUP FILE NAME (0x28=40
for the name read off the unit, 0x09=9 for TEST1.mmb written back -- confirmed
both directions).  So a schedule entry says "at this time, load this setup",
which is how the help text's "change the record mode" works, and it couples the
scheduler to the setup list.  Entry internals are NOT decoded and are recorded
as observed bytes only -- one entry, no variation to diff.

SUB 0x47 is the scheduler enable, probably: two bare frames differing only in
params[7] (0x01, 0x03).  Whether it sets or reads is genuinely undetermined --
both returned the same value and there is no disabled reading to compare.
Flagged do-not-implement until a disable-then-enable capture settles it.

A prediction made before the capture -- that the Scheduler On/Off switch would
show up as a byte in the 0x71 block, since the unit's help text lists it beside
Record Mode -- did not hold.  0x71, 0x68 and 0x82 are byte-identical to the
previous capture.  Noted that the test is weak (the operator re-sent the same
config), but enabling the scheduler required no config write either way.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01Ru8Lg9HkkYvX9VWWo65SmL
2026-09-24 19:26:39 -04:00
serversdownandClaude Opus 5 5400f1bef7 docs(series4): monitoring control, the setup-list walk, and the device clock
Thor started monitoring, listed the unit's setups and stopped monitoring while
seismo_lab recorded.  40 requests, 40 responses, every checksum valid.  As
before, Thor did all of it -- we have still never originated any of these.

Confirmed identical to Series III:

  * SUB 0x96 start monitoring -> ack 0x69
  * SUB 0x97 stop monitoring  -> ack 0x68

Both bare frames, no params, no data.  These were on the unsafe-until-agreed
list as entirely unobserved; they are now observed but still never sent by us.
Erase (0xA3/0xA2) is now the only genuinely untouched destructive path.

NOT identical to Series III, and worth not reusing constants for:

  * The monitoring flag is SUB 0x1C data[12] = 0x0E monitoring / 0x00 idle.
    Series III uses 0x10.
  * SUB 0x49 -> 0xB6 is a second, cheaper monitoring indicator at data[11]
    (0x02 monitoring / 0x00 idle) in a 21-byte response rather than 60.  Thor
    puts it in its preamble before every operation, so it is the routine check.

New this capture:

  * SUB 0x1C carries the DEVICE CLOCK at data[13:21] -- day, month, year (u16
    BE), hour, minute, second.  Verified against the capture's own wall time.
    Nothing else read so far reports the unit's time.  data[17] remains
    unidentified (32 monitoring, 100 idle) -- not claimed as anything.
  * Memory total is exactly 15,000,000 bytes; free dropped 4,096 bytes across a
    ~70s monitoring session, so free memory is not stable to compare against.
  * SUB 0x3F/0x40 walk the setup-file list, the same first/next shape as
    Series III's 1E/1F event walk.  0x3F -> 0xC0 first, 0x40 -> 0xBF next,
    terminating on an empty name.  23 setups on this unit.
  * Setup records carry ONLY the name -- 11-byte header, null-terminated name,
    zero padding.  There is no active-setup flag; the header is byte-identical
    on every record including the terminator.  The active setup is identified
    solely by SUB 0x41, which uses the same record format.  The asterisk on the
    unit's screen is UI decoration, not a field.
  * TEST1.mmb, created over the wire earlier today, appears in the list and is
    what 0x41 reports as active -- a written setup becomes a real enumerable
    file.

Also: Thor greys out send-to-unit while a unit is monitoring, and transmits
nothing (this capture contains no 0xDA or 0x71).  That is Thor policy, not a
device refusal -- nothing suggests the Micromate would reject it, and a push to
the active setup overwrites silently.  Thor is guarding the footgun the protocol
leaves open, and any client we write should do the same.  Checking 0x49 data[11]
first makes that cheap.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01Ru8Lg9HkkYvX9VWWo65SmL
2026-09-24 19:18:58 -04:00
serversdownandClaude Opus 5 b5e34ce8ae docs(series4): overwrite is protocol-identical to create -- no handshake
The firmware carries `Overwrite File`, `MFS FILE EXISTS` and `Cannot be
Overwritten`, which suggested the wire path might negotiate an overwrite.  It
does not.  Those strings belong to the on-device Save screen (CSaveSetupFile),
not the protocol.

A second Thor push to TEST1.mmb -- a name that now existed, and which SUB 0x41
confirmed was the ACTIVE setup -- produced an identical sequence:

  * same 12 SUBs in the same order, same offset fields
  * 0xDA / 0x68 / 0x82 data byte-identical
  * 0x71 differs in exactly 18 bytes = the one edited note string
  * all seven write acks identical and still all-zero
  * no dialog on Thor

Verified on the unit: the edited General Notes string is present in the setup on
the device.  The write applied silently and in place, and being the active setup
bought it no protection.

Two consequences recorded:

  * A writer needs no exists-check and no overwrite negotiation.
  * We have never seen this protocol report a FAILED write -- acks are all-zero
    across create and overwrite alike.  Do not treat a zero ack as proof a write
    applied; read back with 0x41 + 0x1A and compare.  And a remote push to a
    monitoring unit's active setup changes what it is recording with, unprompted
    -- gating that belongs in SFM, because the device will not do it.

Still untested: overwriting a non-active setup, and factory.MMB.  Neither
blocks a writer.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01Ru8Lg9HkkYvX9VWWo65SmL
2026-09-24 18:56:20 -04:00
serversdownandClaude Opus 5 d33e2d85be docs(series4): 0xDA creates setup files -- confirmed on the device
TEST1.mmb did not exist on UM12947 before the push.  After it, the setup is
present in the unit's own setup list and selected as active -- verified on the
Micromate's screen, not inferred from the ack.

This was the last open question about whether Series IV setup management is
reachable without Thor.  It is: 0x41 read name, 0x1A read block, 0xDA name the
target, 0x71 -> 0x72 write it back.  No file-transfer primitive is needed and
the target file does not have to exist.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01Ru8Lg9HkkYvX9VWWo65SmL
2026-09-24 18:48:17 -04:00
serversdownandClaude Opus 5 c8d972f685 docs(series4): the setup-write path, observed end to end
Thor pushed a setup named TEST1.mmb to UM12947 while seismo_lab's TCP bridge
recorded both directions.  We still have not originated a write frame -- the
wire format is now known, our encoder is not written.

Topology worth reusing: socat shares /dev/ttyACM0 on TCP from mint-mac,
seismo_lab relays Thor to it.  Thor is pointed at 127.0.0.1 as if the unit were
a field modem.  No modem, no SIM, production Thor box untouched.

The sequence is Series III's, plus one command:

    Thor:  5B | 41 | 08 | 2E | 1A | DA | 68->73 | 82->83 | 71->72
    unit:  A4 | BE | F7 | D1 | E5 | 25 | 97  8C | 7D  7C | 8E  8D

All 12 device responses checksum-validate and every write is acked.  Every
write response SUB matches the Series III table exactly.

New:
  * SUB 0xDA names the target .MMB file -- 256 bytes, filename null-padded,
    nothing else.  This is why no generic file-transfer command exists: Thor
    names the file, then writes the ordinary config block into it.
  * SUB 0x41 reads the active setup's filename; SUB 0x2E reads trigger config.
  * Reads are single-step -- Thor asks offset=0xFFFF and skips the probe.
  * 0x71 writes the whole 2090-byte block in ONE frame, not Series III's three
    chunks.  0x69/0x74 are absent.

Write-frame destuffing is `10 XX` -> `XX` uniformly, including `10 03`.  Chosen
by checksum, not assumption: of four candidate rules, only this one makes all
four data-carrying write frames validate.  0x71's data holds 4 literal 0x03
bytes escaped as `10 03`, so escaping is mandatory for any writer.

The write body IS the read body -- 0x71 and the 0xE5 response align at a fixed
11-byte shift with 1902/2090 bytes equal (91.0%).  Setups are read-modify-write.
The 12 differing regions are fully mapped: setup name, four 64-byte
[label:22][value:42] note entries, sensor location, and the three geo trigger
levels (0.3 -> 0.5 in/s) on a 48-byte channel stride.

Independent confirmation of the geo LSB: each channel block carries float32BE
3.10308 at label+24.  3.10308/10000 = 0.000310308 = _GEO_LSB_IPS to 8 figures,
and 10.0/3.10308*10000 = 32226.046 = the 32226.05 full scale.  That value was
derived statistically from 991,415 rounding constraints in v0.30.0; the unit
reports it directly.  It is exactly half Series III's 6.206053, so the ADC runs
10,000 counts per volt.  Do NOT retune _GEO_LSB_IPS -- this corroborates it.

The `offset` field is NOT a single length formula: two frames are len, two are
len+2, and Series III's data[1]+2 reproduces neither.  Recorded as observed
constants the device accepted; pinning the rule needs a capture with
differently-sized payloads.  This doc has been wrong once by inferring a length
field -- not inferring this one.

Also adds scratch/mm_frame_parse.py, because S3FrameParser cannot see Micromate
responses at all (it scans for DLE+STX; Micromate responses start at a bare
STX).  That is why the first pass at this capture looked like 12 unanswered
requests.  24/24 frames parse with 0 bad checksums.

Stale claims corrected: the "write half is not yet attempted" note, the
"empty unit" limitation (5 events since 2026-09-23), and the unsafe-until-agreed
list, which now distinguishes observed from exercised.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01Ru8Lg9HkkYvX9VWWo65SmL
2026-09-24 18:35:58 -04:00
serversdownandClaude Opus 5 701af47170 docs(series4): generate IDF filenames rather than detecting record type
Closes the record-type gap flagged earlier, and corrects the premise behind it.

Series III does NOT detect record type from file content --
event_file_io.derive_record_type_from_filename() reads the last character of
the extension (M529LKIQ.G10H -> H -> Histogram). Nothing in the codebase infers
record type from content, for either family.

Nor is there an obvious type field to find in an IDF: the first 64 bytes of a
histogram and a waveform are byte-identical, and they diverge at ~0x0947 into
wholly different structures rather than differing by a flag.

The answer is the Series III pattern -- generate the name. Series III has
blastware_filename(); Series IV needs the same, and its convention is far
simpler:

    <serial>_<YYYYMMDDHHMMSS>.IDF{W,H}     e.g. UM12947_20260923163319.IDFW

against Series III's <letter><serial3><base-36 stem><AB0T ext>.

All three inputs are already available on a direct download: serial and
timestamp from extract_binary_metadata(), and type from the chain walk (SUB
0x0A returns 0x1E for a histogram, 0x00 for a waveform). Verified on all five
bench events -- generated names match real production-store filenames byte for
byte, so a directly downloaded event can be filed under exactly the name Thor
would have given it and /db/import/idf_file needs no change.

The type still comes from the protocol rather than the payload, so a
downloader must carry it out of the chain walk; losing it means losing the
ability to name the file.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01Ru8Lg9HkkYvX9VWWo65SmL
2026-09-23 19:50:45 -04:00
serversdownandClaude Opus 5 02ed22f561 docs(series4): firmware static analysis, and all five bench events decoded
Solo session while the bench was unattended. Read-only throughout.

Architecture: ColdFire/68K, big-endian, Freescale MQX RTOS -- not ARM as the
vector table first suggested. The tell is 4E 5E 4E 75 4E 56 (UNLK A6 / RTS /
LINK A6) throughout both images, plus an MQX_OK assertion.

CB vs BD: a byte diff is useless (68% of bytes differ -- separately linked
builds, everything relocated). A string-set diff is position-independent and
shows 17,128 strings shared, with almost every "unique" string being the same
message at a different source line:

    CB:  MONITOR[3268]: STATUS_BATTERY_LOW
    BD:  MONITOR[3258]: STATUS_BATTERY_LOW

Consistently 10 lines apart across five different MONITOR messages, so one
~10-line block differs in the monitor module and essentially nothing else. The
only functional string unique to either build is CITIZEN (a printer brand) in
BD. This corroborates the bench A/B from the other direction: the split is a
tiny code delta, not two protocol stacks.

The SUB dispatch is a 68K switch jump table, so byte-pattern hunting will not
isolate the write opcodes -- that needs a disassembler.

Call-home config field names recovered from the firmware's own debug dump:
Enable, DialString, Retries, SessionTimeout, WaitForConnection, WarmupTime,
PowerSave -- seven fields for the 126-byte SUB 0x2C block. SessionTimeout and
PowerSave have no Series III equivalent, and Series III's scheduled-time fields
are absent, consistent with scheduling moving into the THOR-downloaded
scheduler. AT+CSQ is present, so the firmware speaks AT to the modem directly.

All five bench events downloaded and decoded over USB: each arrived at exactly
its declared size, every channel equal length, timestamps sequential.

Two gaps recorded:

- No content-based record-type discriminator. read_idf_file() dispatches on the
  .IDFH/.IDFW filename suffix, which does not exist over the wire, and the
  first 64 bytes of a histogram and a waveform are byte-identical. The protocol
  supplies one instead: SUB 0x0A returns 0x1E for a histogram and 0x00 for a
  waveform, so the type must be carried from the chain walk.
- The 0x0C peak float runs 2-5% above max(Tran,Vert,Long) and is not the vector
  sum either. Its offset was inferred from a byte marker rather than
  established, so it may not be the peak at all. Marked do-not-rely-on.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01Ru8Lg9HkkYvX9VWWo65SmL
2026-09-23 19:14:26 -04:00
serversdownandClaude Opus 5 23cdbef737 docs(series4): setups are files; and the length field is a uint16
Two findings and one correction.

CORRECTION: the probe response's data length is a uint16 BE at payload[8:10],
not a single byte at payload[9] as an earlier draft claimed. That reading is
right only while the high byte is zero. For SUB 0x1A the real length is 0x082C
= 2092; read as a byte it gives 44, a 47x under-read.

Setups are FILES, not a config block. Series III has one compliance config you
overwrite; Series IV keeps named .MMB setup files on an on-device filesystem
with a current-selection pointer -- csetup.MMB, factory.MMB, and callhome.MMB
for the call-home config. Names up to 20 chars. Filesystem primitives exist
internally (NS_ReadFile_internal / NS_WriteFile_internal / NS_SeekFile_internal)
but no generic file-transfer command is exposed on the wire, so setups are
unlikely to be pushed as raw .MMB blobs over the protocol.

SUB 0x1A reads the whole active setup in 2,092 bytes -- structurally close to
Series III's ~2,126-byte compliance block -- carrying the setup FILE NAME, all
four title note/value pairs (Location, Client, Company, General Notes), the
sensor location, and per-channel labels with units. Note LMic and SMic
(linear and sound-level microphone variants) which Series III does not have.

That is the read half of setup management, so a setup can in principle be
round-tripped. The write half has not been attempted.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01Ru8Lg9HkkYvX9VWWo65SmL
2026-09-23 18:55:20 -04:00
serversdownandClaude Opus 5 71f19c90d1 docs(series4): SUB 5A streams the .IDFW file verbatim -- read path complete
The complete read path now works with no Instantel software in the loop.

Three divergences from Series III, all simplifications:

- No arming sequence. Series III ignores a 5A probe unless preceded by
  1E / 0A / 1E(0xFE) / 0C / 1F(0xFE) / POLL x3. The Micromate answers a bare
  5A request with nothing before it.
- The offset word is a LENGTH, not a position: 0x1000 + 2*pages, where
  pages = ceil(event_size / 512), and event_size comes from the chain walk.
  ONE request returns the entire event -- no chunk loop, no STRT end-offset
  parsing, no TERM frame. Over-requesting is safe; the device caps at the
  real size.
- Params are the Series III probe form: [0x00][key4][6 x 0x00].

The payload is the .IDFW file byte for byte. It begins 00 12 01 00 00 00
"Instantel\0" -- _THOR_PREFIX + _INSTANTEL_TAG from micromate/idf_file.py --
and the first 32 bytes are identical to a production .IDFW from the store.
Responses are DLE-stuffed, so destuff before locating the file (11,781 raw ->
11,049 destuffed for an 11,032-byte event).

End-to-end: event 055d4a82 downloaded over USB and fed straight to
read_idf_file() yields serial UM12947, timestamp 2026-09-23 16:33:19, and
3072 samples on all four channels. Cross-check: the 0C record reports a
stored Vert peak of 1.3720 for this event; the decoded samples give 1.3706 --
two unrelated paths agreeing to 0.1%.

Consequence: no new codec work is needed. The bytes off the wire are the same
bytes thor-watcher forwards today, so /db/import/idf_file ingests a directly
downloaded event unchanged.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01Ru8Lg9HkkYvX9VWWo65SmL
2026-09-23 18:40:54 -04:00
serversdownandClaude Opus 5 45007e12d8 docs(series4): the firmware images are unencrypted and self-documenting
Both MICROMATE(CB).BIN and MICROMATE(BD).BIN are plain code and data --
entropy 6.08 bits/byte, big-endian vector table at 0x4010_30xx, ~16,700
extractable strings including the developers' own debug printf formats with
function names intact.

This answers, from strings alone, questions I had scoped as needing a live
modem capture.

The call-home state machine, verbatim:
  ACH_NOT_STARTED -> ACH_IDLE -> ACH_INITIALIZING -> ACH_CONNECTING
  -> ACH_CONNECTED -> ACH_TRANSFER_DATA -> ACH_RETRY / ACH_QUITTING

And with it:

- Retry limit is three ("three attempts and it's over").
- ExpectedCommunicationsDetected() gates the session: if the host does not say
  something the unit recognises, the call is cancelled and rescheduled after
  TimeBetweenRetries. A homebrew receiver must satisfy this check or units
  retry forever -- exactly the BE12599 failure mode.
- The unit stops monitoring to call home and restarts after
  (Send CMD_STOP_MONITOR / CMD_START_MONITOR), so monitoring state around a
  call is the device's own doing.
- Calls are not re-entrant.
- CMD_CALLHOME_CONNECTION_CONFIRMED exists as a state distinct from
  CONNECTION_COMPLETE, implying a handshake the host must complete before data
  flows.

Event delivery, inferred not confirmed: "All Events Uploaded" plus
"Mark/Unmark File" / "Delete Marked Events" / CMD_PURGE_EVENT_FLASH suggest
events are marked as transferred rather than deleted on send, with purging a
separate explicit act. If so, a receiver that fails to mark would see the same
events re-offered every call. Needs a live capture or disassembly to confirm.

The firmware also embeds its own HTML user manual, documenting modem mode
(Generic vs USB to PC), the modem baud options (9600-230400, confirming 115200
is a setting not a fixed rate), modem relay/warmup, record modes, and a
scheduler downloaded from THOR that pairs with CMD_CALLHOME_SET_SCHEDULE.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01Ru8Lg9HkkYvX9VWWo65SmL
2026-09-23 18:28:40 -04:00
serversdownandClaude Opus 5 38ad58d4a4 docs(series4): A/B the two firmware lines -- the protocol is the same
UM12947 (11.0CB, Blastware line) and UM20147 (11.0BD, Thor line) each given
the identical read-only sweep on the bench. Both answer Series III command
frames: all ten read SUBs, correct response-SUB rule, valid DLE-aware
checksums, working two-step probe/data reads.

The firmware line does not change the wire protocol. One protocol stack can
drive the whole fleet regardless of build, which downgrades "standardise the
fleet on one firmware" from a prerequisite to an optional convenience.

Two differences do exist:

1. Response payload[1] (flags) is 0xC5 on the Blastware line and 0x03 on the
   Thor line, constant across all ten SUBs on both units -- so the build is
   detectable from any response without reading device info. Two units, one
   each, so this is a strong hypothesis rather than a proven encoding.

   Note 0x03 is ETX, so it arrives DLE-escaped as 10 03 on Thor-line units. A
   parser that does not destuff will mis-locate every field by one byte on
   half the fleet.

2. SUB 0x1C (monitor status) is 4 bytes longer on the Thor line, 0x30 vs
   0x2C, with four extra trailing bytes (0f a0 00 00, purpose unknown).

That second one breaks relative-to-end parsing: Series III reads battery and
memory from the end of the 0x1C block, and those offsets yield a battery
reading of 577.92 V on UM20147. Parse forward from the declared length, not
backward from the end. With the shift applied, UM20147 reads 3.81 V and
15,000,000 bytes total/free.

Also noted: ID string is MM/ISEE/S/IO on the Blastware unit and MM/ISEE/S on
the Thor one.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01Ru8Lg9HkkYvX9VWWo65SmL
2026-09-23 18:20:11 -04:00
serversdownandClaude Opus 5 492b6683a4 docs(series4): fleet firmware audit, and retract the Thor-compatibility claim
Physical audit of all nine Micromates: 4 on the Blastware line (11.0CB), 2 on
the Thor line (11.0BD), 3 pre-split (11.0AK x2, 10.90GC). The Blastware line
is already the plurality, which makes "standardise on Blastware" less
disruptive than it first looked.

Cross-checked against a store-derived audit (firmware is recorded in every
.sfm.json as extensions.idf_report.version): 7 of 9 agree. The two that differ,
UM6047 and UM14133, are the most recently deployed and were reflashed after
their last stored event -- so the store reconstructs firmware history without
touching a unit, but lags reality by one deployment.

RETRACTION: an earlier draft suggested UM12947's trouble with Thor was
explained by its Blastware firmware. Not supported. Ped Bridge runs UM11402
(11.0BD) and UM11719 (11.0CB) side by side from the same deploy date and both
call Thor fine -- UM11719 has 331 Thor-collected events while on 11.0CB. A
Blastware-line unit does feed Thor, so the CB/BD split is not "which host can
collect from it", and UM12947's problem remains unexplained.

What is actually established is narrower: a 11.0CB unit answers Series III
command frames. Whether a 11.0BD unit does is untested -- and UM20147 (11.0BD)
is on the bench, so that is one A/B away.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01Ru8Lg9HkkYvX9VWWo65SmL
2026-09-23 17:08:47 -04:00
serversdownandClaude Opus 5 73eaa0a6ac docs(series4): the event chain, walked end to end
Five events on the bench unit (4 waveform + 1 histogram). The Series III
browse walk -- 1E, then 0A/0C per key, then 1F to advance -- works unmodified,
and the null sentinel terminated correctly after exactly 5.

Findings:

- Event keys are a sequential counter (055d4a81..85), NOT flash-buffer
  addresses. Series III key arithmetic does not carry over; its 5A chunk walk
  assumes addresses and must not be ported blindly.
- The 4 bytes after the key in 1E/1F are the event's SIZE in bytes, where
  Series III puts an offset to the next key. 4,076 for the histogram and
  8.7-13.4 KB for the waveforms, matching real .IDFH/.IDFW file sizes.
- SUB 0x0C returns a 210-byte (0xD2) waveform record -- the same length as
  Series III -- carrying the event key, date/time, the title note "Location",
  the PROJECT STRING, the serial, channel labels Tran/Vert/Long/Mic and
  float32 peaks.

That last point closes the biggest open question for the call-home receiver:
the job identity strings that today arrive only via Thor's .txt sidecar, and
which no amount of sample decoding can reconstruct, are readable over the
wire. Direct-to-SFM events need not arrive with blank metadata.

- SUB 0x0A returns len 0x1E for the histogram and 0x00 for every waveform. The
  histogram payload holds two timestamps plus a "Vert: 0.300 in/s" trigger
  string -- structurally the Series III monitor-log partial record. So 0A
  describes interval records and 0C describes triggered events; Series III's
  0x46-vs-0x2C length discriminator does not apply.
- DLE stuffing in responses is now confirmed (previously marked untested): the
  0C timestamp contains 10 10, which destuffs to one 0x10 and yields a clock
  reading of 16:33 on 23 Sep 2026 -- matching when the events were recorded.

Read-only throughout.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01Ru8Lg9HkkYvX9VWWo65SmL
2026-09-23 16:39:11 -04:00
serversdownandClaude Opus 5 b9c52442a7 docs(series4): the Series III behaviour is firmware-conditional
The bench unit reports 11.0CB -- Instantel's *Blastware* firmware line. It
almost certainly answers Series III commands because it is in Blastware mode,
not because the Micromate natively speaks Series III. Instantel ships two
lines: 11.0CB (Blastware) and 11.0BD (THOR, Vision, Vision II).

That also explains the two-ACH-server problem as designed behaviour rather
than misconfiguration.

Corpus firmware audit: 932 event files from 11.0AK, 83 from 10.90GC. UM12947
itself produced 10.90GC files in production last year and reports 11.0CB now,
so units get reflashed and firmware is not stable per-unit over time.

Records the resulting strategic fork (standardise on the Blastware line vs
reverse-engineer the Thor line) with the four unknowns that decide it.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01Ru8Lg9HkkYvX9VWWo65SmL
2026-09-23 16:04:42 -04:00
serversdownandClaude Opus 5 095834183e docs(series4): open the Micromate live-protocol reference
First bench session against a Micromate over USB. The headline: the unit
answers Series III command frames unmodified.

An untouched Series III POLL (SUB 0x5B), built by build_bw_frame with no
changes, completed a full two-step probe/data cycle. Ten Series III read
commands were then tried and all ten answered, every one obeying the
response_SUB = 0xFF - request_SUB rule.

Confirmed this session:

- Transport is a plain USB CDC-ACM port (2504:0300, "MICROMATE COM PORT").
  No vendor driver, no Thor, no Windows box needed. Baud is ignored over USB
  (identical responses at 38400 and 115200).
- Device never speaks first -- 20 s idle listen produced nothing.
- Responses are Series III framing MINUS the leading DLE: bare
  [STX][payload][chk][ETX]. This alone means Blastware can never find a frame
  boundary in Micromate traffic, since its parser scans for DLE+STX.
- Response flags byte is 0xC5, not Series III's 0x10.
- Checksum is the DLE-aware variant (SUM8 excluding 0x10 bytes) -- the same
  one Series III uses for 5A and write frames, not the plain SUM8 of its
  ordinary reads. Disambiguated by the POLL data frame, which contains a 0x10.
- The probe response carries the data length at payload[9]. Four of four
  known Series III lengths match; call-home config differs (0x7E vs 0x7C).
- Series III monitor-status field offsets apply unchanged: battery 3.81 V
  (Thor's own reports say 3.8), memory 15,000,000 total and free, date
  23 Sep 2026.
- SUB 0x2C carries the string "RADIO RING" -- the same string seen in the
  RV50 ALEOS debug during the BE12599 incident. That block holds the modem
  dial/answer strings and is the most relevant command to the call-home goal.

Read commands only. Nothing that writes, erases, or changes monitoring state
has been sent to a unit; those are listed as unsafe-until-agreed.

Caveat recorded in the doc: one unit, over USB, with zero events stored, so
the event-walk commands (0x08, 0x1E, 0x0A, 0x06) could only be probed, not
exercised.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01Ru8Lg9HkkYvX9VWWo65SmL
2026-09-23 15:59:17 -04:00