ARINC 661 Server on Android

Well the ARINC 661 Server now works on Android. To try it, just go to the J661 project here: href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/j661/.

The Android environment is really a nightmare, and the API is not very good too. But it is still close enough to Java to allow to have one only framework working on both Java swing and Android (I think that 80% of the code or more is not specific to any of the two frameworks).



There is a tutorial here explaining how to use it.

I am now coming back to the "regular" Java Server work, and also beginning to port the Server on iOS ;)

First draft of ARINC 661 standard supp 5 released on ARINC website

The first draft of the ARINC 661 standard supplement 5 version is available for some time on the ARINC web site free of charge. This document purpose is primarily for remarks from the general public, but you have all the latest standard draft there. Don't hesitate to download it (it's free and legal to do it, what is not free is the final versions of the standard).

The document is here: http://www.aviation-ia.com/aeec/projects/cds/index.html. It's the "Strawman for Draft 1 of Supplement 5 to ARINC Specification 661" link.

If you have questions or remarks about it, feel free to ask about it here or on the j661 project forum.

j661 Server ln Mac OS X

I've just bought a Mac Book to do some development on iOS (I hqve an iPhone and pkan to buy an iPad 2 when it will be available in France). First let me say that there is almost no configuration necessary for being able to use it. And despite all rants about Apple support for Java, Java 6.0 JDK is already installed ;)

Well while I downloaded XCode, I wanted to check if the j661 Server could run on Mac OS X out of the box. Well it does. Which is only natural, because it is one of the reason why Java is around there, isn't it?

There's nothing much to say, if you own a Mac, just download the last binaries fron the project page. double-click on arincEditor.jar, and enjoy ;)

j661: creating a simple User Application

As you may already know, the ARINC 661 standard is defined around an architecture where:

• An ARINC 661 Server (also called ARINC 661 Kernel), which is a part of the Cockpit Display System (CDS) is initialized with a set a ARINC 661 Definition Files, and is responsible for the the User Interface


• System Applications (called user Applications or UA in the standard) handle the logic, and are able to communicate to the Server to change widget parameters that were created at initialization. From the other side, the Server send to the User Application user events on widgets (such as clicks on buttons, change of text fields, etc...)

The ARINC 661 standard makes the UI definition very simple, but there is still the burden of developing the User Application part. The j661 project already provides a generic API which simplifies greatly the User Application / ARINC 661 Server communication, but you still need to develop the User Application code itself.

The Embedded Client framework provided in the project further simplifies this process, at least for prototyping User Applications. This framework is built under the following architecture:

The Embedded Client is a generic User Application with, contrary to the Client provided in the j661 project, has a minimal Graphical user interface, and is much more configurable.

The Embedded Client has the following features:

• It is possible to start only a User Application, without any associated Server. Note that in this case the arincServer.jar and all associated libraries don't need to be provided


• It is possible to start a User Application, and it's associated Server, sharing the same configuration properties


• It is possible to add any list of Scripts to the User Application, to code the logic. Note that as it is the case for an ARINC 661 library embedded in a Java application, the scripts will use the Client java API


• It is possible to add a list of DataProviders to the User Application, and wire the datas returned by the DataProviders to ARINC 661 parameters

A DataProvider is a source of data that can be plugged to an Embedded Client. To the DataProvider is attached an XML configuration file which defined the correspondence between the datas and the ARINC 661 properties. This way, it is possible to define the communication from the System Datas to the Client (User Application) by only defining a XML configuration file. No more code to write, you only need to wire the system datas to the ARINC 661 properties.

An example of this is provided in the j661 project: The FGPlayback contrib allows to read a FlightGear playback scenario by only defining an XML configuration file wiring the FlightGear variables to the ARINC 661 properties. For example:

<dataProvider provider="FGPlayback">
    <context name="testLayer" layerID="1" appliID="1" />
    <inputs>
        <input context="testLayer" widgetID="1" paramID="A661_STRING" 
            equ="$1">
            <data name="latitude-deg" />
        </input>
        <input context="testLayer" widgetID="5" paramID="A661_STRING" 
            equ="$1">
            <data name="longitude-deg" />
        </input>
        <input context="testLayer" widgetID="3" paramID="A661_ROTATION_ANGLE" 
            equ="$1">
            <data name="heading-deg" />
        </input>
        <input context="testLayer" widgetID="10" paramID="A661_ROTATION_ANGLE" 
            equ="$1">
            <data name="roll-deg" />
        </input>
    </inputs>
</dataProvider>

An ARINC 661 tutorial: communication (2)

In July I posted a first tutorial on ARINC 661 communications protocols. It was still a little theoretical, but today we will be able to putn= it into application. if you want =play a little with ARINC 661 protocol while following this tutorial, you can download the last version of the Open Sourced j661 project here. Just unzip the archive anywhere. You only need to have a Java 6 JDK available on your machine.

First we will open an ARINC 661 Definition File, for example this very simple one:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no" >
<a661_df name="default" library_version="0" supp_version="2">
  <model>
     <prop name="ApplicationId" value="1" />
  </model>
  <a661_layer name="MyLayer" >
    <model>
      <prop name="MinWidgetIdent" value="1" />
      <prop name="MaxWidgetIdent" value="65535" />
      <prop name="LayerId" value="1" />
      <prop name="ContextNumber" value="0" />
      <prop name="Height" value="10000" />
      <prop name="Width" value="10000" />
    </model>
    <a661_widget name="panel" type="A661_PANEL">
      <model>
        <prop name="WidgetIdent" value="1" />
        <prop name="Enable" value="A661_TRUE" />
        <prop name="Visible" value="A661_TRUE" />
        <prop name="PosX" value="0" />
        <prop name="PosY" value="0" />
        <prop name="SizeX" value="10000" />
        <prop name="SizeY" value="10000" />
        <prop name="StyleSet" value="0" />
      </model>
      <a661_widget name="label" type="A661_LABEL">
        <model>
          <prop name="WidgetIdent" value="2" />
          <prop name="Anonymous" value="A661_FALSE" />
          <prop name="Visible" value="A661_TRUE" />
          <prop name="PosX" value="3527" />
          <prop name="PosY" value="3721" />
          <prop name="SizeX" value="2978" />
          <prop name="SizeY" value="1000" />
          <prop name="RotationAngle" value="0.0" />
          <prop name="StyleSet" value="0" />
          <prop name="MaxStringLength" value="20" />
          <prop name="MotionAllowed" value="A661_TRUE" />
          <prop name="Font" value="t2" />
          <prop name="ColorIndex" value="red" />
          <prop name="Alignment" value="A661_CENTER" />
          l&t;prop name="LabelString" value="HELLO WORLD" />
        </model>
      </a661_widget>
    </a661_widget>
  </a661_layer>
</a661_df>

(This file is included in the distribution of the j661 Server).

We will first start a Server and load this file (see this tutorial in the project wiki to know how to do it). You should see this:


The we will do the same with the Client. The Client window should look like this:


To look at the content of the messages from the Client to the Server, right-click on the log area at the bottom of the Server window, and click "Log Buffer Events". We will now be able to dump the content of the communication from Client to Server.

Make sure you connected both the Client and the Server. For now we will just change the Color of the "HELLO WORLD" label at the middle of the Layer.:

• Change the value of the "A661_COLOR_INDEX" in the upper right window for the label, for example to green. This represent a A661_CMD_SET_PARAMETER command


• Then add this command to the message by clicking "Add"


• Now send the message to the Server

Of course, the color of the label has now changed to green (what did you expect?), but what is interesting is the hexadecimal dump in the log area:

B0 01 0000 00000018 CA02 000C 0002 0000 B160 06 00 D0 000000

We will now decode together this message content:

• B0 is the code for the begin block in the message


• 01 is the Layer identification (1 here)


• 0000 We now have an ushort for the context number


• 00000018 (or 24 in decimal) is the length of the block in bytes, including the header


• CA02 is the code for the A661_CMD_SET_PARAMETER command


• 000C is the size of the A661_CMD_SET_PARAMETER command


• 0002 is the widget identification, here the label identification is 2


• 0000 we now have a padding of an ushort, to align to 32 bit


• B160 is the code for the A661_COLOR_INDEX property


• 06 is the index corresponding with the green Color (beware that the association between the value and the color is CDS-dependant)


• 00 is there to to align to 32 bit


• D0 is the code for the end block in the message


• 000000 The last 24 bits are there to align to 32 bit

In the case of the j661 Server, this bytes are sent through an UDP port, but this content (normalized by the standard), can be sent through any low-level protocol (TCP, ARINC 429, AFDX), etc...

ARINC 661 project: First tutorial

I am still uploading documentation and working on the wiki for the j661 The project here: http://j661.sourceforge.net/. This project provides a generic ARINC 661 Server, a generic ARINC 661 Client (UA), and a Definition File editor.

The first tutorial explains how to configure the Editor, opening a Definition File, doing some modifications, and saving the result.

ARINC 661 project Open Sourced

The ARINC 661 Server project I talked about some time ago is now Open Sourced under a GPL V2 License, with a Dassault Aviation (my employer) copyright. The project is up and running here: http://j661.sourceforge.net/

In fact the project is more than only an ARINC 661 Server (CDS). It also provide a generic ARINC 661 CLient (UA), and a Definition File editor.

I will upload more documentation for this project on the next days. Stay also tuned here for tips on this tutorial.