It is worth mentioning that there is a great diversity of companies in the transponder market. This great variety implies a wide range of protocols to communicate with each model. However, the objective maintains the same, to receive the “ADS-B” sent by the device and to generate alerts with their corresponding position, in Veronte Pipe.
In order to leave our clients with the choice of the model that interests them and not have to develop as many drivers as there are transponders on the market, we are working on a “generic” implementation that will allow the use of transponders of any brand and model. This integration is based on the immense flexibility and versatility of the Veronte environment through Veronte Pipe.
Custom Messages
A first essential concept is that of producer / consumer. Regarding the inputs/outputs of the system, the application offers a set of functional blocks that can be freely organized. We speak of the producer when the block, and of the consumer when they enter. One of these functional blocks is the “Custom Messages”. As a producer, it works as a structured packet generator, and as a consumer, it acts as a conditional filter on packets of known size.
In the case of the implementation of transponders and for the detection of objects, these “Custom Messages” will allow us to:
- Identify the messages that interest us, making “match” the constant part of the package, it’s header.
- Retrieve useful information in the same messages, storing ADS-B type systems in variables.
- Redirect these ADS-B type variables to an internal process to the Veronte Autopilot that generates a localizable object.
This implementation, together with the Wizzard proposed by Pipe, allows the user to select the transponder model that he wishes to integrate with the autopilot, and the application will be in charge of generating all the configuration for this purpose (“Custom Messages” producers and consumers, links with other elements of the system etc…). This way, we avoid overloading the Flash memory of the system with code that is only used if the transponder is integrated. We save code maintenance that is highly dependent on the manufacturer’s modifications.
