Freescale Semiconductor

Communication Protocol

Rev. 0.1, 11/2013

Applications Communication
Protocol
Rev 0.1

2013 Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. All rights reserved.

1 Packet Structure
This protocol is implemented in both applications Altimeter and ECG. Packets are of
variable length. The first five components in the protocol structure describe the
packet and all the remaining bytes are application data. Following image
represents the packet structure.

1.1 Class Type

This value describes the class type of the application.
Size: 1 Byte
Valid Types:
Audio
Sensor
Medical

0x01
0x02
0x03

1.2 Application Type

This value describes the application type and will be related with the selected class
type. For now there are just three applications types.
Size: 1 Byte
Valid Types:
Audio Class

Sensor Class
Pressure Sensor
(Altimeter)
Accelerometer
Sensor

0x0
1
0x0
2

Medical Class
Electrocardiogra
phy (ECG)
Pulse Oximetry
(SPO2)
Heart Rate
(BPM)
Glucosimeter
(GLU)

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0x0
1
0x0
2
0x0
3
0x0
4

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1.3 Packet Type

Packet type indicates what kind of packet is being sent or received. There are three
possible types of packet.
Request Packet: This type of packet can only be generated by the host GUI. It
indicates to the device that host GUI is sending a request (i.e. start sending
measurements).
Confirmation Packet: This type of packet can only be generated by the device. It
indicates to the host GUI that a request has been received and its status (i.e. start
sending measurements request has been received but the device is busy).
Indication Packet: This type of packet can only be generated by the device. It
indicates to the host that some event has occurred and needs to send information
Size: 1 Byte
Valid Types:
Request Packet (REQ)
Confirmation Packet
(CFM)
Indication Packet (IND)

0x52
0x43
0x69

1.4 Command Opcode

It contains the request, confirmation or indication type. Following table shows the
hexadecimal codes for the Command Opcodes as well as their function and type
of packets that can use them.
Size: 1 Byte
Valid Types:
Description
Request to start sending measurements
Request to stop sending measurements
Indicates that new data is ready and information is in
the package

HEX
Code
0x12
0x13
0x14

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RE
Q
X
X

CFM IND
X
X
X

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1.5 Data length

This number represents the total quantity of application data received or
transmitted in the package.
Size: 2 Bytes
Valid values: 0 - 65535

1.6 Application Data

Application Data: This is the information itself. It can contain confirmation codes or
application data like graph points or processed measurements (i.e. heart
frequency). Application data have different interpretation depending on the
application.
Size: max 65535 bytes
Valid values: Any

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2 Start and Stop Communication for

Application
Device always starts in an idle state. Host GUI must start communications sending
a Start Measurement Request. A request packet might look like the following image
that is an example of and ECG device.

Once received, the device will confirm to the host that the request has been
received. It will generate a confirmation packet with the same Command Opcode
and one Application Data byte indicating the device status. Packet might look like
the following.

There are three types of status. Table is shown below.

Status
OK
BUSY
INVALID
OPCODE

HEX Code
0x00
0x01
0x02

Once started, the device will send packets containing information. These packets
will be of the IND packet type and will be sent every time the device has finished
processing information. An example of an IND packet is shown below.

In order to finish the communication, the host GUI musts send a Stop Measurement
request to the device otherwise it will keep sending IND packets with information.
The Stop Measurement request is represented by the image below.

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The device must confirm the request sending a confirmation packet with the same
Command Opcode.
An example is shown below.

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3 ECG IND packet data

As mentioned before, each application has its own interpretation of the data
contained in the IND packets.
Data Length contains the number of Application Data bytes in the packet. The
Application Data bytes are divided in three sections: Packet ID, Graph Data and
Heart Rate Value
This package will be sent by the accessory to the device 30 times per second and
will contain 4 graph points besides the Packet ID and Heart Rate this is to arrange
120 data points per second that will help to have an acceptable ECG graph quality.
Total Data length: 11 bytes

3.1 Packet ID
The first two bytes after the Data Length represent the Packet ID. The Packet ID is
a 16-bit ID number that prevents the host GUI of data lost. The packet ID of the
current packet must be equal to the packet ID of the previous packet + 1. For
example, if the packet ID of the previous packet was 0X00
0XFF, the packet ID of the current packet must be 0X01 0x00.
Size: 2 Bytes
Valid values:

0 - 65535

3.2 Graph Data

After the Packet ID bytes, the following bytes represent the graph points. Each
graph point is an unsigned 16-bit value composed by two bytes of the Application
data bytes. The first byte of each graph point is the High byte and the second byte
is the Low byte. Each point of the graph is considered to be taken each 1mS.
The graph information starts after the Packet ID bytes and each package will have
4 graphs points this means that the Graph Data length for this application will be 8
bytes
Size: 8 Bytes
Valid values:

0 65535 per graphical point

3.3 Heart Rate

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This is the last byte of the packet. It is a numeric value that corresponds to the
Heart Rate value. For example, receiving 0x50 in the last byte means a heart rate
of 80bpm.
Size: 1 Byte
Valid values:

0 - 511

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4 Altimeter IND packet data

Due the Altimeter has not a critical timing due the slow changes at least in this
application the package does not has a establish timing to send the information.
The application data bytes are divided in two sections Altitude and Temperature
separated with a byte these values are signed values that use A2 complement for
negative values.
Total Data length: 6 bytes.

4.1 Altitude
The first two bytes after the Data Length was the integer Altitude value, the next
one has the fractional Altitude value.
Size: 3 Bytes
Valid values:

4.2 Temperature
After the byte used to separate the values is located the integer Temperature
value, the next one has the fractional Temperature value.
Size: 2 Bytes
Valid values:

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