UMD Loop DBC-to-CAN Generator

This tool takes DBC files and spits out a header file that lets you encode and decode messages easily.

Build Instructions

Prerequisites

• CMake 3.14+
• C++17

Building & Generating

mkdir build && cd build
cmake ..
make

The build process automatically runs the generator. You can find the resulting API at: build/generated/UMDLoopCANProtocol.hpp

Running the Example/Tests

To ensure everything is working correctly:

make protocol-test
./protocol-test

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Adding New Devices

To make the generation work, you must follow some conventions:

1. Device Prefixes

The generator uses prefixes to decide which namespace a signal belongs to. If you want a signal to appear in the Servo namespace, it must start with servo_.

Currently supported prefixes: dc_motor, servo, stepper, laser, led, rotary_encoder, limit_switch, diode, ccd, spectroscopy, fluorometry, power, swerve, arm, kill, pcb.

2. Adding a New Device Type

If you are adding a completely new type of hardware (e.g., a lidar), follow these steps:

1. Open src/generator.cpp.
2. Locate the devices vector inside the parseDeviceCommand function.
3. Add "lidar" to the list.
4. Rebuild the project.

3. Port Multiplexing (Suffixes)

For PCBs that have multiple identical ports (like a Servo board with 8 slots), name your signals with a port suffix (e.g., servo_position_target_0 through _7).

• The generator will collapse these into a single function.
• In C++, you’ll call Servo::encode_position_target(pcb, port, data), where port is just an integer.

4. Grouping Signals

For "flat" messages (no multiplexer), the generator groups every signal inside that CAN frame into a single C++ struct.