Mode-S Beast:Data Input Formats

The DIP switches are read during startup and taken as a default. Later they can be overwritten by software commands. Anyway, if then a DIP is changed to a position that is different to the pervious settings (by either hardware or software), the new setting takes account.

The software commands are the same in each output mode.

The input format is similar to the binary output format and allows control of DIP#3 until DIP#10 since baudrate setting does not make any sense over a serial interface. All commands start with a sequence

<esc> "1" <esc> is 0x1a, and "1" is 0x31

The next character sets or resets a DIP switch:

Mode-S Beast / Radarcape

DIP	Bit	Function	OFF, open = lower case characters	ON, closed = upper case characters
1,2	-	Baudrate	not supported	not supported
3	0	Output Format AVR/Binary	"c"	"C"
4	1	DF-11/17 only filter	"d"	"D"
5	2	MLAT info (AVR only)	"e"	"E"
6	3	CRC check disable	"f"	"F"
7	4	Mode-S Beast classic: DF0/4/5 masking filter	"g"	"G"
7	4	Radarcape/Mode-S Beast GPS: Legacy 12MHz Timestamp/ GPS Timestamp	"g"	"G"
8	5	RTS handshake off/on	"h"	"H"
9	6	FEC disable yes/no	"i"	"I"
10	7	Mode-A/C enable on/off	"j"	"J"

Mode-S Beast Module

Function	OFF = lower case characters	ON = upper case characters
Output Format AVR/Binary	"c"	"C"
DF-11/17 only filter	"d"	"D"
Timestamp info (AVR only)	"e"	"E"
CRC check disable	"f"	"F"
Legacy 12MHz Timestamp/ GPS Timestamp	"g"	"G"
RTS handshake off/on	"h"	"H"
Mode-A/C enable on/off	"j"	"J"
User LED Red on/off	"r"	"R"
User LED Yellow on/off	"y"	"Y"

Note: Months after the binary format was introduced, I got noticed that in ASCII <esc> is encoded as 0x1b. I actually wanted to use this code, but unfortunately only implemented my believes. For compatiblity reasons this will now stay as 0x1a and not be changed.

Note: Setting 'g/G' is beeing used for GPS timestamp setting on the Radarcape