libicsneo

The Intrepid Control Systems Open Source Cross-Platform Device Communication API

An open source solution to integrate Intrepid Control Systems vehicle networking hardware with your application.

Read the Full Documentation

Getting Started

There are two major ways to write a new application using libicsneo. You can use the C++ interface, which will be compiled with your project and statically linked, or you can use the C interface, which can be either statically or dynamically linked.

Integration with CMake (Static Linking)

Integrating the library with your current CMake project is extremely easy.

1. Checkout the library (or add as a submodule) into a subdirectory of your project.
2. Within your CMakeLists.txt you can add the line add_subdirectory("third-party/libicsneo") to bring in the libicsneo targets. Replace third-party with any subdirectory you choose.
3. The libicsneo library include paths should automatically be added to your include path.
4. Link the library with your target by adding target_link_libraries(libicsneocpp-example icsneocpp) after your target, substituting libicsneocpp-example with your target application.

You can now include either the C++ API with #include <icsneo/icsneocpp.h> or the C API with #include <icsneo/icsneoc.h>

DLL / SO / DYLIB Releases (Dynamic Linking)

It is also possible to use the precompiled binaries with runtime linking. It is not recommended or supported to attempt to use the C++ interface with dynamic linking due to the complexities of C++ compilers.

1. Add this repository's /include to your include path
2. Add #define ICSNEOC_DYNAMICLOAD to the top of your source file
3. Add #import <icsneo/icsneoc.h> below that line
4. Call icsneo_init(); to import the library before using any other libicsneo functions.
5. Use the library as normal.
6. Call icsneo_close(); to unload the library.

Usage

Using the C++ API

The C++ API is designed to be modern and easy to use. All library functions and classes are in the namespace icsneo. Most applications will start by calling icsneo::FindAllDevices(). This will return an std::vector of std::shared_ptr<icsneo::Device> objects. You will want to keep a copy of the shared_ptr to any devices you want to use, as allowing it to go out of scope will automatically close the device and free all memory associated with it.

Any time you get bus traffic from the API, you will receive it as an std::shared_ptr<icsneo::Message>. The message will be valid as long as the shared_ptr stays in scope. Checking the type of the message allows you to cast it accordingly and access extra data for certain protocols. For instance, casting an icsneo::Message to an icsneo::CANMessage allows you to access the arbitration ID.

A barebones example is provided. For a more complete example, check the included examples.

std::vector<std::shared_ptr<icsneo::Device>> devices = icsneo::FindAllDevices();
std::cout << devices.size() << " found!" << std::endl;
for(auto& device : devices)
    std::cout << "Found " << device->describe() << std::endl; // "Found neoVI FIRE 2 CY2345"
std::shared_ptr<icsneo::Device> myDevice = devices[0];

if(!myDevice->open()) // Device tried and failed to open, print the last error
    std::cout << icsneo::GetLastError() << std::endl;

myDevice->goOnline(); // Start receiving messages
myDevice->enableMessagePolling(); // Allow the use of myDevice->getMessages() later
// Alternatively, assign a callback for new messages
std::this_thread::wait_for(std::chrono::seconds(5));
std::vector<std::shared_ptr<icsneo::Message>> messages = myDevice->getMessages();
std::cout << "We got " << messages.size() << " messages!" << std::endl;
for(auto& msg : messages) {
    switch(msg->network.getType()) {
        case icsneo::Network::Type::CAN:
        case icsneo::Network::Type::SWCAN:
        case icsneo::Network::Type::LSFTCAN: {
            // A message of type CAN is guaranteed to be a CANMessage, so we can static cast safely
            auto canmsg = std::static_pointer_cast<icsneo::CANMessage>(msg);
            // canmsg->arbid is valid here
            // canmsg->data is an std::vector<uint8_t>, you can check .size() for the DLC of the message
            // canmsg->timestamp is the time recorded by the hardware in nanoseconds since (1/1/2007 12:00:00 GMT)
        }
        default:
            // Handle others
    }
}
myDevice->close();

Using the C API

The C API is designed to be a robust and fault tolerant interface which allows easy integration with other languages as well as existing C applications. When calling icsneo_findAllDevices() you will provide a buffer of neodevice_t structures, which will be written with the found devices. These neodevice_t structures can be uses to interface with the API from then on. Once you call icsneo_close() with a device, that device and all associated memory will be freed. You will need to run icsneo_findAllDevices() again to reconnect.

Messages are passed in the form of neomessage_t structures when calling icsneo_getMessages(). These structures contain a uint8_t* to the payload data, and this pointer will be valid until the next call to icsneo_getMessages() or the device is closed.

A barebones example is provided. For a more complete example, check the included examples.

size_t deviceCount = 10; // Pre-set to the size of your buffer before the icsneo_findAllDevices() call
neodevice_t devices[10];
icsneo_findAllDevices(devices, &deviceCount);
printf("We found %ull devices\n", deviceCount);
for(size_t i = 0; i < deviceCount; i++) {
    neodevice_t* myDevice = &devices[i];
    char desc[ICSNEO_DEVICETYPE_LONGEST_DESCRIPTION];
    size_t sz = ICSNEO_DEVICETYPE_LONGEST_DESCRIPTION;
    icsneo_describeDevice(myDevice, desc, &sz);
    printf("Found %s\n", desc); // "Found neoVI FIRE 2 CY2345"
}

neodevice_t* myDevice = &devices[0];
if(!icsneo_openDevice(myDevice)) {
    neoevent_t error;
    if(icsneo_getLastError(&error))
        printf("Error! %s\n", error.description);
}
icsneo_goOnline(myDevice); // Start receiving messages
icsneo_enableMessagePolling(myDevice); // Allow the use of icsneo_getMessages() later
sleep(5);
neomessage_t messages[50];
size_t messageCount = 50;
icsneo_getMessages(myDevice, messages, &messageCount, 0 /* non-blocking */);
printf("We got %ull messages!\n", messageCount);
for(size_t i = 0; i < messageCount; i++) {
    if(messages[i].type == ICSNEO_NETWORK_TYPE_CAN) {
        // A message of type CAN should be interperated a neomessage_can_t, so we can cast safely
        neomessage_can_t* canmsg = (neomessage_can_t*)&messages[i];
        // canmsg->arbid is valid here
        // canmsg->data is an uint8_t*, you can check canmsg->length for the length of the payload
        // canmsg->timestamp is the time recorded by the hardware in nanoseconds since (1/1/2007 12:00:00 GMT)
    }
}
icsneo_closeDevice(myDevice);

Debugging

To enable debug printing set the LIBICSNEO_PRINT_EVENTS environmental variable to the desired APIEvent::Severity level, all Events greater than or equal to that level will be printed to stderr. For example, to print all warnings and errors: LIBICSNEO_PRINT_EVENTS=32.

Building from Source

FTD3XX

Some devices require FTD3XX for USB communication so the FTDI D3XX library will be automatically downloaded and included. If you would like to use a system copy of D3XX instead you can set FTD3XX_ROOT to the path containing f3d3xx.h (-DFTD3XX_ROOT=<path to directory containing ftd3xx.h>).

Windows

• Open a terminal and install the following:

winget install Microsoft.VisualStudio.2022.Community
winget install Kitware.CMake
winget install Git.Git
winget install Ninja-build.Ninja

• Reboot so cmake is in the system path
• Open a developer Powershell for VS2022 and run the following:

git clone https://github.com/intrepidcs/libicsneo
cd libicsneo
cmake -S . -B build -G "Ninja"
cmake --build build
# All dlls and libs are now inside the build directory

Building will require MSVC 2017 version 15.7 or newer and CMake to be installed.

macOS

Getting the dependencies is easiest with the Homebrew package manager. You will also need XCode installed. You can then install CMake, an up-to-date version of GCC or Clang, and libusb-1.0.

Linux

General Dependencies

• CMake 3.12 or above
• GCC 7 or above
• libusb-1.0-0-dev
• libpcap0.8-dev
• build-essential is recommended

Fedora

dnf install git @development-tools gcc-c++ libpcap-devel libusb1-devel cmake

Debian/Ubuntu

apt install git build-essential libpcap0.8-dev libusb-1.0-0-dev cmake

Building

git clone https://github.com/intrepidcs/libicsneo
cd libicsneo
cmake -S . -B build
cmake --build build
# Optional: Install globally:
cp *.so /usr/local/lib/

udev

If you'd like to be able to run programs that use this library without being root, consider using the included udev rules:

cp 99-intrepidcs.rules /etc/udev/rules.d/
udevadm control --reload-rules && udevadm trigger