tools.md

Tools

The programs in tools/. All need paho-mqtt; the FAS bridge also needs pyserial.

Tool	What it's for
fas_bridge.py	The production serial ↔ MQTT link to the flight computer (FMC)
novaSim.py	The main simulator: stands in for novaGround and the FAS bridge together
nova_dummy.py	Lighter novaGround simulator
serial_probe.py	See what's on a serial port
sim_control.html	The control panel novaSim.py --ui serves
novaGround_dummy.py, novaSystem_dummy.py	Legacy simulators; dev_linux.sh --with-dummy still uses novaSystem_dummy.py

fas_bridge.py

Connects the FMC's serial link to the MQTT broker. It publishes nova/telemetry/engine (EPB ADC samples) and nova/telemetry/flight (the full board state), and turns type: "fas" commands from nova/command into wire frames. The full list of commands and console messages is in the docstring at the top of the file.

pip install paho-mqtt pyserial
python tools/fas_bridge.py --port COM3 --baud 115200 --broker localhost:1883

Option	Default	Notes
--port	NOVA_FAS_PORT	Optional. Without one, the bridge starts idle and novaOps picks a port at runtime (console list_ports, then configure)
--baud	115200	115200 for the FMC's RS-422 link; 921600 for its USB-C link
--broker	localhost:1883
--ops-url	NOVA_OPS_URL	The backend's address, if the bridge runs on another host (for soundboard clip downloads)
--publish-ms	50	Telemetry publish interval

Warning

The bridge re-implements the firmware's gs/protocol.py; it doesn't import it. When the FAS team changes the protocol, change the bridge to match before pinning the new firmware, with a ! PR title.

A missing or unplugged port is retried in the background instead of stopping the bridge. The link state is published on nova/console as console_serial and in flight telemetry as data.fas_link.

novaSim.py

python tools/novaSim.py --broker localhost --ui

Publishes GCS and FAS engine packets and the nested flight snapshot, and answers the same commands as novaGround and the FAS bridge, so the backend and frontend can be exercised end to end with no hardware.

--ui serves the control panel on --ui-port (8765 by default). The page is tools/sim_control.html, read from disk on each request, so edits to it show on a browser refresh without restarting the simulator.

The UI's "Launch" button replays a trajectory. Point it at an OpenRocket CSV export (11 numeric columns) with --sim-csv, or set NOVA_SIM_CSV so you don't have to pass it every time; with neither, it synthesizes a generic flight profile.

nova_dummy.py

python tools/nova_dummy.py --broker localhost:1883 --verbosity 2

Sine-wave channels for two mock DAQ HATs, FAS EPB samples, two EPB boards always online, and IMC state that follows arm/disarm commands.