MIP SDK

Welcome to the official MIP Software Development Kit.

If you have any questions or run into any issues, please let us know! MicroStrain Support Portal

Features

• Send commands using a single function

• Suitable for bare-metal microcontrollers

  • Minimal code size and memory footprint
  • No dynamic memory allocation
  • No dependence on any RTOS or threading

• Simple to interface with existing projects

  • FindMip.cmake is included for CMake-based projects

• It can be used to parse offline binary files

• C++ API for safety, flexibility, and convenience.

• C API for those who can't use C++

• Advanced Features

  • MIP packet creation
  • MIP packet parsing and field iteration
  • Data field deserialization

Examples

Example			Description
Generic Examples
Get device information	C++		Queries the device strings and prints them to stdout.
Watch IMU	C++	C	Configures the IMU for streaming and prints the data to stdout.
Threading	C++
Ping	C++
Product-specific examples
CV7 setup	C++	C	Configures a CV7 device for typical usage and includes an example of using the event system.
CV7_INS setup	C++		Configures a CV7_INS device for typical usage.
CV7_INS with UBlox setup	C++		Configures a CV7_INS device for typical usage with aiding data from a UBlox GNSS receiver.
GQ7 setup	C++	C	Configures a GQ7 device for typical usage in a wheeled-vehicle application.
GX5-45 setup	C++	C	Configures a GX5-45 device for typical usage in a wheeled-vehicle application.
GX5/CX5/CV5 -15 or -25 setup	C++	C	Configures a GX5-45 device for typical usage in a wheeled-vehicle application.

You'll need to enable at least one of the communications interfaces in the CMake configuration to use the examples.

The examples take two parameters for the device connection:

• For a serial connection: Port and baudrate. Port must start with /dev/ on Linux or COM on Windows.
• For a TCP connection: Hostname and port. Hostname can be either a hostname like localhost or an IPv4 address.

Documentation

Documentation for all released versions can be found here.

C and C++ APIs

The C++ API is implemented on top of the C API to provide additional features:

• Object-oriented interfaces
• Improved type safety and sanity checking
• Better clarity / reduced verbosity (e.g. with using namespace mip)

The C++ API uses TitleCase for types and camelCase for functions and variables, while the C api uses snake_case naming for everything. This makes it easy to tell which is being used when looking at the examples.

The C API can be accessed directly from C++ via the mip::C namespace.

Command Results

MIP devices return an ack/nack field in response to commands to allow the user to determine if the command was successfully executed. These fields contain a "reply code" which is defined by the MIP protocol. This library additionally defines several "status codes" for situations where an ack/nack field is not applicable (i.e. if the device doesn't respond to the command, if the command couldn't be transmitted, etc).

See the documentation page for Command Results for details.

Timestamps

In order to implement command timeouts and provide time of arrival information, this library requires applications to provide the time of received data. The time must be provided as an unsigned integral value with a reasonable precision, typically milliseconds since program startup. By default the timestamp type is set to uint64_t, but some embedded applications may wish to change this to uint32_t via the MICROSTRAIN_TIMESTAMP_TYPE define. Note that wraparound is permissible if the wraparound period is longer than twice the longest timeout used by the application.

See the documentation page for Timestamps.

Communications Interfaces

Two connection types are provided with the MIP SDK to make it easy to run the examples on both Windows and Linux systems.

Serial Port

A basic serial port interface is provided in C and C++ for Linux, Mac, and Windows. These can be modified for other platforms by the user. The serial port connection will be used in most cases, when the MIP device is connected via a serial or USB cable (the USB connection acts like a virtual serial port).

Enable it in the CMake configuration with -DMICROSTRAIN_ENABLE_SERIAL=1.

TCP Client

The TCP client connection allows you to connect to a MIP device remotely. The MIP device must be connected via the normal serial or USB cable to a computer system running a TCP server which forwards data between the serial port and TCP clients.

Enable it in the CMake configuration with -DMICROSTRAIN_ENABLE_TCP=1.

How to Build

Prerequisites

• A working C compiler
  • C11 or later required
  • Define MICROSTRAIN_ENABLE_CPP=OFF if you don't want to use any C++. Note that some features are only available in C++.
• A working C++ compiler, if using any C++ features
  • C++14 or later is required.
  • C++20 or later for metadata and associated examples
• CMake version 3.10 or later (technically this is optional, see below)
• Doxygen, if building documentation

CMake Build Configuration

The following options may be specified when configuring the build with CMake (e.g. cmake .. -DOPTION=VALUE):

CMake Option	Default	Description
MICROSTRAIN_ENABLE_LOGGING	ON	Builds logging functionality into the library. The user is responsible for configuring a logging callback.
MICROSTRAIN_LOGGING_MAX_LEVEL	MICROSTRAIN_LOG_LEVEL_WARN	Max log level the SDK is allowed to log. If this is defined, any log level logged at a higher level than this will result in a noop regardless of runtime configuration. Useful if you want some logs, but do not want the overhead compiled into the code.
MICROSTRAIN_TIMESTAMP_TYPE	uint64_t	Overrides the default timestamp type. See Timestamps in the documentation.
MICROSTRAIN_ENABLE_CPP	ON	Causes the src/cpp directory to be included in the build. Disable to turn off the C++ api.
MICROSTRAIN_ENABLE_EXTRAS	ON	Builds some higher level utility classes and functions that may use dynamic memory.
MICROSTRAIN_ENABLE_SERIAL	ON	Builds the included serial port library.
MICROSTRAIN_ENABLE_TCP	ON	Builds the included socket library (default enabled).
MICROSTRAIN_BUILD_PACKAGE	OFF	Adds a package target to the project that will build a .deb, .rpm, or .zip file containing the library
MICROSTRAIN_BUILD_EXAMPLES	OFF	If enabled, the example projects will be built.
MICROSTRAIN_BUILD_TESTS	OFF	If enabled, the test programs in the /test directory will be compiled and linked. Run the tests with ctest.
MICROSTRAIN_BUILD_DOCUMENTATION	OFF	If enabled, the documentation will be built with doxygen. You must have doxygen installed.
MICROSTRAIN_BUILD_DOCUMENTATION_FULL	OFF	Builds internal documentation.
MICROSTRAIN_BUILD_DOCUMENTATION_QUIET	ON	Suppress standard doxygen output.
MIP_ENABLE_DIAGNOSTICS	ON	Adds some counters to various entities which can serve as a debugging aid.
MIP_ENABLE_METADATA	ON if supported	Builds metadata for MIP commands. If not set, the system will try to determine if C++20 is available to enable it. C++20 is required for the metadata module.
MIP_ENABLE_EXTRAS	MICROSTRAIN_ENABLE_EXTRAS	Builds some higher level utility classes and functions that may use dynamic memory. (default MICROSTRAIN_ENABLE_EXTRAS)

Compilation

1. Create the build directory (e.g. mkdir build).
2. In the build directory, run cmake .. <options>
   • Replace <options> with your configuration options, such as -DMICROSTRAIN_ENABLE_SERIAL=1.
   • You can use cmake-gui .. instead if you'd prefer to use the GUI tool (and have it installed).
   • An alternative generator may be used, such as ninja, code blocks, etc. by specifying -G <generator>
3. Invoke cmake --build . in the build directory
4. (Optional, if MICROSTRAIN_BUILD_PACKAGE was enabled) Run cmake --build . --target package to build the packages.

Building without CMake

If your target platform doesn't support CMake, you can build the project without it. To do so, include all the necessary files and define a few options.

Minimum Required Files for building without CMake

C only

• All source files in src/c/microstrain/common, except logging.c if logging is disabled
• Source files in src/c/microstrain/connections for your required connection types
• All source files in src/c/mip and src/c/mip/utils
• All source files in src/c/mip/definitions (or at least all the required descriptor sets)

C++

• The C files indicated above, except those in definitions (they can be added too but aren't required)
• Source files in src/cpp/microstrain/connections for your required connection types
• All source files in src/cpp/microstrain
• All source files in src/cpp/mip/definitions (or at least the required descriptor sets)
• Source files in src/cpp/mip/extras as needed for your project
• Source files in src/cpp/mip/metadata if using metadata

Required #defines for building without CMake

Pass these to your compiler as appropriate, e.g. arm-none-eabi-gcc -DMICROSTRAIN_TIMESTAMP_TYPE=uint32_t -DMICROSTRAIN_ENABLE_LOGGING=0

These defines must be set when building the MIP SDK sources and for any code that includes MIP SDK headers.

Name	Description
MICROSTRAIN_ENABLE_LOGGING	Enables logging facilities (e.g. via printf).
MICROSTRAIN_LOGGING_MAX_LEVEL	Disables logging more detailed messages (e.g. debug tracing) to improve performance.
MICROSTRAIN_TIMESTAMP_TYPE	Type to use for mip::Timestamp / mip::Timeout. Defaults to uint64_t if not defined.
MICROSTRAIN_USE_STD_ENDIAN	Define to 1 to enable the use of std::span from C++20.
MICROSTRAIN_USE_STD_SPAN	Define to 1 to enable the use of std::endian from C++20.
MIP_ENABLE_DIAGNOSTICS	Enables diagnostic counters.

These options affect the compiled code interface and sizes of various structs. They MUST be consistent between compiling the MIP SDK and any other code which includes headers from the MIP SDK. (If you change them after building, make sure everything gets rebuilt properly. Normally CMake takes care of this for you).

Known Issues

• suppress_ack=true is not supported.
• The commanded BIT, device settings, and capture gyro bias commands can time out unless the timeout is increased.

See the documentation page for Known Issues.