MIST Client

CLI client for the MIST mission control system.

Features

• Download telemetry packets from Yamcs by packet name and time range
• Support for defragmented telemetry blocks (complete and incomplete)
• Strips PUS TM headers (14 bytes)
• Both CLI and library interfaces
• Hole filling for incomplete defragmented blocks

Installation

From PyPI (Recommended)

# Create a virtual environment first (recommended)
python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: venv\Scripts\activate

# Then install using pip
pip install mist-client

From Source

It's recommended to use a virtual environment to avoid conflicts with system packages:

# Navigate to the client directory
cd yamcs/client

# Create a virtual environment
python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate # On Windows: venv\Scripts\activate

# Install the package
pip install -e ".[dev]"

Quick Start

Command Line Usage

# List available telemetry packet formats authenticated as the "mist" user
YAMCS_USERNAME=mist YAMCS_PASSWORD=mist mist-client tm list

# Download housekeeping telemetry from the last hour
mist-client tm get -p "/PUS/HOUSEKEEPING" -f /tmp/telemetry

# Download with specific time range
mist-client tm get -p "/PUS/TC_VERIFICATION" \
  -a "2026-03-26T00:00:00" \
  -b "2026-03-27T00:00:00" \
  -f ./output

# Download defragmented telemetry (all blocks including incomplete)
mist-client tm get -p "/PUS/Large_Data" --defrag all -f ./fragments

# Show help
mist-client --help
mist-client tm get --help

Library Usage

from mist_client import TelemetryDownloader
from datetime import datetime, timedelta, timezone
from yamcs.client import YamcsClient

# Create downloader
td = TelemetryDownloader(client=YamcsClient(url="localhost:8090"), instance="mist")

# Download telemetry
now = datetime.now(tz=timezone.utc)
start = now - timedelta(hours=1)

telemetries = td.get_telemetry(
    packet_name="/PUS/HOUSEKEEPING",
    start=start,
    stop=now
)

# Process in memory
for tm in telemetries:
    print(f"APID={tm.apid}, packet={tm.packet_name}")
    print(f"Data length: {len(tm.data)} bytes")
    print(f"Complete: {tm.is_complete()}")

Library API Reference

TelemetryDownloader

Main class for downloading telemetry.

TelemetryDownloader(client: YamcsClient, instance: Optional[str] = None)

Methods:

get_telemetry(packet_name, start, stop, defrag=None) -> List[Telemetry]

Retrieve telemetry packets from Yamcs.

Parameters:

• packet_name (str): Yamcs packet name
• start (datetime, optional): Start time (inclusive)
• stop (datetime, optional): Stop time (exclusive)
• defrag (str, optional): "complete", "all", or None

Returns: List of Telemetry objects

Telemetry

Dataclass representing a telemetry packet or defragmented block.

Attributes:

• apid (int): Application Process ID
• packet_name (str): Yamcs packet name (e.g., "/PUS/HOUSEKEEPING")
• time (datetime): Generation timestamp
• data (bytes): Source data (headers stripped)
• holes (List[Tuple[int, int]]): Missing byte ranges (empty if complete)

Methods:

• is_complete() -> bool: Check if telemetry has no missing fragments

Running Tests

pytest

Troubleshooting

"Could not connect to Yamcs"

• Verify Yamcs is running: Check http://localhost:8090/ in a browser
• Check the URL: Use --url to specify the correct server
• Check the instance: Set YAMCS_INSTANCE if needed.

"No telemetry found"

• Verify the packet name exists in Yamcs MDB
• Check the time range includes actual telemetry data
• Use the Yamcs web interface to verify data availability

Import errors

• Make sure you installed the package: pip install -e .
• Check Python version: Requires Python 3.8+