Sora Device Client

The Sora Device Client provides a set of tools to connect your GNSS device to Sora.

The Sora Device Client consists of:

• A command-line client - the simplest way to connect to Sora
• A Python client library - for deeper integration and customization

Table of Contents

• Installing
  • Dependencies
    • Package Manger
    • Buf
    • Python Interpreter
    • Python Dependencies
• Command-Line Client
  • Configuration file
  • Running
    • Login
    • Start
    • Logout
  • Data file
• GNSS Receiver Configuration
• Technical Support

Installing

Dependencies

You should only need to follow these steps once per machine you are setting up to run the sora-device-client on.

Package Manger

You will most likely need a package manager to install the other dependencies. Use the one that is canonical for your distribution, for example: apt, dnf, yum, pacman.

For macOS, it is recommend to use homebrew. For windows, something like chocolately will do.

Python Interpreter

You need to install Python. Versions 3.8 - 3.11 are supported. See https://www.python.org/downloads/ for download instructions. On macOS, you can use homebrew as well:

brew install python@3.10

Install with pip from PyPI.

pip install sora-device-client

Install a development version.

See DEVELOPMENT.md for info on installing from source / CI build.

Command-Line Client

Configuration file

Copy the default config file to the appropriate location. sora will tell you where it should go:

sora paths
# Example output:
# Configuration folder: (your config.toml needs to go in here)
#     /home/jwhitaker/.config/sora-device-client
#
# Data folder: (other runtime data gets stored in here)
#     /home/jwhitaker/.local/share/sora-device-client

sora will also give you an example configuration:

sora example-config
# ==============================================================================
# Sora Device Client configuration
# ==============================================================================
#
# ...
#

Putting them together, you can set up a config file in the right location, and edit it:

mkdir -p /home/jwhitaker/.config/sora-device-client/ # (configuration folder from `sora paths`)
sora example-config > /home/jwhitaker/.config/sora-device-client/config.toml
notepad /home/jwhitaker/.config/sora-device-client/config.toml # or whatever

You will most likely have to edit the [location.driver] section to work with the location source for your system.

If you are connecting to a GNSS location source over the network, it will be something like:

[location.driver.tcp]
host = "localhost"
port = 55555

However if you are connecting over a serial or USB port:

[location.driver.serial]
port = "/dev/tty.usbmodem14401"
baud = 115200

The value of port will be highly hardware specific. Some values that are known to have worked are: /dev/ttyACM0, /dev/ttyUSB0, /dev/tty.usbmodem14401. If you have Swift hardware and have installed the Swift Console: https://support.swiftnav.com/support/solutions/articles/44001903699-installing-swift-console, the value used to connect it to your swift device will work.

Also note that sometimes non privileged users do not have permission to read and write to the device. The easiest way to obtain these permissions is to add your user to the group of the device. For example if it is /dev/ttyACM0, the group to add yourself to may be obtained with:

stat -c "%G" /dev/ttyACM0

See here for how to add a user to a group on Linux. You may need to log out of and log in to the operating system session again. On macOS and Windows, the instructions are too varied to list here. Please research how to do this for your combination of OS and OS version.

Running

Once installed, the `sora` command will be in the path:
```bash
sora --help

Login

To authenticate with a sora server, run

sora login

and follow the interactive procedure. You will need access to a web browser.

Start

After authentication, you can stream data to the sora server with

sora --verbose start

Logout

If you wish to use a difference set of credentials on the same hardware, you can clear them with

sora logout

Data file

There is also a data file called data.toml that is used to store data that is generated by sora login. Typically, running sora logout will clear this file. If you need to manually remove it, its location is is the Data path location from the output of

sora paths

GNSS Receiver Configuration

The Sora Device Client works with Swift Navigation receivers and Starling Position Engine software using data in SBP protocol. Refer to the receiver-specific manual to configure your receiver:

• Piksi Multi
• Duro
• PGM EVK
• Starling Positioning Engine

The device client uses the following SBP messages:

Message Name	Message ID (decimal)	Description
POS LLH	522	Position (latitude, longitude, altitude)
ORIENT EULER	545	Orientation (roll, pitch, yaw) Using this message is optional Message is available only in products with inertial fusion enabled

Download Swift Binary Protocol Specification

Piksi Multi / Duro Configuration Example

Piksi Multi and Duro configuration can be changed using Swift Console program. TCP Server 1 settings example:

Note: Click SAVE TO DEVICE button to memorize settings over the power cycle.

Starling Configuration Example

Starling configuration is saved in the yaml configuration file. TCP server output example:

...
  outputs:
    - name: sbp-sora
      protocol: sbp
      type: tcp-server
      port: 55556
      max-conns: 4
      sbp:
        enabled-messages: [ 522,545 ]
...

Technical Support

Support requests can be made by filling the Support Request Form on the Swift Navigation Support page (Support Request Form button is at the bottom of the page). A simple login is required to confirm your email address.