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Colossus Record and Playback Tool

Colossus Record and Playback Tool

Introduction

The Colossus net record playback tool is for recording and playing back network data generated from a radar. When recording the tool will act as radar client and once connected to a client it will initiate the transfer of raw radar data and record this to a file of disk. This file will include configuration and health data alongside the raw FFT data.

When operating in playback mode, the tool will mimic a radar and act as a TCP Server. Other client applications can connect to the tool and receive data over the network in exactly the same way they would if connected to a real radar.

For a detailed description of the file format used by the tool to record the radar data please refer to Colossus File Format.

Please be aware that you should not edit the recording filenames. Files which have been renamed will play, but you will lose start time and file group information.

Contents

Recording Radar Data

Initiating Data Recording

1. Open a windows command prompt, and navigate to the directory containing the Colossus net record playback tool (ColossusNetRecordPlayback.exe).

2. Type in the executable name, followed by the verb “record” the -i or --ipaddress flag, and then specify the I.P address of the radar you wish to record data from.

ColossusNetRecordPlayback.exe record -i 10.77.2.211

3. Press enter, you will see the radar data recording begin.

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All flags available for recording:

Use flag -i or --ipaddress followed by a space and a string to specify the radar IP address, default is “192.168.0.1”. Example: -i “10.77.2.210”

Use flag -p or --port followed by a space and an integer to specify the radar port, default is 6317. Example: -p 6317

Use flag -f or --prefix followed by a space and a string to assign a prefix to the recording filename, default is “Radar”. Example: -f “HDR200”

use flag -m or --maximumfilelength followed by a space and an integer to set a maximum file size for recording (in bytes), default is 2GB. Example: -m 10000000

use flag -c or --donotcompress followed by a space and a boolean to disable use of compression while recording, default is false. Example: -c true

use flag -s or --simplefilenames followed by a space and a boolean to force usage of simplified filenames, default is false. Example: -s true

Use flag -d or --disablefilewrite followed by a space and a boolean to disable writing radar data to disk, default is false. Example: -d true

Use flag -b or --tcpbuffersize followed by a space and an int to set the tcp buffer size in bytes, default is 1638400. Example: -b 409600

Use flag -a or --accelerometerdata followed by a space and a boolean to enable recording of accelerometer data, default is false. Example: -a true

use flag -v or --verbosefftcheck followed by a space and a boolean to force timestamp and sweep counter checks for FFT data, default is false. Example: -v true

Monitoring Data Recording

Radar data recording will continue while the bottom most line in the command prompt window is displaying a filename. The recording tool will check that the RX packet rate matches the packet rate of the configuration of the radar.

If the maximum file size for the radar data capture has been reached, recording will continue in a new file.

Stopping Data Recording

1. To stop recording, press Ctrl+C simultaneously, while the command prompt window is selected.

2. You can verify recording has stopped when the command prompt returns to its rest state.

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Playing Back Radar Data

Options:

Use flag -p or --port followed by a space and an integer to specify the radar port, default is 6317. Example: -p 6317

Use flag -f or --filename followed by a space and a string to specify the colossus filename to playback, default is blank. Example: -f “Recording.colraw”

Use flag -l or --loopcount followed by a space and an integer to specify the number of times to loop the file playback, default is 0 (loop forever). Example: -l 2

Use flag -m or --maxclients followed by a space and an integer to specify the maximum network clients, default 1. Example: -m 3

Use flag -s or --speedmultiplier followed by a space and a decimal to specify the playback speed, default 1.0. Example: -s 0.5

Use flag -o or --secondsoffset followed by a space and an integer to specify the offset at which to start the recording playback, default 0. Example: -o 30

Initiating Playback

1. Open a windows command prompt, and navigate to the directory containing the Colossus net record playback tool (ColossusNetRecordPlayback.exe).

2. Type in the executable name, followed by the verb playback the -f flag, and then specify the file path and filename you wish to play back.

playback -f "C:\Local\Tools\Colossus\2025\07\03\Radar_1_20250703095903199_AC66CA.colraw"

3. Press enter, you will see the program waiting for a client to connect and view the radar data.

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If the folder contains multiple files, they will be played in order, one after the other, starting from the selected file name.

Monitoring Playback

1. To monitor the radar data playback, open a radar data viewing app, such as RadarView-Lite.

2. In your selected app, change the data source I.P and port to the I.P and port that you previously set up. Default is 127.0.0.1 (localhost) and 6317

3. You should now see the radar data playing back in your app, looking similar to the following:

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Stopping Playback

1 To stop playback, press Ctrl+C simultaneously, while the command prompt window is selected.

2. You can verify recording has stopped when the command prompt returns to its rest state.

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Verifying integrity of radar recording

The new “filechecker” verb is used along with a .colraw filename, or a directory name containing .colraw files. The filechecker does not play back the .colraw file(s), instead, it looks through the FFT records in the file to confirm if any FFT data have been missed in the recording. It does this by looking at the increasing FFT sweep counter, and the FFT data timestamps. The filechecker will report the amount of missing FFT data, or any FFT timestamps which are in the wrong order.

Options:

Use flag -f or --filename followed by a space and a string to specify the colossus filename to check, default is blank. Example: -f “Recording.colraw”

Use flag -d or --directory followed by a space and a string to specify the folder containing colossus files to check, default is blank. Example: -d “C:\Local\Development\sdk”

Initiating Colossus file checker

  1. Open a windows command prompt, and navigate to the directory containing the Colossus net record playback tool (ColossusNetRecordPlayback.exe).

  2. Type in the executable name, followed by the verb filechecker the -f flag, and then specify the file path and filename you wish to check. (You may also specify a folder of files to check, using the -d flag)

ColossusNetRecordPlayback.exe filechecker -f C:\Local\Development\Tungsten\sdk\bin\Debug\2019\10\24\Radar_1_20191024090305094_CFDFE8.colraw

  1. Press enter, you will see the program checking the FFT data from the Colossus file. It will report any errors and a summary of errors once complete. Below is an example with no missing FFT records or timestamp ordering issues.

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Error Example

This example screenshot shows what happens if errors are encountered during playback (in v1.2.0 Build 110) - note what is displayed at the end.

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Related Information

Safety is everything.