hex decoding issue in rftestrx2pcap.py

[kramimus]

Most of the time, I am able to successfully capture to pcap with an econotag flashed with the latest rftest-rx_redbee-econotag.bin. Every once in a while though, I hit this error:

$ /dev/libmc1322x# tools/rftestrx2pcap.py /dev/ttyUSB1 25  > /home/data/chan25_20130717.pcap
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "tools/rftestrx2pcap.py", line 93, in <module>
    outfile.write(pack('<B', int(m.group(1),16)))
ValueError: invalid literal for int() with base 16: 'rx'

This is often after successfully capturing 1000s of packets.

Let me know if you want me to dump some binary output with the problematic bytes, since it doesn't look like the bad packet makes it to the output file. It is pretty easily reproducible.

[malvira]

My guess is that this is periodic problem with the sniffer output --- possibly b/c of a collision or other wierd 802.15.4 thing going on. In the past I've also tee'd off the raw sniffer output or maybe dump the string that's getting processed at the exception. We'll probably see some problem issue with the format coming from the econotag.

It might be hard to track down the cause. It could be a genuine RF/packet thing, a serial<->USB thing, or many other problems :)

You could rule out serial<->USB issue by trying it on different computer setups. If the same error is produced by two econotags on different computers then we know its something going on in the econotag.