TCP Transport

The TCP transport connects to the Tropic01 model server for development and testing purposes. This allows testing PyTropicSquare without physical hardware.

TCP Transport for libtropic Model/Simulator

This module provides a TCP transport implementation that communicates with the TROPIC01 model/simulator server using the libtropic tagged protocol.

The transport enables pytropicsquare to work with the same model/simulator infrastructure that libtropic uses, making it useful for:

  • Hardware-in-the-loop testing

  • Chip simulation and development

  • Cross-platform testing (CPython and MicroPython)

Protocol Details:

The transport implements the libtropic TCP protocol with tagged messages:

  • Buffer format:

    • tag (1)

    • length (2 LE)

    • payload (0-256)

  • Request-response pattern with tag validation

  • Automatic retry logic for network operations

Example:

from tropicsquare import TropicSquare
from tropicsquare.transports.tcp import TcpTransport

# Connect to model server
transport = TcpTransport("127.0.0.1")
ts = TropicSquare(transport)

# Use chip normally
print(ts.chip_id)
note:

Server must be running libtropic-compatible model/simulator from https://github.com/tropicsquare/ts-tvl/

class tropicsquare.transports.tcp.TcpTransport(host, port=28992, timeout=5.0, connect_timeout=1.0)[source]

Bases: L1Transport

L1 transport for TCP connection to libtropic model/simulator.

Implements the libtropic tagged protocol for communicating with the TROPIC01 model/simulator server via TCP socket.

The transport maps L1 SPI operations to tagged TCP commands:

  • _cs_low() → TAG_CSN_LOW (0x01)

  • _cs_high() → TAG_CSN_HIGH (0x02)

  • _transfer() → TAG_SPI_SEND (0x03)

  • _read() → TAG_SPI_SEND (0x03) with dummy bytes

Parameters:

  • host (str) – Hostname or IP address of the model server

  • port (int) – Port number for the TCP connection (default: 28992)

  • timeout (float) – Socket timeout in seconds (default: 5.0)

  • connect_timeout (float)

Raises:

TropicSquareError – If connection fails

Example:

transport = TcpTransport("127.0.0.1")
ts = TropicSquare(transport)
print(ts.chip_id)
TAG_CSN_LOW = 1
TAG_CSN_HIGH = 2
TAG_SPI_SEND = 3
TAG_WAIT = 6
TAG_INVALID = 253
TAG_UNSUPPORTED = 254
MAX_PAYLOAD_LEN = 256
MAX_BUFFER_LEN = 259
TX_ATTEMPTS = 3
RX_ATTEMPTS = 3
__init__(host, port=28992, timeout=5.0, connect_timeout=1.0)[source]

Initialize TCP transport.

Parameters:

  • host (str) – Hostname or IP address of the model server

  • port (int) – Port number for the TCP connection (default: 28992)

  • timeout (float) – Socket I/O timeout in seconds (default: 5.0)

  • connect_timeout (float) – Connect timeout per resolved address in seconds (default: 1.0)

Raises:

TropicSquareError – If connection fails

Model Server

The Tropic01 model server simulates chip behavior for:

  • Development without hardware

  • Automated testing

  • CI/CD integration

Platform Support

  • CPython: Full support

  • MicroPython: Supported with network connectivity

See Also