Guidance for Interpreting Device Data

Key Resources

• TraX Technical Specification Connected Version
• Frame Parsing Examples
• Acting on Device Data
• Firmware Releases

Identifying Firmware Version

To ensure accurate interpretation of the data frame, identifying the firmware version is crucial. The numeric firmware version is embedded within the TraX device frame. The firmware version is located in the second-to-last byte of the data frame (byte position 30). This attribute has been present in all major firmware versions since BSS08.

Firmware Versioning Schema

The firmware release name follows this format: BSS + <major firmware release number>.

• The initial release has no minor version suffix; for instance, BSS08 corresponds to firmware version 80.
• Subsequent minor releases are suffixed alphabetically. For example, BSS08a corresponds to firmware version 81.

Firmware Number to Firmware Release mapping examples:

BSS08	BSS10	BSS11
80 - BSS08 81 - BSS08a 82 - BSS08b 83 - BSS08c 84 - BSS08d	100 - BSS10 101 - BSS10a 102 - BSS10b	110 - BSS11 111 - BSS11a

Code Example for Identifying Firmware Version 

It is recommended to assume compatibility between the latest firmware release and future versions.

Below is a Python code sample demonstrating how to extract the firmware version and load the appropriate frame parser.

# Python code
frame = "0201060A0957454D46464646354410FF0E0401114A2D4A2300000000006E00"

# Convert hex string to a list of bytes
byte_array = bytes.fromhex(frame)

# Extract firmware_version from byte position 30 (0-based index)
firmware_version = byte_array[30]  # Already in decimal

if 80 <= firmware_version <= 89:
    # Parse frame as BSS08 ...
elif 100 <= firmware_version <= 109:
    # Parse frame as BSS10 ...
elif firmware_version >= 110:
    # Parse frame as BSS11 ...

Handling "Debug Data" in the Data Frame

The data frame contains information for the telematics provider, including for example the device's MAC address, wheel-end health, axle, and wheel side. It also includes sections labeled as "debug data" in the TraX Technical Specification Connected Version, which must be treated as an opaque string within telematics platforms—meaning they should be stored but not parsed. These debug data sections are essential for SKF and are expected to be included when sharing data with SKF, as they provide valuable insights into product performance.

Development Devices

In addition to the TraX devices running stable firmware, SKF offers devices running a firmware specifically designed for the development integration phase, referred to as "development devices."

IMPORTANT: the TraX mobile apps may prompt you to upgrade the firmware of development devices. Do not perform firmware upgrades on these devices, as they are intended solely for development purposes and must not be used in production environments..

Development devices broadcast BLE advertising frames every 10 seconds, cycling to one of six supported data frames every five minutes.

These frames represent a subset of device statuses but do not encompass the full range of data variations required for complete device integration.

The data frames generated by a development device include:

AdvFrame1: Battery low level + Bearing failure 0x12
AdvFrame2: Battery extreme low level 0x01
AdvFrame3: Vibration sensor failure (WEM FAILURE) 0xA1
AdvFrame4: Internal WEM Failure (Piezofailure) 0x61
AdvFrame5: Temperature Sensor Failure 0x25
AdvFrame6: Bearing Failure + Temperature Sensor failure 0x26

Contact your sales represent for more information about TraX development devices.