SENT Protocol for Sportage and Sorento

Certain Smartstream Sportage and Sorento use Single Edge Nibble Transmission (SENT) protocol which looks different than other signals we use. Let’s take a few moments to get you up to speed!

Binary

A computer is a collection of ON/OFF devices (transistors). The sequence of ONs and OFFs make data and allow for computer functions to process. Binary code takes data and converts it to 0 for OFF and 1 for ON.

SENT protocol uses numbers 0 through 15. Binary is in base 2, so instead of writing the number 5, binary uses 0101. Each digit from right to left represents a value double the previous value.

Example:

SENT uses numbers 0 through 15 because it uses a Nibble as the data transmission size. A Nibble is 4 Bits of data, and a Bit is either a 0 or a 1 in Binary. So, for SENT there are 4 digits that represent the information and in binary code the number 15 is the highest number available when using 4 Bits.

The Data

SENT data is converted into a repeating pattern that varies in time between the falling edges of the various pulses. Each pulse is a packet of data that is converted to a unit of time called a Nibble. There can be up to 6 of these 4-Bit data Nibbles (pulses). Time is measured in microseconds and is much faster than what we can accurately see, but a good representation is shown below.

The Nibble

The Nibble is the difference in time between the falling edges converted into a unit of time. We refer to the individual unit of time as a “Tick.” The Tick time amount is then converted to a digit from 0 to 15 and, from there, to binary form.

For example, in this image the measurement is 48 micro-seconds. Depending on the sensor’s Tick calibration, 48 converts as:

• With 12 micro-seconds per Tick, 48 divided by 12 equals 4
• 4 coverts to 0100
• So, this Nibble is 0100

So, SENT Protocol is a repeating series of Nibbles, made of Bits, that are made of Ticks, that represent the information from the sensor. Simple, huh?

Bookmark this post for the next time you need to work with SENT protocol.

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