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I am trying to decode and analyse some raw data, coded in ARINC 573 format. It means, that the values are stored in 12 bit long words in a datastream. One data frame contains 4 seconds of data divided to 4 subframes. Each subframe contains 64 words from which the first one is always a dedicated sync word. For the first subframe, sync word is 0x247 for the second 0x5B8 for the third 0xA47 and for the fourth 0xDB8.
On the computer, the data file is a .TSC file which can be opened with notepad, but I think it tries to decode it as ANSI characters, and that is resulting some unreadable string.

Updated: The .TSC file contains a header, with some basic information about the data collector device, and some code. It looks like:

00-G  01-G  02-G  03-G  04-G  05-G  06-G  07-G  
08-G  09-G  10-G  11-G  12-G  13-G  14-G  15-G  
16-B  17-B  18-B  19-B  20-B  21-B  22-B  23-B  
24-B  25-B  26-B  27-B  28-B  29-B  30-B  31-B  

Part Number             
Hardware Version                
Software Version        
Serial Number           XXXX    
Date of Manufacture     02/15/01
Checksum                362D    
QAR Capacity            2       
 ˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙THE TIME CHIP SERIAL NUMBER IS: 0000000000000000. THE CURRENT TIME STAMP IS: 0000000000. THE CODE ID IS: MQ06A411. END OF TIME STAMP.wŚô^ Ŕh wÖÇ8’0„ Ŕţr'w‰ôŕ 
  V w¨}8 °„  ţx'wŹä^   p  wÔw8 °„ °ţu'w†„  p¸Ą wÄt8wź„ Ŕţxw‹ä^ a wÍw8•đ °ţu'w†ôŕ   Y w¨ť8 0„ °ţuwŹä^   p     wÉw8 °„ °ţtw‰   Gş  wÄt8Zź °ţywŽT_ d wŇG8’đ„ °ţxw‰ôŔ 
  ] w¨˝8 p„ ŔţzwŹt_   €      wŇw8 p„ °ţzw‰P   ¸Í  wÄt8?ź„ °ţz'wŤt_ ŔfŕvËG8•0„ ŔţuGw‰ôŔ 
@ Vŕv§ť8 đ„ Ŕţx'w’t_   €     wćW8 đ„ Ŕţvw‡   đGŇ“%wÄ”8#ß„ Ŕţxw‰t_ f wÖw8•° Ŕţyw‡ôŔ ...

End of updated section.

I tried several basic converters to convert the file to binary, but I think because of the 12 bit segmentation, those does not give me the correct binary datastream. How could I extract this file to Excel, with every 12 bit word into a separate cell?

I am not really into programming, just want to use the data from the files for engineering purposes. I am open to other environments, such as python or C# as well.

2nd update: After I opened the file in a binary editor and turned out it is little-endian, I found the sync words and the subframe pattern. enter image description here

So now I can be a little bit more specific with my question: Can I use excel to open this file and put the hex values into separate cells, as the binary editor does?

Lameus
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    `tried several basic converters to convert the file to binary` - it's already binary. `because of the 12 bit segmentation, those does not give me the correct binary datastream` - files are stored in bytes which are 8 bits; the notion of 12 bit segmentation only exists in the program that knows how to read that file and deliberately slices it in the middle of the bytes. `extract this file to excel, with every 12 bit word into a separate cell` - what would that 12 bit look like in an Excel cell? It's not a character, it's too small for two characters, it does not correspond to a number format. – GSerg Aug 26 '22 at 11:06
  • Thanks for the comment! To be clear, at the end I would like to see the 12 bit words in the cells as 12 bit binary numbers. For me, that would be the easiest to then convert the words to decimal numbers and then to engineering units to plot. – Lameus Aug 26 '22 at 11:37
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    So each word is a 12-bit integer that can be zero-expanded to a `short`? Are you sure your tsc file contains nothing but the raw data? Not some headers the program added to it? – GSerg Aug 26 '22 at 11:59
  • Yes, you are right, there is a header, I attached an example to the post. – Lameus Aug 26 '22 at 12:20
  • It's not clear how one is supposed to detect the start of the data from that file. – GSerg Aug 26 '22 at 12:30
  • It's not clear to me either. But I've never worked with this kind of files before, so I tought it just starts right after "END OF TIME STAMP." – Lameus Aug 26 '22 at 12:38
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    Don't open the file with a text editor, open it with a binary editor. The text processing applications can make changes on how the data is interpreted, especially if data is copy/pasted. Binary editors will usually display the hex values of the bytes alongside with the corresponding ASCII character. Here you say that sync words are either 0x247,0x5B8,0xA47 or 0xDB8. Since 64 x 12bits = 768 = 8bits x 96, we should see a sync word every 96 bytes. – Vincent G Aug 26 '22 at 12:38
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    Do you know the endianness (how the bits are stored in words) for your data? – Vincent G Aug 26 '22 at 12:41
  • Thanks for your comments, they helped a lot. Question updated. – Lameus Aug 26 '22 at 23:07
  • `Can I use excel to open this file and put the hex values into separate cells, as the binary editor does?` - automatically, no. With some VBA code, yes, provided that you figure a reliable way to find where the data stream starts. – GSerg Aug 26 '22 at 23:29
  • I think I will just look for the first sync word in the stream from the very beginning, and if it's followed by the second sync word in 756 bit distance and then the third one and the fourth one, I will say that's the first data frame. – Lameus Aug 26 '22 at 23:46

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