dashboard protocol

[sciguy125]

I'm working on a dashboard program and I need some more info about the protocol (the documentation isn't very detailed and I don't have access to the controller right now).

The data sent out the Dashboard port is a stream of bytes. There are 26 bytes in a packet. The packets are transmitted approximately 40 times per second.

I got the part about 26 bytes in a packet. However, it takes 3 packets to get all the data. So, how many packets are sent each loop (main program loop)? Is it just one packet at a time, or all 3? The reason I ask is that I want to encode some extra data into the user bytes, but I need more than the 6 byes available. My plan is to send some of the data the first time around, then the rest of it in another packet (or set of packets).

The firmware in the Robot Controller (2004 or later) interlaces data packets.

Is this the to answer my above question (sending one packet at a time) or does it mean that the packets don't come in order?

Lastly, the documentation keeps refering to specific bits within certain bytes. But is bit 0 the LSB or the MSB?

Edit: One more thing: there's a byte called USER CMD, but I couldn't figure out what it is. Is it an extra "user byte" that I can play with, or does it actually do something important?