Strange packet received

[niclas@hedhman.org]

Hi,
I am using MicroPython on PyCom module LoPy4, and in-house compile;
Pycom MicroPython 1.18.2.r7 [df9f237-dirty] on 2019-06-13; LoPy4 with ESP32

I am not a Python programmer, but very experienced in many other languages, so even if my Python questions look stupid, please don't treat me like an idiot.

I have encountered a strange situation that happens "sometimes" and the frequency of it occurring seems to be LoPy unit dependent, i.e. some of those I have do it much more commonly and others not at all.

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        received_packet = self.lora_sock.recv(512)
        
        if isinstance( received_packet, bytes ) :
            packet_length = len(received_packet)

And I get the error;

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TypeError: object of type 'function' has no len()

So, can a 'bytes' instance also be a function, and lacking the len() function? Could "received_packet" possible "change" from "bytes" to "function" between the isinstance() call and the len() call?

And yes, I am not dreaming this. The program is quite short, output goes to serial port and that is captured to log file on a Raspberry Pi "as-is", and the whole stacktrace in it and the line number matches the source code.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

// Niclas

[dhylands]

Without seeing your code, I'll guess that your variable does contain a function. If you did this:

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data = foo

but you really meant to do this:

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data = foo()

then data will contain the function foo and not the results of calling the function foo.

[niclas@hedhman.org]

Nah. The code I posted is literally the 3 lines (+a blank in between) from the code. The LoRa module (from pycom-micropython-sigfox repository) is written in C, and interfaces with Python in ways I have no idea.

My question could perhaps be phrased; How is it possible that "bytes" doesn't have "len()" function sometimes?

The whole function in question looks like below. And I am clueless how it can pass the "if isinstance" and then fail on "len()"

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    def loraCycle(self):
        received_packet = self.lora_sock.recv(512)
        if isinstance( received_packet, bytes ) :
            packet_length = len(received_packet)
            if packet_length >= 8:
                pycom.rgbled(0x002000)
                rssi = self.lora.stats()[1].to_bytes(2, "little")
                snr = int(self.lora.stats()[2]).to_bytes(2, "little")
                print('SensorData:' + ",".join(map(str, received_packet + rssi + snr)))
                pycom.rgbled(0x000000)
            else:
                if packet_length  > 0 :
                    rssi = self.lora.stats()[1].to_bytes(2, "little")
                    snr = int(self.lora.stats()[2]).to_bytes(2, "little")
                    print('Unexpected:' + ",".join(map(str, received_packet + rssi + snr)))
                    self.pingcounter = self.pingcounter + 1
                if self.pingcounter > 1000 :
                    print('ping')
                    self.pingcounter = 0
        else:
            print( "Unpexpected return value:" )
            print( type(received_packet) )
            print( received_packet )

[pythoncoder]

how it can pass the "if isinstance" and then fail on "len()"

Indeed. Very odd. Here is how I'd set about debugging it

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    def loraCycle(self):
        received_packet = self.lora_sock.recv(512)
        if isinstance( received_packet, bytes ) :
            try:
                packet_length = len(received_packet)
            except TypeError:
                print('Error', type(received_packet), received_packet)
            # Rest of code

[Christian Walther]

How is it possible that "bytes" doesn't have "len()" function sometimes?

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>>> bytes = type(print)
>>> a = print
>>> isinstance(a, bytes)
True
>>> len(a)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
TypeError: object of type 'function' has no len()

I have no reason to suspect that that’s what’s happening here, but it’s a possibility.

[niclas@hedhman.org]

@pythoncoder
I eventually got around to dig into this and took your advice...

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    def loraCycle(self):
        received_packet = self.lora_sock.recv(512)
        if isinstance( received_packet, bytes ) :
            try:
                packet_length = len(received_packet)
            except TypeError:
                print('Error', type(received_packet), received_packet)
            # Rest of code

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Error <class 'bytes'> b''

Isn't that type expected??