Often asked for from the old DeltaV Application exchange, how to decode the time stamp in the .imp files

Just yesterday (2002), the DeltaV application exchange https://deltav.com/Appsnew/ once had an Excel spreadsheet supplied by Daryl Coates that would parse the .imp files that are used for DeltaV uploads.  The application exchange has not been maintained and for the current state of Cyber Security exploits, it would probably not be prudent to do so.   

Most of the .imp file is self explanatory, but the time stamp was not obvious.

The Excel VBA code to decode the date / time stamp into Excel date / time  is as follows:

lng_gmtoffset = 0

' Timestamps seem to be worked from a base of 1-jan-1972
lng_1972 = 26299
' This appears to be the divisor to get seconds from the timestamp field
lng_division = 32000

' Convert hex timestamp (seconds since 1972)
' to excel date format (days since 1900)
' Calculate part by part to stop numeric overflows and
' to make the process clearer
dbl_date = UnHex(str_stamp)
dbl_date = dbl_date / lng_division 'seconds
dbl_date = dbl_date / (60# * 60# * 24#) 'days
dbl_date = dbl_date + lng_1972 ' since 1972
dbl_date = dbl_date + (lng_gmtoffset / 24#)

Function UnHex(ByVal str_hex As String) As Double

'
' UnHex function
' Written 10/2/02 by Daryl Coates to return a double value
' from a large hexadecimal string
'

Dim dbl_result As Double
Dim str_hexstring As String

dbl_result = 0
str_hexstring = "0123456789ABCDEF"

' Scan through each character right to left, multiply by 16 for each character
Do
dbl_result = dbl_result * 16
dbl_result = dbl_result + (InStr(1, str_hexstring, Left(str_hex, 1), 1) - 1)
str_hex = Right(str_hex, Len(str_hex) - 1)
Loop While str_hex <> ""

UnHex = dbl_result
End Function

This supplied as is, explicitly no support implied.  Use at your own discretion.

Randy Pratt

• 18 Apr 2025 2:42 PM
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2 Replies

• Ray Emerson

  

  • 18 Apr 2025 3:00 PM

  I found the Excel VBA implementation would often fail on insufficient memory in systems with high node counts or a lot of un-uploaded changes. This is a PowerShell implementation that may be more appropriate for those cases.

  To quote Randy, this supplied as is, explicitly no support implied. Use at your own discretion.

  ## === Variables === ##
  $files = get-childitem -Recurse "D:\DeltaV\DVDATA\*.imp"
  $header = "Parameter","Field","Raw Datestamp","New Value","Username"
  $hash = @()
  $utcOffset = -5
  $Timestamp = Get-Date -Format "yyyyMMdd_HHmmss"
  $CsvReport = ".\BetterPowerup_$Timestamp.csv"
  
  ## === Variables === ##
  foreach ($file in $files) {
      $module = $file.BaseName.trimstart("_")
      $module_contents = import-csv -Delimiter "`t" -Path $file -Header $header
      $ctlrPath = $file.DirectoryName+"\STARTDEV.STE"
      $ctlrName = (Get-Content $ctlrPath)[3].TrimStart("TG='").TrimEnd("'")
      for ($line = 0; $line -le ($module_contents.Length - 1); $line++ ) {
          # Date/time is encoded as a 64-bit hexadecimal. 
          [uint64]$rawDatestamp = "0x"+$module_contents[$line].'Raw Datestamp'
          # Conversion to seconds with UTC offset
          $elapsedSeconds=$rawDateStamp / 32000 + $utcOffset * 60 * 60
          # Unlike the rest of the universe, the controller floor date is 1/1/1972.
          [datetime]$finalDate = ([datetime]'1/1/1972').AddSeconds($elapsedSeconds)
  
          # Assemble all the fields for this row.
          $Object = New-Object PSObject -Property @{
          'Controller' = $ctlrName
          'Module' = $module
          'Parameter' = $module_contents[$line].parameter
          'Field' = $module_contents[$line].field
          'Datestamp' = $finalDate
          'New Value' = $module_contents[$line].'New Value'
          'Username' = $module_contents[$line].Username
          } # End $object
  
          # Append this row to the overall hash table.
             $hash += $object
      } # End foreach $line 
  } # End foreach $file
  
  
  $hash | Export-Csv -Path $CsvReport -NoTypeInformation -Encoding UTF8

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• Randy Pratt

  

  • 21 Apr 2025 8:34 PM

  In reply to Ray Emerson:

  Ray; Thanks for the updated method!

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