Marshall,

You can break a single command into multiple packets. So, for the time example; packet 1 can have the hours and minutes, and packet 2 can have the seconds. Just make sure the sender takes a snapshot of the time and uses that for both packets. Otherwise, the seconds might roll over to the next minute between packet 1 and 2.

Personally, I'd allow variable length packets. On your receivers, they can have pools of pre-allocated packet buffers. Have many buffers available for the smaller and more common packet size, and only a few (or just one) for the larger packet size. The FrameLen is used to pick the right buffer pool to use.

<>< Lance.