quick draft of what this might look like

can/common.h

@@ -67,6 +67,7 @@ public:
   uint64_t last_sec = 0;
   uint64_t last_nonempty_sec = 0;
   uint64_t bus_timeout_threshold = 0;
+  SignalValue get_msg(uint32_t msg_addr);
 
   CANParser(int abus, const std::string& dbc_name,
             const std::vector<MessageParseOptions> &options);

can/common.pxd

@@ -53,7 +53,6 @@ cdef extern from "common_dbc.h":
     uint32_t address
     string name
 
-
   cdef struct MessageParseOptions:
     uint32_t address
     int check_frequency
@@ -78,6 +77,7 @@ cdef extern from "common.h":
     CANParser(int, string, vector[MessageParseOptions])
     void update_string(string, bool)
     vector[SignalValue] query_latest()
+    SignalValue get_msg(uint32_t msg_addr)
 
   cdef cppclass CANPacker:
    CANPacker(string)

can/parser.cc

@@ -295,6 +295,21 @@ void CANParser::UpdateValid(uint64_t sec) {
   }
 }
 
+SignalValue CANParser::get_msg(uint32_t msg_addr) {
+  auto state_it = message_states.find(msg_addr);
+  if (state_it != message_states.end()) {
+    MessageState state = state_it->second;
+    const Signal &sig = state.parse_sigs[0];
+     return (SignalValue){
+        .address = state.address,
+        .name = sig.name,
+        .value = state.vals[0],
+        .all_values = state.all_vals[0],
+      };
+  }
+  assert(false);
+}
+
 std::vector<SignalValue> CANParser::query_latest() {
   std::vector<SignalValue> ret;
 

can/parser_pyx.pyx

@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ from libcpp.unordered_set cimport unordered_set
 from libc.stdint cimport uint32_t, uint64_t, uint16_t
 from libcpp cimport bool
 from libcpp.map cimport map
+import time
 
 from .common cimport CANParser as cpp_CANParser
 from .common cimport SignalParseOptions, MessageParseOptions, dbc_lookup, SignalValue, DBC
@@ -97,6 +98,9 @@ cdef class CANParser:
     self.can = new cpp_CANParser(bus, dbc_name, message_options_v)
     self.update_vl()
 
+  def get_msg(self):
+    return self.can.get_msg(835)
+
   cdef unordered_set[uint32_t] update_vl(self):
     cdef unordered_set[uint32_t] updated_addrs
 
@@ -118,11 +122,13 @@ cdef class CANParser:
     return updated_addrs
 
   def update_string(self, dat, sendcan=False):
-    for v in self.vl_all.values():
-      v.clear()
+    #for v in self.vl_all.values():
+    #  v.clear()
 
+    # t = time.time()
     self.can.update_string(dat, sendcan)
-    return self.update_vl()
+    # print(time.time() - t)
+    # return self.update_vl()
 
   def update_strings(self, strings, sendcan=False):
     for v in self.vl_all.values():