binary_template() errors and do I have to use this?

All,

I just got a bunch of satellite data that I would like to read in,
unfortunately instead of being cdf or something kind it is some random
format described as:
The .FPM files contain the CRRES magnetometer data already converted
to
magnetic field components. The files consist of 16-byte frames
containing UT,
Bx,By,Bz in INTEL floating-point format.

My system:
IDL> print, !version
{ i386 darwin unix Mac OS X 6.4.1 Sep 25 2007 32 64}

I tried to use binary_template() (for the first time) and got a pile
or errors trying to setup the template. Have others seen this?

IDL> tmp=binary_template(file)
% Compiled module: XMANAGER.
% Compiled module: CW_FIELD.
% Compiled module: CW_BGROUP.
% XMANAGER: Caught unexpected error from client application. Message
follows...
% Attempt to call undefined procedure/function: 'BT_ENTRY_IS_VALID'.
% Execution halted at: BT_MODIFY_FIELD_EVENT 812 /Applications/itt/
idl64/lib/binary_template.pro
% XMANAGER_EVLOOP_REAL_MODAL 506 /Applications/
itt/idl64/lib/xmanager.pro
% XMANAGER 704 /Applications/itt/idl64/
lib/xmanager.pro
% BT_MODIFY_FIELD 1222 /Applications/itt/idl64/
lib/binary_template.pro
% BINARY_TEMPLATE_EVENT 1272 /Applications/itt/
idl64/lib/binary_template.pro
% XMANAGER_EVLOOP_REAL_MODAL 506 /Applications/
itt/idl64/lib/xmanager.pro
% XMANAGER 704 /Applications/itt/idl64/
lib/xmanager.pro
% BINARY_TEMPLATE 1714 /Applications/itt/idl64/
lib/binary_template.pro
% $MAIN$

So giving up on this I tried the following and would like to do this
or something close:

- read a line into a string -> convert to byte -> grab 4 bytes ->
convert to float
I can do the first 2 steps easy, step one returns string from the
file, step 2 makes that a byte array, step 3 is just array[0:3], but I
dont know how to combine these to a float for step 4.

Does anyone have advice on this or insight into a different solution?

Thanks,

Brian

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brian Larsen
Boston University
Center for Space Physics
http://people.bu.edu/balarsen/Home/IDL

Gotta love it when you answer your own question and impress everyone
with your ignorance

There really is no magic, one just has to use readu

this works great (for anyone else who reads this)
file='cr0425.fpm
openr,lun,file,/get_lun
a=fltarr(10000)
readu,lun,a
;; just get the first 100 points
intt=indgen(100)*4
intx=indgen(100)*4+1
inty=indgen(100)*4+1
inty=indgen(100)*4+2
;; plot them up.
plot, a[intt],a[intz]


binary_template() still doesn't work but if its like ascii_template()
is too slow anyway.


Brian

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brian Larsen
Boston University
Center for Space Physics
http://people.bu.edu/balarsen/Home/IDL