Connect Raspberry Pi to Flex 6K

Wow Clay, this is fantastic! I was just looking for a Raspberry Pi to play with, and now I think I will start here! I was planning on using FlexLib with C# as I was able to get that working on my laptop. I think porting the code to the Pi will be fairly straightforward.

Here is what I have, just playing around (first attempt at C#...):

It uses discovery, but not SmartLink. It does not connect as a GUI Client, and therefore does not get audio or panadapter data. It does connect (bind) to whatever GUI client it finds first, and if there is more than one GUI client connected, it gives you a choice of which one to bind to. It has an option to show when you are out of band for your license class (US Only...) and puts spots on the screen to let you know.

I don't know anything about UDP, so I have not (yet) played around with audio or waterfall data. If (when) I get a Raspberry Pi, will start down that path.

Thanks for making this available - I can't wait to see what I can do here.

Hi Clay, Well I ordered a Raspberry Pi 4 yesterday. Hopefully, I can transfer what I learned building my TeensyMaestro over to this platform.

The TM is coded in C++ using the Arduino library from IW7DMH, but he did not make provision for UDP, other than for discovery packets.

I have glanced through the Vita-49 documentation, but at this point it is totally overwhelming. Once I get in and play around with this, it will probably make more sense.

With something new to play with, maybe I will stop some of the scope-creep on my TM! I will release my latest update this coming week (I added a two position mic selection switch that changes mic profile based on switch position).

Thanks Clay, I appreciate all of this! I am slowly catching on to C and its variants, and very slowly catching on to networking (sockets, et al). My professional programming dates back to the mid 70s using Fortran, PL/I and COBOL. Somewhere along the line I picked up Visual Basic, and now very recently, I finally started working in C++ and C#. If I ask oddball questions, you'll know why... If you look at my code and wonder what I could possibly be thinking, you'll know why...

It is insights from people like you and Enzo, IW7DMH that have propelled me into the things I could not have done otherwise, and I really appreciate it! My Pi is scheduled to arrive on Tuesday, so I plan on diving right in. Watch out for goofy questions once I get started. 😁

I made some progress. I got Discovery figured out, so it finds the radio, connects and binds to the first GUI client it sees. A check list box allows selecting another GUI client if one appears. This is all working great.

Now I am trying to listen for the UDP Vita-49 meter packets, but so far, no luck. I open an available UDP port (4999 in my case) and it continues to show me discovery packets, not meter packets.

These API commands are sent and accepted by the radio:

      client.SendMessage("CD12 | sub meter 16" + NL); // PA Volts

      client.SendMessage("CD13 | sub meter 22" + NL); // PA Temp

      client.SendMessage("C14 | client udpport 4999" + NL);

Here is a code snippet:

    private void StartListening()
    {
      if(frmPaestro.FlexIP == null)
      {
        ar_ = udp.BeginReceive(Receive, new object());
      }
      else
      {
        ar_ = udp.BeginReceive(ReceiveMeter, new object());
      }
    }

    private void Receive(IAsyncResult ar)
    {
      IPEndPoint ip = new IPEndPoint(IPAddress.Any, PORT_NUMBER);
      byte[] bytes = udp.EndReceive(ar, ref ip);
      string message = Encoding.ASCII.GetString(bytes);

      Console.WriteLine("########################################################################");
      Console.WriteLine(message);
      Console.WriteLine("########################################################################");

      ParseFlexIP(message);
      ParseFlexModel(message);
      ParseFlexSerial(message);
      ParseFlexVersion(message);
      ParseFlexNickname(message);
      ParseFlexCallsign(message);

      StartListening();
    }

    private void ReceiveMeter(IAsyncResult ar)
    {
      IPEndPoint ip = new IPEndPoint(IPAddress.Parse(frmPaestro.FlexIP), 4999);
      byte[] bytes = udp.EndReceive(ar, ref ip);
      string message = Encoding.ASCII.GetString(bytes);  // for debugging purposes

      Console.WriteLine("~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~");
      Console.WriteLine(message);
      Console.WriteLine("~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~");

      StartListening();
    }

Any idea what I am missing here?

HI Alan, thanks for the response. 4992 is the discovery port. I did try it, but to no avail. I couldn't get any ports to work (they were busy) until I hit 4996 or 7, so I just plugged in 4999 as I knew it was free.

Yep, I did subscribe to all meters, but the result was the same. I forgot to mention that the code snippet is C# and I use Visual Studio 2019, community version.

Thanks Clay, I really appreciate it! I will give that a try and let you know how I fare.

Thanks Clay. Yep, I am already past that nuance, but I appreciate the clarification. I was in the middle of getting the UDP port-open code working for the meter packets when I had to send my rig in for repair (transverter port output issue), so I won't be able to do anything else until it returns. I need to understand the underlying C# a little better. I don't think in C or its variants, I think in PL/I (I know, I know... I am old). 😄