Announce: experimental CAT/DAX clients for Linux

Looks great - is this still an active project for you? And thank you for supporting linux!

Hacked on this a bit more today, and realized that the nCAT and nDAX clients appear to silently fail if they cannot bind to port 4992/udp for the flexradio discovery protocol. The following worked to get nCAT working inside docker:

Dockerfile:
   EXPOSE 5900 4532/tcp 4991/tcp 4991/udp 4992/udp 4992/tcp

Shell:
   sudo docker run -p 5900:5900 -p 4532:4532 -p 4991:4991/udp -p 4992:4992/udp --name bb raspi-vnc:1.0

Hi @Lou KI5FTY -

I don't have it all assembled yet into a fully working Dockerfile. I've been starting with one I found here https://registry.hub.docker.com/r/psharkey/rpi-novnc, which sets up a VNC server. I modified it to make it work with the RPi4 and latest Debian but it still has cruft. From there I've manually added packages to get WSXTJ working. So consider this a work in progress that I'll eventually upgrade to include a bunch of the related ham software.

pi@qth:~/docker-exp $ more Dockerfile
FROM balenalib/rpi-raspbian:stretch

# Setup demo environment variables
ENV HOME=/root \
	DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive \
	LANG=en_US.UTF-8 \
	LANGUAGE=en_US.UTF-8 \
	LC_ALL=C.UTF-8 \
	DISPLAY=:0.0 \
	DISPLAY_WIDTH=1024 \
	DISPLAY_HEIGHT=768

# Install git, supervisor, VNC, & X11 packages
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y \
	bash \
	fluxbox \
	git \
	net-tools \
	openssh-client \
	socat \
	strace \
	telnet \
	supervisor \
	x11vnc \
	xterm \
	xvfb \
  --no-install-recommends && \
  rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*



COPY supervisord.conf /etc/supervisor/conf.d/supervisord.conf

EXPOSE 5900 4532/tcp 4991/tcp 4991/udp 4992/udp 4992/tcp

CMD ["/usr/bin/supervisord", "-c", "/etc/supervisor/conf.d/supervisord.conf"]

Good luck!

Jeremy

Thanks for the work on this and for sharing. I will be installing both and trying them out soon.

Gary

K6HN

Thanks! That's fantastic to hear. To be honest I haven't asked Flex to support my work in any way (other than providing the public API, which they've been good enough to do). Maybe if I was creating a full-on SmartSDR type app they would be interested, but I've never been all that great when it comes to developing GUI apps. I've thought about bringing it to their attention but I've never been quite sure what to say. In any case I'm happy enough with the current situation.

As for the apps themselves, rest assured that I'm not dead. I've been doing some work that will, with a little luck, result in a more stable nDAX without the "[INTERNAL]" halves of the loopback pairs. It's not quite ready yet, but I should be able to push a beta release soonish.

As always, usage reports are welcome, comments and suggestions are welcome, and if any devs want to lend a hand that would be nice too. Some possible places where an interested party could help out:

• Implement the metering protocol in the flexclient library, and hook up "l RFPOWER_METER", "l SWR", etc. in nCAT (useful for people who like JTDX's output power gauge, or want to use some kind of app like grig and get meters.
• Write an "nSPOT" that connects to a cluster and posts spots to the Flex using the "spot add" API command (this is a pretty easy job for someone who understands the cluster protocol, which I don't. I'll get around to it someday if no one else does).
• Come up with a sensible proposal for how to map multiple slices to hamlib VFOs in nCAT for split operation.

Just a comment on why DAX and CAT on Linux are useful to me personally. My shack computer is an Intel NUC running Ubuntu Linux, and my radio is a Flex6600M, right next to the computer. I normally only run the K3 with my shack computer, but with the addition of Dax and Cat for Linux, I can now operate digital modes on myFlex in the shack, instead of going to my Mac elsewhere in the house. (Edit: As an aside, I do not run Windows unless it is unavoidable.)

“K3” - my other HF radio :-) I have two radios in the shack, an Elecraft and a Flex. So far I have been unable to use the shack Linux computer with the 6600M, only the Elecraft K3 with a SignaLink USB. I could use VNC or another remote tool to get to the Mac, but that does not do multi-monitor well.

Arodlane

Could you do a user manual for installation and for configuration?

Alan. WA9WUD

arodland.....you assume a level of knowledge, perhaps, I do not have. I need a little "hand holding" to get the hang of this.

I tried following the read me and here are my results. I could use some help.

Am I creating a hidden text file on the home directory named nDAX? It did not work. I also tried it with "sudo" I need help please. Here are the screenshots.

Command failed:

Next:

I downloaded the file using "sudo wget" command. Is this the correct file? What is a "binary"?:

"and ran the "chmod +x nDAX. Looks good, right??

Please help me up to this point. What am I doing wrong?

Then, could you provide some explanation on how to use these setups?

Alan

WA9WUD

Pierre, Thanks.

I am still "lost". Hoping arodland is willing to help, otherwise, I may not be able to use this great app.

Alan. WA9WUD

Thanks Lou and others.

Making progress, but not there yet.

I renamed and ran the command with station name "Maestro. I got a response:

Next, tried to enter audio settings into WSJT-X running on the same Raspberry Pi and did not see the audio in/out devices on the pull down menu. Also, on startup received several alarm messages, including:

Alan. WA9WUD