Remote control

Remote control has two parts:

  • Transport - the connection used to reach the receiver.

  • Protocol - the set of commands or button events carried over that connection.

The receiver currently supports two transports: USB Serial and Bluetooth Low Energy. It also supports two protocols: the Ad hoc protocol and the Bluetooth HID protocol.

Transports

USB Serial

Enable Settings -> USB Port -> Ad hoc to use USB Serial with the ad hoc protocol.

Use PuTTY or Picocom to connect to the serial port. Alternatively, open the following web terminal in Google Chrome: https://www.serialterminal.com/. ESP32 documentation notes that the default serial settings are 115200 8N1, though 9600 8N1 may be a bit more reliable.

Bluetooth LE

Enable Settings -> Bluetooth to use Bluetooth LE in one of these modes:

  • Ad hoc - uses the same remote-control protocol as USB Serial, but over BLE.

  • HID - lets the receiver connect to supported Bluetooth remotes and keyboards.

Bluetooth support is experimental and may be unstable.

Local serial port over BLE

If you prefer using a normal local serial port, you can bridge the receiver’s BLE Ad hoc mode to one with the ble-serial utility.

First install uv https://docs.astral.sh/uv/getting-started/installation/

The following example commands are primarily for Linux and macOS:

  1. Enable Settings -> Bluetooth -> Ad hoc on the receiver.

  2. Scan for the receiver over BLE:

uv tool run --from ble-serial ble-scan -s 6E400001-B5A3-F393-E0A9-E50E24DCCA9E

Example output:

Started general BLE scan

XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX (rssi=-69): ATS-Mini

Finished general BLE scan

  1. Start the bridge and replace the device id with the one from your scan result:

uv tool run --from ble-serial ble-serial -d XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX

This creates a local serial port at /tmp/ttyBLE.

  1. Open it with your terminal program:

picocom /tmp/ttyBLE -b115200

You can then use the same ad hoc commands documented below, but through the BLE-backed local serial port instead of USB serial.

On Windows this usually takes a few extra steps to expose the BLE link as a usable COM port. See the ble-serial project for platform-specific details.

Protocols

Ad hoc protocol

The ad hoc protocol is the main remote-control protocol. It can be used over:

  • USB Serial

  • Bluetooth LE in Settings -> Bluetooth -> Ad hoc mode

Commands

Button

Function

Comments

R

Rotate Encoder Up

Tune the frequency up, scroll the menu, etc

r

Rotate Encoder Down

Tune the frequency down, scroll the menu, etc

e

Encoder Click

The e emulates a single click and can not be used for preferences reset or long press

E

Encoder Short Press

The E emulates a short press (>0.5 sec)

V

Volume Up

v

Volume Down

B

Next Band

b

Previous Band

M

Next Mode

Next modulation

m

Previous Mode

Previous modulation

S

Next step

s

Previous step

W

Next Bandwidth

w

Previous Bandwidth

A

AGC/Att Up

Automatic Gain Control or Attenuator up

a

AGC/Att Down

Automatic Gain Control or Attenuator down

L

Backlight Up

l

Backlight Down

I

Calibration Up

i

Calibration Down

O

Sleep On

o

Sleep Off

t

Toggle Log

Toggle the receiver monitor (log) on and off

C

Screenshot

Capture a screenshot and print it as a BMP image in HEX format

$

Show Memory Slots

Show memory slots in a format suitable for restoring them after the reset

#

Set Memory Slot

Example #01,VHF,107900000,FM (slot, band, frequency, mode). Set freq to 0 to clear a slot.

F

Set Frequency

Example F107900000. Frequency is in Hz and must stay within the current band. In SSB modes, sub-kHz digits set the BFO.

T

Theme Editor

Toggle the theme editor on and off

@

Get Theme

Print the current color theme

^

Set Theme

Set the current color theme as a list of HEX numbers (effective until a power cycle)

Hint

To edit/backup/restore the Memory slots, you can open this web based tool in Google Chrome.

Monitor output

The following comma separated information is sent out when the monitor (log) mode is enabled:

Position

Parameter

Function

Comments

1

APP_VERSION

F/W version

Example 201, F/W = v2.01

2

currentFrequency

Frequency

FM = 10 kHz, AM/SSB = 1 kHz

3

currentBFO

BFO

SSB = Hz

4

bandCal

BFO

SSB = Hz

5

bandName

Band

See the bands table

6

currentMode

Mode

FM/LSB/USB/AM

7

currentStepIdx

Step

8

bandwidthIdx

Bandwidth

9

agcIdx

AGC/Attn

10

volume

Volume

0 to 63 (0 = Mute)

11

remoteRssi

RSSI

0 to 127 dBuV

12

remoteSnr

SNR

0 to 127 dB

13

tuningCapacitor

Antenna Capacitor

0 - 6143

14

remoteVoltage

ADC average value

Voltage = Value x 1.702 / 1000

15

remoteSeqnum

Sequence number

0 to 255 repeating sequence

In SSB mode, the “Display” frequency (Hz) = (currentFrequency x 1000) + currentBFO

Making screenshots

The screenshot function is intended for interface and theme designers, as well as for the documentation writers. It dumps the screen to the remote console as a BMP image in HEX format. To convert it to an image file, you need to convert the HEX string to binary format.

A quick one-liner for macOS and Linux over the USB Serial transport (change the /dev/cu.usbmodem14401 serial port name as needed):

echo -n C | socat stdio /dev/cu.usbmodem14401,echo=0,raw | xxd -r -p > /tmp/screenshot.bmp

Bluetooth HID protocol

The Bluetooth HID protocol is available only over Bluetooth LE in Settings -> Bluetooth -> HID mode.

In this mode the receiver looks for supported BLE HID devices and maps their key events to receiver actions. A list of supported devices is available in Accessories: Bluetooth LE input devices. At the moment, support is limited to the specific HID devices recognized by the firmware.

Key bindings

Bluetooth HID key event

Receiver action

Comments

Volume Increment

Rotate encoder up

Same effect as turning the encoder clockwise

Volume Decrement

Rotate encoder down

Same effect as turning the encoder counter-clockwise

Next Track

Press and rotate encoder up

Uses the receiver’s press-and-rotate gesture

Previous Track

Press and rotate encoder down

Uses the receiver’s press-and-rotate gesture

Play/Pause single click

Encoder click

On double-click capable devices, this is emitted after a short timeout

Play/Pause double click

Encoder short press

Only available on devices that support the double-click mapping

The press-and-rotate mapping is useful for actions that already depend on that gesture, such as direct frequency input mode and fine tuning in Seek mode.

Community software

The following community projects may be useful if you want a richer remote-control interface: