lab599-cat

Rust implementation of the CAT protocol for the Lab599 TX-500 transceiver. Works with both Lab599 native and TS-2000 compatible modes.

The TX-500 supports two CAT modes (LAB599 / TS-2000). Most commands work in both modes. The following are confirmed supported in TS-2000 mode:

ID  AI  RX  TX  IF  FA  FB  MD  FR  FT  FN  PA  RA

Commands outside this set require Lab599 native mode — notably PR (speech compressor / CMR) and RM (meter).

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Workspace layout

lab599-cat/    — protocol types + CatDriver<T> driver
lab599-ctl/    — terminal UI app, binary: lab599

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Hardware requirements

Item	Detail
Radio	Lab599 TX-500 or TX-500MP
Cable	CAT/USB cable (FTDI FT232R)
Port	/dev/ttyUSB0 (Linux) or COM* (Windows)
Baud rate	9600, 8N1

On Linux, add your user to the dialout group to access the serial port without sudo:

sudo usermod -aG dialout $USER

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lab599-ctl

Terminal UI for real-time radio control. Builds to a single binary lab599. On startup it queries the device ID (ID;) and displays the model name in the UI header.

Build & run

make build          # build all
make run            # connect to /dev/ttyUSB0
make run-audio      # connect + audio loopback (pipewire)
make list-audio     # list available audio input devices

CLI options

Flag	Default	Description
--port <PATH>	required	Serial port (e.g. /dev/ttyUSB0)
--baud <N>	9600	Baud rate
--poll-ms <N>	500	Poll interval in milliseconds
--audio <NAME>	—	Audio input device substring match
--list-audio	—	Print available audio inputs and exit

Key bindings

Key	Action
← / →	Tune frequency by current step
↑ / ↓	Step size up / down (10 Hz → 100 → 500 → 1k → 2.5k → 5k → 10k)
+ / - or PgUp / PgDn	Jump ±1 MHz
[ / ]	Band down / up
m	Cycle modulation mode (LSB → USB → CW → CW-R → AM → FM → DIG)
f	Cycle RX filter (FIL-1 … FIL-4)
p	Toggle pre-amp
a	Toggle attenuator (−20 dB)
s	Toggle split (TX on VFO B, RX on VFO A)
c	Toggle speech compressor (CMR)
t	Toggle TX / RX
v	Toggle VOX
n	Toggle noise reduction (NR)
b	Toggle noise blanker (NB)
x	Toggle notch filter (NF)
o	Toggle TX monitor
d	Toggle DSP IF
q / Ctrl+C	Quit

S-meter scale

Matches the TX-500 display: S1 · S3 · S5 · S7 · S9 · S9+20 · S9+40 · S9+60.
The bar is color-coded: green (≤ S9), yellow (S9+20), red (S9+40 and above).

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Library usage

CatDriver<T> is generic over any Read + Write transport — use a real serial port in production, or a std::io::Cursor in tests.

use lab599_cat::CatDriver;

// Real serial port
let port = serialport::new("/dev/ttyUSB0", 9600)
    .timeout(Duration::from_millis(2000))
    .open()?;
let mut radio = CatDriver::new(port);

// Query and set
let freq = radio.get_frequency_a()?;       // → u64 Hz
radio.set_frequency_a(7_048_500)?;

let mode = radio.get_mode()?;              // → Mode (Lsb / Usb / Cw / …)
radio.set_mode(Mode::Usb)?;

let s = radio.get_smeter()?;              // → u16, range 0–30
radio.set_preamp(true)?;
radio.set_attenuator(false)?;
radio.set_split(true)?;
radio.set_speech_compressor(true)?;

Feature flags

Feature	Enables
tx500	CatDriver<T> driver + TX-500-specific commands: BD, BU, SP, VV, XT
tx500mp	TX-500MP-specific commands: AC (antenna tuner), CT (CTCSS). Implies tx500.

Add to your Cargo.toml:

lab599-cat = { version = "0.1", features = ["tx500"] }

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Protocol notes

• Commands and responses are ASCII strings terminated with ;
• Frequency is zero-padded to 11 digits: FA00007048500;
• Filter index is 0-based in the protocol (FL-0 … FL-3), displayed as FIL-1 … FIL-4
• S-meter range is 0–30 (not 0–9 as in Kenwood TS-2000 compatible sets)
• SM command reads main receiver signal meter (SM0;)
• RM (meter read) is a two-step operation: RM{type}; selects the meter, then RM; reads the value
• Voltage (VL) is returned as a float string ("11.7 ") and stored as tenths of a volt (u16)

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Running tests

make tests

Tests use an in-memory mock transport — no hardware required.