VARA on Raspberry Pi 4 (sharing my personal experience)

[Nikolai Ozerov]

Hello everyone,

This post is about my experience of installing and running VARA and VARA-FM on Raspberry Pi 4 (RPi4).

I have a 4Gb model of Rpi4 with Raspbian Bullseye version of linux installed (v.11). I chose XFCE desktop as a graphical interface (mainly for its lightness) and used the following instructions and a script to install VARA:

 https://github.com/WheezyE/Winelink/blob/main/docs/README.md
 
In fact, I used the option of installing VARA only (no RMS Express). I am not new to messing with Linux and I was pleasantly surprised with how painless the installation was. The script also takes care of installing Box86 and Wine so that an executable compiled and built to run on Intel CPU under Windows (i.e. VARA.exe) can be run on the Rpi4 ARM processor under Linux.

I did not want to connect RPi4 to an external monitor, so I enabled VNC in raspi-config and connected to Rpi using RealVNC (my home computer is a Mac Pro). After logging in to RPi using RealVNC, XFCE desktop space opens up and you can see the already created icons for launching VARA, VARA-FM and VARA Chat. All you need is to double-click on the appropriate icon. I tried VARA and VARA-FM and they both worked.

There is good news and bad news though. The bad news is that not everything is going to work in VARA. I was not able to use "Monitor" menu nor "Waterfall" (they just freeze up). But "Settings" worked fine and the modem itself was working very well. The good news, in fact, is that the modem functionality was pretty stable, I did not have a single Segment fault or crash or anything like that during connecting to and working with different RMSs (both using VARA-FM on VHF and VARA on HF).

I planned to use VARA-FM with ICOM 9700 which has an internal sound card and an USB connection. When the rig is connected, 2 USB devices appear in linux: /dev/ttyUSB0 and /dev/ttyUSB1. To make sure that these devices are mapped to wine's COMx ports consistently, I added the following lines into the "system.reg" file located in the /home/pi/.wine/ directory, right below the "[Software\\Wine\\Ports]" header:

"COM1"="/dev/ttyUSB0"
"COM2"="/dev/ttyUSB1"

So, the VARA modem is installed and appears to be working, now what? I used an application called Pat. This is a Winlink client capable to use several connection options. At this time to use VARA you would need to install the pre-release version of Pat. It is available as a "deb" file which can be installed using the "dpkg" linux command. Pat has a configuration file that has to be filled in with your specific settings including your callsign, Winlink password, etc. The client can be used from a command line but also has a nice GUI. To use it, one can issue the "pat http" command. It creates a simple web-server on port 8080 where you can connect with your favorite web browser. The GUI is designed to mimic an appearance of an email client application (which, in a way, Pat is). Of cause, it is not as sophisticated as RMS Express, but it is very lightweight, functional and evolving piece of software. Besides, it can run on any Desktop operating system. Because of its HTTP GUI interface, you can connect to it even using your phone. This means that it is possible to create a Winlink mobile solution that does not use a laptop at all.

I experimented with starting and stopping VARA from the linux shell command line and it is working fine. VNC provides a GUI screen for the application to display its graphical content but you don't have to be connected to it to watch it on a physical device. What I am getting at is that it is possible to build a solution which runs your Raspberry Pi completely in the "headless" mode. Of cause, in this case you won't be able to see the current communication speed, current signal strength, etc., but VARA modem will be working fine.

BTW, for those who are curious about Pat but does not want to dive into Rpi/Linux world, Pat has a version for windows. Download and give it a try:

  https://getpat.io/

Since Pat is capable of connecting using telnet protocol and supports P2P connections, it is, probably, possible to use it on the mesh network... But this is well beyond the current topic...

73, Nikolai VE3NKL

[Thomas Corcoran]

Talk about coincidence ... just got my RPi4/VARA HF/Xiegu G90/iPad configuration working. I used the YouTube tutorial from KM4ACK to set up and all went smoothly. I’ve only used VARA HF so far. Next step will be VARA FM. 

FWIW, KM4ACK has a package called Build-a-Pi which is essentially a script builder for a number of amateur radio applications. Unlike Hampi, it only installs the applications you want/need. For portable operations, there is an application called HotSpot Tools which essentially allows the RPi to invoke a hotspot application if it doesn’t discover any wifi SSID addresses it recognized (out of internet range). I can use my iPad to vnc into the RPi and operate all functions. 

Amateur radio ... new frontiers every day!

Tom VE3NY 

[Nikolai Ozerov]

Totally agree. I will definitely check out the HotSpot Tools, sounds like a useful addition to the software zoo.

Since my last post I added some home brew hardware to my Rpi4 (see the attached picture): a real-time clock and a shutdown button. I also configured the xorg-dummy package that allows to run VARA without any GUI screen (no VNC, VARA starts by running a script and another script takes it down).

73, Nikolai VE3NKL

[Thomas Corcoran]

Hello Nikolai,

Not sure I understand. If not VNC or HDMI/KB/mouse, how do you use VARA?

WRT RPi 4 overheating/throttling down with VARA, problem solved. Drilled a dozen holes in top of enclosure and mounted small fan to cool innards. Temperature dropped from 75C to 41C. 

Are you able to connect with VA3MCT-10 from your place with VARA FM?

Tom VE3NY 

[Nikolai Ozerov]

Hi Tom,

I indeed started with using VNC but after setting everything up and turning VARA (and VARA FM) configuration, I realized that what I use VNC for is double-clicking on an icon to start VARA and clicking on an X to close it.

So I decided to automate starting and stopping VARA by creating a systemd service. It allowed me to start vara from a SSH terminal as a service and stop the service when it was not needed anymore. It still would show up on my VNC though.

After that I installed and configured the xorg-dummy package which, in essence, is an X-window server which does nothing. An application would request to draw its GUI window and xorg-dummy would respond that everything is done successfully, but would not do anything at all. I configured it with a different address than a default X-Window server and because of that I have a choice of either running VARA on a VNC screen (or HDMI terminal) or on the dummy display provided by xorg-dummy. In the latter case I run it blind but I still can inspect the log if I need to...

The benefit to me is that all I need is an SSH terminal connection over access point. Web browser connection is a bonus for running PAT in the GUI mode.

As for your seconds question, yes, I am able to connect with VA3MCT-10 from my QTH using VARAFM running on Raspberry Pi 4.

73, Nikolai VE3NKL

[Jim Davies]

Hi Nikolai,

I've read your interesting article on installing VARA on a raspberry pi. I've got VARA hf and pat up and running on a pi 4, also ardop.

I would appreciate advice as to how you installed VARA fm. I still getting to grips with email over the radio  and I thought that VARA hf

was a totally separate install to VARA fm.

Many thanks

Jim Davies - ZL4JI