USB Serial Console

The PortaPack Mayhem firmware exposes a serial console via USB when connected to a computer.

Any serial terminal client can be used to connect like PuTTY, minicom, screen, HTerm. There are even web based ones (Chrome&Edge, no Firefox): https://www.serialterminal.com/ or https://hackrf.app/

The terminal exposes the ChibiOS/RT Shell:

Available Commands

• help: lists all available commands.

  

• info: shows the ChibiOS/RT system details.

• systime: shows the uptime in ms.

• reboot: reboots the PortaPack. This will also work on devices where the reset button is not working.

• dfu: reboots the PortaPack into DFU firmware upgrade mode.

• hackrf: Starts the original HackHF firmware to use the PortaPack as HackHF.

• sd_over_usb: Starts the SD Over USB mode.

• flash: This is the Flash Utility.

• screenshot: Takes a screenshot.

  

• cmd_screenframe: Replies with the screen's content. Format is 1 line / screen line, and for each pixel HEX (2 char) in the R,G,B order. So one line will be 720 + newline.

• cmd_screenframeshort: Replies with the screen's content. Format is 1 line / screen line, and for each pixel you'll get 1 character. Format is '00RRGGBB' + 32. So for black you'll get 32 (' '). For white 95 ('_').

• gotgps: You can send apps your current position. Format gotgps lat lon <alt> <speed>. Lat, lon is mandantory with '.' as a decimal separator.

• gotorientation: You can send apps your current orientation. Format gotorientation angle. Send only integer, where 0 mean North, 90 East, 400 mean 'not set'.

• applist: Shows the apps that can be started with appstart command. You'll get 3 parameters per line: app short name (you'll need to use this with appstart), app's full name, and app category.

• appstart: You can start apps from the list given by the applist command. 1 paremeter needed, the app's short name. It'll stop any running apps.

• write_memory: Writes arbitrary memory locations.

  

• read_memory: Reads arbitrary memory locations.

• button: Simulates a button press

  • button 1: Right
  • button 2: Left
  • button 3: Down
  • button 4: Up
  • button 5: Select/Enter
  • button 6: DFU
  • button 7: Rotary Left
  • button 8: Rotary Right

• touch: Emulates touch event (press + release). Need to pass the x y coordinates of the event, and 0 < x < screen_width, 0 < y < screen_height must be met.

• keyboard: Emulates keypress event for the supported widgets. One parameter must be a string that has the HEX (2 char) representation of the desired key. You can send multiple characters at once. Backspace is 08. "Hello world" sent in one command: keyboard 48656C6C6F20776F726C64.

• ls: Lists files and directories.

• mkdir: Creates a directory.

• unlink: Deletes a file.

• fopen: Opens a file for reading and modification.

Note

The current position will be set to the end of the file. Use fseek 0 to move to the start of the file.

• fseek: Sets the current position inside the currently opened file.
• fclose: Closes the currently opened file.
• ftruncate: Removes all content in the file behind the current position.
• ftell: Shows the current position is the file.
• fread: Reads n bytes from the currently opened file.

Tip

there is a faster binary read option: frb

• fwrite: Writes bytes from the currently opened file.

Tip

there is a faster binary write option: fwb

• pmemreset: Sets all values in PMEM to default. Pass the "yes" as a parameter, that indicates you know what are you doing.
• settingsreset: Deletes all INI files from settings folder, resetting app settings. Pass the "yes" as a parameter, that indicates you know what are you doing.
• sysinfo: show system hardware informations.

ch>sysinfo
M0 heap: 32400
M0 stack: 407
M0 cpu%: 0
M4 heap: 0
M4 stack: 0
M0 cpu%: 0
M4 miss: 0
uptime: 15
ch>

• radioinfo: show radio settings.

ch>radioinfo
receiver_model.target_frequency: 1090000000
receiver_model.baseband_bandwidth: 1750000
receiver_model.sampling_rate: 3072000
receiver_model.modulation: 1
receiver_model.am_configuration: 0
receiver_model.nbfm_configuration: 0
receiver_model.wfm_configuration: 0
transmitter_model.target_frequency: 1090000000
transmitter_model.baseband_bandwidth: 1750000
transmitter_model.sampling_rate: 3072000
ch>