BUDC Controller for Lotus Communication Systems devices

A cross-platform C application to control Lotus Communication Systems Block Up/Down Converters (BUDC) via serial port.

This project provides two interfaces:

1. budc_cli: A command-line tool for scripting and direct command execution.
2. budc_gui: A graphical user interface built with ImGui for interactive control.

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Features

• SCPI command communication for BUDC devices
• CLI for automation and scripting
• GUI with Dear ImGui for interactive control
• Cross-platform support: Windows and Linux (soon macOS)
• Build automation and Docker support
• Precompiled binaries released on GitHub for Windows and Linux
• Licensed under LGPL

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Prerequisites

• A C Compiler (GCC, Clang, MSVC)
• CMake (version 3.15 or newer)
• Git

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Dependencies

The project uses CMake's FetchContent to automatically download and build:

• libserialport: For serial communication
• cimgui: C bindings for Dear ImGui
• Dear ImGui: The GUI library
• GLFW: Window and input handling
• glad: OpenGL function loader

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How to Build

🧬 Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/PentHertz/lotus_budc_controler.git
cd lotus_budc_controller

🛠️ Build the project

mkdir build && cd build
cmake ..
make 

And you can install it running the following command:

make install

On Windows with Visual Studio:

cmake --build build --config Release

The executables budc_cli (or budc_cli.exe) and budc_gui (or budc_gui.exe) will be located in the build/src/ directory.

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How to Run

CLI (budc_cli)

The CLI is used for sending single or scripted commands over a specified serial port.

List available serial ports:

./build/src/budc_cli --list

If you have installed it through make, you can directly use the budc_gui command line.

Show help and available commands:

./build/src/budc_cli --help

Example output:

BUDC Command Line Interface
Usage:
  budc_cli --list                           List available serial ports
  budc_cli --port <name> [COMMANDS]

Commands:
  --status              Get a full status report
  --cmd "<cmd>"           Send raw SCPI command
  --freq <ghz>          Set frequency in GHz
  --freq-hz <hz>        Set frequency in Hz
  --freq-mhz <mhz>      Set frequency in MHz
  --power <level>       Set power level
  --get-freq            Get current frequency
  --get-power           Get current power level
  --get-temp            Get temperature
  --get-lock            Get lock status
  --preset              Reset to preset values
  --save                Save settings to flash
  --wait-lock           Wait for PLL to lock (5s timeout) after a set command

Examples:
  budc_cli --port /dev/ttyACM0 --status
  budc_cli --port COM3 --freq 5.5
  budc_cli --port COM3 --freq 2.4 --wait-lock

Example execution:

budc_cli --port /dev/ttyACM0 --status

Output:

--- BUDC Status Report ---
  Identity:      LOTUS,BUDC3G20GE,244003,v21.11.16
  Serial Number: 244003
  Firmware:      v21.11.16
  Frequency:     2.2000 GHz
  Lock Status:   UNLOCKED
  Temperature:   51.0 C
  Power Level:   32

GUI (budc_gui)

The GUI launches directly into an interactive window built with Dear ImGui:

./build/src/budc_gui

No command-line arguments are needed.

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Build Script

Instead of using Docker, this project includes a pre-configured build script for Linux environments.

🧪 Using build_script.sh

chmod +x build_script.sh
./build_script.sh

This script handles:

• Dependency checks
• Fetching sources
• Building both CLI and GUI
• Storing binaries under build/

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Precompiled Binaries

Tagged GitHub releases include precompiled binaries for:

• Linux (x86_64)
• Windows (x86_64)

👉 Download from the Releases page.

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License

This project is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL). See the LICENSE file for details.

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