eh-fifty

eh-fifty is a Python library for configuring the Astro A50 wireless headset and base station (generation 4).

Use at your own risk. eh-fifty was developed using reverse engineering. If you get into trouble, re-plug your base station and reset your headset by holding down the "game" and "Dolby" buttons together for 15 seconds.

eh-fifty has only been tested on Linux, although it may work on other platforms supported by PyUSB.

Features

• get/set microphone level
• get/set microphone EQ preset
• get/set side tone volume
• get/set noise gate mode
• get/set alert volume
• get/set active EQ preset
• get/set EQ preset parameters
• get/set game/voice balance
• save configuration values
• get charging status and battery level
• get headset status
• get EQ preset name
• get base station device info
• get headset device info
• get base and headset firmware versions
• update firmware

Example

Retrieve the current battery charge:

from eh_fifty import Device

with Device() as device:
    battery_status = device.get_battery_status()
    print(f"Battery: {battery_status.charge_percent}%")

Resource Management

The Device class supports context management for automatic cleanup:

with Device() as device:
    # use device...
# kernel driver automatically reattached

For long-running applications, you can also manage the lifecycle manually:

device = Device()
try:
    while True:
        status = device.get_headset_status()
        # ...
finally:
    device.close()

Non-root access

Create a udev rule to allow the logged-in user to access the USB device:

echo 'SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="9886", ATTR{idProduct}=="002c", TAG+="uaccess"' | \
    sudo tee /etc/udev/rules.d/50-astro-a50.rules

Re-plug your base station to apply the new rule. The file name must sort before systemd's 71-seat.rules. On systems without systemd-logind, use GROUP="plugdev", MODE="0660" instead of TAG+="uaccess" and add your user to the plugdev group.

Protocol Documentation

Requests

The first byte of a request is 0x02.

The second byte of a request is a request type (see below).

An optional request payload may follow, prefixed by the length of the payload in bytes, not including this byte.

Responses

The first byte of a response is 0x02.

The second byte of a response may be either:

• 0x00 for "no response"
• 0x01 for "error"
• 0x02 for "success"

Unless the second byte represents "no response", the third byte of a response is the remaining length of the response measured in bytes, not including this byte.

Saved Values

Sending request type 0x61 will save the active configuration. Saved values can be queried separately from active values. This can be used by applications to implement an operation to revert to a saved configuration. Changes to the active configuration effect immediately; saving changes is not required.

Request Types

Development

uv and just are required.

See just.

Release Process

Bump the version in eh_fifty.py and run the following:

git commit -am "Bump version"
git tag "${VERSION}"
git push --follow-tags
uv build
uv publish dist/eh_fifty-${VERSION}*.{tar.gz,whl}