eh-fifty 0.2.0

Library for configuring the Astro A50 wireless headset and base station (generation 4)

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 side tone volume
• get/set noise gate mode
• get/set alert volume
• get/set active EQ preset
• get/set game/voice balance
• save configuration values
• get charging status and battery level
• get headset status
• get EQ preset name
• modify EQ presets
• update firmware
• get/set volume (may not be possible)
• get/set Dolby status (may not be possible)

Example

Retrieve the current battery change:

from eh_fifty import Device
device = Device()
charge_status = device.get_charge_status()
print(f"Battery: {charge_status.charge_percent}%")

Non-root access

Create a udev rule to allow non-root users to access the USB device:

echo 'SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="9886", ATTR{idProduct}=="002c", MODE="0666"' | \
    sudo tee /etc/udev/rules.d/50-astro-a50.rules

Re-plug your base station to apply the new rule.

Protocol Documentation

Requests

The first byte of a request is 0x02.

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

A variable number of request arguments may follow.

Responses

The first byte of a response is 0x02.

The second byte of a response is 0x02 for "success" or 0x01 for "error".

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

Type	Description
0x03	unknown
...
0x54	returns headset power and dock status
0x55	unknown
...
0x61	save active values
0x62	set value of specified slider
...
0x64	set noise gate mode
...
0x67	set active EQ preset
0x68	get value of specified slider
0x69	unknown (related to EQ presets?)
0x6A	get noise gate mode
...
0x6C	get active EQ preset
...
0x6E	get specified EQ preset name
...
0x70	unknown (related to EQ presets?)
...
0x72	get game/chat balance (duplicate)
0x73	set game/chat balance
...
0x76	set alert volume
0x77	get game/chat balance
...
0x7A	get alert volume
...
0x7C	get battery change level and charging status
...
0x83	unknown (returns "slave timeout" error)
...
0xDA	unknown
...
0xD6	unknown