OpenLST Ground Station · Windows · C# .NET 8 · Open Source

A Ground Station App
Worth Shipping With the Kit

Most RF development kits ship with a serial terminal or nothing at all. The OpenLST Explorer Kit ships with a full Windows application — professional UI, live telemetry, OTA firmware updates, remote file management, and an open source C# codebase you can fork and extend.

⬇ Download Free → View Source on GitHub

Application Tabs

.NET 8 · Open Source

Prerequisites to Install

GPLv3

License

Application Tour

Every Tab. Every Feature.

Six tabs. Zero learning curve. Here's what you get out of the box.

🏠 Home · Telemetry ⌨️ Commands 🔧 Custom Commands 📁 Files · SD Card ⚡ Firmware · OTA 🔑 Provision

OpenLST Ground Station — Home

🔍 Click to enlarge

Live Telemetry Dashboard

The Home tab gives you a real-time view into your radio's operating state. Connect, click Get Telem, and every panel updates immediately. Auto-poll keeps data fresh every 5 seconds without any manual intervention.

⏱️
Uptime Counter
Live seconds since last boot — helps identify unexpected reboots.
📶
RSSI & LQI
Received signal strength and link quality from the last packet received.
📊
Packet Counters
Packets sent, good packets, rejected checksum, UART RX counts — all live.
🖥️
Color-Coded Log
Every TX and RX packet logged with timestamp, raw bytes, and parsed fields.

OpenLST Ground Station — Commands

🔍 Click to enlarge

Standard OpenLST Commands

One-click access to all standard OpenLST protocol commands. Set the HWID in the header bar to address any board — board 0001 relays commands to board 0004 over RF automatically.

📡
Get Telem
Request and display full telemetry from any addressed board.
🔁
Reboot
Remote reboot any board over RF with one click.
🕐
Get / Set Time
Read and set the onboard RTC clock.
📻
Callsign
Read and write the stored callsign — up to 8 characters.
⌨️
Raw Command
Send any arbitrary command string directly. No opcode knowledge required.

Extensible Custom Command System

The most powerful tab in the application. Define any opcode with any hex payload, save it with a name, and send it with one click. Commands persist between sessions. Pre-loaded with the full Pico imaging command set.

💾
JSON Persistent
All commands saved automatically. Your command library is always there when you reopen the app.
📷
Pico Imaging Commands
PING, READ TEMP, SNAP, LIST FILES — all pre-loaded and ready to use with board 0004.
🔤
Auto-Decoded Responses
ASCII responses from the Pico are automatically decoded and displayed.
🧩
Any Opcode, Any Payload
Not limited to pre-defined commands. Enter any hex bytes and send. Perfect for custom firmware development.

Remote SD Card File Manager

A complete file manager for the Pico's SD card — over RF. Browse, download, and delete files without touching the remote hardware. Images transfer in 200-byte chunks with progress tracking and automatic retry.

↺
Refresh List
Requests file listing from Pico SD card over RF. Populates the file list in under a second.
⬇️
Get File
Chunked transfer — 200 bytes at a time. Progress bar shows every chunk. Auto-opens Images folder on completion.
🗑️
Delete File
Confirmation dialog then remote delete. File removed from SD card without physical access.
🔄
Retry Logic
3 automatic retries per chunk. Handles occasional RF dropouts gracefully.

Build, Sign & Flash Over The Air

The complete firmware development pipeline in one tab. Build your custom CC1110 firmware with SDCC, sign it with your AES key, and flash it to the remote board over RF — without touching the hardware.

🔨
Build / Clean + Build
Runs mingw32-make on your OpenLST source tree. Clean button safely removes only radio app build artifacts.
🔐
AES-CBC-MAC Signing
Signs your firmware hex with the board's AES key before flashing. Bootloader verifies signature before accepting the update.
📡
Flash OTA
Sends firmware page-by-page over RF. Retry logic per page. Progress bar tracks every 128-byte page write.
⚡
Build + Flash
One-button workflow — build, sign, and flash in sequence. Fastest path from source code to running firmware.

Board Provisioning

Flash the bootloader onto fresh CC1110 boards using the TI CC Debugger. Sets the hardware ID, embeds AES signing keys, and programs the bootloader image — all from one interface.

🔑
HWID Assignment
Assign any hardware ID (e.g. 0001, 0004) that becomes the board's permanent RF address.
🔒
AES Key Embedding
Three 16-byte AES signing keys embedded in the bootloader. Lab keys (all-F) used for development.
💾
SmartRF Integration
Calls TI SmartRF Flash Programmer automatically via CC Debugger to erase, program, and verify the bootloader image.
✅
Verify After Flash
SmartRF verifies the written image byte-for-byte. Board is ready for OTA firmware updates immediately after provisioning.

Open Source · GPLv3

Fork It. Extend It. Make It Yours.

The ground station is a Visual Studio 2022 C# .NET 8 WinForms project. Clean architecture — all UI in MainForm.cs, all protocol logic in OpenLstProtocol.cs. Adding a new tab, a new command, or a new protocol feature takes minutes, not days.

View Source on GitHub → Developer Guide

// Adding a custom command — 10 lines of C#

private async Task MyCommandAsync()

{

if (!CheckConnected()) return;

ushort hwid = ActiveHwid;

ushort seq = IncSeqNum();

FlushRxQueue();

WritePacket(OpenLstProtocol

.BuildPacket(hwid, seq, 0x20,

new byte[] { 0x01 }));

var pkt = await WaitForReply(hwid, seq, 10000);

if (pkt?.PicoPayload != null)

Log($"Result: {pkt.PicoPayload}", Theme.Green);

}

A Ground Station AppWorth Shipping With the Kit