SoloCastControl

A simple Bash script for controlling the HyperX SoloCast USB microphone on Linux. It allows you to easily turn the microphone on/off, adjust volume levels, and check its status from the command line.
SoloCastControl is ideal for automation tasks where microphone control needs to be scripted or triggered programmatically.

Features

• Turn microphone on/off: Quickly enable or disable the microphone capture.
• Toggle microphone state: Switch between on and off with a single command.
• Set volume: Adjust the microphone volume to a specific percentage (0-100%).
• Increase/Decrease volume: Increment or decrement volume by 10% steps.
• Get status: Display the current microphone state (on/off) and volume level in percentage.
• Fallback card selection: If the SoloCast isn't detected, prompts for manual selection from available sound cards.
• Customizable controls: Override default ALSA control names via environment variables.
• Error handling: Checks for amixer availability and handles command failures gracefully.

Requirements

• Operating System: Linux (tested on Arch / Debian-based systems like Manjaro / Ubuntu).
• Dependencies:
  • alsa-utils (for the amixer command).
  • bash, grep, awk, sed (usually pre-installed).

Installation

Option 1: Manual Installation

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/Mr-Precise/SoloCastControl
   cd SoloCastControl

2. Copy to a directory in your PATH (e.g., /usr/bin or ~/.local/bin):

   sudo cp SoloCastControl.sh /usr/bin/solocastcontrol

Option 2: Using Makefile

The repository includes a Makefile for easy installation.

1. Clone the repository as above.
2. Install:

   sudo make install

   This installs the script as /usr/bin/solocastcontrol. You can customize with:
   • PREFIX=/usr for system-wide installation.
   • DESTDIR=`pwd`/path for staging.

To uninstall:

sudo make uninstall

Option 3: Debian Package

For Debian-based systems, you can build and install a .deb package.

1. Install build tools:

   sudo apt install dh-make debhelper devscripts lintian

2. Prepare the source (assuming you have the tarball or repository).
3. Build the package:

   debuild -us -uc

4. Install the resulting .deb:

   sudo dpkg -i ../solocastcontrol_1.0-1_all.deb

Option 4: Arch Linux PKGBUILD Package

For Arch Linux users, a PKGBUILD file is included in the repository to build and install the script as a package (named solocastcontrol-git) using makepkg. This fetches the latest version from Git and installs it system-wide.

1. Install build dependencies if needed:

   sudo pacman -S --needed git base-devel
   

2. Build and install the package:

   makepkg -si
   

   • -s: Installs any missing dependencies automatically.
   • -i: Installs the built package.

Usage

Run the script with one of the following commands:

solocastcontrol on          # Turn on microphone
solocastcontrol off         # Turn off microphone
solocastcontrol toggle      # Toggle microphone state
solocastcontrol set <0-100> # Set volume (e.g., solocastcontrol set 50)
solocastcontrol up          # Increase volume by 10%
solocastcontrol down        # Decrease volume by 10%
solocastcontrol get         # Get current status and volume

Examples

• Turn on the microphone:

  solocastcontrol on
  

  Output: Microphone on (in green)

• Set volume to 75%:

  solocastcontrol set 75
  

  Output: Volume set to 75% (4224/5632) # Values depend on your hardware

• Get status:

  solocastcontrol get
  

  Output:

  Microphone status: on  # In green if on, red if off
  Volume: 100% (5632/5632)
  

Customization

• Custom ALSA Controls: If your microphone uses different control names, set environment variables:

  MIC_VOLUME_CONTROL="Capture Volume" MIC_SWITCH_CONTROL="Capture Switch" solocastcontrol get
  

• Debugging: If issues arise, check amixer -c <card_id> controls to verify control names.

License

This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 (GPL-3.0). See the LICENSE file for details.