so ive been messing around with this idea for a while now and finally started putting something together. basically i want the raspberry pi zero w to pull data from my FT-991A over USB, parse the CAT commands, and automatically log contacts into a sqlite database without me having to touch a keyboard mid-QSO. the rig control part is mostly working using rigctld but im running into issues where it just drops the connection randomly after like 20 minutes or so. not sure if its a USB power issue with the zero or something in my hamlib config.

ive also got an arduino nano sitting on the desk that im thinking of wiring up to handle the keyer side of things since i do mostly CW and i dont really want to bog down the pi with that too. the plan is to have them talk over serial but honestly im not 100% sure how to structure that yet. has anyone done something similar or am i overcomplicating this whole thing

the random disconnect thing with the zero is almost definitely the USB power situation, those boards are notoriously fussy especially if you have anything else hanging off them. i had the exact same problem running wsjtx headless on a zero and the fix was adding a powered hub between the rig and the board. also worth checking your hamlib version because there were some bugs with the 991A CAT handling in older builds that caused timeouts.

the arduino for the keyer is actually a smart call, i run a similar split setup here where the pi handles logging and the macros and a pro micro does all the keying through iambic paddles. you can keep it simple with just a few bytes of serial protocol between them, something like sending a dit or dah command and an acknowledgment back. dont overthink the comms layer, plain serial at 9600 works fine for that kind of latency.

yeah i tried something like this a while back with a pi 3 and an IC-7300. never got the zero to behave reliably enough for anything real time honestly. the 3 or the 3A+ is way more stable for this kinda thing if you have one lying around. the zero is fine for like a slow data collector but CAT polling every few hundred milliseconds starts to cause issues in my experience.