A small, unofficial desktop remote for Samsung Sound Tower speakers. Control EQ, bass, lighting, RGB color, volume, mute, playback, and source selection through Bluetooth Low Energy.

Verified interactively on one Samsung MX-T40 with Windows. Other models and operating systems have not been verified. No firmware flashing, Samsung account, or bundled vendor software is required.

Run with uv

Use Windows Python for a Windows Bluetooth adapter. From WSL, invoke uv.exe so Bluetooth runs on Windows rather than inside WSL.

uv run soundtower

For WSL:

uv.exe run soundtower

Turn on Windows Bluetooth and power on the speaker. Close the phone's Sound Tower app if it is holding the control connection.
Click Scan. The window stays responsive during the eight-second search.
Choose your speaker in the Speaker dropdown, then click Connect. A single result is selected automatically when the field is empty; the app never connects automatically. Addresses distinguish speakers with the same name.
Wait for Speaker handshake complete, then use the controls.

The MX-T40 can advertise without a name. The selector recognizes its known model advertisement and shows MX-T40 (model advertisement) in that case. Discovery of another Sound Tower model is not a compatibility guarantee.

uv run python -m controller remains supported, as does the earlier --with-requirements requirements.txt launch command.

Finding or entering the Bluetooth address manually

The selector includes the Bluetooth address after each speaker name. You can also list candidate names and addresses from the terminal without opening Tk or connecting to a speaker:

uv run python -m controller.discovery

An address looks like 12:34:56:78:9A:BC. Copy your speaker's actual address, not that example, and either type it in the editable Speaker field or use:

uv run soundtower --address YOUR_SPEAKER_MAC

Use the address observed in the BLE scan rather than assuming an audio-device display name is an address. If no speaker appears, ensure Windows Bluetooth and the speaker are on, close the phone app, and scan again. An already open phone connection can affect advertising. Scanning lists advertisements only; it does not send control commands or pair/remove devices.

Python 3.11 or newer is required; physical device testing used Windows Python 3.14. The interpreter needs Tcl/Tk. If the interpreter provided by uv lacks Tk, use a Windows Python installation with Tk support, for example:

uv run --python C:\Path\To\Python\python.exe soundtower --address YOUR_SPEAKER_MAC

Build a Windows executable

Build using Windows PowerShell and Windows Python, not a Linux Python interpreter in WSL. PyInstaller builds for the operating system it runs on.

git clone https://git.ldlda.com/lda/soundtower-controller.git
cd soundtower-controller
uv run --locked --python 3.14 --group bundle python scripts/build_exe.py

If you already cloned the repository, run git pull --ff-only there instead of cloning again. If uv's selected interpreter lacks Tcl/Tk, use a Windows Python installation with Tk via --python C:\Path\To\Python\python.exe.

The application is created at:

dist\SoundTowerController\SoundTowerController.exe

Double-click it and use Scan → choose speaker → Connect. Keep the entire SoundTowerController folder, including _internal, together when copying it to another computer. The recipient does not need uv or Python installed.

For a single-file executable instead:

uv run --locked --python 3.14 --group bundle python scripts/build_exe.py --onefile

That creates dist\SoundTowerController.exe; it extracts dependencies when launched. If startup fails, rebuild with --console to see the error. No code signing certificate is configured, so the build is an unsigned executable. The build script's arguments are tested; a real Windows executable build still requires validation on Windows.

Controls

EQ: Party, Standard, Hip-hop, EDM, Rock, Latin, House, Reggae.
Bass boost, volume up/down, mute, play/pause, and audio source.
Lighting: Off, Ambient, Party, Dance, Thunder, Star, Lover, Color.
RGB color picker; lighting mode is queried after a color change.
Readable activity log with optional raw packet display.

A command acknowledgment means the packet was received. A later status report confirms the reported setting; the log distinguishes the two. Choosing an RGB color switches the tested speaker to COLOR mode. A play/pause event does not reveal the absolute playback state.

The source menu includes protocol options that may not exist on every model. The tested MX-T40 reports Bluetooth, USB 1, AUX 1, and AUX 2.

Audio versus control

This app opens the BLE remote-control connection. Windows establishes the separate audio playback connection. Neither a BLE connection nor Windows' word “Connected” guarantees an audio output is available.

If the speaker disappears from Windows' output list, disconnect/reconnect it through Windows and select it as the sound output. Both connection orders have worked in testing; no fixed startup order is established. Once playback works, the BLE controller can operate alongside it.

The older RFCOMM/COM path is experimental and was unreliable on this MX-T40: --transport rfcomm selects it. BLE is the default.

Development

uv run --group dev python -m unittest discover -s tests -v
uv run --group dev ruff check controller tests scripts
uv run --group dev ruff format --check controller tests scripts
uv build

The committed uv.lock pins runtime, development, and Windows build dependencies. Use uv lock when intentionally changing dependencies; the executable build examples use --locked so an out-of-date lockfile fails rather than changing silently.

The tests use captured packet fixtures and fake transports; they do not need a speaker, Tk, or a display. They do not replace physical compatibility tests. The optional GitHub Actions workflow runs headless tests on Windows/Linux and Python 3.11/3.14. The same commands can be used in Gitea CI.

See architecture, protocol, feature research, and contributing.

Diagnostics

List the MX-T40's advertised BLE/GATT endpoints without sending controls:

uv run python -m controller.ble_probe

Experimental Windows RFCOMM discovery:

uv run --extra diagnostics python -m controller.probe --channel 1

Preparing a repository

If working from a mixed firmware-research workspace, export only the controller, tests, and original documentation into a new, empty directory. A normal clone of this repository already contains only the publishable source:

python scripts/export_project.py dist/soundtower-controller

The export uses an explicit allowlist. Firmware, APKs, extracted vendor files, decompiled Java, environment files, and caches are excluded. Initialize Git in that exported directory before adding a GitHub or Gitea remote. No remote is configured and nothing is uploaded automatically.

Project status

This is an independent interoperability project, not an official Samsung or Qualcomm product. It contains original controller code and protocol notes, not redistributed firmware or application code. A project license has not yet been selected; no open-source license grant is currently declared.