By way of background: I previously had a working setup, but that was a couple of years ago on a different computer.
I'm having trouble getting VARAC to talk properly to my Flex 6400. I have 11.2.0 installed on a Windows 11 PC. The sound card is OK and I can monitor transmissions. It's the CAT control that's not working - and I cannot see why not.
As I understand it, VARA knows nothing about CAT; which explains why nothing happens with I hit TUNE on the VARA soundcard setup. I have to hit MOX on the Flex to get it into Tx. Q: Am I correct in this assumption?
As to CAT setup:
In SmartSDR CAT I have:

In VARAC I have:

And yet, when I tap "PTT ON", nothing happens. The same if I tap "TUNE" in the main screen (I do have a licenced version of VARA and am getting no errors).
There are no CAT errors being reported, and Slice A is set to use DAX.
How do I debug this?
It has been several days since this was posted, but I had similar problems... I suggest deleting the PTT COM6 port. This caused lots of problems for me... I just have one CAT port for VarAC using TCP:
Check that the Vara settings are not trying to use the PTT COM5 that you have created. I think a PTT menu/ settings dialog can appear in some situations (but I don't remember the details). I have: