Gina

At least this proved I haven't cooked this Raspberry Pie - it's still RAW That is Ready And Working I'll get my coat...

Actually, I decided to check the camera hooked up to the RPi and running KStars/Ekos/INDI. RPi powered directly from bench PSU and LAN wired connection. Here's a screenshot from the KStars FITS Viewer. Rough focus manually.

Guess I need to dismantle the current setup and "regroup". Tested the RPi from the 1A PSU again just to make sure it's still working after removing the LCD screen. I think to eliminate one part of the HAT I'll wire the RPi power directly to the buck converter rather than via the HAT. Makes it easier to test the RPi without the HAT. I think this will be the first test. I can still use the 1A PSU to run the RPi via the buck converter. The 1A PSU has 5v and 15v ranges.

Using I2C between Arduinos is one solution.

I now need to see where I am with all this... The RPi power plug and wires are alright. The latest RPi works from my 1A bench supply. The LAN connection works alright over Ethernet. Wi-Fi isn't working. The HAT is still suspect.

Sometime I need to think about how I shall connect the Arduino Nano that is reading the wind speed and direction to the Arduino Uno in the scope room of the observatory. I was going to connect it to the Raspberry Pi that runs the ASC but I'm not so sure now. I've found that the RPi can't run TeamViewer so the file transfer system I had in mind isn't feasible. There may be something to be said for keeping the systems separate from a fault-finding point of view too. This doesn't stop me adding a rain sensor to the ASC to tell it to close the lens cover via INDI and this could be combined with either a warning system or roof automation for the observatory for normal astro imaging. I could add a separate rain sensor to the weather station.

Hmm - seems there isn't a TeamViewer version that works with the RPi But the LAN connection for command line works now I have a wired connection.

Well, it works and I can see it alright with just my reading glasses but it won't let me change the display resolution so the image is far too big for the screen. The Wi-Fi isn't working and I don't know why so I'll have to run a cable from my router - I do have a long one. Then I may be able to run Firefox and install TeamViewer to enable me to run it remotely on a decent size screen.

Had a thought - I have a 5" RPi HDMI display So I connected it to the RPi and powered up - it works Current never went anywhere near 1A. Could probably see it alright with reading glasses and desk magnifier Precludes the use of the HAT when connected though as it uses the GPIO, though I don't know what for.

Thought I'd try one last test with the TV set as monitor. With 0v on the PSU, I connected the HDMI and raised the voltage. RPi started up and the display showed the usual boot sequence but the current went up well past the 1A limit and the PSU cut out. With the volts at 5.1, this process repeated but, of course, the boot up couldn't finish. I don't know why the RPi draws over 1A with the monitor connected but only 0.8A without - the display shouldn't draw current from the RPi. Don't know if I dare plug in the HDMI after the OS has loaded. Probably not - I think there has to be something wrong. From the RPi web page Nowhere near 3-400mA that the RPi is drawing!

I thought before doing that I'd check that my plug connections were alright so I connected the RPi to the terminals on the PSU from which the ammeter works and the voltage can be controlled (the USB socket is 5v fixed). Switched the PSU on and gradually increased the voltage while watching the current (ammeter goes up to 1A on this PSU). Everything went fine and current reached 0.8A as the OS loaded then went down to 0.3A or so, varying as the system loaded. This has proved that my plug wiring was fine and the whole problem with HIDs attached was the HDMI monitor. I'm relieved that I haven't blown another RPi but it's a nuisance that I can't use this display.

Been testing almost everything in sight. The output voltage of the bench PSU was within 30mv as read by my 4 digit DMM so that can't be the problem. The negative terminal of the PSU is/was linked to earth by a link on the terminals and that is mains earth. I tested the voltage on the HDMI connection to the TV set I'm using as monitor and found 110V AC on the connector but this was just leakage and when connected to earth through the DMM on AC Amps, mA and µA the DMM did not register any current. Using another bench PSU with a USB power output and without HDMI connected, the RPi red LED came on. I tried touching the HDMI plug casing to the casing on the RPi and all fine but after connecting the HDMI, the red LED did NOT come on when the PSU was switched on. So the problem would seem to be the HDMI TV set I guess next thing is to test another HDMI display as monitor.

I though I had details of what all these devices were in this thread but I can't find it

Slowly advanced the voltage from my PSU, current started rising as usual but then went up too much so I immediately backed off. I again checked the connections on the RPi power plug, particularly for possible solder whiskers but nothing and connections are correct. I think the LEDs on the board coming on indicates that the polarity is correct. Next I decided to try a USB PSU and the message on the monitor cleared and the usual text scrolled up the screen and stopped. Of course, the USB PSU only supplies 0.5A and the RPi can take 0.6A or even 0.7A when starting up. This corresponds to the 0.36A current input with input voltage of 13.8v, to the buck converter when running the RPi from it. All this seems to point to the plug wiring (checked umpteen times) or the bench PSU (unlikely). I'm stumped - again!!!

Mug of coffee before proceeding Fingers crossed

The packet of 16 Arduino devices including rain detector has arrived in the post. As I thought, from China. So I shall be investigating usage

I have set up the standard RPi arrangement with human interface devices and the RPi power supplied from one of my bench PSUs. The micro SD card is the ASC one and that is the only connection with the ASC - no electrical connection ATM. I am taking the utmost precautions to avoid yet another dead RPi - the pile of dead ones is already far too high!! I have already triple checked that I have the power plug wired correctly. This photo shows the setup before applying power.

New RPi has arrived BUT...

Status Lights :- Grey IPS_IDLE Yellow IPS_BUSY Green IPS_OK Red IPS_ALERT

This code steps the motor once and will be included in a loop together with the step count and Hall sensor test. // step on bcm2835_gpio_write(STEP, HIGH); // wait bcm2835_delay(STEP_DELAY/2); // step off bcm2835_gpio_write(STEP, LOW); // wait bcm2835_delay(STEP_DELAY/2); Testing the Hall sensors is simply if (bcm2835_gpio_lev(Hopen) == LOW ) Where Hopen specifies the GPIO pin for the OPEN sensor, and similarly for the CLOSED sensor.

OK... Firstly, to discuss what is required in the modified Astroberry Board driver. This is divided into two groups - ON/OFF controls and the OPEN/CLOSE for the lens cover. ON/OFF controls are already covered in the code but the lens cover control is totally different. The GUI is quite similar though with a button for OPEN and a button for CLOSE. The light will show Grey for CLOSED and Green for OPEN, plus Yellow for moving and Red for error/fault. With the ON/OFF controls there is no delay in operation and no test for fault conditions so the light only shows Grey for OFF or Green for ON. The code that operates the lens cover (stepper motor with Hall sensors) is quite different from the ON/OFF code. On receipt of the move instruction the light is turned Yellow then a continuous stream of step pulses is be sent to the motor until the appropriate Hall sensor reports that the operation is complete. Meanwhile, the pulses/steps are counted and if this count exceeds the number required to complete the operation then a fault condition exists and this is reported to the client and the light turned Red. When a complete operation is detected the light is turned Green or Grey as appropriate.

I'm currently stuck on the ASC as I have no more Pies to blow up!! I have a 5m USB cable so I could set up the weather station wind instruments on the side of the ASC and hang it from the guttering to test. Of course, the ASC will be minus its RPi but with the full casing etc. Not tonight though as it's raining and the ASC is not fully weatherproof yet.

Well, I dunno!!! Been searching in various boxes but I seem to be totally out of Pies! I think there's on in my imaging rig in the observatory but I'm not touching that. Seem this project is on hold now though maybe I could do some driver code editing. I can put the card in my Linux Mint desktop and edit files.

New RPi was working but I couldn't get a LAN connection from my Linux Mint desktop so I decided to add the human interface devices and see what was going on. Tried without the HAT. Powered up but no display from the HDMI and the LEDs on the RPi no longer came on Has this one died as well??? If so that's it - no more RPis in stock!! New one should arrive tomorrow but... Edited 9 minutes ago by Gina

Looks like the whisker of wire shorting out the 3.3v supply was the problem. Took the new RPi out of it's substantial packaging, plugged in the micro SD card and the power plug and gradually increased the supply voltage. Current of under 0.4A and no smoke Nothing plugged into the HAT.