Gina

Must be suffering from a dense spell!! gina@img2:~$ sudo dpkg -i https://project-downloads.drogon.net/wiringpi-latest.deb [sudo] password for gina: dpkg: error: cannot access archive 'https://project-downloads.drogon.net/wiringpi-latest.deb': No such file or directory gina@img2:~$

Hmmm... Not as simple as I thought. Seems there are other changes apart from replacing the bcm2835 library with the wiringPi library. I think I shall need to take the micro SD out of one of my working RPi systems and copy all the Astroberry files to my desktop and then to the new SD cards.

Gordon's wiringPi git is still unavailable so I shall have to resort to the bcm2835 setup as use in earlier versions of Astroberry as I have no idea when it will be available again. I need to edit the C++ code for my ROR control but I was hoping to use the Astroberry code unaltered for the focuser for my second imager. Oh well, these things are sent to try us!!

Amazon are very good at over-packaging!!

Clicking on a button will set the appropriate output line to ON. This ON state will show the button as Down using LoadLines. LoadLines will also read the levels of the inputs. isClosed will set the Property (light) to IPS_IDLE isOpen will set the Property to IPS_OK isFault will set the Property to IPS_ALERT else Property is set to IPS_BUSY

Once either OPEN or CLOSE has been chosen the other will be disabled, with STOP as the only option, until a limit switch is detected and the roof stopped by the Arduino.

Now looking at the RPi coding. The amount of code involved in the roof control is quite small - a lot more is required to maintain protocols. My other RPi systems do vastly more. It could be said that this is using a sledgehammer to crack a nut but it means that the roof control can be integrated with the rest of the astro systems and maybe a weather station. The control is simply one light and 3 buttons in a row. Buttons for CLOSE, OPEN, STOP - Light :- Closed, Open, Moving, Fault

Thank you @RadekK. That makes good sense. I did try the autkor's site, drogon.net, but it was down temporarily.

Since the problem is with wiringPi I could probably get round this problem by using an earlier version of the Astroberry files - I have copies. I'll look into that later. Meanwhile, I'm wondering why the change to wiringPi, may be a good reason... Mind you I've had the earlier versions running without any problem for a few years. I shall be interested in your views @RadekK.

Oh dear!! Just tried this with my second imaging rig RPi and get this on running make :- gina@img2:~/astroberry-diy/build$ make Scanning dependencies of target indi_rpifocus [ 25%] Building CXX object CMakeFiles/indi_rpifocus.dir/rpi_focus.o /home/gina/astroberry-diy/rpi_focus.cpp:26:10: fatal error: wiringPi.h: No such file or directory #include <wiringPi.h> ^~~~~~~~~~~~ compilation terminated. CMakeFiles/indi_rpifocus.dir/build.make:62: recipe for target 'CMakeFiles/indi_rpifocus.dir/rpi_focus.o' failed make[2]: *** [CMakeFiles/indi_rpifocus.dir/rpi_focus.o] Error 1 CMakeFiles/Makefile2:67: recipe for target 'CMakeFiles/indi_rpifocus.dir/all' failed make[1]: *** [CMakeFiles/indi_rpifocus.dir/all] Error 2 Makefile:129: recipe for target 'all' failed make: *** [all] Error 2 From running the command that includes installing wiring.pi I get wiringpi is already the newest version (2.50-1ubuntu1). @RadekK can you help, please? I should add that I ran the following commands, one at a time. sudo apt-get install cmake indi-full libindi-dev wiringpi git clone https://github.com/rkaczorek/astroberry-diy.git cd astroberry-diy mkdir build && cd build cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr .. make

The whole process is well described in Radek Kaczorek's GitHub page astroberry-diy (same link as above). I have used these drivers both as published and with modifications to suit my special needs eg. using the Board driver to control my roll-off-roof. I'm happy to answer and questions but also Radek (RadekK) is a member on here and very helpful.

I shall describe installing the Astroberry drivers. The package contains drivers for a Focuser and Relay Board. The focuser provides remote focussing for telescopes and camera lenses that is used from Ekos in KStars for remote focussing and even auto-focus. This works in conjunction with hardware attached to the RPi to control a stepper motor. The Board driver is designed to control 4 relays for whatever purpose may be required.

This blog describes Installing 3rd Party Drivers into a Raspberry Pi having installed Ubuntu MATE and followed the instructions to run the AstroPi3 script to install INDI and other astro related software. SSH has been enabled so that now the RPi can be accessed remotely from Terminal. eg. ssh gina@rpi where gina is my user name and rpi is the computer name as set up during the Ubuntu MATE installation. This set up process is detailed in my blog :- Setting up a Raspberry Pi for Astro Imaging and Control - Updated Feb 2020 for RPi 3B & RPi 3B+

Yes indeed, when night sky conditions permit.

Lovely.

Unfortunately, I have to report that I have not managed to get this working ATM with a Raspberry Pi 3B. When trying to connect to the RPi over WiFi using SSH I get Connection reset by 192.168.1.234 port 22 I have tried the procedure to produce a working RPi system twice and get the same result. EDIT :- A search has revealed a suggestion to cure this which I shall try. Means running the RPi with human interfaces and entering in Mate Terminal sudo rm /etc/ssh/ssh_host_* && sudo dpkg-reconfigure openssh-server Later... the rm (remove) command reported rm: cannot remove '/etc/ssh/ssh_host_*': No such file or directory so I just used sudo dpkg-reconfigure openssh-server which worked. Now to come out of the RPi and see if SSH works. Edit... Yep. Can now log in to the RPi via SSH.

The size of the image is reduced from 4000+ pixels wide to 1500 and similarly for the height. The upload is reduced from something like 32MB to around 1MB. If I were to upload 32MB for every image I post I would soon run out of my allocation.

Very nice Dave

Heart and Soul - 41 x 3m 3nm Ha subs, 135mm f2.5 Asahi Super Takumar lens, ASI 1600MM-Cool with gain of 139. Calibrated with darks and flats. Calibrated, aligned and stacked in PixInsight. Custom stretch. Scaled in GIMP.

I don't know what sort of observatory you've built but you might be interested in my thoughts on this and how far I've got in my thread :- Gina's Observatory Roll-Off-Roof Automation Oops - just checked on your obsy thread and see you've already seen my automation thread. Sorry...

Update to the Arduino sketch. // Filename :- ROR_Control_2020-02-07 // bool roofOpen = false; bool roofOpening = false; bool roofClosing = false; bool timerRunning = false; int time = 0; // int Threshold = 400; // 2v analog to digital threshold - 1023 = 5v int currentLimit = 115; // Motor current sense output gives 140mv per Amp 4A = 140x1024x4/5000 = 115 // (100 corresponds to 3.5A) int timoutCount = 180; // Timout in seconds - amount of time alloweed to open or close roof int pbClosePin = 3; // Close Push Button int pbStopPin = 4; // Stop Push Button int pbOpenPin = 5; // Open Push Button int detRainPin = 6; // Rain detector // int MotorInAPin = 7; // Motor In A int MotorInBPin = 8; // Motor In B // int MotorCSPin = A2; // Motor Current Sense // int rpiClosePin = A3; // Remote Close int rpiStopPin = A4; // Remote Stop int rpiOpenPin = A5; // Remote Open // int limClosedPin = A6; // Closed Limit Switch int limOpenPin = A7; // Open Limit Switch // int rpiFaultPin = 13; // Remote Fault Sense // // void setup() { pinMode(pbClosePin,INPUT_PULLUP); // Close Push Button pinMode(pbStopPin,INPUT_PULLUP); // Stop Push Button pinMode(pbOpenPin,INPUT_PULLUP); // Open Push Button pinMode(detRainPin,INPUT_PULLUP); // Rain detector // pinMode(MotorInAPin, OUTPUT); pinMode(MotorInBPin, OUTPUT); pinMode(rpiFaultPin, OUTPUT); } // // void StartTimer(); timerRunning = true; } void OpenRoof() { MotorInAPin = HIGH; roofOpening = true; StartTimer; } // void CloseRoof() { MotorInBPin = HIGH; roofClosing = true; StartTimer; } // void StopMotor() { MotorInAPin = LOW; MotorInBPin = LOW; } // void LimitReached() { StopMotor; timerRunning = false; } // void MotorStalled() { StopMotor; rpiFaultPin = HIGH; timerRunning = false; } // void timeOut() { StopMotor; rpiFaultPin = HIGH; timerRunning = false; } // // Test all buttons, inputs and rain detector for change // void loop(){ if (timerRunning) { time++; if (time > timoutCount) { timeOut;} } if (digitalRead(pbOpenPin) == LOW) { OpenRoof; }; if (digitalRead(pbClosePin) == LOW) { CloseRoof; }; if (digitalRead(pbStopPin) == LOW) { StopMotor; }; if (digitalRead(detRainPin) == LOW) { CloseRoof; }; // if ((analogRead(rpiOpenPin) > Threshold) && (!roofOpening) ) { OpenRoof; }; if ((analogRead(rpiClosePin) > Threshold)) && (!roofClosing) { CloseRoof; }; if ((analogRead(rpiStopPin) > Threshold)) { StopMotor; }; // if ((analogRead(limClosedPin) > Threshold)) { LimitReached; }; if ((analogRead(limOpenPin) > Threshold)) { LimitReached; }; // if ((analogRead(MotorCSPin) > currentLimit)) { MotorStalled; }; } // End

Installing the Operating System and Astro software The Raspberry Pi uses a micro SD card as its main drive and this behaves the same as the hard drive on a computer except that this card can be removed and data read from it or written to it. In fact the way the operating system is installed on it requires it to be out of the RPi. This tutorial will describe how the operating system is written to the card, the system set up with computer name, user name and password and then further software installed to permit remote control via LAN and the astro software to capture images and control the hardware such as filter wheel and mount. You need an SD card reader attached to your main computer. First job is to download the operating system on the main computer and write it to the micro SD card. Go to the Ubuntu MATE download page, choose the appropriate Raspberry Pi version of Ubuntu MATE 18.04 (takes two clicks) and download it. For Linux I recommend Etcher which works well (my main PC uses Linux Mint). Etcher unpacks and writes the OS to the card in one go. Plug card into reader (with adapter if required), run Etcher and select the micro SD card - careful here not to select you HD or other device. Also select the downloaded file. Set Etcher going and a few minutes later the OS is written to the card. After writing to the card Etcher checks the written data is correct. With Windows you have unzip the downloaded file and write the image to the micro SD card. IThis can be done with Win32 Disk Imager. Chose the image file (.img) and SD card in Imager and follow the onscreen instructions to write the OS to the card. There is a script that has been written for installing the INDI drivers and other software onto the card in the RPi that covers what we are trying to do. This is AstroPi3 and pretty much does it all. The instructions given repeat what I have written above. The lines of code can be copied and pasted from the web page into a Terminal window on the RPi. Menu > System Tools > MATE Terminal. Use Firefox on the RPi to go to the AstroPi3 page and copy/paste each command line to the Terminal window. Hint, 3 clicks selects the whole line for copying. Before copy/pasting from the site you will probably need to enter sudo apt-get update into the Terminal window. The script installs INDI and a few other items of astro software but you don't have to accept it all if you don't want it. The script may be edited to comment out unwanted items but you need to be careful and know what you're doing though "it's not rocket science" You can edit the script file whilst in the RPi with the text editor - Menu > Accessories > Pluma. It also turns on SSH so that further command lines can be added from the main PC through its Terminal window and SSH. At this time the human interfaces can be disconnected from the RPi. With this script you end up with a usable system that will capture images and control most of the astro equipment on the market. Controlling DIY equipment is another matter and one I've worked on successfully - this will be another Tutorial. The script takes an hour or more to run and has a few y/n responses needed. We now should have a working system on the RPi but to use it we have to run indiserver. You need to choose the drivers for your equipment, for instance, I have a ZWO ASI astro camera indi_asi_ccd and EFW indi_asi_wheel and a SkyWatcher mount (EQ8 but same for NEQ6) indi_eqmod_telescope :- indiserver -m 100 -vv indi_asi_ccd indi_asi_wheel indi_eqmod_telescope This command is run via SSH on the remote RPi by entering it in the Terminal window of the Client computer indoors.

INTRODUCTION This is a tutorial explaining how to install an operating system and software into a micro SD card to use in a Raspberry Pi 3B or Raspberry Pi 3B+ for astro imaging and control of the relevant hardware. The software to capture images, control camera cooling and other things such as the mount etc. is called INDI and provides a set of drivers to control all the hardware. The Raspberry Pi will run in what is called "headless" mode - meaning that no human interfaces are directly connected to the RPi - instead the RPi is connected to the local area network (LAN) using either Ethernet (preferred for speed and reliability) or WiFi. Everything is then controlled from indoors on a computer also connected to the LAN. This computer is called a "client" and the Raspberry Pi a "server". This tutorial will detail all the steps involved in installing the operating system and software - there are rather a lot of them, hence the need for a tutorial but there is a script that is downloaded that does all the difficult stuff. I believe that anyone with some knowledge of computers should be capable of following these steps and setting up a working Linux based astro imaging system. The Raspberry Pi can be put on the pier (or tripod) or even directly on the telescope mounting and would replace a laptop for instance, reducing the use of long cables etc. The operating system used is Ubuntu Mate and involves using a monitor, keyboard and mouse (or trackball) in order to set up the operating system and enable remote control before the RPi can be used headless in the observatory or on a tripod. The Raspberry Pi is a "proper" computer though a bit slower and with less storage space that a desktop or laptop (called a Single Board Computer). When powered up the operating system goes into a setup routine and you just have to answer the questions, same as when setting up any computer. Near the beginning there's an opportunity to set up WiFi so you'll need your WiFi password if you want to use WiFi. This section can be skipped if using Ethernet cable rather than WiFi.

Checked the ASI 120MC-S by using the RPi I have set up for my ASC and it works. 😀

Connected a USB2 cable onto the Gnd and 4 USB2 connections. Couldn't find a suitable place to drill a hole in the casing so removed the ST4 connector and ran the cable in that way, going up through one of the ST4 connector fixing holes. Not tested it yet.