Vox45

18 hours ago, psamathe said:

My limited experience with my RPi3 is that the Wi-fi signal is not great.  I've tested both in and out of case and not a lot different (as my case is metal but has vent holes and I thought it would make a massive difference but it didn't).  Even a few meters from an Access Point and out of the case I'm 1 bar below full signal (though not done any detailed readings yet).  It could be partly because the Wi-fi is only 2.4 GHz and I'm used to good signal at 5GHz (so I've had to put in a few more APs running at 2.4 and most of mine as not dual bandwidth).  Though early days and I've still got more playing around and t look closer at the real data rate (i.e. iwconfig rather than the crude bars in the GUI).  Main concern to this point has been getting everything installed and running.

It works, not getting annoying dropouts.  So solid but where you'd expect to be at full signal full rate, I'm not.  The speed limitations were noticeable when I was testing with my Canon DSLR on 18 megapixel and the test images were taking a fair time to download (RPi->2.4Ghz->cabled net->5Ghz->laptop).

I'm thinking about getting an outdoor access point with a high gain antenna to cover where I set-up my scope.  I need some coverage out there (nothing spilling out from the house).

I find the INDI Web Manager a very useful tool http://indilib.org/support/tutorials/162-indi-web-manager.html.  Avoids having to SSH into the device to start the indi server.Ian

Thanks for this heads up. I only plan to use Ekos on the laptop and everything else at the mount, so no need for bandwith to download anything as I will use an SSD hard drive at the mount

14 hours ago, ajk said:

@Vox45 @JamesF @perfrej @Gina

OK, I have a working version of the HitecAtroDCFocuser now. Well, it moves anyway. Can control the slew speed and number of steps.

 

This is so cool thank you for working on this as this was my last hurdle. How do you plan on publishing the driver ? Will it be added to the INDI package ? What is the next step to get it publicly availlable ?

Good timing also as I will receive my Raspberry PI on monday and just finished my powerpanel... This way I can have the RpI and powerpanel at the mount and control from a laptop over WIFI or ethernet if WIFI fails on me no more 5m USB cable or VNC on 2 laptops.

17 hours ago, ajk said:

I will wait a day or two then.

In the mean time you'll all be glad to hear I now have the USB HID Class Reports for controlling the focuser   It was pretty basic.

[edit: by reverse eng using an Ellisys Explorer. I haven't heard back for HitecAstro officially.]

ho the sweet sound of reading this (the game is on)

15 hours ago, ajk said:

Ah, this is pleasant music to my eyes (eh, did I mix my metas?). I'm a big fan of Github and it's Fork/PR development workflow.

14 hours ago, ajk said:

I always use 64-bit. It seems they have a package they simply cannot build for what ever reason and so 3rd Party code (full-indi) cannot be installed.

On a side note I downloaded the code from SF (trunk) and I managed to build Indi Core at least. However, without being able to install kstars-bleeding (which itself needs indi-fiull) there's no point me carrying on with this. I will trash this VM and wait for the Kubuntu ISO to download and try that out. If that fails I'll have to email the maintainers. Not good given this is "step one" and many steps. Despite being a huge advocate of FOSS this is the one thing that annoys me about it, it's a time sink. And people complain about Windows. Windows "still wins" because a) it's easy and ii. for the most part "it just works" and doesn't totally sink your time (I've been at this ALL NIGHT and not jumped the first hurdle and I'm suppose to be a super-techie/developer/nurd, goodness help normal non-techie users)

I had a similar issue and started a thread on the INDI forum. Someone else also posted this week

" I am running Kubuntu 16.04 LTS, libindi1 installed fine, but could not find package indi-full either. Also a try to install indi-sx failed, no such package."

Answer

" we just migrated to GitHub and re-building the whole packages again, so please try again in a day or two." 

maybe this is related to the issue you have.

This is what happens when passion, knowledge and opensource come together.... Magic !

After years of lurking, I just ordered a Raspberry PI 3

My endgame is to install Kstars on Linux Mint (once the ubuntu-16.04 version of Mint is release in july/august) and install the INDI part on a raspberry PI. This way I can have the "control" part at the telescope and use the interface at my desk over WIFI or an ethernet cable, I'll be free from my 5m USB cable at last

Problem is that I've just completed my PowerPanel V2.0 and I am already thinking of buidling a new one for my RP. That would be "PowerPanel V3.0 embedded Raspberry PI edition"

The combination of my PowerPanel+RP at the mount would mean that there would be only 1 cable hanging from the mount, the power cable to the battery. Hopefully, in the near futur, I will be able to add an eCat to the PowerPanel (v4.0 ?) and get rid of this last cable

14 minutes ago, Gasman said:

Just to add to the thread if memory serves for all the Indi stuff you have to install Kstars-bleeding which is a different install to just Kstars but I`m sure someone will jump in with better info

Steve

I modified the post. You are right the package is called Kstars-Bleeding

On ubuntu :

sudo apt-get install kstars-bleeding

For those who are following the progress of my journey down the Linux eldorado road (wink) Here are a couple of videos that gives a nice overview of the Ekos interface (guiding and Astrophotography)

Astrophotography Tutorial in Ekos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vt4Gb3Yfh9g

Autoguiding in KStars

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tpuOJ28200

As a reminder: Kstars is the planetarium software and from there you can start Ekos. So basically, under linux you just need to install the INDI drivers and platform, install Kstars-Bleeding and that's it. Ekos is part of Kstars.

Using Ekos you get "advanced Astrophotography tool for Linux. This includes highly accurate GOTOs using astrometry solver, ability to measure and correct polar alignment errors , auto-focus & auto-guide capabilities, and capture of single or stack of images with filter wheel support."

So to simplify and give a general idea, just remember that:

INDI = ASCOM

Kstars = Carte Du Ciel

Ekos = EQMOD/AstroTortilla/PHD and much more

12 hours ago, ajk said:

That's the HitecAstro DC Focuser and a Skywatcher Auto Focuser on order from FLO. I'll probably have the software done before I have a telescope to attach it to!

This goes to show how powerful open source is 

Thank you ajk for your work and time on this, let me know so I can be one of the beta tester if needed

17 hours ago, Gina said:

After using various other distros including Debian and OpenSusie (or however it's spelt) and several others the release of Ubuntu was a breath of fresh air - just install and go - it just worked

OpenSuSE....  it's german for « Software und System-Entwicklung »  (Software and Systems Development)

On 26/05/2016 at 16:35, Vox45 said:

ho the humanity !

INDI Forum Admin : "I think I would have to add a warning NOT to use Mint since it's pretty old compared to Ubuntu. It's recommended to download Kubuntu/Ubuntu 16.04 and then you won't have problems with the PPA"

Still digging and I just realized that the 'admin' on the forum who told me this is actually the Lead Developer & Maintainer Jasem Mutlaq .... which also explain the cryptic command ppa:mutlaqja/ppa

1 hour ago, JamesF said:

Having just read the entire thread...

OSX is indeed UNIX-like under the hood.  The UI hides pretty much everything for most users, but for developing oacapture I use it from the command line (usually logged in remotely) just like I do for many Linux machines.  Apple actually have a long history of producing hardware running UNIX-like operating systems.  Twenty-odd years ago I even ported a large COBOL development system to the Motorola 68030-based Mac II (I think?) running some flavour of UNIX.

My current preferred Linux distribution is Mint, running the MATE desktop.  I just can't get on with Unity.  In fact I used Fedora for a long time until they switched to GNOME3, which wouldn't allow me to do a load of stuff I wanted, so then moved to Ubuntu until they switched to Unity which made me jump to Mint.  I'm sure Unity works for lots of people though.  The way I use a desktop machine is probably quite atypical.

People say the learning curve for Linux is so steep, but actually I don't think it's any significantly different for Windows.  For most people however the Windows learning curve has been stretched out over many years and they expect to reach the same level of competence with Linux in a matter of days if they decide to switch.  I think one of the advantages of the Mint distribution where the newcomer is concerned is that it does try very hard to make everything "just work" as far as possible.  There are still areas where it's not as strong as it could be though.  For example, I have to configure my particular model of mouse by editing a file manually.

James

As you may have read earlier, Mint was my prefered choice but I could not add the repository to get Kstars installed as version ubuntu 14.4 is not 'supported' even though it says otherwise on INDI website Now there is good news as there has been an annoucement that Linux Mint 18 "Sarah," will be based on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus), so there is hope as it is expected to be released later this year.

" Mint 18 "Sarah," which will be available in a Beta form in early June for early adopters and public beta testers. The final release of Linux Mint 18 will ship in the coming months, most probably in July or early August, but there's no exact date set yet."

I'll try the Beta version to make sure I can install Kstars and Ekos properly. If I can, then Mint will be the prefered platform for me

Another thing to consider is that Kstars/Ekos works only on KDE

And there is one major thing that I always forget to mention when talking about Linux in general is that when you update your system, you update EVERYTHING on it. No more visiting a bunch of website and keeping tabs on which version you have and which is current. In my case I just need to run this:

sudo apt-get update

that's it! Eveything is updated at once to the latest version availlable... less time spend managing your system, more time spent imaging

Short report: WOW !

Long report: I've downloaded and compared a bunch of Ubuntu flavors. Not that I am advocating for a particular one but I had to start somewhere

OS installation

I finally settled on Lubuntu which is a lightweight variant of Ubuntu. It is popular with PC and laptop users running on low-spec hardware. the interface is minimal but still nice (Win95 look)

(1) install is next-next-next type. Took 10 minutes, no brainer. Total disk space used for OS+Kstars (which includes Ekos)+Catalogs+Drivers .... 7GB

(2) once installed I just ran 2 simple commands to add a repository (an online location where you obtain patches and software from) and 1 command to install the drivers + kstars.... realllllly simple stuff

What do I get for my troubles ?

* Kstars (a kind of Carte Du Ciel/Stellarium) I could still install Carte Du Ciel and/or Stellarium if I wish to do so

* I was looking for Ekos and learned that I had to actually go open Kstars > tools > and launch Ekos from there

Q: if Kstars is Carte Du Ciel, what is Ekos ?

A: it is the graphical client used to control the devices exposed by INDI

Q: ok, so what can I do with this graphical interface ?

A: Control your telescope, CCD (& DSLRs), filter wheel, focuser, guider, adaptive optics unit, and any INDI-compatible auxiliary device from Ekos.
- Built-in native Auto Guiding with support for automatic dithering between exposures and support for Adaptive Optics devices in addition to traditional guiders. Save time by using existing dark frames in the dark files library.
- Extremely accurate GOTOs using astrometry.net solver (both Online and Offline solvers supported).
- Load & Slew: Load a FITS image, slew to solved coordinates, and center the mount on the exact image coordinates in order to get the same desired frame.
- Measure & Correct Polar Alignment errors using astromety.net solver.
- Completely automated scheduler to control all your observatory equipment, select the best targets for imaging given current conditions and constraints, monitor weather conditions, and capture your data while you are away!
- Auto and manual focus modes using Half-Flux-Radius (HFR) method.
- Automated unattended meridian flip. Ekos performs post meridian flip alignment, calibration, and guiding to resume the capture session.
- Automatic focus between exposures when a user-configurable HFR limit is exceeded.
- Powerful sequence queue for batch capture of images with optional prefixes, timestamps, filter wheel selection, and much more!
- Automatic flat field capture, just set the desired ADU and let Ekos does the rest!
- Automatic abort and resumption of exposure tasks if guiding errors exceed a user-configurable value.
- Support for dome slaving.
- Complete integration with KStars Observation Planner and SkyMap

In other words, using this slick interface I can slew, PA, guide, platesolve, sequence, focus, control filter wheel, dither, dome control. All this can be done remotely from another OSX/Windows or Linux machine.

Next step is to install Pixinsight and openPHD (this is not required as you can choose to either use the guiding in Ekos or an external guiding software like PHD) and test the whole system in a live environment. I am not saying that all is perfect but so far, the ease of use and ease of installation plus what I get in return (a tightly integrated open source system) is worth my trouble...

Now, let me be clear, a lot of commercial software out there can do this, maybe even be better at it, so I am not trying to say that this is the be-all and end-all of astronomy software and I may be overenthusiastic

...let see what happens from here

12 hours ago, ajk said:

I was planning on getting one of these soon. 

There are two ways to crack this, i. reach out to HitecAstro and offer to create a free INDI driver for them if they provide the specifications or ii. reverse engineer the spec.

Houuuu ! please let us know of the progress in this thread or pm me so I can update this. I see that there are a lot of focuser already supported (shoestring, robofocus, JMI, etc) so it would be a shame if HitecAstro was not in the near future.

I agree. Unfortunatly when following the procedure to add the packages, it fails and this was the explanation provided by the admin (Mint is too old) which is a shame ...

I've downloaded 3 versions of ubuntu ( MATE / Lubuntu / Kubuntu, I may even try Fedora) as I have a lot of time on my hands

In any case, the more I dig into this, the more I am hopeful that I can make a smooth transition. I see so many doors opening with Raspberry PI, web interface/server control, Android/IOS ... Good times !

From uname -a and documentation, Linux Mint 17.3 is based on Ubuntu 14.04 (kernel v3.13). The current release is 16.04 (kernel v4.4)

14.04   Trusty Tahr      3.13
14.10   Utopic Unicorn   3.16
15.04   Vivid Vervet     3.19
15.10   Wily Werewolf    4.2
16.04   Xenial Xerus     4.4

I pointed out to the admin that the installation page does say : "INDI Library is available for Ubuntu 14.04 and higher." which is misleading to say the least ... I was so happy to see that Mint was supported... it is not.

11 minutes ago, cgarry said:

In that case I would recommend Ubuntu MATE 16.04, not the standard version of Ubuntu with the Unity desktop.  I found the MATE desktop to be much more intuitive coming from a Windows background.

 

I've downloaded both and will try which one looks best That is such a shame as Mint Linux was quite nice, best interface (for my taste) I've come across so far.

ho the humanity !

INDI Forum Admin : "I think I would have to add a warning NOT to use Mint since it's pretty old compared to Ubuntu. It's recommended to download Kubuntu/Ubuntu 16.04 and then you won't have problems with the PPA"

I did attend a 3 day training for Pixinsight as the learning curve can be a bit steep. I was fortunate enough of being completely new to image processing so I did not have to get rid of photoshop mindsets

There are a lot of tutorial for PI and once you understand the philosophy of it, it is a joy to work with. Very powerful.

I am taking the plunge !

I got a spare laptop with Win7 on it, I'll install Linux Mint (interface closer to Windows... baby steps) and see if I can install the INDI stuff. Since Ubuntu is supported, I would guess that Mint would also work even thought it is not explicitely listed in the list of platform.

... I'll report on this.

29 minutes ago, David Smith said:

The other issue I have preventing me from moving fully to Linux Mint is mosaics. At the moment I use AutoStitch 64 bit for pretty much all of my mosaics (occasionally MSICE) and I cannot get this to work under wine. Now my Mint install is 32 bit but Autostitch 32 bit would not work so I am assuming 64 bit AutoStitch will not work on Mint 17.2 64 bit either? I have tried a couple of Linux alternatives and to be honest they don’t even come close. Any suggestions on this front would be hugely appreciated.

I don't do mosaics, but maybe you could try this out and let us know

http://indilib.org/support/tutorials/155-create-super-mosaics-with-ekos.html

4 minutes ago, The Admiral said:

I agree Paul, I've dabbled a bit with Linux Mint but whenever one looks at blogs and support pages one is confronted with compu-speak, and that doesn't help me one bit (or should that be byte ). I think it is an obstacle for those who want to use Linux unfortunately, and will stifle uptake. One feels that one needs to become an expert just to enter the game. A pity, as I'm going off Windows and would like to have a back-up plan.

Ian

I agree that it can be a bit scary. It does take a new mindset and it can be frustrating at times. It's like throwing out old slippers and putting on new ones... it hurts for a while

I feel a bit foolish now ! While researching all this and following links posted by members above, I see that there is already something out there that solves all my needs.

Just take a look at  http://indilib.org/

Runs on:

Preconfigured Virtual machine (Kubuntu)
Ubuntu
Fedora
Geentoo
Android
Raspberry PI

Supports lots of devices (Filter Wheels, CCDs, Domes, Focuser, etc) Guiding with PHD, plate solving with astrometry.net

Using Ekos solves the APT/BYEOS need and AstroTortilla. http://indilib.org/about/ekos.html

My only remaining issue is the HitecDCfocus ...

13 hours ago, NickK said:

I have an NEQ6+EQMOD and the indi driver works perfectly. It even supports GPS as a positional tool.

Ok I did not know this. I was under the impression that EQMOD would only work with ASCOM ! That is good news for me as I really like EQMOD and have an EQDIRECT cable

Regarding post processing software running on Linux (FreeBSD and Linux), Pixinsight is my prefered choice. The fact that they want to enter the hardware control game using INDI could help some of us transition to Linux easily

PI Official statement:

"We are excited to announce the release of a new PixInsight module: INDIClient, an open-source, multiplatform INDI client available on FreeBSD, Linux, OS X, and Windows. The new module is now being distributed as an official update for the latest PixInsight 1.8.4 versions. "

To summarize, I could be moving to Linux and keep using natively (no WINE):

EQMOD (Mount control)

Pixinsight (Image Processing)

oaCapture (Planetary imaging)

PHD (Guiding)

Carte Du Ciel / Stellarium / Virtual Moon Atlas

Still no replacement for:

HitecDCfocus (there is a list of INDI drivers here, but nothing on HitecAstro)

AstroTortilla (plate solving)

BYEOS (APT) style DSLR control

Remember that the goal is to make a smooth transition away from Windows. I did "the old switcheroo" on my wife a couple of years ago, I got her to use Firefox and LibreOffice ... once she got used to it, I told her that I was going to upgrade the OS without telling her anything more. I installed OpenSuSE and never got any negative comments since then. If the tools are the same, most people won't care about the underlying OS.