Thoughts on which imaging rigs to concentrate on

[Gina]

They mention some software but I thought a NAS drive simply connected to router (or Ethernet switch) with Ethernet cable.

Edited October 23, 2016 by Gina

[tekkydave]

I think the s/w is aimed at the non-tech user to get them started. I dont think its needed for normal use. I dont remember having to install anything with mine.

[ChrisLX200]

The only advantage of that simple NAS box (as opposed to a more powerful QNAP) is that it doesn't need a host computer to operate/make its storage space available. However, if you are willing to just have an external drive then the Seagate 8 TB USB drive is better value - I gave a link to it earlier and @ £209 for 8 TB it's cheap mass storage. I'd be a bit wary of the data transfer speed to this D-Link device (over ethernet) as you may well find it crawls with multiple small files.. With an attached USB 3 drive you would get the full speed of your gigabit ethernet network, modulated (downward) by the write speed of the hard drive.

ChrisH

[tekkydave]

It definitely benefits from having a gigabit network.

[Gina]

I have a gigabit network - Netgear Ethernet Switch 8 port.  There is also a USB port on my router (BT HomeHub 4) but don't know what speed it is.  In the new year I shall be getting a gigabit fibre router which I think has a USB3 port for external USB drive.

[Gina]

Been cataloguing usable sets of subs and deleting others - tedious stuff!!

Edited October 23, 2016 by Gina

[Gina]

With the all sky camera controlled by RPi virtually finished I shall now be concentrating on the RPi focuser and capture (plus power distribution) system for the main imaging rig be it with lenses or Esprit 80ED Pro telescope.

The RPi HAT that was in use in the ASC can now be put to use for the main imaging rig.  It only has stepper motor control for the focuser and no dew heater control but so far it has proved that a dew heater is not necessary for the camera lenses or Esprit scope.  If later on it transpires that a dew heater is required I can add that later either always on when plugged in or possibly with control circuitry added.  But for now I can save time by using the HAT that is already made and working.

Edited October 25, 2016 by Gina

[Gina]

For the RPi for the main imager I plan to start from scratch - a new RPi 3 B and a new 8GB micro SD card.  I shall take the Raspbian Jessie Lite image and write it to a new micro SD card using Windows.  Then the card can be put in the RPi and this connected to the router with Ethernet cable and powered up.  Next will be to connect to the headless RPi with PuTTY to it's IP address and install the INDI library and other required software using the CLI and internet connection and also change system files to setup and enable WiFi. 

I shall report this procedure step by step in this thread as it proceeds, but not tonight - tomorrow, when I'm fresh and less likely to make mistakes.

[Gina]

Procedures for installing Raspbian and INDI library etc. on a new Raspberry Pi 3 B and micro SD card.

I shall insert links where appropriate to places where various pieces of hardware and software may be obtained.  In most cases there are other sources of hardware which might be cheaper (but not necessarily better).

And we're off   I shall describe the procedures as I do them with suggestions I think appropriate.  I shall post in fairly small steps to make things as clear as I can as I hope this will be useful to others.

Currently downloading Raspbian Jessie Lite (Release date: 2016-09-23)  Have 8GB micro SD card inserted into USB card adapter and ready to run Win32DiskImager as soon as Raspbian has downloaded.

Edited October 26, 2016 by Gina

[Gina]

Raspbian Jessie Lite downloaded and the .img file extracted from the .zip using Extract All from the right click menu on the .zip file.

Next stage is to write the .img file to the micro SD using Win32 Disk imager.  These screenshots show the process - firstly run Win32 Disk Imager and check that it has chosen the right device for writing.  Select the Image File (2016-09-23-raspbianjessie-lite.img) and Open it.  Finally, Write the image to SD.

Edited October 26, 2016 by Gina

[Gina]

Micro SD card inserted into Raspberry Pi 3 B and the latter powered from Raspberry Pi Mains Adapter.  RPi connected to router with Ethernet cable.

Run PuTTY and insert IP Address for the RPi - this may be obtained from your router management screen.  You may want to alter the text size of the PuTTY screen display from the tiny 10 point default - I changed it to 18 point.  Once things are set up, it's a good idea to Save the settings for future use - type the file name for the saved info in the Saved Sessions box and click Save.  These procedures are shown in the following screenshots.  Note - the Saved Sessions include my earlier sessions for other RPi sessions.

[Gina]

Next step is to Open PuTTY.  With the new SSH connection, PuTTY comes up with a Security Alert asking you to check that you're accessing the right host computer.  Click Yes to confirm and the SSH login window is displayed.  Log in as pi with password of raspberry and the initial text is displayed followed by the command line.

[Gina]

We are now ready to apply any updates/upgrades and set up system files and install software.  First we need to expand the file system to make room for installing software.  Please wait while I find out how...

OK - found it raspi-config

Edited October 26, 2016 by Gina

[Gina]

Ran sudo raspi-config and Expanded Filesystem also changed password to a shorter one.  Rebooted system to make changes effective.  Now need to re-run PuTTY as rebooting closes the session.

New session :-

[Gina]

Next running sudo apt-get update and sudo apt-get upgrade to update repositories and upgrade software.

Screenshots showing end of update and ready to upgrade.

[Gina]

With the OS upgrades completed we can now install libraries.  We need the bcm3825 chip library to use the GPIO and the INDI and Astroberry libraries for the hardware drivers and INDI server.

bcm2835 library added using the following command lines, executed one at a time.

wget http://www.airspayce.com/mikem/bcm2835/bcm2835-1.50.tar.gz
tar xvfz bcm2835-1.50.tar.gz
cd bcm2835-1.50
./configure
make
sudo make install

Next to make this up to date with sudo apt-get update and sudo apt-get upgrade.  And sudo reboot to finish the installation.

Edited October 26, 2016 by Gina

[Gina]

If at any time you want to shutdown the RPi rather than just unplugging and risking corrupting the system it's best to shut down the OS properly using sudo shutdown -h -P now.

[Gina]

Installing the INDI library full edition next.

First to install the dependencies :-

sudo apt-get install cdbs libcfitsio3-dev libnova-dev libusb-1.0-0-dev libjpeg-dev libusb-dev libtiff5-dev libftdi-dev fxload libkrb5-dev libcurl4-gnutls-dev dcraw libgphoto2-dev libgsl0-dev dkms libboost-regex-dev libgps-dev libdc1394-22-dev

Then download the library as a .tar.gz package

I have a problem :-  Previously I used "wget http://www.indilib.org/download/raspberry-pi/send/6-raspberry-pi/9-indi-library-for-raspberry-pi.html" and it downloaded the "libindi_1.2.0_rpi.tar.gz" file but now it downloads the HTML file.  I can't find anywhere on the INDIlib site where I can get the link.  All links just go to the download page.

 

[Demonperformer]

Gina,

Click on download to open html page. Scroll down tot he bottom and click on Raspberry pi. Click on "Daily Inid Libraray". Under Data column, click on download and a dialogue box will open, asking if you want ot open or save.

HTH

[Demonperformer]

Actuially, clicking on the link you have "Installing the INDI library full edition" takes you to the page where you click on "Daily INDI library".

[Gina]

But that will save to my Download folder on my desktop machine - I want to install on the headless RPi.  Normal method is "wget <filename link>".

[tekkydave]

You need to wget the url of the file link  not the web page its link is sitting in. Try right-click on link to get url from properties. Or hover over link and get url from info on bottom-left of browser window.

[tekkydave]

Filezilla is useful for ftp'ing files from pc to rpi. connect using using same credentials as putty.

[Gina]

7 minutes ago, tekkydave said:

You need to wget the url of the file link  not the web page its link is sitting in. Try right-click on link to get url from properties. Or hover over link and get url from info on bottom-left of browser window.

Yes, I need the file link.  The bottom left corner of the browser window gives the HTML file link.  Looks like I'll have to download to to my Win7 desktop and use FileZilla to FTP across - I hadn't thought of that.  I tried accessing the INDIlib page using Linux Mint but same result. 

All the info for installing indilib is in the form of command line text except for the download.  I wonder why they don't list a wget command to the file.

Thank you for coming back on this

[Gina]

OK...  Downloaded the indilib file to win7 and then ran FileZilla to FTP across to the RPi.  Just entered the RPi IP address in Host then Username and Password, Port 22 - then clicked Quickconnect.  Transferred from local window to remote window with drag and drop.

 

 

Edited October 26, 2016 by Gina