Powering & setting up a portable imaging rig.

[lrt75914]

Hey guys,

As I've already pointed out in the cameras subforum I recently purchased the ZWO ASI 1600 MM-Cooled imaging bundle and am currently in the process of setting up a portable imaging rig. I am used to imaging with my old Sony DSLR camera and quite like the idea of not needing a laptop to control my equipment - especially since I only have an old and anemic MacBook Pro at my disposal. Since the camera/filter wheel won't control itself I figured an indi server running on a Raspberry Pi3 would be the best way forward. Trouble is is that I've been having a lot of problems with setting it up and getting the Raspberry Pi/Server to run properly. 

Firstly, I am not quite sure what battery might be fitting for my rig. Right now I am using a 17ah lead battery (jump starter from the hardware store) to power my Skywatcher AZ-EQ6 mount and Lacerta MGEN II Autoguider. It's been doing a fine job so far but I feel that the additional power consumption might limit my imaging time. I have been looking at the Tracer LiFePo4 (specifically the 16ah model) to power the camera and the raspberry pi separately. Would this be an appropriate power source and can anyone recommend this battery/manufacturer? 

Secondly, according to the indilib tutorials, one would need to power the Pi from the same USB hub one is connecting the CCD to, in order to avoid non-zero voltage potentials on the wires between the two. I've been looking around and can't find a USB hub that can be connected to a 12V power source and is capable of powering the Raspberry PI3 - which asks for 5V@2A. Has anyone had experience with an indi server running on a Raspberry Pi and can give me any hints on how to power/connect the camera and pi without damaging either of them? 

Lastly, since my camera hasn't arrived yet, I've been trying to test out the Raspberry Pi with my old QHY 5P-II-c camera to see how the indi libraries perform. I have never used this software package before so any problems I've been having might be down to my incompetence. The pi is running Ubuntu Mate 16.04 with all the packages and indi libraries updated to the newest versions.  The camera is connected directly to the pi and it is connected to an apple time capsule using a patch cable. Power is provided via a 5V / 2.3A usb charger.  My laptop is running a virtual box running the kstars ubuntu distribution provided on the indilib.org homepage. Connecting Ekos to the indi server works flawlessly and I can take 1s exposure preview images without a problem. Downloading time, however, seems to be highly dependent on the exposure time and can take up to 12 minutes for a 5 minute exposure. I figured that it might be a network problem and tried to have the indi server save the files to the local file system. This didn't alleviate the problem and according to the time stamps on the image files the downloading time seems to vary drastically. Has anyone have the same problem and can point to a solution?

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

Cheers,

Patrick

 

TL;DR: I bought an expensive camera and might have bitten off more than I can chew.

 

 

[Bagnaj97]

On 22/11/2016 at 01:43, lrt75914 said:

Secondly, according to the indilib tutorials, one would need to power the Pi from the same USB hub one is connecting the CCD to, in order to avoid non-zero voltage potentials on the wires between the two. I've been looking around and can't find a USB hub that can be connected to a 12V power source and is capable of powering the Raspberry PI3 - which asks for 5V@2A. Has anyone had experience with an indi server running on a Raspberry Pi and can give me any hints on how to power/connect the camera and pi without damaging either of them? 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0192LVM86 That's the hub I use for my astro kit. It's a powered hub, but the power input is a standard micro usb connector, so you can power it with a USB cigarette lighter adapter (e.g. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Charger-AiPower-Technology-Samsung-Devices/dp/B019XP8PMM)