Raspberry Pi 4 for Imaging Rigs

[StarDodger]

1 hour ago, discardedastro said:

Ekos+KStars runs on my laptop, not the RPi.

The Pi runs INDI Web Manager at boot, which then allows KStars/Ekos to automatically start indiserver remotely. It is absolutely invisible from an end user perspective, once it's all set up, but the absolute minimal Pi setup is:

• Install indi and all the required drivers, as well as indi-web
• Set up indi-web to start on boot (for this purpose I use a systemd unit file, which enables the systemd daemon to look after indi-web and restart it if it crashes)
• Connect Ekos to the Pi, whereupon Ekos will use indi-web to start indiserver with the drivers configured in Ekos

Obviously if you're using a pre-packaged distro like Stellarmate this is being done for you under the hood; I've just built this up headless.

Running Ekos+KStars on the Pi itself is somewhat attractive - as @david_taurus83 says it's nice to have everything on the same box, and means it's a completely self-contained setup from a things-to-go-wrong perspective - having my laptop crash or WiFi connection drop wouldn't be a worry. Just a bit concerned about performance and latency.

Yes, this is exactly how I run mine..only I use a Linux Kubuntu laptop to run Kstars and co troll everything..

And yes with the new PI4 and the extra RAM I too like the idea of running it all from the PI and that was my thought when buying one, but as the 4K video won’t run over VNC it will not work for me, HD video is the best it will do, and on a 28” 4k screen it looks awful..so back to the drawing board..

[StarDodger]

7 hours ago, david_taurus83 said:

When I run everything through Ekos on either Windows or Linux laptops, its fraught with errors. Crashes, hangs, serial port errors etc. So I've given up on using the client (laptop) and server (RPi) approach. If the client fails, it ruins the image plan. So I have switched to running it via the VNC viewer. Everything is controlled from Ekos on the RPi and it's much more stable. In fact, tonight I'm not even using a laptop! I've put VNC viewer on both my tablet and phone and I can access the stellarmate from either. Everything is working like a dream! Struggled with the offline platesolver for a while but the answer was to change binning to 4x4 and down sample by 4. Happy days! Just need to figure out now how to transfer images back to my laptop for processing.

Ok, gotcha now..this is how I want to run mine, but with the PI 4, as it has much more power and RAM...but with the lack of 4K video over VNC it’s a no go for now..

Just put a USB stick in the pi and transfer the images to that, and then back to PC....simples...

[stash_old]

4 hours ago, discardedastro said:

Ekos+KStars runs on my laptop, not the RPi.

The Pi runs INDI Web Manager at boot, which then allows KStars/Ekos to automatically start indiserver remotely. It is absolutely invisible from an end user perspective, once it's all set up, but the absolute minimal Pi setup is:

• Install indi and all the required drivers, as well as indi-web
• Set up indi-web to start on boot (for this purpose I use a systemd unit file, which enables the systemd daemon to look after indi-web and restart it if it crashes)
• Connect Ekos to the Pi, whereupon Ekos will use indi-web to start indiserver with the drivers configured in Ekos

Seems like a good simple straight forward plan to me - do something similar except minus the Web Manager( i just start Indiserver with required drivers via a script), the same. But when I am doing Wide field or in a "field" I just use the RPI in stand alone mode with all software running and RDP.

Interestingly Indigo has a web service built into the Indigo server!

You are correct there are pro's and con's with any set up - even Ascom 🙂

[han59]

On 15/07/2019 at 10:36, StarDodger said:

Ok, gotcha now..this is how I want to run mine, but with the PI 4, as it has much more power and RAM...but with the lack of 4K video over VNC it’s a no go for now..

Just put a USB stick in the pi and transfer the images to that, and then back to PC....simples...

You can run the Pi 4 remotely with  4k desktop using XRDP but I don't understand the word video in this context.  Remote desktop works fine and probably better then VNC. It creates a new session so local screen is different then the remote session. VNC just copies the local screen.

[StarDodger]

1 hour ago, han59 said:

You can run the Pi 4 remotely with  4k desktop using XRDP but I don't understand the word video in this context.  Remote desktop works fine and probably better then VNC. It creates a new session so local screen is different then the remote session. VNC just copies the local screen.

Yes, have done it all now, XRDP on the PI and Remote Desktop on a windows machine, or Remmina Remote Desktop on an Ubuntu machine...as I have.. all perfect now..and fast with no lag  

[david_taurus83]

Still testing with the RPi3 and Stellarmate. I've got it pretty close now to consistency. Still having the odd connection problem with serial ports. The mount and focuser keep fighting over the same port. 8/10 they connect without issue though. I've been connecting indoors every day to try and  make sure it works on demand. I've been using VNC viewer on android, windows and linux without issue. Offline platesolving works within 60s.

 

I've been trying to get it to communicate with the home wifi though so I dobt have to keep updating the time on the RPi. Initially this works fine. I can connect via VNC viewer through the new IP address generated. I've updated the RPi os and installed more Astrometry index files onto the SM system. The weird thing is if I connect next day I cant connect again via VNC. I've switched the home wifi off to connect to the SM hotspot again and under the wifi connections there are multiple versions of my home wifi network. One will say connected 3 days ago, one will say connected 1 day ago, one will say connected 2 minutes ago. So the SM is auto connecting to my home wifi each time but its creating a new connection each time. Any ideas?

[stash_old]

6 hours ago, david_taurus83 said:

The mount and focuser keep fighting over the same port.

Try and create a Udev rule - So long as you can tell the difference (what does "lsusb" say) between the devices. I guess this is what "serial assistant tries to do" (not having used Stellarmate 🙂 )

This might help https://www.indilib.org/forum/stellarmate/5194-problem-with-persistent-usb-link-in-stellarmate-i-think.html

If you cant tell the difference between the 2 devices (as shown by lsusb) then you may have to buy another USB/Serial cable BUT using a different chip.

OR get more Techie with something like this set of things to try https://askubuntu.com/questions/49910/how-to-distinguish-between-identical-usb-to-serial-adapters

or see if this script helps you do it manually https://github.com/rlancaste/AstroPi3/blob/master/udevRuleScript.sh

Edited July 20, 2019 by stash_old

[david_taurus83]

Still doing indoor testing 😀

I've managed a few nights outside for testing also. I little concerned about lag if working directly off the RPi. Yesterday I managed to run Kstars directly from the laptop and successfully connect to the RPi! No issues with serial port connections either. Everything seemed to run smoother so i think I'll try and and image with this first and fall back to VNC if it fails.

When working directly off the RPi, the offline solving works well. Quicker than the online. I managed to add more Astrometry index files which sped things up. Yesterday, when connected via Kstars running on the laptop, the offline method worked fine but the remote method failed. When working off the laptop, is offline looking through the laptop Astrometry folder? As reading through the Stellarmate website it appears to say I should use the remote option? I also downloaded more Astrometry index files to the laptop but they are not in the Astrometry folder? Left me scratching my head a bit? Only the standard 4208 / 4219 files in the folder?

[StarDodger]

I assume you have installed the ANSRV software to mimic the astrometry if using a windows laptop, if using a Linux laptop then you just install astrometry... so when it says to use remote it means using the files on the rpi, offline means using the files on the laptop, and online means using the astrometry website, but it’s confusing when using a windows laptop as online means using the ANSRV on the laptop as it mimics being online, you have to put the ANSRV ip address into ekos for that to work

Hope that makes sense...it does in my head,.. 🤔

[david_taurus83]

This is on the Linux laptop. Above are all the index files I've installed. Some are quite large. But when you click the folder icon above that it opens usr/share/astrometry and only the 12 preinstalled fits files are there. Just curious as to where the extra ones are?

 

So offline is the same source as I'm working off, ie local disk, got it, thanks.

[StarDodger]

1 hour ago, david_taurus83 said:

This is on the Linux laptop. Above are all the index files I've installed. Some are quite large. But when you click the folder icon above that it opens usr/share/astrometry and only the 12 preinstalled fits files are there. Just curious as to where the extra ones are?

 

So offline is the same source as I'm working off, ie local disk, got it, thanks.

If you download them via ekos then they will go to the right folder, if not then they have not downloaded, just tick the boxes of the index files you want...

[david_taurus83]

35 minutes ago, StarDodger said:

If you download them via ekos then they will go to the right folder, if not then they have not downloaded, just tick the boxes of the index files you want...

Boxes ticked as above! They 100% downloaded as I watched the progress bars. They're just not in the Astrometry folder!

[david_taurus83]

I've even downloaded a half gigabit file but its not in the folder?

 

[StarDodger]

4 hours ago, david_taurus83 said:

I've even downloaded a half gigabit file but its not in the folder?

 

Hmmm, strange.. 🤔

[david_taurus83]

^^^I found them! They download to another hidden folder. From memory, it goes something like this, /home/david/local/shared/kstars/astrometry. All there, except the standard 4208/4219 package. Theres also a configuration file in there that when opened shows that both folders are used, /usr/shared/astrometry and the hidden one.

[StarDodger]

Well, good news Jasem has a working Stellarmate on the new rpi4... 😀😀 But still in early stages and won’t be available for a bit yet...

He posted on the SM Facebook group earlier today with an image of it working...

Edited August 2, 2019 by StarDodger

[StarDodger]

The first beta release of Stellarmate, for the  rpi4 is out, and works really well, much faster than rpi3b+..

[stash_old]

But is he going to release the O/S without the Indi / Stellarmate for everyone else who does not use Stellarmate?

[stash_old]

For those brave fellows and those who run client server Indi/Ekos - so Indiserver on the RPI4 and Kstars/Ekos on a client (a laptop running Linux) then this might be of some help but be aware they are problems it seems at this moment in time. https://jamesachambers.com/raspberry-pi-ubuntu-server-18-04-2-installation-guide/

[StarDodger]

2 hours ago, stash_old said:

But is he going to release the O/S without the Indi / Stellarmate for everyone else who does not use Stellarmate?

He has only set up SM OS to run on the rpi4 not just Ubuntu mate, he said it was easier to just get SM OS to run rather than get Ubuntu mate and then try and adapt his OS, but I guess it also means that Ubuntu mate will run on its own, I don't know enough about coding really...he has obviously done it like that for a reason, at the end of the day SM is his bread and butter so understandably he wants all that to work and not just Mate...

[david_taurus83]

Well just when I thought I had everything nailed down, issues and drama. I had trouble with the ASI1600. If i interrupted the imaging plan for whatever reason, Kstars would freeze and hang. I was running off the laptop and connected to the RPi via my home network. Also a couple of occasions where the image download froze. I switched to VNC and worked off the RPi itself but again, issues with image downloads and Kstars would shut its down on the Pi. See a couple of test images. Its like 2 images in 1. Clouds ruined anything i could capture anyway so hence the reason for no detail. Meridian flip also failed. I had set it to 0.2 hours past the flip. It initiated after an image was captured but the mount didnt move. The image plan then restarted but again Kstars froze and I had to shut everything down and restart. Running the latest version 3.3.3 on both Linux laptop and RPi. 

[StarDodger]

16 minutes ago, david_taurus83 said:

Well just when I thought I had everything nailed down, issues and drama. I had trouble with the ASI1600. If i interrupted the imaging plan for whatever reason, Kstars would freeze and hang. I was running off the laptop and connected to the RPi via my home network. Also a couple of occasions where the image download froze. I switched to VNC and worked off the RPi itself but again, issues with image downloads and Kstars would shut its down on the Pi. See a couple of test images. Its like 2 images in 1. Clouds ruined anything i could capture anyway so hence the reason for no detail. Meridian flip also failed. I had set it to 0.2 hours past the flip. It initiated after an image was captured but the mount didnt move. The image plan then restarted but again Kstars froze and I had to shut everything down and restart. Running the latest version 3.3.3 on both Linux laptop and RPi. 

Are you on the INdI / Stellarmate forum, as you should also post there, you may get a faster and better response from the developer..

https://indilib.org/forum/index.html

[Demonperformer]

This might be a really dumb question (what else is new?), but my (windoze 10) laptop's usb3 port stopped working, which is a pain. Would it be possible/a pain/a cinch to put one of these beauties between my camera (via usb3) and laptop (via ethernet) and carry on using my usual windoze software regardless, but getting back the usb3 speed?

[StarDodger]

2 hours ago, Demonperformer said:

This might be a really dumb question (what else is new?), but my (windoze 10) laptop's usb3 port stopped working, which is a pain. Would it be possible/a pain/a cinch to put one of these beauties between my camera (via usb3) and laptop (via ethernet) and carry on using my usual windoze software regardless, but getting back the usb3 speed?

Well, yes, you could connect all your kit to the rpi4 USB 3 ports, and then the rpi4  unit to your laptop with Ethernet cable, and then you can run either the windows version of Kstars with the rpi4 as the INdI server, or APT on the laptop with indigo sky on the rpi4 as the indigo server....so yes you have the two options, but you can’t do it with any other imaging software...so what software would you normally use.... ?

Edited August 20, 2019 by StarDodger

[Demonperformer]

Mmmm ... through the camera hub, that cable runs everything, sharpcap (for imaging, platesolving, etc), the filterwheel (on occasion) and PHD2 for guiding. Maybe I can find a cable with usb3 at one end and an ethernet plug at the other end ... don't you just admire optimism? ...