Astroberry new version with RPI 4 support

[WanderingEye]

10 hours ago, RadekK said:

sudo vncpasswd -service

... or using VNC icon in the taskbar

I have to say, this Astroberry is excellent, I have been and on and off user of Stellarmate for a while, but the last few versions of it are full of glitches, maybe because it’s now KDE based, I don’t know, but this is s breath of fresh air....well done and much appreciate your hard work...I will be using from now on 😀😀👍

[WanderingEye]

Does the QHY polemaster software run on this raspbian, as I know it does on Ubuntu, but that will not work, well at least I can’t get it to... ☹️

[stash_old]

On 23/11/2019 at 17:16, RadekK said:

It's on its way 😉

EDIT: The update to 3.3.8 is ready. Run regular apt get update && apt get upgrade

Remember to do a image back up first - just in case 🙂

Installed ok no problems - not tested yet !

Edited November 25, 2019 by stash_old

[WanderingEye]

2 hours ago, stash_old said:

Remember to do a image back up first - just in case 🙂

Installed ok no problems - not tested yet !

Yep, all done and updated... 😀👍

Excellent and it’s fast too, just need to get my Ublox-7 GPS dongle working now... 🤔

[stash_old]

Even works on a RPI ZERO W - ok with the GUI its slooooooowwwwww but it works and I was able to take images of my desk via a remote CCDCIEL tablet.

Would be faster if I removed the desktop and booted to CLI then ran everything else on another PC - just indiserver on the RPI ZERO W.

Got to be the smallest Astro PC used LOL

I use a Ublox-7 GPS - just plug it in - note doesn't work too well indoors (next to window best bet and wait )

 

[WanderingEye]

44 minutes ago, stash_old said:

Even works on a RPI ZERO W - ok with the GUI its slooooooowwwwww but it works and I was able to take images of my desk via a remote CCDCIEL tablet.

Would be faster if I removed the desktop and booted to CLI then ran everything else on another PC - just indiserver on the RPI ZERO W.

Got to be the smallest Astro PC used LOL

I use a Ublox-7 GPS - just plug it in - note doesn't work too well indoors (next to window best bet and wait )

 

When the Ublox-7  is up and running, does it update the position in the astro panel GPS section automatically, or do you have to make some changes somewhere..?

[fozzybear]

1 hour ago, WanderingEye said:

When the Ublox-7  is up and running, does it update the position in the astro panel GPS section automatically, or do you have to make some changes somewhere..?

Does your map work mine does not just a blank screen I get a fix no problem yet the map view  shows  nada....

I just plugged in my ublox 8 and worked straight away even detected in kstars ekos and works

Andy

[stash_old]

1 hour ago, WanderingEye said:

When the Ublox-7  is up and running, does it update the position in the astro panel GPS section automatically, or do you have to make some changes somewhere..?

The Ublox-7 GPS works most of the time but thats because its indoors for testing. No changes for it to work but did find reboots seem to cause GPS to stop working sometimes. Power off/on then its ok.

However I have had a few problems with the MAP not always working so I changed the config files to work without GPS - see info below. I also get "nan" data being display now and then. "Nan" is normally none numeric values in data.

I also get "Bad Gateway" now and again when displaying GPS panel and/or map panel but when I put python program ,as intrusted by Radek, in debug mode it doesn't display the problem - typical !

I will try and put the GPS on back into the config file to see how it runs now we have done 2 updates.

 

=====

Astro Panel (accessible in the sliding menu) determines location in the following order:

• user weather file (/home/astroberry/.config/lxpanel/LXDE-astroberry/panels/panel)
• system weather file (/etc/xdg/lxpanel/LXDE-astroberry/panels/panel)
• config file (/etc/astropanel.conf)
• GPS

At the first boot only system weather file exists, so default location for weather and Astro Panel are Warsaw, Poland. As soon as you customize your Taskbar user weather file is used. BTW If you set the location for the first time use Panel Settings / Panel Applets and scroll to Weather Plugin, then click Preferences. Otherwise the settings will not be saved. It should not be a problem for subsequent changes. This comes from the panels logic (I do not program this part) - the first customization of Taskbar makes a copy of system weather file (default) to user weather file.
Anyway, when changing Weather Plugin location you need to be online, because the Weather Plugin uses Open Weather Map as source of location and weather data.

Nevertheless, you can create your own configuration (see config file above). This should make Astro Panel ignore Weather Plugin location data. It should but it does not at the moment due to my mistake. As the matter of fact the proper order should be:

• config file (/etc/astropanel.conf)
• GPS
• user weather file (/home/astroberry/.config/lxpanel/LXDE-astroberry/panels/panel)
• system weather file (/etc/xdg/lxpanel/LXDE-astroberry/panels/panel)

Take look at the last FAQ. You can use /etc/astropanel.conf to enable/disable GPS.
If GPS is enabled but no fix obtained Astro Panel falls back to static location set in this file. It loops the check every 60 seconds so eventually it gets the GPS fix.
The only case it uses Weather Plugin location data is if the config file does not exist at all.
The ultimate fall back is demo location, hard coded in Astro Panel, activated if no GPS, no config, no Weather Plugin files are available.

 

Q: Where does Astro Panel get location from?

A: Astro Panel (available only when connecting via web browser) by default gets location data from GPS. You can change it to static configutation by setting use_gps = no in /etc/astropanel.conf. If configuration file is not available Astro Panel will use location you set in Weather Plugin (available on top taskbar).

 

 

[stash_old]

example of map working - at this point GPS not working so default location "warsaw" kicks in 

[stash_old]

Then after quite a while ,as GPS is indoor next to window and its raining again - these appear 

[fozzybear]

2 minutes ago, stash_old said:

Then after quite a while ,as GPS is indoor next to window and its raining again - these appear 

Stash

Mine is now displaying map as before just a blank screen maybe it just takes time to download it as the screen for skymap and gps info good data. So I edited the astropanel and input my home location

Andy

[stash_old]

8 minutes ago, fozzybear said:

Stash

Mine is now displaying map as before just a blank screen maybe it just takes time to download it as the screen for skymap and gps info good data. So I edited the astropanel and input my home location

Andy

yes so have i . this is what i get while waiting for gps data

 

[stash_old]

this is what cgps puts out while astroberry still says waiting (think astroberry loops every 60 secs) but cgps is saying ok when talking to GPSD

 

[fozzybear]

Radek has done a damn good job In my opinion  runs smoother and faster more stable than another OS I care to mention, tried on rpi4 4gd and rpi3B+

Radek 👍 Great job

Andy 

[stash_old]

2 minutes ago, fozzybear said:

Radek has done a damn good job In my opinion  runs smoother and faster more stable than another OS I care to mention, tried on rpi4 4gd and rpi3B+

Radek 👍 Great job

Andy 

yep just early days - got to be errors. Still to try in anger - raining again - building a big boat for all the animals LOL

[WanderingEye]

4 minutes ago, stash_old said:

this is what cgps puts out while astroberry still says waiting (think astroberry loops every 60 secs) but cgps is saying ok when talking to GPSD

 

Hmmm, what is CGPS, I just get blank screen in panel while waiting for GPS data, so how come you got info there while still waiting...

also I have changed the default details from Warsaw to my own location in the astropanel.conf file, yet they don’t come up when no GPS available...still shows blank map.. ☹️

[fozzybear]

1 minute ago, stash_old said:

yep just early days - got to be errors. Still to try in anger - raining again - building a big boat for all the animals LOL

Noah left us 2 weeks ago nothing but rain here (fields flooded everywhere and a couple of road closed) it's the norm around here as low lying fields and the rivers burst every year

[stash_old]

6 minutes ago, WanderingEye said:

Hmmm, what is CGPS, I just get blank screen in panel while waiting for GPS data, so how come you got info there while still waiting...

also I have changed the default details from Warsaw to my own location in the astropanel.conf file, yet they don’t come up when no GPS available...still shows blank map.. ☹️

CGPS is a GPSD Client part of GPSD-CLIENT package

Had to reload RPI and now both Astroberry and CGPS working 

[WanderingEye]

3 hours ago, fozzybear said:

Radek has done a damn good job In my opinion  runs smoother and faster more stable than another OS I care to mention, tried on rpi4 4gd and rpi3B+

Radek 👍 Great job

Andy 

Absolutely agree with that....I think he has topped all the competition to be honest.. 😀😀👍

[RadekK]

Thanks for these appreciation words guys 😉 Please stress test it as much as possible and report back. Your feedback is very important. It's the only way I can improve it.

I can see several pitfalls and bugs myself... here and there, but this version was built from scratch. It is not just an upgrade from version 1. So I'm quite happy with the result anyway.

BTW. Version 2.0.0 comes along rasbian buster repository. This means that instead of using whole Astroberry Server you can just grab a fresh and genuine image of rasbian, add astroberry repo and install just INDI and KStars, as it used to work on Ubuntu. The info is already on INDI Forum in download section for Raspberry Pi (https://indilib.org/download/raspberry-pi.html)

What I like personally in this version is... it works on every model of Raspberry Pi. And I mean it 😉

[fozzybear]

50 minutes ago, RadekK said:

What I like personally in this version is... it works on every model of Raspberry Pi. And I mean it

I can verify that works on rpi4 and rpi3b+

[stash_old]

Question to fellow Astroberry users having problems with blank GPS maps or back connections.

1. How do you power your RPI ?

2. Have you checked your dmesg log - do any "under voltages" messages appear?

3. Do you plug your GPS (make and model please) into RPI usb port or via a HUB?

4. If you use a hub and plug your GPS dongle in to one of is ports is the Hub a powered Hub?

 

Plus when you have a blank map can you open another browser window with <your ip address of the RPI>:8625 so for example 192.168.1.22:8625  - does this show the correct map - i.e. none blank.

Thanks for your help. 🙂

[WanderingEye]

Just now, stash_old said:

Question to fellow Astroberry users having problems with blank GPS maps or back connections.

1. How do you power your RPI ?

2. Have you checked your dmesg log - do any "under voltages" messages appear?

3. Do you plug your GPS (make and model please) into RPI usb port or via a HUB?

4. If you use a hub and plug your GPS dongle in to one of is ports is the Hub a powered Hub?

 

Plus when you have a blank map can you open another browser window with <your ip address of the RPI>:8625 so for example 192.168.1.22:8625  - does this show the correct map - i.e. none blank.

Thanks for your help. 🙂

I use a Ublox 7 GPS dongle plugged directly into the rpi, or my Pegasus UPB, both work, but I do get a blank map when it’s trying to find satellites, otherwise it’s a map of Warsaw, when no GPS is present.

i use a the proper raspberry 4amp supply while testing on my desk, and when on mount, it’s powered from the 3amp USB power port on my Pegasus UPB, and all good...

never seen under voltages when powered either way.. HTH

[stash_old]

2 minutes ago, WanderingEye said:

I use a Ublox 7 GPS dongle plugged directly into the rpi, or my Pegasus UPB, both work, but I do get a blank map when it’s trying to find satellites, otherwise it’s a map of Warsaw, when no GPS is present.

i use a the proper raspberry 4amp supply while testing on my desk, and when on mount, it’s powered from the 3amp USB power port on my Pegasus UPB, and all good...

never seen under voltages when powered either way.. HTH

Thanks for the info

1. And you have checked your dmesg log as it wont appear on VNC of any type

2. Did you try the <ip>:8625 from another external browser  when the map was blank ?

3. So your map never goes blank EXCEPT when it has no FIX or has changed from 3D fix to 2D fix (or visa versa)

[WanderingEye]

50 minutes ago, stash_old said:

Thanks for the info

1. And you have checked your dmesg log as it wont appear on VNC of any type

2. Did you try the <ip>:8625 from another external browser  when the map was blank ?

3. So your map never goes blank EXCEPT when it has no FIX or has changed from 3D fix to 2D fix (or visa versa)

Actually it is something blank when it comes on, and then populates after a few mins...when there is no GPS..but on the few times I have tested, I only got a GPS fix twice and the map showed my location at that point...

haven’t tried the other things, but will do and let you know..