Getting started with Astroberry for the Raspberry Pi (beginners guide)

[x6gas]

Astroberry (strictly speaking Astroberry Server) is a fantastic operating system for the Raspberry Pi that allows control of your astromony kit and even better it's free!

However, while there is a lot of useful information on SGL and elsewhere on the web, I had some trouble understanding how to set everything up and I couldn't find a beginners step-by-step guide.  I don't have much experience of the RPi or Linux or indeed any operating systems other than windows but after some trial and error I've got things working so I thought it might be useful to chronical the steps that hopefully will get you up and running.

Astroberry uses INDI Library - an Open Source Architecture for Control & Automation of Astronomical Devices - you can think of this a bit like ASCOM.  Astroberry is also really flexible and there are multiple ways to do most things so what follows is just ONE way to get you up and running.

So let's get started.  When I say 'computer' I mean your main computer and I use RPi when referring to the Raspberry Pi (that's a computer too, of course, but just to differentiate between the two).

The Astroberry homepage is at https://github.com/rkaczorek/astroberry-server.  You'll need a Raspberry Pi, of course, (apparently Astroberry works with any RPi; I was using an RPi 3), an SD card of at least 16GB, and a computer with a suitable SD card slot (the RPi 3 needs a microSD card; most microSD cards come with an adapter that allows you to use a standard SD slot in your computer), and access to the internet.

Firstly download the Astroberry Server image file from https://www.astroberry.io/distro/ (the image file is the operating system that will run on your RPi).

Unzip this file into a folder on your computer.

Then download balenaEtcher from https://www.balena.io/etcher/ - you'll use this to write the image file of the Astroberry operating system to your SD card; this process is known as 'flashing'.

Once you've installed balenaEtcher, run it and select the Astroberry Server image file (when I did this the file was called astroberry-server_2.0.0.img) from the folder where you unzipped it.  Insert your SD card into the SD card slot on your computer, select this card from the 'Select target' button on balenaEtcher and then select 'Flash!'.  The process takes a little while but will show progress as the file is copied and then verified.  Make sure the flashing process has completely finished before removing the SD card from your computer.

[Note, as the author of Astroberry @RadekK states in a comment below it's actually possible to set everything up without a monitor, mouse or keyboard.  To do that, insert the newly flashed SD card into your RPi and power it on.  After a few moments a wifi network 'astroberry' should be available.  Connect your computer to that network and point your browser to http://astroberry.local or http://10.42.0.1 (which is the default IP address assigned by Astroberry).  You should be able to everything via this remote connection.  Astroberry is also able to use a remote desktop app called VNC (icon is in the top right) so you can play with that too once you're well acquainted with Astroberry.] 

Insert the newly flashed SD card into you RPi, connect a display, keyboard and mouse to your RPi and power it up.  You should see the Astroberry operating system load up.  Answer the questions and set your localisation options.

Astroberry will create its own wifi network called 'astroberry' that you can use to connect to your RPi (very useful for use 'in the field') but this won't be connected to the internet.  We're not going to use the astroberry network for now.  Instead we are just going to have your RPi connect to your home network / internet.  To do this, click on the icon in the top left corner of the screen, select 'Preferences' and then 'Advanced Network Configuration'.

Use this to add your wired or wifi network. 

When you boot up your RPi, Astroberry should now connect it to your home network in preference to the Astroberry HotSpot.  If for some reason that doesn't work and Astroberry is connecting to it's HotSpot instead then you can do the following:

1. Click on the icon in the top left corner of the screen, select 'Preferences' and then 'Advanced Network Configuration', select your home wifi network from the list and then click on the cog icon in the bottom left of the Network Connections window.   Click on the 'General' tab ensure that the 'Connect automatically with priority' has a tick next to it, and set the value to 1.  Close the editing window.#
2. Then select 'Astroberry HotSpot' from the list, click on the cog icon in the bottom left of the Network Connections window again this time to edit the settings for Astroberry HotSpot.   Click on the 'General' tab ensure that the 'Connect automatically with priority' has a tick next to it, and set the value to 0.  Close the editing window, and then close the 'Network Connections' window.  These steps will mean that when your RPi is switched on it will connect to your home network if it can, and if it cannot it will start up its own wifi HotSpot called 'astroberry'.

At this point, you should be able to connect to your RPi from your computer.  Open a web browser, type or copy http://astroberry.local/desktop/ in the address line and press enter.  You should see a screen asking you to connect to Astroberry Server (which is running on your RPi).

 

Click on the connect button; the password is astroberry (in fact, if in doubt try astroberry as the password for everything - it usually is!)  If this has all worked correctly, you should now be able to control you RPi remotely so you can disconnect the display, mouse and keyboard from your RPi.

You'll see some other icons in the top left corner of the Astroberry desktop including one for PHD2 but don't go there yet!

Before we do anything else we need to start the INDIserver service - this will load the drivers etc that you need to run your kit.  On the left of the screen is a blue-grey tab that will expand to show some buttons.  Click on the telescope icon which brings up the INDI Web Manager window.  You can go through and select the drivers for your equipment.  Click on the 'Start Server' button at the bottom of the INDI Web Manager window which starts INDIserver - this is like starting ASCOM.  Once you've done that, type a name in the 'New Profile' box and save it.  You can then select it from the 'Equipment Profile' box; delete the simulator profile if you like.  There are check boxes under the 'Equipment Profile' box that allow you to automatically start INDIsever select a particular profile and connect to your devices - so long as the devices are connected and powered on.  If you check these boxes you don't need to repeat the step of selecting your profile etc.

This should have you more or less ready to go.  If you experience connection problems with kit that gets its electrical power from USB (e.g. the QHY5L-II guide camera) then use a powered USB hub as the RPi USB ports don't provide enough electrical power to properly power some equipment.

There are icons for some astronomy programmes in the top left of the Astroberry desktop.  PHD2 is familiar to me and you can test that your kit is connecting in that.

KStars (the telescope icon next to the left of the PHD2 icon) is planetarium software that also allows you to launch Ekos (Tools>Ekos or ctrl K) and this allows you to set up equipment profiles and run imaging sequences.

Hopefully this guide will enable you to get things set up and your kit connected.  I haven't yet explored Kstars or Ekos much, nor much of the rest of the desktop but hopefully it will be fairly intuitive.

I've written most of this guide from memory so if a step doesn't work then please let me know and I'll try to correct it.

Hope this helps and huge thanks to the Astroberry developer, @RadekK, for making this software available to the community - I'm sure it took a huge amount of work.

Clear skies, Ian

Edited December 1, 2019 by x6gas

[stash_old]

Great first user guide , couple of points maybe 

1. No need to change Hotspot settings - e.g. priority - Hotspot comes with the lowest priority -999 so as long as your new Home Wifi priority is higher dont change Hotspot settings.

2. "start" ,"autostart" and  "auto connect" do something similar but "autostart" and "start"  just loads the Indiserver with any drivers your have defined (ticked) - no attempt is made by Indiserver to "connect" to the defined hardware.

"Autoconnect" tick box says to Indiserver connect to the hardware thru the drivers - ok if all kit is powered up and physically connected else it will fail.

Although you have used "start" you will still need to "connect" the drivers defined to the physical hardware (mounts etc).

In practice ,if you set yourself a routine or have an Obsys where kit stays the same ,once you have defined and saved a "profile" all you need to do next time is power on the hardware and then "start and connect" Astroberry/Indiserver with that same profile. The "profile" defines what kit and the associated Indi driver  is attached to Indiserver.    Sorry thats a long but its important. Hope it makes some sense.

3. The RPI power / USB hub -  perhaps to be clarified its "electrical power" the RPI USB ports is short on to power the hardware via USB. People can confuse this with speed  of the USB port - which is not the same thing. The max "power" per USB port is <0.6amp  and a max of 1.2amp for all 4 USB ports. But for example most DSLR's dont use any power from the USB port.

4. How about expanding your excellent articular with screen pictures 🙂

[RadekK]

@x6gas this is great setup user's manual! Well done and thanks for sharing this.

Explaining the unexplained:

• Astroberry Hotspot lets you use the system right after flashing the SD card, no need to connect screen, mouse and keyboard - just connect to astroberry wireless network from your computer and point your browser to http://astroberry.local. The Hotspot can be also used in the field to access the system from any device with just a browser. Note that android devices do not handle .local domain so after connecting to the Hotspot point your browser to http://10.42.0.1 instead.
• You always need to 'Start Server'  after setting up your profile with all your devices. This operation actually starts the profile with selected devices and allows to connect to it locally from KStars or remotely from your PC, including connection over the Internet from distant locations.
• And last but not least, always run update procedure after flashing SD card. After first boot, when you're done with configuring your Internet connection   run in your terminal: sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade.

[x6gas]

That's really helpful Stash - many thanks!

7 minutes ago, stash_old said:

Great first user guide , couple of points maybe 

1. No need to change Hotspot settings - e.g. priority - Hotspot comes with the lowest priority -999 so as long as your new Home Wifi priority is higher dont change Hotspot settings.

Ah - that makes sense.  Where I ended up was clearly an artefact of my random walk through some of the settings - I'd clearly changed the network settings at some point as the RPi would boot in preference to my LAN.

9 minutes ago, stash_old said:

2. "start" ,"autostart" and  "auto connect" do something similar but "autostart" and "start"  just loads the Indiserver with any drivers your have defined (ticked) - no attempt is made by Indiserver to "connect" to the defined hardware.

"Autoconnect" tick box says to Indiserver connect to the hardware thru the drivers - ok if all kit is powered up and physically connected else it will fail.

Although you have used "start" you will still need to "connect" the drivers defined to the physical hardware (mounts etc).

In practice ,if you set yourself a routine or have an Obsys where kit stays the same ,once you have defined and saved a "profile" all you need to do next time is power on the hardware and then "start and connect" Astroberry/Indiserver with that same profile. The "profile" defines what kit and the associated Indi driver  is attached to Indiserver.    Sorry thats a long but its important. Hope it makes some sense.

Ah, so - just so as I am clear - do you need to start Indiserver (in whatever way) before you can use anything?  Is this like starting ASCOM?

13 minutes ago, stash_old said:

3. The RPI power / USB hub -  perhaps to be clarified its "electrical power" the RPI USB ports is short on to power the hardware via USB. People can confuse this with speed  of the USB port - which is not the same thing. The max "power" per USB port is <0.6amp  and a max of 1.2amp for all 4 USB ports. But for example most DSLR's dont use any power from the USB port.

Yes, good point!

14 minutes ago, stash_old said:

4. How about expanding your excellent articular with screen pictures 🙂

I may well do that...  I was trying just to use screenshots where I felt the reader might need a bit more signposting...

Really appreciate the response.  My journey with Astroberry only started 24 hours ago and your comments have helped my understanding!  I'll make some edits in response.

[stash_old]

2 minutes ago, x6gas said:

Ah, so - just so as I am clear - do you need to start Indiserver (in whatever way) before you can use anything?  Is this like starting ASCOM?

Yes all Indi connected software relies on the Indiserver program (the server)- however some will start indiserver for you (Ekos/Kstars will) so you can load Kstars and the use EKOS to define/select/start Indidriver.  Astroberry uses the Indi Web interface to start Indiserver and drivers  - Ekos will display a message "Indiserver already running use it or start anew" (or something like that. But to use your kit it must be powered on with cables connected before you start/connect Indiserver.  Indiserver can be started by itself from the Linux Command line (dos type prompt) as some do but thats another story. 

Have fun.

[vineyard]

Hello, I'm new to astroberry & found this thread v helpful.  I was wondering if I could ask a Q.  I find that the laptop to RPi3 connection is v temperamental wrt whether it finds the RPi3.  I know the RPi3 is configured and there (I can see it on my network map), but when I type https://astroberry.local it sometimes connects to it, most often recently it says it can't find it, although once it did find it but came back with the expected warning about trust & the certificates (when I clicked proceed on that it did go through and connect but subsequently it has not been able to connect).  Does anybody have any tips or ideas what might be causing this (its running on an RPi3 w Ubuntu and I'm connecting with a Mac).  Thank you!

[wornish]

1 hour ago, vineyard said:

Hello, I'm new to astroberry & found this thread v helpful.  I was wondering if I could ask a Q.  I find that the laptop to RPi3 connection is v temperamental wrt whether it finds the RPi3.  I know the RPi3 is configured and there (I can see it on my network map), but when I type https://astroberry.local it sometimes connects to it, most often recently it says it can't find it, although once it did find it but came back with the expected warning about trust & the certificates (when I clicked proceed on that it did go through and connect but subsequently it has not been able to connect).  Does anybody have any tips or ideas what might be causing this (its running on an RPi3 w Ubuntu and I'm connecting with a Mac).  Thank you!

Are you connecting to the RPi via VNC  running on your Mac?

What macOS version are you running?

[stash_old]

1 hour ago, vineyard said:

but when I type https://astroberry.local it sometimes connects to it, most often recently it says it can't find it

Use the RPI3's IP address - so for example http://10.42.1.1 instead of the above. So long as you can PING the address then it should be ok.  NOTE if you have a weak Wifi it will drop the link - then changing to wired or set up a better Wifi network.

[vineyard]

Thanks - I have tried putting in the IP address that my home network map shows for the RPi3.  It didn't work but I'll try again.  I don't think it should be the wifi connection b/c I was testing it inside with all the kit about 6 feet from the router.  I'm using HighSierra as the OS.  It has worked, but it seems to be not very predictable as to whether it finds the RPi3.  I'm not sure I'm using VNC - I just connect the RPi3 to my guest network, and then when I'm on the same network I put in the https://astroberry.local (I've also tried http:) and the IP address on the browser.  Slightly perplexing!  Thank you.

[stash_old]

If you are using Astroberry browser connection to the RPI3 then you are not exactly using VNC - Astroberry web browser connection uses NOVNC - but this just means it doesn't need a VNC client as it uses Websockify to "bridge" between a Web Browser and he VNC server on the RPI.   Therefore you may try to use a "real" VNC client on your OS ( I believe Realvnc do one but they are others ) to see if its a Browser or Websockify compatibility problem. The RPI uses the default RPI VNC server Realvnc which works with VNC clients and Websockify connections (if using Astroberry).  Realvnc is very very stable software!

If they (vnc clients) have they same problem than I am sorry to say its your network or networking settings at fault (a good starting point anyway ) as its pretty box standard stuff.  As I stated before changing to wired connection to see if the problem goes away or not is a good test even if you want to use WiFi in the end !

[wornish]

You need to have vncviewer.app running on your Mac.

You can download it free from here.

https://www.realvnc.com/en/connect/download/viewer/macos/

 

 

 

[vineyard]

Hello, I got it to work in the end through the browser - for some reason the firewall on the RPi3 had switched to "Deny" incoming connections, I changed that to "Allow" and it connected.  Hopefully that was the actual reason rather than just sheer coincidence!  Thanks again for the tips & HNY all!

[neltek]

On 31/12/2019 at 13:10, wornish said:

You need to have vncviewer.app running on your Mac.

You can download it free from here.

https://www.realvnc.com/en/connect/download/viewer/macos/

 

 

 

However, then the indi grey ribbon doesn't show on the left does it? Astroberry confirmed VNC won't show the indi ribbon but web interface will - not sure why but assume I need the indi ribbon.

[wornish]

9 hours ago, neltek said:

However, then the indi grey ribbon doesn't show on the left does it? Astroberry confirmed VNC won't show the indi ribbon but web interface will - not sure why but assume I need the indi ribbon.

Not sure what you mean.  You don't need the INDI ribbon if you are using KSTARS/EKOS.  All the INDO connections can be set up using EKOS.

[gilesco]

14 minutes ago, wornish said:

Not sure what you mean.  You don't need the INDI ribbon if you are using KSTARS/EKOS.  All the INDO connections can be set up using EKOS.

Or you can just visit http://<astroberry-ip>/panels.html

Where you can view, the Polarfinder, GPS Panel, and Indi Web Manager panels.

I go there everynight when polar aligning with my polar scope.

[jerryn]

Hi,

 

  A GREAT addition to this topic would be a tutorial of the workflow required gather an image using the Astroberry Simulator Devices.   I've been going through it,  using my Astroberry and the built in simulators to align with Polaris,  GoTo Andromeda,  take a photo  with the CCD Simulator and stack it.    I've used the Focuser simulator in auto mode.   No matter how I stack the photos, I do not see Andromeda,  or any other galaxies or nebula for that matter.   I just see stars that are expected where the simulated telescope is pointing..    

Does anyone have a walkthrough example using the simulator ?

 

I have hardware on the way.   I managed to find a discontinued iOptron CubePro w/8408 controller. + StarFi.    For my first telescope I'm using an Orion ST-80 with an SVBONY SV305 camera.     I've been outside using the Telescope with my sturdy camera tripod looking at Jupiter, the moon, and taking a wide angle view of the sky.     I've been experimenting with the simulator to increase the chances of satisfying results my first time out.

Do any of you out there have links to a good Astroberry Workflow ?

 

 

Thanks

[gilesco]

The simulators only have star data and magnitude data, so to see actual nebulosity your need a real acquisition.

[teoria_del_big_bang]

Using Astroberry for Astrophotography (Ekos Overview)

A gentle introduction to the Astroberry for beginners

Astroberry Basic Intro. Remote Connect Setup, KStars, EKos

Steve

[AstroNomad]

This is a great post. The instructions from x6gas is so spot on. I managed to get my rasp pi (3) installed w/o any issues. Does anyone know the default root / admin password for this? I want to change the default host name and root / admin password just so I keep it away from sneaky snoopers. 

I want to keep Astroberry as the main connection point to connect all the peripherals and control everything from a second kstars / Ekos machine. That will keep everything light at the business end and possibly the heavy lifting at the backend. not sure if this is practical or even possible. 

Thanks again to all who have contributed above. A few cloudy days coming up so perfect time to get everything set up in case the clouds decide to part at some point.  

 

I found the answer in the first post. That's silly of me 😉 but shows how good that first post it.  THANKS.🙏

Edited December 20, 2021 by AstroNomad
found what I was looking for....

[gilesco]

On Ubuntu & on Raspberry OS the root password is not defined, and in many modern Linux, root is not able to login by default.

In order to get a root shell you can use "sudo -s" as the astroberry user, and then enter your astroberry password.

You can also just execute a single command as root by typing:

sudo <command>

sudo will ask for the (astroberry) password the first time, but then for a limited time you can execute multiple commands via sudo without it asking for a password again.

Type "man sudoers" for the manual how to configure sudo policy in the /etc/sudoers file.

[Ian McCallum]

Given the difficulties in obtaining a Raspberry PI at the moment, what is the minimum about of onboard RAM that a RPi needs to run Astroberry successfully?

[Ian McCallum]

What they don't tell you is that the Astroberry Server download is 3.8GB in size!😱

[gilesco]

On 16/01/2022 at 12:11, Ian McCallum said:

Given the difficulties in obtaining a Raspberry PI at the moment, what is the minimum about of onboard RAM that a RPi needs to run Astroberry successfully?

I wouldn't settle for anything less than the 4Gb version. But the answer is "it depends".

Higher resolution cameras will need the 4Gb.

The highest resolution cameras benefit from something better than a Pi.

The 8Gb version doesn't currently gain you much as astroberry is 32-bit, so any single process on the Pi is limited to a 4Gb addressing range. This could change in the future when 64-bit becomes the norm.

[gilesco]

6 minutes ago, Ian McCallum said:

What they don't tell you is that the Astroberry Server download is 3.8GB in size!😱

Most Raspberry Pi OS images are in this range, once installed you will also want to download the astrometry data, which is few more gigabytes in itself.

[Ian McCallum]

4 hours ago, gilesco said:

I wouldn't settle for anything less than the 4Gb version. But the answer is "it depends".

Higher resolution cameras will need the 4Gb.

The highest resolution cameras benefit from something better than a Pi.

The 8Gb version doesn't currently gain you much as astroberry is 32-bit, so any single process on the Pi is limited to a 4Gb addressing range. This could change in the future when 64-bit becomes the norm.

Unfortunately, I'll have to make do with the 2GB version, as that's all that's available from the PI Hut, just now.