Astroberry project
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By Ricker
Forgive my terminology but when using Astroberry when running Kstars on a remote (to the rasp pi) pc images can take a number of seconds to download. For my ASI1600 this is about 5s. Does this sound average (obviously WiFi dependent)?
Also do people run like this or do they run EKOS on the Pi?
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By autonm
I made a new video - which walks through the downloading, installing and setup of AstroBerry (astronomy software running on Raspberry Pi) - and then I connect to an HEQ5 and DSLR camera. Nothing to complicated - but its the basics covered.
There are a lot of videos out there on using AstroBerry, but not too may walkthroughs on the actual setup. Although Rp and Ab should be simple theres a lot of questions out there just on the setup.
Hopefully the video gives people confidence on the first steps and is enough to get them going.
https://youtu.be/Bgn3KioAAJ0
Many Thanks - clear skies & if the video is helpful please subscribe.
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By M31Fan
Hi!
Newby here...
What's the best software to do solar tracking and imaging on a Raspberry Pi (Astroberry)?
I have been learning how to use Kstars/Ekos/INDI and it's working pretty well at night, but since now the nights are super short and the sun is more "exposed" I'm also trying to do solar imaging.
Astroberry oacapture, but how can I control the mount to perform solar tracking? Normaly I use EKOS for this, but then I can't use it with solar film capture.
Please let me know which software you use to connect the mount, focuser and camera (QHY-II-5L-C). It's ok to control the mount and focuser in a separate software, but using two separate INDI sessions seems to crash it. Advice and recommendations are welcome!
Thanks & Clear skies!
Tiago
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By shirva
Been getting help from old stash, setting up raspberry pi4 4gb for astronomy,, he had the patience of a Saint,
We got there in the end, I used the astroberry operating system put together by radek,, Linux just isn't my thing lol,
The astroberry system has software such as k stars/ekos, cdc/ccdciel, oacapture, hnsky an few more,, I tried combinations of the software and found it wasn't what I wanted,, the concept of remote desktop, from a small,, single board computer did interest me for a portable grab n go kit,, I could sit in my car and keep warm and control my kit via WiFi on a laptop
Came across the lattepanda,, not much bigger than the raspberry pi 4 4gb, but it's operating system is windows 10.
I could have went for the flagship Alpha model,, but the idea was to try the entry level panda and see what could be achieved with it, I bought mine with Windows 10 installed from the pi hut,, £118 and was delivered within two days to Scotland,,
The WiFi ariel is not fitted to the board,, but just a push in fit,, not easy when you have hands like shovels.
Power was supplied via a phone charger b type plug, it takes full size hdmi cable, and I fitted a Bluetooth dingle to use mini keyboard /touch pad to set it up.
This was very easy to do, soon on to downloading Software I wanted to use, CdC, went in no problem, Ascom didn't,, I net frame work was missing,, on the panda windows,, type in,,, enable windows features,, then when next screen appears, tick,, framework box and continue,, windows will search and update the system,, Ascom installed fine after that.
Eqmod installed no problem, installed hitecastro dc focuser, easy again,, backyard eos Pro and sharpcap Pro installed OK.
This all went pretty easily,, testing,,
Got it working my heq5, focuser,, initially tested backyard eos and my Canon 600d,, set up focus control ect.
Installed tight vnc and yet Again easily done,, I now had it connected remotely to my laptop via my smartphone hot-spot.
Absolutely loving it,, so much easier than setting up the raspberry pi.
Next up was testing my zwo asi178 mc on sharpcap Pro,, camera not recognised,, soon pinpointed that the zwo driver was not installed,, downloaded this and the Ascom driver just to be shure I had it,, I also got the asi studio suggested the other day.
Tried this out camera connected no problem and worked on remote desktop
Sharpcap recognised the camera as well,, working great on remote desktop
I installed tight vnc on to my linx 10" Windows tablet,, put in the panda IP address,, I now had a TV plugged into the panda at the mount, a Toshiba laptop and a tablet on remote desktop and both had control over the panda,, absolutely brilliant,, the vnc is also available on android and other os,
This would be great for outreach.
I've only installed software that I want to use,, internal memory I still have 12 gb free.
My next plan is to incorporate this system to my azgti,, problem I found having set up the panda to my laptop via my phone hot-spot,, I could not connect to the azgti mount, it was either,, WiFi or hot spot on the phone,, I tried this using the raspberry pi..
Had a think about it and, I believe the easy solution to my problem is fitting the azgti cable,, I've ordered from FLO, attach this to the panda,, install azgti Ascom driver, then I should be able to control mount with ccdc,,.. Will find out if I'm right in a few days,, should then have a portable kit I can control via remote desktop in my warm car in the winter.
Davy
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By 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:
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.# 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
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