Adventures of Pi

[Ags]

I have thought about getting a Raspberry Pi for a few years but learning about Astroberry finally made me get one of these neat little computers. My goal is to monitor DSO captures from indoors, as well as finally getting plate solving to work. EEA from indoors is also a nice idea. 

The Pi comes in the worst cardboard box I have ever seen - after opening it to admire the PCB I could not close it again! My partner was skeptical - where is the anti-static film computer stuff normally arrives in? To my eyes it looked amazing, so compact with lots of USBs.

It had to sit in it's rubbishy box for a few days waiting for the case, PSU, and memory card, which came today. I got this case, which I am very impressed with:

https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B07ZVJDRF3/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This aluminium case provides passive cooling via heat sinks connected by thermal tape to the main chips. It slots together nicely and looks very sharp and feels completely indestructible! 

Downloading Astroberry Server and balenaEtcher (to flash the SD card) was of course very simple as was the actual flashing process. The only hitch was my PC gave the blue screen of death when the flashing was finished.

Then it was a simple matter of plugging in the power and my ASI 178 MM and pointing my laptop at the 'astroberry' network. I was already overjoyed to see the network was available, indicating the Pi was working and the OS flash had succeeded.

General impressions of playing with Pi over VNC remote desktop? It is super fast and responsive, a better remote desktop experience than RDPing into my work Windows PC. The Astroberry desktop is logically laid out and simple to use, especially after I set the browser to full screen mode (F11) and changed the Pi configuration to Local Scaling so the Pi desktop was scaled to my screen (no scroll bars). 

I had plugged in my ASI 178 MM to see if the Pi would recognize it and it did! Playing with it in Oacapture went well, I couldn't get high frame rates (3 FPS with 2x2 binning) and the preview image kept jumping sideways, but once I switched to long exposures (5000 millis) it worked fine.

Also had a look at Kstars and pretty pleased with it. 

I checked CPU temperature while testing and it was 41C, so the case is doing its job of cooling.

It's a nice feeling to have a quality piece of kit that is cheap, looks good and seems to work flawlessly!

And I have another SD card in the mail that will have Retropie installed. This little thing is going to let me relive the glory days of Missile Command. My partner is looking forward to replaying Sega Mega Drive Tetris and its classic soundtrack! Hopefully the Retropie will recognize our PS3 controllers. Swapping SD cards will get annoying so I am sure I will be getting another Pi soon 😀

 

 

Edited January 3, 2021 by Ags

[vlaiv]

That is one nice looking PI

Mine is a bit slimmer, but leaves some things exposed:

[Stuart1971]

35 minutes ago, Ags said:

I have thought about getting a Raspberry Pi for a few years but learning about Astroberry finally made me get one of these neat little computers. My goal is to monitor DSO captures from indoors, as well as finally getting plate solving to work. EEA from indoors is also a nice idea. 

The Pi comes in the worst cardboard box I have ever seen - after opening it to admire the PCB I could not close it again! My partners was skeptical - where is the anti-static film computer stuff normally arrives in? To my eyes it looked amazing, so compact with lots of USBs.

It had to sit in it's rubbishy box for a few days waiting for the case, PSU, and memory card, which came today. I got this case, which I am very impressed with:

https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B07ZVJDRF3/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This aluminium case provides passive cooling via heat sinks connected by thermal tape to the main chips. Ir slots together nicely and looks very sharp and feels completely indestructible! 

Downloading Astroberry Server and balenaEtcher (to flash the SD card) was of course very simple as was the actual flashing process. The only hitch was my PC gave the blue screen of death when the flashing was finished.

Then it was a simple matter of plugging in the power and my ASI 178 MM and pointing my laptop at the 'astroberry' network. I was already overjoyed to see the network was available, indicating the Pi was working and the OS flash had succeeded.

General impressions of playing with Pi over VNC remote desktop? It is super fast and responsive, a better remote desktop experience than RDPing into my work Windows PC. The Astroberry desktop is logically laid out and simple to use, especially after I set the browser to full screen mode (F11) and changed the Pi configuration to Local Scaling so the Pi desktop was scaled to my screen (no scroll bars). 

I had plugged in my ASI 178 MM to see if the Pi would recognize it and it did! Playing with it in Oacapture went well, I couldn't get high frame rates (3 FPS with 2x2 binning) and the preview image kept jumping sideways, but once I switched to long exposures (5000 millis) it worked fine.

Also had a look at Kstars and pretty pleased with it. 

I checked CPU temperature while testing and it was 41C, so the case is doing its job of cooling.

It's a nice feeling to have a quality piece of kit that is cheap, looks good and seems to work flawlessly!

And I have another SD card in the mail that will have Retropie installed. This little thing is going to let me relive the glory days of Missile Command. My partner is looking forward to replaying Sega Mega Drive Tetris and its classic soundtrack! Hopefully the Retropie will recognize our PS3 controllers. Swapping SD cards will get annoying so I am sure I will be getting another Pi soon 😀

 

 

Welcome to the simple side, I love Astroberry and it runs my whole rig flawlessly...and I also have the same case that you have purchased....I run it all from AB and VNC in to it, but I run mine from a 120gb SSD drive and not the SD card, it natively boots from USB with the latest firmware updates, and it roughly six times faster, ideal for saving large images during a session.... 👍🏼😀

[Paul M]

I'll follow your progress with interest!

So far your story is the same as mine with Astroberry and an ASI178. I also have a ASI120mm guide cam.

As with you it all went swimmingly. I loved the whole package. Unfortunately it never delivered in anger. My trials and tribulations over the summer were well documented here. I was deeply disappointed. 

My suspicions focus on the Pi's handling of the ASI USB traffic. Any way I hope you don't suffer any of my woes. I'm in a minority. Most users have few issues.

Enjoy!

[pete_l]

7 hours ago, Ags said:

This aluminium case provides passive cooling via heat sinks connected by thermal tape to the main chips

Yes, I have a couple of Pi4's in cases like yours. They are sooooooo much better than the little plastic cases with cheap fans. I run my Pis 24*7 and it is inevitable that after a time the fans become noisy. And when they do 😬 they are noisier than any of my "proper" PCs. So I am a great fan (groan!) of these cases. The only gripe I have is that there is no obvious way to attach the cases to anything - no screw holes, unless you want to use self-tapping screws in between the fins on the heatsink.

P.S. did you know that you can attach a SSD to one of the USB3 ports and then (after a software re-config) dump the SD card altogether? You get a vast speed improvement as well as more storage.

Edited January 3, 2021 by pete_l

[teoria_del_big_bang]

28 minutes ago, pete_l said:

Yes, I have a couple of Pi4's in cases like yours. They are sooooooo much better than the little plastic cases with cheap fans. I run my Pis 24*7 and it is inevitable that after a time the fans become noisy. And when they do 😬 they are noisier than any of my "proper" PCs. So I am a great fan (groan!) of these cases. The only gripe I have is that there is no obvious way to attach the cases to anything - no screw holes, unless you want to use self-tapping screws in between the fins on the heatsink.

P.S. did you know that you can attach a SSD to one of the USB3 ports and then (after a software re-config) dump the SD card altogether? You get a vast speed improvement as well as more storage.

Yes I have just started to boot from a 240Gb SSD and the improvement in performance is very noticable.

For under £30 it was a no brainer. 240 GB Internal SSD but you really then need this case which is by far the best case I have found., its cooling is superb, it has a proper on and off button and fits the previously mentioned SSD ArgonOne M2 Case.
Yes the case is not cheap and again no real means  of attaching it to anything and I will print something on my 3D printer that will do this. Another great thing with this case is that because it has a clever little right angled board inside for the power and HDMI sockets all the connections are on one side of the case making cable management easier and it converts the silly little micro HDMI ports into normal size ports so you can use a standard cable (if the HDMI is ever needed - probably not in most cases for our use).  

Downside is you cannot get to the SD card but I no longer use it anyway now I boot from the SSD.

If you want more memory then there are these M2 drives out there up to 1TB I think but the cost was a lot more than this 240G and that is plenty for me.

Steve

[teoria_del_big_bang]

8 hours ago, Paul M said:

I'll follow your progress with interest!

So far your story is the same as mine with Astroberry and an ASI178. I also have a ASI120mm guide cam.

As with you it all went swimmingly. I loved the whole package. Unfortunately it never delivered in anger. My trials and tribulations over the summer were well documented here. I was deeply disappointed. 

My suspicions focus on the Pi's handling of the ASI USB traffic. Any way I hope you don't suffer any of my woes. I'm in a minority. Most users have few issues.

Enjoy!

Yes I saw your threads and in a way very similar to some issues I had with my RPi 4 4Gb running AB.

Generally I loved KStars and the setu of EKOS / INDI is fantastic the way it is all laid out, so easy. I also like KSTars in principle, the only thing I did not like (and still do not) is the clunkiness of the planetarium and poor graphics. After using Stellarium previously the planetarium on KStars is poor by comparison.
But, I do not sit there all night looking at the planetarium when imaging and whilst my Pi is imaging I can use either Stellarium or something like SkySafari to look at what DSO's are about and maybe plan my next targets separate on my laptop. So I have stuck with it controlling my imaging sessions. 

I did suffer some freezes and odd issues that meant a total reboot but fortunately never happened whilst in a sequence was always at start when setting things up and maybe the load on the processor was high, or I did start to think it was the rocesser getting hot and throttling back on its speed. Anyway for the actual imaging sequences it did work just the frustration of these freezes at the start quite often.

I have now bought another 8Gb RPi 4 and the case in post above and now boot from a SSD drive and taken the SD memory card out altogether.
Initial tests it looks much slicker and has been left running for days without any freezes or issues and temperature with this case never got above 50 degrees (so although it has a fan it never came on only using the passive cooling). 
Now I haven't actually had a session with it as yet this is just daylight testing as the weather has seen to that but eager to see if my woes have been put to rest.

I have been told I will not see a significant improvement with the 8Gb compared to 4Gb so probably not that tat will help but the addition of the SSD should. Fingers Crossed 🙂 

 

Oh by the way as it was not expensive I am also trying StellarMate OS (under £50). To be honest I cannot see any difference to AB, all features are identical. From anybody not technical at all though it was real easy to install (easier then AB I thought anyway) so maybe worth the money to avoid some frustration, also it doesn't keep telling me I am in oland which was a bit of a pain with AB even though probably my ignorance 🙂 

 

Steve

Edited January 3, 2021 by teoria_del_big_bang

[pete_l]

2 hours ago, teoria_del_big_bang said:

Yes the case is not cheap

Interesting. Though at the price I was surprised to learn that it did not contain a Raspberry Pi4 2GB. Since the case is more expensive than its contents, I will continue to make do with some cable ties to keep my existing cases in the place where I want them. 🦉

[gilesco]

11 minutes ago, pete_l said:

Interesting. Though at the price I was surprised to learn that it did not contain a Raspberry Pi4 2GB. Since the case is more expensive than its contents, I will continue to make do with some cable ties to keep my existing cases in the place where I want them. 🦉

Bear in mind that the case comes with a fan, which is PWM controllable in software, power to the Pi is provided via GPIO circuitry not the side USB C side connector and has a smart power button to cleanly shutdown Raspbian rather than  just cut power, and of course it also contains a USB to M.2 SATA circuitry. So rather than being just a case it is a bit more than that. 

[teoria_del_big_bang]

19 minutes ago, gilesco said:

Bear in mind that the case comes with a fan, which is PWM controllable in software, power to the Pi is provided via GPIO circuitry not the side USB C side connector and has a smart power button to cleanly shutdown Raspbian rather than  just cut power, and of course it also contains a USB to M.2 SATA circuitry. So rather than being just a case it is a bit more than that. 

Yes absolutely.
And to ditch your current case and but this one is maybe not the best way to go but if you are just shopping for your Pi and case then as a good passive cooling case is about £15 to £20 anyway for the extra £20 or so I think you are getting an awful lot.

Also not checked but the 240Gb  SSD I got seemed a bargain at £27 otherwise would need a seperate portable SSD which I am sure will be more than that price and then you need to hang the portable drive somewhere. 
As I said it certainly isn't the cheapest case but I am certainly glad I now have one 🙂 

Steve

[gilesco]

28 minutes ago, teoria_del_big_bang said:

Yes absolutely.
And to ditch your current case and but this one is maybe not the best way to go but if you are just shopping for your Pi and case then as a good passive cooling case is about £15 to £20 anyway for the extra £20 or so I think you are getting an awful lot.

Also not checked but the 240Gb  SSD I got seemed a bargain at £27 otherwise would need a seperate portable SSD which I am sure will be more than that price and then you need to hang the portable drive somewhere. 
As I said it certainly isn't the cheapest case but I am certainly glad I now have one 🙂 

Steve

There's no doubt, it is a premium case, and thus it will cost more, but I think the cost is justified if you were to compare with just a case and then all the individual bits to get the same functionality. If you find that functionality useful, then it is worth it.

I tend to try and go for a slightly higher spec than necessary on most things.

[stash_old]

But then when you have added all the add-ons etc - somewhere aroung £180+ then of course you could get a 2nd hand 8gb,120gb ssd ,Intel I3 or I5(or AMD equiv) PC's (even though not the "latest gen") - run Linux/Indi (Ubuntu or whatever your flavour takes your fancy) OR Windows Ascom if you wish.

These will knock the spots off any RPI todate running Indi/OAcapture,Stellarium etc ,have mostly flawless WiFi(no USB / wifi clash),are about the same size when taking into account the SSD/Fan/Larger Case!

Just saying 🙂

[Stuart1971]

3 minutes ago, stash_old said:

But then when you have added all the add-ons etc - somewhere aroung £180+ then of course you could get a 2nd hand 8gb,120gb ssd ,Intel I3 or I5(or AMD equiv) PC's (even though not the "latest gen") - run Linux/Indi (Ubuntu or whatever your flavour takes your fancy) OR Windows Ascom if you wish.

These will knock the spots off any RPI todate running Indi/OAcapture,Stellarium etc ,have mostly flawless WiFi(no USB / wifi clash),are about the same size when taking into account the SSD/Fan/Larger Case!

Just saying 🙂

Hmmm, I dont really agree entirely with this...it does not need to cost anywhere near £180+. RPI 4, 4gb, SD card and powered USB hub, £80 at most, a small 12v to 5v buck converter to power £5, and that’s all you need.... also it’s much smaller and lighter than any Intel NUC or similar, also you have the option of just running it as a server and using a PC indoors, if you prefer, and I never had any Wi-Fi or USB issues....

The RPI runs Kstars as well  as any small PC as the software is designed to run of system with less resources. Just my opinion.... 👍🏼

[teoria_del_big_bang]

Sorry to the OP, my post seems to have made this thread take a different route.

I really just wanted to tell the OP how I had improved the Rpi performance and also increased the memory, I say I it actually came from advice of @gilesco and very pleased I went this route.
There are many routes you can take to operate your rig with a remote computer and over the last year or two have tried about all but using a ZWO ASIair Pro.

My findings were that yes you can get a very good workable solution with a RPi 4 4G and standard case for not much over £50, probably even okay with RPi3's for less. And can power from various 5V supplies for very little.
It works but I did find some short comings, as others have. It did become quite slow when it warmed up a bit  or the processor was busy and I did have some freezes and had to do some reboots.
I know others have had similar issues maybe not quite the same and some issues may be of our own making such as various cameras use more processor power or just too many USB connections - I really am not techy enough to know what but as many have got this sort of setup to work then it must sometimes be down to the equipment or poor drivers for some equipment.

I also have used a pretty high powered remote computer running Ubuntu with KStars, EKOS / INDi etc and yes that ran flawlessly.
And yes any sane person would just stick with that setup as it just runs, but I like messing about with RPi's and seeing what I can do so when the RPi4 8Gb came out I had to get one and see if it was any better, but at same time I saw the blog from @gilesco about using the SSD and the case that was made for this SSD and again had to try it. I didn't need to and no it will not improve my images (unfortunately) but I just like to give things a go.

If this now works without the freezes and I get any other improvements I will use it as it is much lighter and much cheaper to replace if I have an accident as unlikely I need to replace the lot, probably just the Rpi, probabaly will replace at some stage anyway when another version comes out if any significant changes and improvements.
I may also sell the much more expensive remote CPU and use my older RPi in the all sky cam I have been on with and need to finish.

So yes there are many ways to run KStars and the rest, and not sure  yet which is the best way performance for Buck wise. Maybe  I will get there and curiosity also makes me want to try an ASIair Pro as well, especially as my cameras are ZWO.

So once again sorry to @Ags for taking his build thread off track, but as there is so much going on with RPis and other remote computers maybe a thread for people to list how they are running KStars / EKOS / INDI via a remote computer may be usefull for people to see what others are doing and to get ideas from ????

Steve

[Stuart1971]

24 minutes ago, teoria_del_big_bang said:

Sorry to the OP, my post seems to have made this thread take a different route.

I really just wanted to tell the OP how I had improved the Rpi performance and also increased the memory, I say I it actually came from advice of @gilesco and very pleased I went this route.
There are many routes you can take to operate your rig with a remote computer and over the last year or two have tried about all but using a ZWO ASIair Pro.

My findings were that yes you can get a very good workable solution with a RPi 4 4G and standard case for not much over £50, probably even okay with RPi3's for less. And can power from various 5V supplies for very little.
It works but I did find some short comings, as others have. It did become quite slow when it warmed up a bit  or the processor was busy and I did have some freezes and had to do some reboots.
I know others have had similar issues maybe not quite the same and some issues may be of our own making such as various cameras use more processor power or just too many USB connections - I really am not techy enough to know what but as many have got this sort of setup to work then it must sometimes be down to the equipment or poor drivers for some equipment.

I also have used a pretty high powered remote computer running Ubuntu with KStars, EKOS / INDi etc and yes that ran flawlessly.
And yes any sane person would just stick with that setup as it just runs, but I like messing about with RPi's and seeing what I can do so when the RPi4 8Gb came out I had to get one and see if it was any better, but at same time I saw the blog from @gilesco about using the SSD and the case that was made for this SSD and again had to try it. I didn't need to and no it will not improve my images (unfortunately) but I just like to give things a go.

If this now works without the freezes and I get any other improvements I will use it as it is much lighter and much cheaper to replace if I have an accident as unlikely I need to replace the lot, probably just the Rpi, probabaly will replace at some stage anyway when another version comes out if any significant changes and improvements.
I may also sell the much more expensive remote CPU and use my older RPi in the all sky cam I have been on with and need to finish.

So yes there are many ways to run KStars and the rest, and not sure  yet which is the best way performance for Buck wise. Maybe  I will get there and curiosity also makes me want to try an ASIair Pro as well, especially as my cameras are ZWO.

So once again sorry to @Ags for taking his build thread off track, but as there is so much going on with RPis and other remote computers maybe a thread for people to list how they are running KStars / EKOS / INDI via a remote computer may be usefull for people to see what others are doing and to get ideas from ????

Steve

The secret to no issues, is a good quality USB 3 powered hub, and a good 4 amp 5v power supply, I only have two  USB connected to the RPI, and that is the Hub and WiFi dongle....works a treat...as for heat issues, mine has never gone above 50 degrees inside while testing, and 36 degrees outside while using and that was a summer evening, much lower in the winter.

But admittedly, I use a USB 3 wifi external dongle as it’s much faster at 867 mbps and cost £9 from Amazon, and internal wifi is not used, although the hotspot is a available on that if I need it...

If you do use internal wifi it should be only the 5ghz one, as the 2.4ghz does interfere with the USB, as they share the same BUS....also set to Chanel 44... 👍🏼👍🏼

[gilesco]

To be honest, I was into Linux and the Raspberry Pi in general before I got into Astronomy. So I'm not going to get into whether an intel CORE or an Pi is going to be better for the task.

I will say that not everything has always worked out of the box for me with INDI on the Pi, but, by searching the Internet for advice and reading documentation I have pretty much resolved all issues.

How much power does a NUC draw?

[johnrt]

Being on furlough from work has meant I've been able to put some effort in to some Raspberry Pi projects, but not astronomy related unfortunately as I had to retire due to some very large trees. Here's my Pi 4b 4gb with a fan hat & rf transmitter hat on top.

I've been working on a project with 2 radio controlled sockets to control my darkroom enlarger and safelight from the Pi. I used Node Red which is a very simple and intuitive programming environment that works well for this type of thing. Here's my control  dashboard that I can access from my phone when I am printing. The recent addition was adding the f/stop readouts that calculate 1/4 stops of light on the fly based on the base exposure time set by the user.

The time can be set in 10ths of a second and the run switch activates the timer, switches the socket on, counts down then switches off again.  

 

 

Great fun  

John

[stash_old]

1 minute ago, gilesco said:

How much power does a NUC draw?

who said anything about an NUC - I didn't mention it 🙂

I have been using Indi for over 6yrs on various platforms and modes !

I have/still use RPI's (2 onwards including Zero) with Indi and in TRUE server mode (so no GUI's) running on 2 or more RPI's.

Some people expect too much of a £58 (RPI 4B+ 4GB excluding other bits) and then become disappointed and make comments which are not true about the PI. Especially when you consider the amount a lot spend on the Astro kit.

I was ,as I said, pointing out the facts!  Dont hang the messenger!  

[gilesco]

4 minutes ago, stash_old said:

who said anything about an NUC - I didn't mention it 🙂

I have been using Indi for over 6yrs on various platforms and modes !

I have/still use RPI's (2 onwards including Zero) with Indi and in TRUE server mode (so no GUI's) running on 2 or more RPI's.

Some people expect too much of a £58 (RPI 4B+ 4GB excluding other bits) and then become disappointed and make comments which are not true about the PI. Especially when you consider the amount a lot spend on the Astro kit.

I was ,as I said, pointing out the facts!  Dont hang the messenger!  

You must not assume I'm always replying to your post.

@Stuart1971 mentioned the NUC, and I actually would like to know what its powerdraw would be.

[stash_old]

18 minutes ago, gilesco said:

How much power does a NUC draw?

Haven't a clue but a lot more than 3.1Amps at 5V for a std PI 🙂  

[stash_old]

1 minute ago, gilesco said:

You must not assume I'm always replying to your post.

@Stuart1971 mentioned the NUC, and I actually would like to know what its powerdraw would be.

I dont but OK no problem 🙂

[teoria_del_big_bang]

35 minutes ago, Stuart1971 said:

The secret to no issues, is a good quality USB 3 powered hub, and a good 4 amp 5v power supply, I only have two  USB connected to the RPI, and that is the Hub and WiFi dongle....works a treat...as for heat issues, mine has never gone above 50 degrees inside while testing, and 36 degrees outside while using and that was a summer evening, much lower in the winter.

But admittedly, I use a USB 3 wifi external dongle as it’s much faster at 867 mbps and cost £9 from Amazon, and internal wifi is not used, although the hotspot is a available on that if I need it...

If you do use internal wifi it should be only the 5ghz one, as the 2.4ghz does interfere with the USB, as they share the same BUS....also set to Chanel 44... 👍🏼👍🏼

Nice info, it's gaining bits of info like this that is getting me towards a reliable Pi system.

Personally I was trying to get rid of a powered usb hub as it was just an extra bit to mount on the rig or mount somewhere and get power to it and I only needed 3 ports which were readily available on the RPi. But do you power this with the same 5v supply as the RPi ?
Then regarding the 5V supply so far I have stuck with the original official 3A power supply from Pi Hut meant for RPi 4's I always assumed this was okay. What I will do when I finally get to remote dark sites using 1 12v source I am not sure but do know it needs to be a minimum of 3A so would be looking at 4 to 5A capability .

Also the 5GHz wifi is news to me and had always left it on auto. So far not really used the wifi too much as I have been using a hard wired ethernet cable just to take one possibly flakey aspect out of the equation. 
Which wi fi dongle did you use and is it plug and play (almost) or do you have to disable the internal wifi ? 

Steve

[Stuart1971]

13 minutes ago, gilesco said:

You must not assume I'm always replying to your post.

@Stuart1971 mentioned the NUC, and I actually would like to know what its powerdraw would be.

Yes I did....as that’s the one most people use, I actually wrote “NUC or similar”....

As for power, first of all most of them are either 19v with some 12v, as for power draw, I would think similar to the RPI....up to 4 Amp...

[stash_old]

18 minutes ago, teoria_del_big_bang said:

Nice info, it's gaining bits of info like this that is getting me towards a reliable Pi system.

Personally I was trying to get rid of a powered usb hub as it was just an extra bit to mount on the rig or mount somewhere and get power to it and I only needed 3 ports which were readily available on the RPi. But do you power this with the same 5v supply as the RPi ?
Then regarding the 5V supply so far I have stuck with the original official 3A power supply from Pi Hut meant for RPi 4's I always assumed this was okay. What I will do when I finally get to remote dark sites using 1 12v source I am not sure but do know it needs to be a minimum of 3A so would be looking at 4 to 5A capability .

Also the 5GHz wifi is news to me and had always left it on auto. So far not really used the wifi too much as I have been using a hard wired ethernet cable just to take one possibly flakey aspect out of the equation. 
Which wi fi dongle did you use and is it plug and play (almost) or do you have to disable the internal wifi ? 

Steve

This was the item ,pointed out to me by Dr-Ju-Ju, which has worked well "in the field" for me ! https://thepihut.com/products/120w-dc-dc-converter-12v-10a?variant=27740791825&currency=GBP&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic&gclid=Cj0KCQiA88X_BRDUARIsACVMYD9AqS9xjSu2BKOQMwylvzhxrJ6FE2QfRVdFRtAiHsLI0K11ZrTkOFsaAmdIEALw_wcB

 

Took time to find the Distri Box I used ,again nominated by another SGL user, as they dont do Ebay anymore  - https://domar.com/fused-12v-dc-power-supply-distributor.html 

Edited January 3, 2021 by stash_old

[teoria_del_big_bang]

32 minutes ago, stash_old said:

Some people expect too much of a £58 (RPI 4B+ 4GB excluding other bits) and then become disappointed and make comments

Yes I think you are right but I think that whether it is a £60 4Gb version in standard case or £140 8Gb version in a top of the range case I think that if it works reliably then what a good solution to run in theory a small observatory practically automatically when using KStars, EKOS / INDI etc. And many do as the computing requirements are probably within the RPi's capabilities.
I think we know that there are also probably some flakey aspects of some drivers and bits of software as most is free or practically for free and created by various people for little return (and we are forever grateful to them).
Also the fact that every so often a more powerful RPi appears also helps and faster memory comes along, generally at no more cost than the old ones originally were means that we all could end up with a relatively cheap method of control of our gear.

Forgive me if some of the terminology is also flakey I certainly, like many into astronomy, am not by any means an expert on any of this.

I have had my fair share of issues with this setup, and openly admit probably none of it is the RPi at fault,
But  I continue to use one now it works most of the time (maybe this version will work all the time) because that's ultimately what I would like to use, its relatively cheap, its very light and consumes relatively little power so ideal for remote sites.

I guess for newbies a nice write up on SGL of this is the most cost effective but reliable way of controlling your setup would be ideal, maybe even offering the cheap way and the way to have it running from a SSD as well would be great, as getting all the bits together and loading the software is not straightforward to everyone.

Edited January 3, 2021 by teoria_del_big_bang