Adventures of Pi

[Stuart1971]

1 minute ago, teoria_del_big_bang said:

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.

If you use FB, join the Astroberry group....all the help you will need there....👍🏼
Or message me and I will help any way I can.... 👍🏼

[Stuart1971]

27 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

Well I already had the Pegasus UPB when I moved to the RPI, so that acts as my USB 2 and 3 hub, and powers all my kit, and the RPI is powered from one of the USB ports 5v 3 amp, now 3amp may seem low, but I have never had an issue with this, as the guys from Pegasus told me that it would be fine,...

As for Wifi dongle it is this one, although I bought on an offer...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/BrosTrend-Wireless-Network-Receiver-AC2/dp/B01GC8XH0S/ref=sr_1_7?adgrpid=53509367259&dchild=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiA88X_BRDUARIsACVMYD_gO4JllwqID7ug5L0OhjsjcSr4UeMDoeOxysavjYv3yvUxUXx4g8gaAtJzEALw_wcB&hvadid=259134785219&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9041125&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=9483005099257091893&hvtargid=kwd-316334266443&hydadcr=25429_1819498&keywords=brostrend+wifi+adapter&qid=1609686497&sr=8-7&tag=googhydr-21

[Stuart1971]

Also this one is excellent and faster....but a little more difficult to get working with the RPI... 👍

https://www.amazon.co.uk/BrosTrend-1200Mbps-Wireless-10-9-10-14-AC1/dp/B01BV91L7Y/ref=sr_1_8?adgrpid=53509367259&dchild=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiA88X_BRDUARIsACVMYD_gO4JllwqID7ug5L0OhjsjcSr4UeMDoeOxysavjYv3yvUxUXx4g8gaAtJzEALw_wcB&hvadid=259134785219&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9041125&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=9483005099257091893&hvtargid=kwd-316334266443&hydadcr=25429_1819498&keywords=brostrend+wifi+adapter&qid=1609686497&sr=8-8&tag=googhydr-21

Edited January 3, 2021 by Stuart1971

[teoria_del_big_bang]

38 minutes ago, Stuart1971 said:

Well I already had the Pegasus UPB when I moved to the RPI, so that acts as my USB 2 and 3 hub, and powers all my kit, and the RPI is powered from one of the USB ports 5v 3 amp, now 3amp may seem low, but I have never had an issue with this, as the guys from Pegasus told me that it would be fine,...

As for Wifi dongle it is this one, although I bought on an offer...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/BrosTrend-Wireless-Network-Receiver-AC2/dp/B01GC8XH0S/ref=sr_1_7?adgrpid=53509367259&dchild=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiA88X_BRDUARIsACVMYD_gO4JllwqID7ug5L0OhjsjcSr4UeMDoeOxysavjYv3yvUxUXx4g8gaAtJzEALw_wcB&hvadid=259134785219&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9041125&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=9483005099257091893&hvtargid=kwd-316334266443&hydadcr=25429_1819498&keywords=brostrend+wifi+adapter&qid=1609686497&sr=8-7&tag=googhydr-21

Thanks for the links, and advice.
I will probably go for the easier to use on a RPi one even though a little slower.

This may be a silly question but if I was not using a network such as when in a remote dark site, and so connecting direct to the hot spot of the RPi,  would I be best using two of these one at the RPi and one on my Laptop or is that not necessary ?

Steve

Edited January 3, 2021 by teoria_del_big_bang

[Stuart1971]

6 minutes ago, teoria_del_big_bang said:

Thanks for the links, and advice.
I will probably go for the easier to use on a RPi one even though a little slower.

This may be a silly question but if I was not using a network such as when in a remote dark site, and so connecting direct to the hot spot of the RPi,  would I be best using two of these one at the RPi and one on my Laptop or is that not necessary ?

Steve

If running from a remote location with no internet, and you  are close to the mount, which you probably would be, then the internal hotspot set to 5ghz would be suffice, then your laptop would connect directly to this, you could still use the dongle on the RPI but you would then have to configure the hotspot signal to be output through the dongle, which adds more complications, but either way the internal wifi of the laptop would be fine, as long as it works with 5ghz... 👍😀

[Ags]

No need for enclosure wars, each have their advantages.

On the subject of SSDs and cases, I  am looking at booting from SSD down the road. But I prefer an external SSD so I can swap images easily.

Today has not gone as well as yesterday. My ancient power tank (its so old it doesn't have USBs) looks like it is dieing. And I have not been able to connect the Pi to the AZ GTi. I could connect the mount to the astroberry wifi, but couldn't get INDI to connect to it. I tried reverting to Station mode but couldn't see how to connect the Pi to the synscan wifi...

[Ags]

Flashed an external drive with Retropie, so will try that out in the coming days.

[Stuart1971]

1 hour ago, Ags said:

Flashed an external drive with Retropie, so will try that out in the coming days.

When you have a working copy of Astroberry on an SD card, just connect the SSD drive via USB and then use the built in copy feature in the menu, and it will give you an exact copy on SSD to then boot from, then keep the SD card as a back up....no need to flash with a new version.... 👍🏼

[Ags]

I managed to connect the astroberry to the AZ GTi. it was simple in the end - I had to click the Network icon in the top right of the virtual desktop, disconnect from 'astroberry' network, and then I could join 'SynScan_###'. The only issue is I don't see how to now rejoin the 'astroberry' network, it doesn't show up in the available networks list... 🤣

The next challenge is setting up plate solving. 

Edited January 4, 2021 by Ags

[Stuart1971]

47 minutes ago, Ags said:

I managed to connect the astroberry to the AZ GTi. it was simple in the end - I had to click the Network icon in the top right of the virtual desktop, disconnect from 'astroberry' network, and then I could join 'SynScan_###'. The only issue is I don't see how to now rejoin the 'astroberry' network, it doesn't show up in the available networks list... 🤣

The next challenge is setting up plate solving. 

You need to set the mount up in a different wifi mode, so you can connect the mount the the Astroberry hotspot, or your home network, whichever one you use...aren’t there two modes on the mount, ? One of them will be to connect this way...the other one that does not show the Synscan network I think......then no need to keep swapping... 👍🏼

Edited January 4, 2021 by Stuart1971

[Ags]

Tried that, but then I need to know the IP assigned to the mount... This way just works and flipping the wifi on astroberry is much easier than changing station mode in the synscan app. I am sure re-enabling 'astroberry' wifi is simple, i just need to learn how.

[gilesco]

6 minutes ago, Ags said:

Tried that, but then I need to know the IP assigned to the mount... This way just works and flipping the wifi on astroberry is much easier than changing station mode in the synscan app. I am sure re-enabling 'astroberry' wifi is simple, i just need to learn how.

Right, I'm sure you will find a way, although with a single Wifi card/chipset you can only connect / host one network at a time. So in short, it is not possible to have both the Astroberry hotspot active and connect to the SynScan at the same time, but you can easily flip between the two (although disconnecting from one may mean that you lose connectivity via VNC).

The easiest way is generally to configure everything to connect to a single network.

While I admit this can cause an issue with devices getting an IP address that you don't know what it is - there are ways around this. For instance, if connecting to your home wireless network have a look at the "DHCP reservations" in your Wifi router's set up pages. This allows you, once you know the MAC address of a Wifi card to set it up so as to ensure that it uses the same IP address each time.

If you want help identifying devices on your wireless network then I can recommend the android app "fing" - If you connect an android phone to the same wireless network then you can do a "Scan For Devices" and it will quickly show all the active IP addresses on your local network subnet.

[Ags]

I use TP Link Deco mesh wifi and it has an app that identifies devices on the network and their current IPs. To use that it looks like i would have to:

1. Start mount and astroberry
2. Open SynScan app on phone, disable station mode and log in to home wifi (you have to do this every time) (correction: this only has to be done once)
3. Open Deco app and get IP
4. Open Ekos and configure IP

Or I can keep station mode and configure synscan as the default wifi for the Pi, then i just do this:

1. Start mount and astroberry

I don't currently plan to connect anything else by wifi to the astroberry so I think this would be the best way.

Edited January 10, 2021 by Ags

[nfotis]

Why not control the mount via a USB cable?

And I would suggest using a gigabit Ethernet cable for controlling the Raspberry pi from your room (the standard specifies up to 25 meters for gigabit speeds).

Then, shut down the WiFi and reduce power consumption and spectrum congestion.

N.F.

 

[Ags]

The only reason not to run the GTi from USB is i have no idea how to do that? Can you point me to a resource?

[nfotis]

Ops, I was thinking of the typical mounts, which offer USB connection.

There's a special cable, though, which offers a USB translation (haven't used it myself)

 

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/sky-watcher-mount-accessories/lynx-astro-ftdi-eqdir-usb-adapter-for-sky-watcher-az-gti-mounts.html

 

N.F.

 

[Ags]

Monster good stuff! Thanks!

EDIT: On second thoughts, this seems to need to use the mount in EQ mode with EQMOD software, so I will file this one for later consideration 😀 

EDIT2: Although one person has it working with Pi according to the reviews... Product description could be improved?

Edited January 4, 2021 by Ags

[Ags]

Pi, power tank, AZ GTi, EF 100/f2.8 and ASI178MM are outside and I am inside looking at... 2x2 binned clouds 😐

As they would say in Houston, all systems are nominal, but the launch window is slipping by. I did have a brief period of clear skies that let me nail focus.

Edited January 9, 2021 by Ags

[Ags]

And now I am looking at stars again! Mount not aligned or tracking of course.

Edited January 9, 2021 by Ags

[Ags]

No luck connecting to synscan wifi tonight - the Pi joins then drops off after 5 seconds.

[Stuart1971]

22 minutes ago, Ags said:

No luck connecting to synscan wifi tonight - the Pi joins then drops off after 5 seconds.

Do you have to try and connect the Synscan wifi to both your PC and to the RPI....?

Why CANT both the mount and the RPI connect to your home wifi...?

 

 

[Ags]

I only use the Pi wifi to connect to Pi to AZ GTi. Everything else is connected via network cable or USB. 

[Ags]

On 04/01/2021 at 14:16, Ags said:

I use TP Link Deco mesh wifi and it has an app that identifies devices on the network and their current IPs. To use that it looks like i would have to:

1. Start mount and astroberry
2. Open SynScan app on phone, disable station mode and log in to home wifi (you have to do this every time) (only have to do this once)
3. Open Deco app and get IP
4. Open Ekos and configure IP

Or I can keep station mode and configure synscan as the default wifi for the Pi, then i just do this:

1. Start mount and astroberry

I don't currently plan to connect anything else by wifi to the astroberry so I think this would be the best way.

My reasoning for not connecting everything to my home wifi was given earlier in the thread

Edited January 10, 2021 by Ags

[Stuart1971]

15 minutes ago, Ags said:

My reasoning for not connecting everything to my home wifi was given earlier in the thread

It just seems a lot of hassle for you to get all connected, and then have issues,  when there must be an easier way with the kit you have... 👍🏼

[Ags]

It all worked indoors by daylight of course!