AZ GTi with Raspberry Pi4 running Astroberry

[edjrgibbs]

AZ GTi with Raspberry Pi4 running Astroberry

I thought it might be useful to post this how-to given that I've spent the last week banging my head against a brick wall trying to get my RP4 to connect to my New AZ GTi scope. The idea was to develop a small, portable goto setup that could platesolve and guide. I’ve yet to image with the setup but here’s my quick guide to wirelessly connecting the AZ GTI and win 10 laptop to the Astroberry hotspot to run a complete wireless imaging system.

Ø  Set up the AZ GTI with equatorial mode firmware

o   Go to http://www.skywatcher.com/download/software/

o   Download two files under ‘Motor controllers’:

§  Windows program: Motor Controller Firmware Loader - WiFi, Version 1.74

§  Firmware: AZGTi Mount, Right Arm, AZ/EQ Dual Mode, Version 3.26

o   And this under ‘Synscan App’

§  Windows program: SynScan Pro App, Version 1.19.12

o   Connect your laptop/computer wifi to the mount’s hotspot (“SynScan_xxxx”)

o   Unzip the first two files and follow the instructions in the text document in the loader folder.

Ø  Connecting Az GTI to Astroberry

o   Unzip the Synscan app file and double click ‘SynScanPro.exe’

o   Click connect

o   Select EQ mode

o   Go to ‘settings’ and then ‘synscan wifi’

o   Turn station mode on and set the following settings:

§  SSID – astroberry

§  Password – astroberry

§  Turn off DHCP

§  Assign a fixed IP address of 10.0.0.10

§  Save settings

o   Exit app

o   Turn the Az GTi off

o   Turn pi on

o   Turn AZ GTI on

Ø  Connect laptop to pi and set up KStars/EKOS to connect to the Az GTI

o   Use laptop/desktop to connect to the ‘astroberry’ hotspot

o   Use a web browser to go to http://astroberry.local/

o   Login using password ‘astroberry’

o   Open KStars

o   Click ‘toggle Ekos’ (little dome icon)

§  Either set up a new profile with your equipment or edit the profile, you can use ‘CCD Simulator’ if you don’t want to connect your camera at this point

§  For the mount select ‘EQMod Mount’ NOT Az GTI

§  Click save

§  Click the start button

§  Select EqMod mount tab and enter the following details under the ‘connection’ tab

·       Server

o   Address – 10.0.0.10

o   Port – 11880

o   Click ‘Set’

·       Connection type

o   UDP

§  Go back to the ‘main control’ tab and click connect. Everything should light up green and connect.

§  Test by closing that window going to the mount tab in Ekos, selecting AI Mount Control and issuing a coto command for an object. The mount should slew to that object.

Hope this helps someone.

[Gmx76]

hi @edjrgibbs very helpful, thanks. Looking through this it seems once the initial config is done using a Windows laptop and Synscan, thereafter its possible to connect to the RPi using any device?

Reason I'm asking is that I might want to use this setup with a Mac connecting to the RPi. I do have a Windows laptop available for the initial setup, but going forward will just want to use the Mac.

Cheers

Greg

[edjrgibbs]

Hi Greg, I believe so. I think you just remote into it through the browser and it shouldn’t matter what os you’re on.