All sky Raspberry setup with Altair Astro camera?

[kmaslin]

Have a working all sky setup using an Altair Astro 178C via long USB cable to PC running Windows AllSkEye in the warm room. However would like to replace with Raspberry Pi4 (which I now have) to eliminate the PC link

Trying to follow Thomas Jacquin links to set up his Allsky script - but cant seem to get it to work as it doesn't like the Altair camera

Has anyone else managed a setup of a Pi and Altair camera?

Cheers

Keith

[JamesF]

I've definitely tried Altair cameras on the RPi, though not specifically the 178.

First thing is probably to check that the RPi actually sees the camera as connected.  If you enter "lsusb" at the command line you should get a list of connected USB devices back.  I think for the Altair 178C you should see a line containing "ID 0547:4000" if it has connected ok.  The output of "dmesg | tail" immediately after plugging the camera in might prove informative, too.

If you do see that the camera is connected then perhaps it's worth installing oacapture and the Altair library (if you've not already done the latter) from here:

  https://www.openastroproject.org/downloads/

to see if that works.  If oacapture does work then the allsky code probably needs a closer look.  If oacapture doesn't work either then I may be able to move you forward a bit.

James

[kmaslin]

Thanks James - it can see something under lsusb as MSC, and can identify altair178c3 in message tail

But still new to raspian and can't figure out how to run oacapture - a zip file has downloaded but what now? I try to install and nothing seems to happen?

Also the libaltaircam file won't download?

Cheers

Keith

 

 

[JamesF]

21 hours ago, kmaslin said:

Thanks James - it can see something under lsusb as MSC, and can identify altair178c3 in message tail

But still new to raspian and can't figure out how to run oacapture - a zip file has downloaded but what now? I try to install and nothing seems to happen?

Also the libaltaircam file won't download?

That it shows up in lsusb is a good sign.  Not sure where the zip file comes from though.  I think the source code is the only file that's ever produced as a zip.

Not sure why you can't download the files.  I wonder if it's something to do with HTTP vs. HTTPS.  Can you try downloading these:

https://www.openastroproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/raspbian-10/oacapture_1.8.0-1_armhf.deb

https://www.openastroproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/raspbian-10/libaltaircam_1.47.17497-1_armhf.deb

If you already have INDI installed (for example) then you may not need the second one.

It may be that the download process will automatically prompt you to install them which is fine.  Otherwise they can be installed from the current directory using the command

  $ sudo dpkg -i oacapture_1.8.0-1_armhf.deb libaltaircam_1.47.17497-1_armhf.deb

(just leave the second one out if you don't need it) or you can probably install them from the file browser if that's easier (I'm a very long-term UNIX/Linux geek, so I still tend to use the command line for everything :)

James

[kmaslin]

Thanks James

Figured out how to load both these .deb files, and can open up oacapture and it scans and sees the 178C

However I don't get any image when the camera is connected?

Any clues?

Keith

[kmaslin]

just plugged a spare USB webcam in and that works - so something not quite happening with the Altair even though it can see it?

[JamesF]

With the Altair camera does the "Actual FPS" figure get above zero?

James

[kmaslin]

no

I have a suspicion that is might be power related as I am not using a pucker power pack with the Pi - and it crashes every now and then

will order a proper 3A power unit 

[JamesF]

That sounds like a good plan.  The RPi can struggle a bit with host-powered peripherals unless it has a decent PSU.  Even then I still get the occasional "low power" warning if I overdo things.

James

[AngryDonkey]

I might be wrong but I think that the Thomas Jacquin all sky software only supports ASI cameras and the RPi hq camera.

[kmaslin]

Yes Mike think you are right. My fault for reading the article to build a Raspberry all sky camera (which works with Windows/Allskeye) but I have an Altair camera

So looking at alternative options that James is suggesting oacapture

Other options with Astroberry/Nina etc as well....

but first a psu 😉

[JamesF]

I do actually want to make a version of oacapture that's more immediately suited to all-sky photography (oacapture can probably be made to work as it is, but I wrote it primarily for planetary imaging).

James

[kmaslin]

Cheers James - keep me posted if you do develop that 

Another issue is trying to sort out extension cable for powering the all sky camera as the standard Pi4 PSU uses USB C (why?)

so now trying to sort out a 5V 2.5A PSU with standard 2.1mm jack that I can fit into 5m meter extension cable and then put a 2.1mm to USB C adapter on - yikes!

[Jonk]

I have an rpi4 and Zwo 178MM and Thomas’s allsky works fine for me.

This doesn’t help with the Altair version, but may help you decide what to do.

[CedricTheBrave]

7 hours ago, kmaslin said:

Cheers James - keep me posted if you do develop that 

Another issue is trying to sort out extension cable for powering the all sky camera as the standard Pi4 PSU uses USB C (why?)

so now trying to sort out a 5V 2.5A PSU with standard 2.1mm jack that I can fit into 5m meter extension cable and then put a 2.1mm to USB C adapter on - yikes!

you can use two pins on the io port to power the rpi