Can Astroberry Server run 3 instances of Ekos?

[Gina]

Probably one for @RadekK but any suggestions welcome.

I have a triple imaging rig currently using 3 separate RPi boards.  The imaging cameras are an ASI 294MMPro connected to an RPi 4B running Astroberry Server and two ASI 1600MM-Cool cameras on separate RPi 3B boards and the earlier indiserver.  The RPi 4B also runs the mount and a guide camera.  This system  is accessed using 3 instances of Terminal with SSH and 3 instances of KStars/Ekos running on my tower system with Linux Mint indoors.

I would like to reduce the remote electronics and wondered if I could run 3 instances of Ekos in Astroberry Server.  IOW use one RPi 4 only and get rid of the RPi 3Bs.  The original reason for using separate RPi boards was that Ekos was unable to distinguish between the two ASI 1600MM cameras - they come up with the same ID.  I now wonder if separate instances of Ekos could access different USB ports and avoid the ID contention.

Any information and suggestions gratefully received.

Edited November 1, 2021 by Gina

[Dr_Ju_ju]

I've not tried it recently, but it may be possible running virtual hosts under Docker e.g. https://www.hyggeit.dk/2014/02/virtual-servers-on-raspberry-pi-with.html

[AstroMuni]

12 hours ago, Gina said:

The original reason for using separate RPi boards was that Ekos was unable to distinguish between the two ASI 1600MM cameras - they come up with the same ID.

I came to know that they have introduced ASI drivers to handle separate cameras ZWO Camera 1, 2 & 3 which call indi_asi_single_ccd. This might do the trick.

[Gina]

Had this from a friend :-

Quote

Hi Gina, came across this just now. Looks like there might be a way to run multiple servers on a Pi using different port numbers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwKkLniEIIk

Wondering if this could be done with Astroberry Server.  Though maybe the reduced software approach would be better.  Seems to me that running 3 instances of Astroberry Server on one RPi 4B could be pushing it.

[Gina]

Just ordered an RPi 4B with 8GB RAM for testing.  I know I can run Raspbian OS Lite and install 3 instances of indiserver and drivers.  That would be a lighter load than trying to install 3 instances of Astroberry Server.  I don't need all the apps included in Astroberry Server.  The big advantage of Astroberry Server is the ease of installation and setup.  I'm happy enough with a piecemeal installation - done it lots of times.

[BCN_Sean]

Just had a very quick and dirty look in to this, as not got the machine fully set but this is what I came up with on the astroberry.

Starting off with one instance of kstars, setting ekos to start on the default internal server starts it up; then after opening terminal up and then putting in to there as an example "indiserver -p 9876 -v indi_driverA indi_driverB" (though I don't know if it'd work with identical drivers unless you map the port, as in /dev/tty* to device), then opening a second instance of kstars, and in the profile setting it to use a remote server assigned to the same port as inputted in the terminal. Had the mount slewing around with one instance and the guide camera looping on the other.

As for any more I don't know, as for stability again I'm not sure with; however it's certainly an interesting proposition that I've put on my notepad to have a look at in the future.

Edited November 13, 2021 by BCN_Sean
Clarity

[RadekK]

@Gina you can run many instances of indiserver using different for port for each instance (see -p switch for indiserver). Each instance can be started with it's own set of drivers. You can even aggregate these instances into one by using remote drivers approach i.e. 'driver name'@ip:port. However... controlling such a setup with a single KStars/Ekos is not possible. Well, you can control a mount and run guiding if all cameras are on the same mount but you need to run separate acquisition thread for each camera, focuser, filter wheel etc. Possibly with CCDciel, but I'm not sure you can run multiple instances.

Finally, indi_asi_single_ccd driver works great for multiple ASI cameras so you can use just one, but... it tells a camera from the other ones based on name, not ID. As a result using two ASI 1600 would a be a challenge.