Remote access - what goes where?

[MG01]

So now I have my little mele quieter and I'm thinking about how best to use it.

In most cases people place it at the scope and 'remote in...'  using something like Microsoft's remote desktop connection that's included in windows (just remember to enable remote connections, something which I didn't realise wasn't automatically on) so that you can access it from another machine, like an observatory or field laptop.

My question is really what do you run on which machine?

I've installed ASCOM, EQMod, the camera drivers and phd on the mele, but am I right to think the heavy lifting of APT or NINA and stellarium for example should be installed on the main computer and just set the right ports for connections to cameras etc, or do you just run it all on the scope PC and just let it save images (via RDP access to local drives) to the observatory PC for live stacking or review and processing?

 

Just curious what works best. 

[scotty38]

Run NINA etc on the scope PC (the Mele). I have one too and I save the images to the mele but I run the robocopy plugin in NINA and copy the images off to my NAS as they come in. Of course you could have them go to your observatory PC instead and do the live stacking there.

[MG01]

That makes sense.  The mele seems more than capable...the one piece of software I was a little nervous about was stellarium...its pretty intensive compared to other astro software. 

I'll have to have a play with nina.  I've been using apt as I've been using it with dslr for a while.  But having just taken the plunge with a pegasus ultimate I know NINA supports it and until APT catches up on this feature (which I know is high on Ivo's list) I will be dipping a toe into NINA.

Just had my first win11 clunk as my canon install disk doesnt work...so may need a workaround to get EOS utility working. 

[DaveS]

I run everything on the remote PC, it's not that heavy, but then I don't do live stacking, just check the subs as they come in. All post is done on the main office computer.

[drjolo]

I also vote for having all acquisition software on the remote PC. I do not know what are the specification of that mele quieter, but probably something more than Atom processor. 

I use SGPro with PHD2 multistar guide and that works perfectly well on i3 CPU and above (currently I use i5 machine). Also have there CdC for reference and ASTAP for preview and quick analysis. 

On Atom or Celeron J-something it was usually a pain, and CPU load was very close to 100%. 

Edited November 12, 2022 by drjolo

[MG01]

The one I picked up has a N5105 with 8GB ram and I chucked in a 500GB nvme and for under 230GBP including the drive upgrade it seems a bargain.

Having spent some time with it today I think I'd agree...just put all the capture software on it and let it do its thing.

I think not having ever used remote desktop locally (only via internet when it was managed by an IT dept) I was worried about data flow with stellarium in particular, but I understand it a little better now and am happy that this little box will do fine in its own.

Will be interesting to see how it handles plate solving...but it's not getting much chance to play outside as I've got my rig in bits while I rehash my connections in anticipation of the arrival of the pegasus ULTIMATE power B - O - X!

I just hope the name isn't all hyperbole!

🤪

 

What mini pc do you use @drjolo?

Edited November 12, 2022 by MG01

[scotty38]

@MG01 I have NINA setup to use Stellarium and it works fine, as you say Stellarium is a bit heavy but I only use it for any object I can't find in NINA itself. I also use ASTAP for platesolving as it seems to generally be regarded as the best and fastest but you do need to download the databases but other than that it works just fine.

[malc-c]

I have a dinosaur of a PC in the observatory (Pentium core duo, 8gb of DDR3 ram and two mechanical HDD, one for operating system and the other for data.)   It still runs windows 10 and contains ASCOM, EQMod, CdC, PHD2 and APT for handling the Canon 400D.  Once the scope is powered and the PC booted to desktop I use this PC  directly to target a start and check for focus using a mask.  When I'm happy its all running I then go down to the house and remote into the observatory PC using a remote desktop connection.  Once I've connected I then select the target, frame the shot, establish guiding and then use APT to run the imaging plan.

When it's time to close up the observatory I park the scope, and then walk up to the observatory and cover the scope to take the darks.  The roof is closed and after locking the observatory up and returned to the lounge I set off the darks plan in APT which also has the option to shut the PC down once it's completed. When I'm happy it running the plan I close the RDC and power off the PC in the lounge.

The following day I copy the folder containing all the RAW images on the observatory PC to my lounge PC for processing (the lounge PC being a Ryzen based machine with 16GB of DDR4, an Nvme drive, and SSD drives for storage).  This process helps in two ways.  First the lounge PC is far more capable of processing the images, stacking them and then stretching them etc, and secondly means that I am not working on originals, so should I screw up whilst processing the images I haven't lost the originals.

It may not be the best way of working, but it suits me.

[wimvb]

Considering that you can run everything from a raspberry pi, including the capture software, guiding and platesolving (takes no more than a second or so), with 4 GB RAM and only a 64 GB SD card, I'd think that a proper mini pc would be more than capable of running everything. Having everything on the scope's pc takes away the risk of a crash, should you lose the network connection. If you have the capture software on your indoor computer, losing the network connection means your imaging session will crash.

My advice, run everything local on the scope's pc and download the data after the session is finished. If the remote computer has enough storage space, you can copy the data, so you always have that backed up.

[drjolo]

On 12/11/2022 at 20:38, MG01 said:

What mini pc do you use @drjolo?

I use Gigabyte BRIX with i5 and 8/240 GB. Plate solving with ASTAP is a few seconds operation for my setup ( QHY268M camera with 90mm refractor ). 

[old_eyes]

I agree with the general consensus. Everything on the scope PC to avoid conflicts.

I run Voyager to manage the session. PHD2 for guiding, CDC for planetarium, ASTAP for platesolving, plus all the other usual bits and pieces. Collect data on the same machine and transfer the following day. CPU usage is not high. The system is under no strain.

[AstroMuni]

On 12/11/2022 at 17:26, MG01 said:

the one piece of software I was a little nervous about was stellarium...its pretty intensive compared to other astro software. 

You could use Cartes du Ciel instead. Thats less processor intensive.

[scotty38]

1 hour ago, AstroMuni said:

You could use Cartes du Ciel instead. Thats less processor intensive.

This is true and I have done this too. As I mentioned I just use NINA 99% of the time and if it cannot find a target I fire up Stellarium pass the coordinates to NINA and then shut it down, sorted.

[AMcD]

I too have everything except my processing software on the PC in the observatory (a HUNSN industrial PC) and I access that PC using MS Remote Desktop either from the house via a hard LAN line or from elsewhere in the world via a WAN using port forwarding on our home Internet router.  I have found the MS Remote Desktop connection to be reliable and stable in both configurations.

[scotty38]

33 minutes ago, AMcD said:

I too have everything except my processing software on the PC in the observatory (a HUNSN industrial PC) and I access that PC using MS Remote Desktop either from the house via a hard LAN line or from elsewhere in the world via a WAN using port forwarding on our home Internet router.  I have found the MS Remote Desktop connection to be reliable and stable in both configurations.

I did have mine configured the same way but paranoia got the better of me seeing all the rascals out there trying to get in to my system so I closed off the external access and buried my head in the sand 🙂 🙂

 

[MG01]

4 hours ago, AstroMuni said:

You could use Cartes du Ciel instead. Thats less processor intensive.

But it's not as pretty.... 😛

Seems pretty much unanimous...put it all at the scope! yay!
Having had a bit of a play the mele seems to do just fine with everything on it.  I'll still use a separate laptop for processing though.  Seems a good way to get some extra backup too.  

I saw somewhere there was a way to sync folders between the laptop and scope PC.  I'll probably use something similar....although a onedrive or google drive would also work I guess.

[scotty38]

13 minutes ago, MG01 said:

I saw somewhere there was a way to sync folders between the laptop and scope PC.  I'll probably use something similar....although a onedrive or google drive would also work I guess.

Robocopy will do this and in fact there is a NINA plugin that makes it even easier that you can use as part of a sequence.

[AstroMuni]

1 hour ago, MG01 said:

But it's not as pretty.... 😛

Its like the series Location, location 😉 there are tradeoffs. If you were a Mac / RPi user I would have said use Kstars which can be configured to be pretty or plain.