Any news on 64bit Astroberry?

[AstroMuni]

It seems to have gone quiet on the next compile of Astroberry using the 64bit capabilities. @RadekK is there any update please?

[AstroMuni]

Bump

[wimvb]

Not much activity here, it seems. Have you tried the indilib forum?

[Rallemikken]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Raspberry Pi OS (64-bit) an arm64 build of Debian Bullseye?

https://downloads.raspberrypi.org/raspios_arm64/images/

Debian testing (Bookworm) has the latest KStars, and almost every INDI-driver compiled for this architecture. On a cloudy night, why not flash a card with the latest raspios, boot it, enable testing in /etc/apt/sources.list. Do an 'apt update' and' apt dist-upgrade', and install KStars and INDI from there? Try it, and give a report!

https://packages.debian.org/bookworm/arm64/kstars/download  (Not for download, version info only. In Debian you install with 'apt' on command line or 'Synaptic' on the desktop)

Edited March 14, 2023 by Rallemikken
Avoid misunderstandings

[wimvb]

The OS may be 64 bit, but the app not necessarily so. It may be either completely 32 bit, or a mixture.

[Rallemikken]

1 hour ago, wimvb said:

The OS may be 64 bit, but the app not necessarily so. It may be either completely 32 bit, or a mixture.

Got it running on a Pi3 B+ in a breeze. Flashed the image, tuned the repo's and installed KStars and a handfull of INDI drivers. No 'dist-upgrade' yet, but a number of files had to be upgraded in order to accept the latest KStars. Seems stable, but slow, as expected. No problems, other than the usual ones. That is, I run Canon DSLR's, and it's a well known secret that you have to remove the memory card in order to get them connected......  My own 'Astroberry', so to speak.

Edited March 15, 2023 by Rallemikken

[AstroMuni]

On 14/03/2023 at 23:56, Rallemikken said:

Got it running on a Pi3 B+ in a breeze.

I am not as technical hence waiting for Radek. Hope he is keeping well as I havent seen any recent posts from him 😞

Edited March 16, 2023 by AstroMuni

[AstroMuni]

On 14/03/2023 at 18:22, wimvb said:

Not much activity here, it seems. Have you tried the indilib forum?

Couldnt see much activity there too. May have to resort to using the AstroPi3 or some such equivalent if I dont see traction on the Astroberry front

[Rallemikken]

2 hours ago, AstroMuni said:

I am not as technical hence waiting for Radek.

If you are able to flash an image onto a card, my way should be achieveable. And if you can't cope with that, well, no pi or berries for you. You boot the image, answer the questions on startup, let it update (if it's online) and reboot. Now you have the regular Pi desktop, on my try it picked up the wireless at once. You edit two - 2- config files, you do two - 2 - commands in the terminal, and the rest is done in the graphical interface, mainly Synaptic. The default Chromium webrowser refused to start on my Pi, so I installed Firefox instead. For remote access I suggest X2go.

Check out  https://packages.debian.org/search?keywords=indi&searchon=names&suite=testing&section=all

This is the Debian Testing repo as of now. Up untill now imuch of this has been removed when testing goes to stable. That's why we must enable the testing repo. There is also some precompiled AstroPi images: https://downloads.raspberrypi.org/AstroPi/images/AstroPi-2022-11-07/

No idea what this is, size indicates a full install. Debian, Ubuntu? No risk in trying. maybe everything is catered for!

Edited March 16, 2023 by Rallemikken

[wimvb]

7 hours ago, AstroMuni said:

I am not as technical hence waiting for Radek. Hope he is keeping well as I havent seen any recent posts from him 😞

The current version of astroberry is very stable and fast enough on a RPi4 with a 64 GB SDcard. You can connect to it from a web browser. For me, the set up time (from connecting to astroberry untill start of the first exposure) is about 8 minutes. This includes

• Unparking the scope
• Aligning using plate solving
• Focusing (with 4 s exposures per frame)
• Starting the guider
• Entering a sequence and cooling the camera to -10 C

[rnobleeddy]

9 hours ago, AstroMuni said:

I am not as technical hence waiting for Radek. Hope he is keeping well as I havent seen any recent posts from him 😞

I understand the desire to stay away from rolling your own!  Curious to know what's the advantage of getting a 64-bit version?

[fozzybear]

Any updates would be seen on Indilib.org forum and not here in the first instance anyway albeit Radek is a member on here as well. 

[fozzybear]

11 minutes ago, rnobleeddy said:

I understand the desire to stay away from rolling your own!  Curious to know what's the advantage of getting a 64-bit version?

it's not like windows and getting the latest version.

[rnobleeddy]

52 minutes ago, fozzybear said:

it's not like windows and getting the latest version.

I've used Linux for years. My question was why is anyone needs a 64-bit version. Unless you need to use all the RAM on the 8Gb Pi in a single process, I can't think of another reason. And that certainly doesn't seem necessary for imaging.

Edited March 16, 2023 by rnobleeddy

[AstroMuni]

13 hours ago, rnobleeddy said:

I've used Linux for years. My question was why is anyone needs a 64-bit version. Unless you need to use all the RAM on the 8Gb Pi in a single process, I can't think of another reason. And that certainly doesn't seem necessary for imaging.

My understanding is the latest versions of Kstars/Ekos (after 3.6.0 I think) arent supported on 32bit architecture. Hence until astroberry compiles and adds it to their repository I cant get it.

16 hours ago, wimvb said:

The current version of astroberry is very stable and fast enough on a RPi4 with a 64 GB SDcard. You can connect to it from a web browser.

I have and continue to use the older version and have no complaints about it. Its just that I cant use the newer features in Ekos.

Edited March 17, 2023 by AstroMuni

[Avocette]

I’m presently successfully running three Astroberrys, initially imaged in 2022 and maintained up to date with Raspberry Pi OS upgrades etc, as KStars 3.6.0 and Indi 1.9.7. Conscious and curious that there have been further ‘stable’ revisions to KStars 3.6.3 and Indi 2.0.0, I decided to try out a 64-bit Raspberry Pi Bullseye OS and install KStars using the method defined by ‘Nou’ (Dužan Poizl). https://gitea.nouspiro.space/nou/astro-soft-build It’s not a full Astroberry installation of course, since Radek included lots of extra applications like FireCapture, StarCharts, and PHD2, but if all you need is KStars, Ekos and Indi, I found it simple enough to follow for a Linux non-expert. I noted that Nou had updated it a few weeks ago, and I suppose (and hope) he will continue to do so….

I would like to install FireCapture 2.7.11 for lunar and planetary imaging, but I am not sure if the present version which works well with 32-bit Raspberry Pi OS can operate equally as well in the 64-bit OS environment.

[AstroMuni]

On 25/03/2023 at 15:42, Avocette said:

Conscious and curious that there have been further ‘stable’ revisions to KStars 3.6.3 and Indi 2.0.0, I decided to try out a 64-bit Raspberry Pi Bullseye OS and install KStars using the method defined by ‘Nou’ (Dužan Poizl).

So do I download this script to RPi and run this script from there?

On 25/03/2023 at 15:42, Avocette said:

I would like to install FireCapture 2.7.11 for lunar and planetary imaging, but I am not sure if the present version which works well with 32-bit Raspberry Pi OS can operate equally as well in the 64-bit OS environment.

I think Firecapture is written in Java so should work in 64bit OS as well

 

Edited March 27, 2023 by AstroMuni

[Avocette]

@AstroMuni sorry for my delay in responding. I had set the ‘Follow topic’ switch but didn’t receive any signal.

Nou’s link gives full instructions. I started with a fresh Raspberry Pi OS installation and then in the Terminal window carried through the instructions in the sequence as described. After a Reboot, KStars 3.6.3 was available in the Education folder.

I have followed through on FC 2.7.11 and apparently the guy (Rafa B..) who transferred it to the RPi has done so only for the 32-bit OS. He makes it quite clear in recent correspondence that he now considers the RPi as insufficient for FC and sadly does not intend to work further on the RPi platform…… 

Edited April 3, 2023 by Avocette

[AstroMuni]

Thats sad about FC.

I did have a go at running Nou's script and managed to install Kstars on 64 bit RPi OS. I also tried out AstroPi3 and that didnt work well. Several dependencies and repositories are incorrect 😞

AstroPi3 has scripts for installing INDI web and PHD2 so it would be good to get an integrated script that did all.

Edited April 4, 2023 by AstroMuni

[engstrom]

On 14/03/2023 at 23:56, Rallemikken said:

Got it running on a Pi3 B+ in a breeze. Flashed the image, tuned the repo's and installed KStars and a handfull of INDI drivers. No 'dist-upgrade' yet, but a number of files had to be upgraded in order to accept the latest KStars. Seems stable, but slow, as expected. No problems, other than the usual ones. That is, I run Canon DSLR's, and it's a well known secret that you have to remove the memory card in order to get them connected......  My own 'Astroberry', so to speak.

I've tried Astroberry this weekend on a 450d and EOS M and had no end of trouble.

The EOS M I haven't had any real success with. I finally got Kstars to recognise it but I can't capture from it. The 450d was going the same way but I've managed to get some captures but it needs things to go in a certain order and (subject to more testing) flipping back between various settings to get the camera to save images on the card and also get them downloaded to the Pi.

I saw your comment about having to remove the SD card before connecting. I haven't tried that but I did eventually manage to get the 450d connected and recognised with the sd card in. 

Do you find generally Kstars on a Pi using Canon cameras to be a MASSIVE P.I.T.A. or is it just me?

[Rallemikken]

16 hours ago, engstrom said:

Do you find generally Kstars on a Pi using Canon cameras to be a MASSIVE P.I.T.A. or is it just me?

Not at all. Captured 140 frames, each 180sec on my Canon 600D last night. HEQ5 mount guided by a ASI120M in the finderscope of my 200PDS reflector. Smooth as silk. A RPi4 with 8gb ram and full desktop. Latest 64-bit Raspberry Pi OS. KStars and Ekos from the repo's. In order to get access to the ASI-driver, you have to engage the "contrib" and/or the "non-free" repo's.  Started with a trip to Capella. Capture-and-solve, check focus, then I pointed to LBN 647. New capture-and-solve, start guiding, and off I went. Started a run for 200 images, but clouds rolled in at 3 o'clock. Guiding was exellent, this target is very high above me.

I boot and run my Pi4 from a 250gb USB SSD with a seperate /home-partition. I run XFCE desktop with X11 display server. I have all the index-files I need for platesolving in my home directory on the SSD. With working wifi the Pi automatically picks up right day and time on boot. When I shut down and pull the roof back over my obsy, I just unplug the SSD and take it with me inside.

The Pi4 replaced a HP EliteDesk 800 this winter, mainly to be able to start up even if temperatures are well below zero. No moving parts. It's overclocked to 2200 and I keep an eye on things from my living room over the inbuildt VNC-server on the Pi. Works very well, but with 3 USB-ports taken by the rig and one for keyboard/mouse I need a hub in order to boot over SSD. I also need a port for an exteded USB-cable with a wifi-dongle outside the wall to get decent signal. I plug both cameras (and SSD) directly to the Pi and the EQMOD-usb, wifi and keyboard into the hub. Sometimes I open Stellarium or  browse the web while capturing, but things can get sluggish. Have seen this affect guiding, I don't think the inner "data highway" on the Pi is as wide as on the HP. Best to let it do it's things in peace.

PS: I also capture with a 450D (two in fact) and a 5D MkII. No problems.

Edited January 15 by Rallemikken
PS

[AstroKeith]

Just to chip in on merits of 64bit.

I've found on a Pi4b, there is very little difference when running the 64bit OS. Any advantages may be offset by the risk of breaking a working system (if you have one!) Bookworm made some significant changes to the way UARTS and GPIOs are handled and these could cause snafus.

However, the Pi5 running Bookworm 64bit OS is x3 faster on most tasks, and more on some.

[engstrom]

3 hours ago, Rallemikken said:

Not at all. Captured 140 frames, each 180sec on my Canon 600D last night. HEQ5 mount guided by a ASI120M in the finderscope of my 200PDS reflector. Smooth as silk. A RPi4 with 8gb ram and full desktop. Latest 64-bit Raspberry Pi OS. KStars and Ekos from the repo's. In order to get access to the ASI-driver, you have to engage the "contrib" and/or the "non-free" repo's.  Started with a trip to Capella. Capture-and-solve, check focus, then I pointed to LBN 647. New capture-and-solve, start guiding, and off I went. Started a run for 200 images, but clouds rolled in at 3 o'clock. Guiding was exellent, this target is very high above me.

I boot and run my Pi4 from a 250gb USB SSD with a seperate /home-partition. I run XFCE desktop with X11 display server. I have all the index-files I need for platesolving in my home directory on the SSD. With working wifi the Pi automatically picks up right day and time on boot. When I shut down and pull the roof back over my obsy, I just unplug the SSD and take it with me inside.

The Pi4 replaced a HP EliteDesk 800 this winter, mainly to be able to start up even if temperatures are well below zero. No moving parts. It's overclocked to 2200 and I keep an eye on things from my living room over the inbuildt VNC-server on the Pi. Works very well, but with 3 USB-ports taken by the rig and one for keyboard/mouse I need a hub in order to boot over SSD. I also need a port for an exteded USB-cable with a wifi-dongle outside the wall to get decent signal. I plug both cameras (and SSD) directly to the Pi and the EQMOD-usb, wifi and keyboard into the hub. Sometimes I open Stellarium or  browse the web while capturing, but things can get sluggish. Have seen this affect guiding, I don't think the inner "data highway" on the Pi is as wide as on the HP. Best to let it do it's things in peace.

PS: I also capture with a 450D (two in fact) and a 5D MkII. No problems.

Good for you. It must be something about the way I’m setting it up. I tried Kstars on my MacBook and on a Rpi 4b under Astroberry and they’re just not having it. After a while and much jiggery pokery they both “know” a canon camera is attached but think not mounted properly. The 450 I eventually got working for a while and the preview captures did all sorts of weird things. At one point the app was triggering a capture but it wasn’t even saving on the DS card. 
I tried Indigo and the 450 worked pretty much off the bat but…the Eos M makes it crash every time lol.

[Rallemikken]

59 minutes ago, engstrom said:

I tried Kstars on my MacBook and on a Rpi 4b under Astroberry and they’re just not having it.

First I'd install the intended RaspberryPiOS on the Rpi4b (same as mine) and take it from there. You'll find all you need in the repo's. Then I'd take a closer look at the setup. The cables, quality of the cables themselves, any keyboard/mouse wireless dongle that may interfer, any wifi-dongle plugged straight in, and so on. One thing I know for sure, some of the Macbooks loose wifi if you hang on a wireless mouse. Weird. I always plug dongles like that into an extension cable, and get it out of the way. And the powersupply to the camera is VERY IMPORTANT. I had a problem with disconnects on my 5D MkII, and it turned out to be my 220V battery power adapter. Switched to a USB-type, no  problems at all, and now I can also use the fullframe on my StarTracker!

PS: Just finished the image from yesterday: http://www.agle.no/astro/vis_enkeltbilde.php?indeksnummer=109

Not state-of-the-art, but it never climbed over 25 degrees.

Edited January 15 by Rallemikken

[dph1nm]

My 1000D works fine with the indi gphoto_ccd driver. It never played well with the specific canon_ccd driver though (messed up the pi usb ports)

NigelM