Rasberry PI thats suitable

[Astroblagger]

Hello can anyone reccomend a rasberry pi suitable for a remote set up. the prices seem to vary quite wildly. i don't know a great deal about them, why don't they come in a surround box? 

take it you buy one separately.

[Stuart1971]

So, I assume you are goi f to be using the superb Stellarmate or Astroberry imaging software, in which case you really need the Raspberry PI4 and 8gb RAM, you can then either use a large SD card in the PI, or attach  an external SSD drive for even more speed, I used to run my set up this way, not a remote set up, it was in my back garden but all was run from the PI and I just used VNC to log onto the PI and control everything from my PC indoors, all wirelessly or in your case over an internet connection….and then you will need a good case for it, preferably a metal one with good cooling features….

HTH

Edited July 11, 2023 by Stuart1971

[Elp]

They don't come with a case by default as they've always been marketed and sold as a customisable micro computer capable of a wide range of applications, so they're sold as the main board only usually. Cases are easy to find and relatively cheap, I got a plastic one with a built in fan for cooling the main board, I think a plastic one might be better if WiFi range is a requirement, the second generation zwo asiair which is based on rpi hardware used a metal case and that killed the WiFi range. If you happen to have zwo kit, the newer asiair mini or plus (I'd recommend the mini) is a better easier option. Alternatively get a windows based mini pc for a lot more flexibility with hardware compatibility and features.

[Astroblagger]

thanks for the advice, im just looking at solutions to get out the cold as much as possible, i would only be 5-6 meters away from the mount in my kitchen would a plastic one be ok for this distance.  will the micro SD card be no good? do they sell them with large SD cards? 

Edited July 11, 2023 by Astroblagger

[Elp]

5-6M may be at its limit. What you can do is tie it to your home WiFi router (which has longer range) and this usually mitigates the range issue. Indoor signal has a lot to with the house construction, with my air looking out of the kitchen window it transfers generally okay, as soon as I put the phone onto the kitchen worktop (so direct line of sight now has to go through two layers of brick) it struggles but sometimes recovers. A lot also has to do with your local WiFi network traffic. Micro SD on an rpi or even the older asiairs works fine, never had a problem. Older airs I've got a feeling you're limited to 32Gb cards, with the rpi I have a 64Gb which allows you to download and install all the astap databases for offline plate solving.

Edited July 11, 2023 by Elp

[Stuart1971]

2 hours ago, Astroblagger said:

thanks for the advice, im just looking at solutions to get out the cold as much as possible, i would only be 5-6 meters away from the mount in my kitchen would a plastic one be ok for this distance.  will the micro SD card be no good? do they sell them with large SD cards? 

Yes it will be fine with a plastic one, as it generates heat anyway…

And yes you can use the micro SD card, no worries, but I would consider a mini PC instead as the price is not much different and it’s far superior, especially with the free NINA software…

[Grant Fribbens]

I love my Raspberry PI's and I have them setup running Home Assistant doing my home automation, 3d printers using Octoprint and really wanted it to do my Astro automation but even a RPI4 8GB with SSD I tried Astroberry, Stellarmate and IndigoSky and each one had strange quirks but my biggest issue was that I ended up in losing imaging time. I use Linux all the time in may daily job and was very shocked when I came up against these issues. I caved in and have an Intel I5 based W10 mini PC on one rig and on the other rig I have a Beelink U59 W11 and they are loaded up with everything I need (NINA, APT, ASTAP, Sharpcap, ASCOM, PHD2, Firecapture, Astrosurface, Stellarium, Sky Chart) and most important is I find them much more reliable. My RPI 2 W powered AllSky camera with https://github.com/thomasjacquin/allsky works really well and just have to power it up and it just works unlike any attempts I have tried with indi or indigo.

Edited July 11, 2023 by Grant Fribbens

[Rallemikken]

10 hours ago, Astroblagger said:

i would only be 5-6 meters away from the mount in my kitchen

Pick any Pi with an ethernet connection, and install INDI-servers ONLY! Find an old laptop and install Linux/KStars/Ekos and hook up to the Pi with an ethernet cable trough the window. You manage the rig from your kitchen, and the images goes straight on to the laptop. You can review them as they come in, and make corrections if needed.

[AstroMuni]

17 hours ago, Astroblagger said:

Hello can anyone reccomend a rasberry pi suitable for a remote set up.

Others have given details above, so just adding to it. If you do decide on going down the RPi route, try out Kstars/Ekos and see if you like it. Great piece of software but like all good s/w there is a learning curve. Also Astroberry seems to be a dead duck at the moment, so suggest you try out either Stellarmate or AstroArch instead.

[Rallemikken]

1 hour ago, AstroMuni said:

Astroberry seems to be a dead duck at the moment

Maybe, but their repo is up and running. They have binaries for all drivers, less then one year old, for 32 and 64-bit arm for Buster and Bullseye. For a pure INDI-server I would flash a lite (headless) Raspberry Pi OS onto a card, boot, and add the corresponding Astroberry repo. It is explained on their site. My choice would be the armhf (32-bit) version based on Buster. A small learning curve, if you let your Pi go via a router you can skip much of the network stuff. On the other end of the ethernetcable you can run anything with KStars. You don't need the drivers on this device, just the KStars/Ekos suite and the basic free and open-source indi framework.

[vlaiv]

On 12/07/2023 at 06:43, Rallemikken said:

Pick any Pi with an ethernet connection, and install INDI-servers ONLY! Find an old laptop and install Linux/KStars/Ekos and hook up to the Pi with an ethernet cable trough the window. You manage the rig from your kitchen, and the images goes straight on to the laptop. You can review them as they come in, and make corrections if needed.

Maybe even use ethernet-over-powerline adapters instead of running ethernet cable through the window?

This is of course if house has power outlet on the outside.

Mind you, I've found that circuit breaker board kills of the signal, so if you have several different "sub grids" in your house - make sure you use one where outside outlet is attached to (I have 3 different "zones" in my house - first floor, top floor and basement and can't bridge between them with powerline adapters).

[AstroMuni]

On 12/07/2023 at 13:48, Rallemikken said:

On the other end of the ethernetcable you can run anything with KStars. You don't need the drivers on this device, just the KStars/Ekos suite and the basic free and open-source indi framework.

Good point. I was making the assumption that OP would like to run everything off the RPi and was trying to highlight that the Astroberry repo doesnt have the newer versions of Kstars.

Edited July 14, 2023 by AstroMuni