KStars/Ekos on Raspberry Pi 4 mod B

[Vroobel]

1 minute ago, engstrom said:

I have all of them downloaded on an external usb hdd attached the pi. I am running all the devices from a powered hub and I’m within a few metres of my router (although I might try a powerline adapter to improve the downloads for online solving)

I used nearly the seme: WiFi extender behind a kitchen window, all index files downloaded, all plate solve settings according to YT tutorials but the PA continuously failed. I had to use SharpCap to do it. It was very annoying. 

[wimvb]

7 hours ago, engstrom said:

I have all of them downloaded on an external usb hdd attached the pi. I am running all the devices from a powered hub and I’m within a few metres of my router (although I might try a powerline adapter to improve the downloads for online solving)

I run Ekos (StellarMate) off a 64 GB micro SD card which holds everything I need. For my 1 m fl scope and ASI294, I have all the index files down to 5.6 arc minutes (fov 66 x 45 arc minutes). Using the internal solver and off the micro SD card, plate solving is reliable and fast, the fist solve usually within a second or two, and next solves take about a second or less. But I do need to clear the mount model (in the mount tab of Ekos) about twice per imaging season. The last time I had poor solving performance, was when I used the ASI 174MM as imaging camera. This camera has a much smaller sensor (and larger pixels), giving a fov close to 0.5 degrees. I believe that fov does matter for the plate solving performance, especially when doing polar alignment.

Btw, powered (USB) hubs can be a problem. People who use them seem to prefer industry grade hubs, and not ordinary home/office hubs.

[engstrom]

Update on my efforts. 
I bought a 256gb sd card and installed astroarch rather than astroberry. It seems much more stable and the plate solving worked pretty flawlessly. This in turn helped with the PA. I think I’m now in a good place to do some serious attempts at imaging and maybe adding some guiding in (if needed when I try longer exposures).