Mini pc

[Maverik359]

Hi everyone,  I'm obviously still learning and need your advice, I'm looking to buy a mini pc to remotely control my equipment from inside my house. I need a mini pc that has at least 5 or 6 usb,s sockets. I need some advice which is a good one to buy. Ideally I'd like to potentially have it mounted on the tube if thats possible of course. The equipment I need to control is a skywatcher explorer eq5, Zwoasi662 camera, Zwo focuser,  Ipotron ipolar and a yet to buy a guide scope of some sort. My budget is around £300. I'd really appreciate any advice. 

[TiffsAndAstro]

if you have an old windows laptop, id suggest using that initially to test the water (as i currently do)  and get an idea of how it all works together. after that you can look at attaching a mini pc to yourscope as youll have a better idea of what you need.

i haven't seen any mini pcs with more than 3 usb ports though. usually 1x usb3 and 2xusb2

im very new to this hobby though so bare that in mind

[LaurenceT]

I have an el cheapo basic Beelink that I only use for lunar and planetary with Sharpcap and that has 4 usb3 sockets. I suppose you could always stick a powered hub into one of those ports. As you seem into ZWO hardware have you considered getting an Asiair?

[Xilman]

Or an old Linux laptop for that matter.

Seconded observation about number of USB ports. A USB hub, preferably powered, is likely to be essential.

[Richard_]

There are lots of different choices for a mini-pc but the two brands which come to mind are Beelink and Mele. I've personally used two different Beelinks (U59 and SER5) which I had mounted to my telescope and worked great. These Beelink mini-pc's do have fans, so I decided to move it off the telescope and onto the tripod leg to avoid any potential vibrations. 

The Mele mini-pc's on the other hand (such as the Mele quieter) are fanless so you should be able to mount them on the telescope without worrying about vibrations. 

So long as the equipment have valid ASCOM drivers then any windows pc should be able to run them. 

Patriot Astro on YouTube has some excellent videos explaining how to choose a mini-pc and how to set it up (eg downloading the necessary software and drivers, see the playlist below with these useful videos:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvMGHP27Lbqf_DkFkR_0Dy-vTBK7FTxfh

Edited June 18 by Richard_
Specified that Beelink mini-pc's have fans

[Stuart1971]

I use both the Mele and Beelink ATM, i have  a Beelink GTR5 Ryzen 9 as my main PC in the house, and a Mele 4C Overclock on my scope pier, and both have been flawless…

Edited June 18 by Stuart1971

[TiffsAndAstro]

my plan is one day for a mele with the powered usb i already have plugged in. for now my expert wiring via the usb hub and then into my laptop is doing ok.

chrome remote desktop seems ideal for this too. have it on my phone and my desktop to connect the my laptop. 

[Maverik359]

1 hour ago, TiffsAndAstro said:

if you have an old windows laptop, id suggest using that initially to test the water (as i currently do)  and get an idea of how it all works together. after that you can look at attaching a mini pc to yourscope as youll have a better idea of what you need.

i haven't seen any mini pcs with more than 3 usb ports though. usually 1x usb3 and 2xusb2

im very new to this hobby though so bare that in mind

I'm already using a laptop, but I'd like to have less wires trailing everywhere. 

[Elp]

33 minutes ago, Maverik359 said:

I'd like to have less wires trailing everywhere. 

The easiest way to resolve this is to have a need for less cables in the first place.

I'm guessing the 5-6 usb ports are for,

1 off mount, 1 off camera, 1 off autofocuser, 1 off ipolar. Maybe one dew heater.

With the computer controller you'll immediately remove the need for the ipolar by using NINA, APT or equivalent. A cooled camera is likely to have one or two usb sockets built in so again one less usb port. With the computer controller mounted onto the OTA using very short USB cables you'll keep the majority of the cabling close to the OTA.

I personally went the asiair route as I didn't have much existing equipment at the time to cater for.

[TiffsAndAstro]

1 hour ago, Maverik359 said:

I'm already using a laptop, but I'd like to have less wires trailing everywhere. 

Me too

[TiffsAndAstro]

26 minutes ago, Elp said:

The easiest way to resolve this is to have a need for less cables in the first place.

I'm guessing the 5-6 usb ports are for,

1 off mount, 1 off camera, 1 off autofocuser, 1 off ipolar. Maybe one dew heater.

With the computer controller you'll immediately remove the need for the ipolar by using NINA, APT or equivalent. A cooled camera is likely to have one or two usb sockets built in so again one less usb port. With the computer controller mounted onto the OTA using very short USB cables you'll keep the majority of the cabling close to the OTA.

I personally went the asiair route as I didn't have much existing equipment at the time to cater for.

Asiair is very very tempting, but zwo lockin on cameras is a bit ick.

Also I've married Nina and she'd be upset with such a fast divorce

Raspberry pi and astroberry also an option but I haven't used Linux in years. And still no Nina.

[Xilman]

2 hours ago, Xilman said:

Or an old Linux laptop for that matter.

Seconded observation about number of USB ports. A USB hub, preferably powered, is likely to be essential.

As an example, a Raspberry Pi 4 is easily capable of controlling an entire observatory and the latest Pi-5 is even more powerful. Each of these systems cost much less than their Windows equivalent hardware and the software is almost always literally priceless.

Work started here today on a ROR observatory to house a 25cm Meade Schmidt-Newtonian. It's not a very good scope but it seems a shame not to use it. The roof, mount, camera, focuser and filter wheel will all be controlled by a single Odroid computer. The Odroid is very similar in size and power (computation and electricity consumption) to a Pi-4 and is being used because I happen to own one.

Paul

[Budgie1]

47 minutes ago, TiffsAndAstro said:

Asiair is very very tempting, but zwo lockin on cameras is a bit ick.

Also I've married Nina and she'd be upset with such a fast divorce

Raspberry pi and astroberry also an option but I haven't used Linux in years. And still no Nina.

I also use a laptop and have the Pegasus Pocket Power Box Advance (PPBA) attached to the mount. All my USB cables connect into the PPBA, with one USB3 cable running from the PPBA to the laptop.

The PPBA has a 12v 10amp PSU going to it and this powers the mount, camera (ASI294MC Pro or ASI1600MM Pro) and two dew heater bands. This leaves two spare power outlets, one of which has adjustable voltage for powering a DSLR. 

They're not cheap, but they are good and are an alternative if you want to use a laptop.  

[TiffsAndAstro]

38 minutes ago, Budgie1 said:

I also use a laptop and have the Pegasus Pocket Power Box Advance (PPBA) attached to the mount. All my USB cables connect into the PPBA, with one USB3 cable running from the PPBA to the laptop.

The PPBA has a 12v 10amp PSU going to it and this powers the mount, camera (ASI294MC Pro or ASI1600MM Pro) and two dew heater bands. This leaves two spare power outlets, one of which has adjustable voltage for powering a DSLR. 

They're not cheap, but they are good and are an alternative if you want to use a laptop.  

been looking at them and they are  really tempting too.

also would give me another colour for my "Josepth and his technicolour dreamcoat" telescope setup goal 

Edited June 18 by TiffsAndAstro

[Elp]

2 hours ago, TiffsAndAstro said:

Raspberry pi and astroberry

This was my first venture, it worked okay but I had to take my laptop outside to use it. Having all sorts of software to control the imaging was a bit of a faff (well you only use phd2 and kstars/ekos for DSO), the rpi4 as it doesn't have an internal battery you'd also always have to sudo command the date and time, think that's been addressed on the 5. With the asiair you open the app and everything you need is at your fingertips, you don't have to think much about it, you don't really even need to see a tutorial to know how to use it as the UI is so well laid out.

Ultimately being able to control the whole setup with a computer you generally carry around you at all times (your phone) within one piece of software which is responsive was extremely hard to beat.

I believe Stellarmate will also offer a similar experience as it also has a mobile app.

[TiffsAndAstro]

As a non zwo camera might be turning up in the next 5-11 days, asi air is out. Wouldn't shock me if there's a firmware hack or something though.

[Stuart1971]

1 hour ago, Elp said:

This was my first venture, it worked okay but I had to take my laptop outside to use it. Having all sorts of software to control the imaging was a bit of a faff (well you only use phd2 and kstars/ekos for DSO), the rpi4 as it doesn't have an internal battery you'd also always have to sudo command the date and time, think that's been addressed on the 5. With the asiair you open the app and everything you need is at your fingertips, you don't have to think much about it, you don't really even need to see a tutorial to know how to use it as the UI is so well laid out.

Ultimately being able to control the whole setup with a computer you generally carry around you at all times (your phone) within one piece of software which is responsive was extremely hard to beat.

I believe Stellarmate will also offer a similar experience as it also has a mobile app.

I used a RPI4 for quite some time, and had it mounted on my scope, and ran it from indoors, sometimes by Remote Desktop into the RPI, and ran all software from the RPI, and sometimes I just used it as an INDI server and ran Kstars in my windows machine indoors, connecting wirelessly to the RPI server on the mount, it worked very well, both ways, as long as you used an external USB  Wi-Fi adapter for the PI, as the internal wifi was pretty poor…

[Elp]

6 minutes ago, Stuart1971 said:

Remote Desktop into the RPI

Did you get input lag? It did when I used my phone or laptop via VNC and a web browser, I found it unusable like this, it was a bit more bearable via the laptop though.

Edited June 18 by Elp

[TiffsAndAstro]

37 minutes ago, Elp said:

Did you get input lag? It did when I used my phone or laptop via VNC and a web browser, I found it unusable like this, it was a bit more bearable via the laptop though.

Occasionally but my Virgin media router is 🐕 💩 

It's not like I'm gaming on it

[Elp]

34 minutes ago, TiffsAndAstro said:

Occasionally but my Virgin media router is 🐕 💩 

It's not like I'm gaming on it

The router is a bit of a third rate isn't it.

For this astroberry application however no router was involved, the controlling device was connected directly to the WiFi of the rpi, major input lag when VNCing, but I think virtual does this regardless.

Edited June 18 by Elp

[TiffsAndAstro]

51 minutes ago, Elp said:

The router is a bit of a third rate isn't it.

For this astroberry application however no router was involved, the controlling device was connected directly to the WiFi of the rpi, major input lag when VNCing, but I think virtual does this regardless.

If I get regular major lag via WiFi and a future mini pc on my scope I'll try a WiFi dongle.

Failing that, just one more wire for ethernet would do.

[Stuart1971]

3 hours ago, Elp said:

Did you get input lag? It did when I used my phone or laptop via VNC and a web browser, I found it unusable like this, it was a bit more bearable via the laptop though.

Neve noticed any but took a while to dial the settings in, but besides that issue is moot if you just use the RPI as an Indi driver server for all the kit, and run Kstars from windows on the PC, no VNC involved at all…I actually preferred to run it that way…it was simple..

[TiffsAndAstro]

On 18/06/2024 at 21:41, Stuart1971 said:

Neve noticed any but took a while to dial the settings in, but besides that issue is moot if you just use the RPI as an Indi driver server for all the kit, and run Kstars from windows on the PC, no VNC involved at all…I actually preferred to run it that way…it was simple..

My current thinking is an intel nuc. £60 used off eBay hopefully.