Pi server on Indigo sky

[Bottletopburly]

Birthday coming up so mrsB is buying me the parts for a pi server running indigo sky , APT  can run on indigo via a server , that’s the idea anyway, just as I was ordering the pi4 4gb was released so managed to get hold of one , stocks are low and not expected to replenish until September, I can’t find a case yet but I’m sure that will be rectified shortly and need a SD  card will update this thread as I go along .

may need to wait for indigo to update to run on pi4

 

Edited June 26, 2019 by Bottletopburly

[Daz Type-R]

Nice one, I have a number of 3B+ Pi’s, love em!

[Bottletopburly]

16 minutes ago, Daz Type-R said:

Nice one, I have a number of 3B+ Pi’s, love em!

I may need to pick your brain then at some point Daz  ? rumen from indigo has confirmed he has updated indigo to run on pi4 , happens he is also a good friend of Ivo from APT ? 

 

http://www.indigo-astronomy.org/

Edited June 26, 2019 by Bottletopburly

[Daz Type-R]

Nice 1.

 

If you have never delved into the world of Pi before can I suggest you get an Micro SD card pre loaded with NOOBS (new out of box software).  It’s a doddle to set up using NOOBS but you could also dive in the deep end and setup from scratch, doing all the config and downloads by hand.

 

When downloading the O/S make sure you get BUSTER, that’s the latest O/S written for the Pi 4 (my 3B+ Pi’s are running “STRETCH”).

 

You will also need to make sure the software you intend to use can run on BUSTER.  It does sound like that is the case though.

 

Dont scrimp on cheap power cables, the Pi are very power sensitive, and as an absolute minimum, get a 32GB micro SD card, 64 up would probably be better, I have no idea what size requirements your software has.

Edited June 26, 2019 by Daz Type-R

[Bottletopburly]

7 hours ago, Daz Type-R said:

Nice 1.

 

If you have never delved into the world of Pi before can I suggest you get an Micro SD card pre loaded with NOOBS (new out of box software).  It’s a doddle to set up using NOOBS but you could also dive in the deep end and setup from scratch, doing all the config and downloads by hand.

 

When downloading the O/S make sure you get BUSTER, that’s the latest O/S written for the Pi 4 (my 3B+ Pi’s are running “STRETCH”).

 

You will also need to make sure the software you intend to use can run on BUSTER.  It does sound like that is the case though.

 

Dont scrimp on cheap power cables, the Pi are very power sensitive, and as an absolute minimum, get a 32GB micro SD card, 64 up would probably be better, I have no idea what size requirements your software has.

Thanks Daz , yes I was going to get one with noobs pre installed , with indigo sky not  not 100per cent need to re read but you just copy to SD card it’s all pre configured , here is instructions from APT thread on indigo 

http://www.indigo-astronomy.org/indigo-sky.htmland follow the steps to prepare a SD card and configure the access to the device via the network. I would suggest to start with wire LAN connection. The usual LAN configuration will make the RPi visible under the name "indigosky". If you have ZWO Air or StellarMate you can flash the image in new SD card and give a try without worries that it will hurt your existing features  If you want to try how your ZWO Air or StellarMate works with APT skip this step. For INDIGO (at least) on connection time APT will set the RPi time so there is no need to take care for that.

2. Goto Tools Tab->INDIGO / INDI, enter the IP address or the network name i.e. "indigosky". The default port should be good with 7624. Click on "Connect" and look in the Log panel if connection is made. If everything is OK you can select "Enable INDOGO/INDI" if you want that connection to be made on every APT start. Once you see that connection is "ready to use" you can continue.

3. Here you need Google Chrome (or Chromium) installed. Click on "Navigate Server" to open the web interface of the INDIGO/INDI server. Sorry but Microsoft browsers are not compatible  Click on the first icon in top right - "Server Manager". There you can define what drivers you want to use. Click on the device type and select your devices brand.  

4. Connect your devices to the RPi USB ports. Click on the second icon - "Control Panel" and see if you see lines per every device you have connected to RPI.

5. To connect camera use Shift + Click on the Connect select "CCD: INDIGO/INDI Camera" and OK. You will see the brand new device selector with all the available cameras.

6. To connect mount, focuser, filter wheel use Shift + Click on the Connect button. With active connection to INDIGO / INDI server you will be asked what connection do you want to use ASCOM or the new one ( yes, you can mix them ? ) Later you will be forwarded to the corresponding driver selection.

7. That's all! After the previous point you should not see any difference and you can use APT as you have used to   In PHD2 you can connect to the same server and guide. APT will make dithering, synchronizing multiple cameras and etc.

Pssst. I can tell you a secret! The INDIGO team is working on very interesting feature related to guiding, but let give them some space to work in comfort Just wanted to let you know that another good news are just around the corner  
 

[Bottletopburly]

@Daz Type-R can you help ,so i have a 32gb sd card with noobs pre installed downloaded indigo sky img unzipped into a folder ,its all gobblledygook to me how can i get the image to the sd card it comes up with various drives on the card ,recovery E ,usb drive F,boot G ,usb drive H,  do i need Etcher for windows ?  can /could you guide me through what i need to do. 

[Bottletopburly]

5 hours ago, Bottletopburly said:

@Daz Type-R can you help ,so i have a 32gb sd card with noobs pre installed downloaded indigo sky img unzipped into a folder ,its all gobblledygook to me how can i get the image to the sd card it comes up with various drives on the card ,recovery E ,usb drive F,boot G ,usb drive H,  do i need Etcher for windows ?  can /could you guide me through what i need to do. 

tried etcher said failed ,think i am going around this the wrong way 

[Daz Type-R]

I use Win32 disk imager, have downloaded etcher but never used it. With regards to the drive, it does not matter, Linux file structures are not recognised by windows, it sees some of the partitions but that will be about it. When imaging a file from your pc to the micro sd card (or the other way around) it does not matter what drive you pick, so I normally just go for boot.

 

One thing though, you say noobs is installed on the sd card, have you ran that and installed your choice of o/s?

 

If so, if you are trying to image the Astro software onto the sd card, it will overwrite what is on the sd card.

 

Im guessing you need Rsspbian (any flavour, stretch or the new one, buster) as the base o/s, and then you need the program (indigo sky) to run on the o/s?

 

If that is the case then you can’t image it, for reasons stated above.

 

The indigo install files should say where it needs to be installed, so you may need WIN SCP / Putty (an SSH program) to get onto the Pi from a windows machine and copy the files across that way.

 

Or does the image of Indigo Sky that you have come as the complete package, so the Astro software sat on top of the o/s?

[Bottletopburly]

I just need to copy the img file to SD card  , now I did see putty mentioned some where now  you said that , I will have another read and get back . 

[Bottletopburly]

@Daz Type-R  progress made  re ran Etcher  after yesterday’s fail flashing and success indigo img file flashed to SD card , now on to next step .

[Daz Type-R]

@Bottletopburly well done, I’m guessing then the image of the Astro software also contains the base o/s.

 

Good luck with the rest of it, keep us updated.

[Bottletopburly]

1 hour ago, Daz Type-R said:

@Bottletopburly well done, I’m guessing then the image of the Astro software also contains the base o/s.

 

Good luck with the rest of it, keep us updated.

Yes apparently you don’t need noobs as indigosky is all that is needed, instructions probably ok if your more technical, they should make it simpler for dummies like me , anyway I hooked up to tv so I could see if pi booted , it does can access from pc and iPhone, just need the casing and to configure for hardware, but progress seems to be heading in the right direction.

[Bottletopburly]

 

Size comparison 

[Bottletopburly]

Case has turned up , indigosky running , power cable coming just need to hook everything up one by one and test 

 

[Daz Type-R]

Ahh I see you opted for the proper case, I always go third party, mainly because I’m over clocking my Pi 3B+ as its running everything from Atari 8 bit Roms upto Playstation 1 games so I need more cooling options.

 

This is my retro gaming rig, 60,000 games on just about every console made running off a 256GB micro SD card, it also has heat sinks on every chip and a 5V fan over the main GPU running off the 5V GPIO pins...

 

 

 

[Bottletopburly]

2 hours ago, Daz Type-R said:

Ahh I see you opted for the proper case, I always go third party, mainly because I’m over clocking my Pi 3B+ as its running everything from Atari 8 bit Roms upto Playstation 1 games so I need more cooling options.

 

This is my retro gaming rig, 60,000 games on just about every console made running off a 256GB micro SD card, it also has heat sinks on every chip and a 5V fan over the main GPU running off the 5V GPIO pins...

 

 

 

I did think about 3rd party , I’m  was unsure About moisture getting in at the top, may get a fan yet if I need to change case then it’s not a big job I did read pi4 runs hot  so may need some sort of cooling  , I got a Y cable today to power from my power bank , nice gaming rig btw ?

 

[Bottletopburly]

Quick test last night hooked mount and deepskydad focuser successful communication this was only via the server and not through APT , which is how I will be using , had a problem with park in that it continued to slew and had to stop and manually repack , I have asked a question regarding parking to developers so will see what comes back .next step to check through APT , and await DSLR drivers which I don’t think will be too long .

[Bottletopburly]

Update: parking issue is known about and has been rectified some sort of Eqmod synscan driver issue  but not  released yet, assume next update will resolve that . 

Edited July 18, 2019 by Bottletopburly

[Bottletopburly]

Fan ordered for Pi4 https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/fan-shim?variant=29210095812691&currency=GBP&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=google+shopping&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI6oqE8MHD4wIVirHtCh3_wA4WEAQYASABEgKWG_D_BwE

[Bottletopburly]

Update apparently there is a DSLRs driver , it’s called ccd gpoto2 I wasn’t aware of this .

[Bottletopburly]

Now managed to connect to pi server through APT , though did have a problem at first but needed to input router IP address into apt settings rather than using default indigosky address, now connects though tried canon 1000d , says connecting and counts down when shoot pressed but camera not actually responding so will wait and see if I’m doing something wrong ,awaiting a response from developers .

 

shim fan added to pi to keep processor cooler apparently it’s supposed to be very good at cooling processor 

so now just a matter of getting all hardware working be a couple of weeks before I get time to check .

[Bottletopburly]

On 24/07/2019 at 10:41, Bottletopburly said:

Update apparently there is a DSLRs driver , it’s called ccd gpoto2 I wasn’t aware of this .

No this driver doesn’t cover dslr as far as I can see tried it , but there seems to be an imminent update from what I have just read so hopefully writhing next two weeks it will be released, APT  should have dslr support by version 3.90 so this project will be on the back burner for a while .