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Meade LPI-G (monochrome) support?

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Meade LPI-G (monochrome) support? was created by Bryce

Hi,
I'm a new user of indilib/kstars/ekos. I am trying to get my computer set up to capture the solar eclipse via the monochrome Meade LPI-G as the eyepiece of my Coronado SolarMax telescope. As long as I boot into Windows and use the supplied software, everything is fine. I want a way to perform the image capture under linux if possible, preferably a way that would also work on a Pi or Odroid as well as my laptop.

The only advice I found on the web was a thread from 2005 which no longer appears to be relevant. It says to use the video for linux drivers as the LPI is a rebranded webcam and is automatically recognized by the kernel. This approach may still be valid, but at the very least the product and vendor ids are different than what they listed 12 years ago.

My status:

When I plug in the device to my USB port, the little red light starts blinking. dmesg says:
[54599.628947] usb 3-1: new high-speed USB device number 3 using xhci_hcd
[54600.087395] usb 3-1: New USB device found, idVendor=0549, idProduct=e004
[54600.087402] usb 3-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[54600.087405] usb 3-1: Product: USB2.0 Camera
[54600.087408] usb 3-1: Manufacturer: TT

lsusb does not list the device (output is identical before and after I plug it in).

I'm running Linux Mint 18.1, and installed indilib and kstars out of your ubuntu repository. Uname -a says:
Linux spiffster 4.4.0-77-generic #98-Ubuntu SMP Wed Apr 26 08:34:02 UTC 2017 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Does anyone know what the current Meade LPI-G is (rebranded webcam? special device?) and how I can make the computer recognize it?
6 years 9 months ago #18103

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Replied by Jasem Mutlaq on topic Meade LPI-G (monochrome) support?

Try using INDI V4L2 CCD driver with it and see if that works.
6 years 9 months ago #18105

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Replied by Bryce on topic Meade LPI-G (monochrome) support?

Thanks for your quick response!

The V4L2 CCD driver picks up the laptop's integrated webcam, but not the LPI-G. There's only a /dev/video0 in the devices directory (also the webcam) and "lsusb" does not show the LPI-G's presence at all. The only indication I have that it's connected and communicating is the "dmesg" snippet I quoted above...
6 years 9 months ago #18107

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Replied by Jasem Mutlaq on topic Meade LPI-G (monochrome) support?

Then it's not supported. Sorry about that. Find out if you can control it from any other Linux app. If not, then ask manufacturer for SDK to access camera or provide INDI driver for it.
6 years 9 months ago #18108

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Replied by Bryce on topic Meade LPI-G (monochrome) support?

Ok then. I sent a request to Meade and am awaiting the results. Thanks again.
6 years 9 months ago #18110

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Replied by Jean-Luc on topic Meade LPI-G (monochrome) support?

Hi,
You may try to declare these new ids to the uvcvideo kernel module using
modprobe uvcvideo # load the kernel module if it is not yet there
echo  0549 e004> /sys/bus/usb/drivers/usb/uvcvideo/new_id
# plug the camera
That works for me with a em28xx video grabber.
Maybe this is not an uvc camera so try other modules (gspca maybe).
Look in /lib/modules/VERSION/kernel/drivers/media/usb/ with VERSION being your running kernel version, you 'll find the list of your usb modules.
6 years 9 months ago #18112

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Replied by Bryce on topic Meade LPI-G (monochrome) support?

So Meade says the only software they have for it is Windows based, and that it is ASCOM compliant. I can't tell whether they're talking about their drivers or the hardware itself. Does this suggest a path forward (or suggest that I should throw in the towel?)
6 years 9 months ago #18118

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Replied by Bryce on topic Meade LPI-G (monochrome) support?

@geehalel:

Thanks for the tip. For the sake of the next person googling this, I need to report that I tried to add the IDs and uvcvideo reported "no valid video chain found". Relevant snippets (btw: the structure of the /sys filesystem seems to have changed a little in kernel 4.4.x)
spiffster usb # echo 0549 e004 > /sys/bus/usb/drivers/uvcvideo/new_id
spiffster usb # dmesg | tail
[62262.346859] usb 3-1: new high-speed USB device number 4 using xhci_hcd
[62262.805401] usb 3-1: New USB device found, idVendor=0549, idProduct=e004
[62262.805411] usb 3-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[62262.805416] usb 3-1: Product: USB2.0 Camera
[62262.805420] usb 3-1: Manufacturer: TT
[62262.807702] uvcvideo: Found UVC 0.00 device USB2.0 Camera (0549:e004)
[62262.808867] uvcvideo: No valid video chain found.
spiffster usb # lsusb
...
Bus 003 Device 004: ID 0549:e004 Pixera Corp. 
...
spiffster usb # v4l2-ctl --list-devices
Laptop_Integrated_Webcam_HD (usb-0000:00:1a.0-1.4):
	/dev/video0

I'll try googling around Pixera cameras, but I suspect that I'm going to have to lug along a Windows machine.
6 years 9 months ago #18131

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