Thanks for suggestion Helge. Indeed, an issue with vnc black screen appears from time to time, mostly after restart. I have not found good fix for this. So far in such cases I was removing /home/astroberry/.Xauthority file, restarting novnc service and rebooting. However it is not a solution per se.
I will set hdmi_ignore_edid in /boot/config.txt and we'll see how it goes.
For some strange reason I can no longer access the RPi via browser, vnc or ssh. I am actually away from home, i.e. from my WLAN, maybe this is the reason. After powering up the RPi, it takes 5-10 minutes until I can see the astroberry as available network, but connection fails. Only a one or two times, I could see the astroberry desktop, then disappearing.
It's not enough information to diagnose the issue. It looks like it's all about network connectivity problem not astroberry server per se. Long boot time might also suggest sd card corruption. Review your boot up logs, they might contain important information.
Wanted to share some pictures showing the „Astroberry-HAT“, which hosts the stepper driver (A4988) for the astroberry-focuser and the connection to the gps breakout board, as well as the circuit for the reset / shutdown button / led. The HAT receives the 5v input for the stepper and the Raspberry from a 12v to 5v converter. From the HAT 3,3v go to the gps board. Also the HAT connects the RX/TX pins.
The mount is connected via Bluetooth. Only for the ASI cams I need the RPi USB plug. The focuser / stepper is connected via a 5pol MIDI cable.
If of interest to anyone, I can provide more detail description.
Thank you once again for the astroberry server + drivers!
Great implementation! I keep my fingers crossed so everything works for you as expected.
BTW. You say "From the HAT 3,3v go to the gps board". Does it mean that you power GPS from original RPi 3,3V rail through the HAT or you power it separately with your own 3,3V supply. Please not that you should never do the latter with RPi. You can back-power RPi from the HAT with 5V and use 3,3V provided by RPi on GPIO 1 and/or 17. Double check this!
This is the prototype HAT. The 3.3v come from the RPi. Looks like the 3.3v line is receiving the 3.3v from RPi pins 1 and 17. From there I am feeding the GPS.
I am wondering about the following: If I wanted to access the astroberry server, on the pi, remotely via a Windows laptop (EKOS) via ethernet cable, what do I have to enter as address in the Kstars profileditor? Running "ifconfig" does not score an IP address.
Firstly, a big thank you for assembling this project, it truly is a real time saver. I've configured my Astroberry to connect to my wireless LAN with a static IP and all is working fine. My only issue is that I'm trying to access the Astroberry from a 10" Android tablet (4:3 aspect ratio). When I connect via VNC, the resolution is always 1920x1080 regardless as to what is set in config.txt. I'm guessing this is somehow coded in X11VNC but I'm not really sure where to look to find it.
I'm using a VNC application on the Android tablet, not a web browser.
Hi Paul, I'm glad you like it. The resolution is fixed to 1920x1080 in /boot/config.txt however you can autoresize what you see in you browser by using Scalling mode (available in Settings floating menu on the left). Just set it to Local scaling and the resolution will adjust according to you local settings.
The reason it is configured this way is that Ekos requires quite high resolution to fit all the controls on one screen. To make it easier for a user the native resolution is set to 1920x1080 and it is downscaled in the browser if user needs it.
Clear skies!