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INDI Library v2.0.6 is Released (02 Feb 2024)

Bi-monthly release with minor bug fixes and improvements

Connecting indi via Bluetooth to a computer

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Hi everyone, I'm new to this forum and site.

Just wondering if there are any plans to build a mount connection via bluetooth to your laptop like on eqmod, instead of cabled?

I have done some searching on bluetooth on the indi site, but no hits.

regards
Last edit: 4 years 11 months ago by Petar Milevski.
6 years 11 months ago #16066

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You can use any bluetooth dongle supporting 5V on communication lines e.g. HC-06
Just connect RX and TX lines to TX and RX lines of your mount, connect power to bluetooth dongle and you're done. You can connect from your PC to bluetooth serial line and use it in KStars as a port your mount is connected to.
The following user(s) said Thank You: Petar Milevski
6 years 11 months ago #16082

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I recently purchased EQMod Bluetooth adapter to test bluetooth connectivity within my observatory. I will report the results once it arrives but it shouldn't be a problem in principle.
6 years 11 months ago #16094

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Hi Kaczorek, thanks for your response.

So i received by bluetooth dongle, it seems as though it binds to my computer after i do
sudo rfcomm bind hci0 XX:XX:XX:XX:XX

But when i try connecting in the eqmod Main Control i get this

2017-04-11T09:07:57: Failed to connect to port (/dev/rfcomm0). Error: Port failure Error: No route to host. Check if device is connected to this port.
2017-04-11T09:07:57: Communication with /dev/rfcomm0 @ 9600 failed. Starting Auto Search...
2017-04-11T09:07:57: Failed to connect to port (/dev/rfcomm0). Error: Port failure Error: No route to host. Check if device is connected to this port.
2017-04-11T09:04:33: Scan complete. Found 1 port(s).

See attachments.

Any suggestions?????
6 years 11 months ago #16099

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From my usage, the Shoestring Astronomy BT2EQ6 adapter really works quite well.
It was a little hairy getting the virtual serial port configured on the RPi (and I'm still not sure what I did to get it to work), but after that it functioned as expected!
6 years 11 months ago #16108

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There are two things.
First, you need to connect to the device not only bind. Just use sudo rfcomm connect hci0 XX:XX:XX:XX:XX to accomplish this. Before you do that you need to pair the devices of course.
Second, make sure you have write access rights to the device /dev/rfcomm0 from a user you run indiserver. Just run ls -al /dev/rfcomm0 and check it out. If not add your user to a bluetooth (?) group with usermod -a -G
And the last but not least, let us know how it goes ;-)
6 years 11 months ago #16115

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hi Kaczorek,

So i did as you suggested, see procedure

petar@petar:~$ ls -al /dev/rfcomm0
ls: cannot access '/dev/rfcomm0': No such file or directory
petar@petar:~$ sudo usermod -a -G dialout petar
[sudo] password for petar:
petar@petar:~$ ls -al /dev/rfcomm0
ls: cannot access '/dev/rfcomm0': No such file or directory
petar@petar:~$ ls -al /dev/rfcomm0
ls: cannot access '/dev/rfcomm0': No such file or directory
petar@petar:~$ sudo rfcomm bind hci0 9C:2A:70:82:D3:55
petar@petar:~$ ls -al /dev/rfcomm0
crw-rw---- 1 root dialout 216, 0 Apr 12 15:58 /dev/rfcomm0
petar@petar:~$

1. Then i checked to see if the Shoestring bluetooth dongle was connected, see image1.png
2. In the INDI Control Panel -> eqmod -> Connection, all the connections are green (so i assume everything is ok) see image2.png
3. In the INDI Control Panel -> eqmod -> Main Control, when i press connect, it does not connect (the button is RED) see image 3.png

Any suggestions???
6 years 11 months ago #16117

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Hi Kaczorek

So i finally solved it.

To get it to work i had to do the following:

1. sudo rfcomm bind hci0 XX:XX:XX:XX:XX && sudo chown $user:$user /dev/rfcomm0
2. then using blueman i have to manually connect to the serial port (the bluetooth dongle)

Is there any linux way to do the above, so location where this can be placed on the system so i don't have to do it each time i start up?? Maybe i can just write a bash script and execute it before a session so my bluetooth isn't always on?? Any suggestions.

regards
Last edit: 6 years 11 months ago by Petar Milevski.
6 years 11 months ago #16126

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This is still way too tough for a regular user to figure out. There must be a way to make this easier for new users. If there is not, then we must do something about it. I'll be getting my bluetooth adaptor soon, so I'll try to figure out a solution.
6 years 11 months ago #16135

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I'm glad you got it solved! As the matter of fact you can do all of these from GUI by clicking bluetooth icon on your taskbar, selecting bluetooth dongle, pairing devices and connecting the dongle. All of these will expose bluetooth serial port to a user - ready to use by INDI serial connection.
What was discussed with petarm is a generic approach for people keen on terminal and cli. Depending on linux distribution it might be the only approach available to a user. However in majority of cases GUI approach will work out of the box.

BTW. my experience is that in some cases neither of the approaches is sufficient and you need to use bluetoothctl to pair and connect the device.
6 years 11 months ago #16140

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This is how I got the Shoestring Astronomy bluetooth adapter for Eqmod to start automatically. I have not tested on Raspberry pi but this shouild work for any systemd based distro. Please keep in mind that I am not an expert and that this includes this first systemd service file that I have written. I would be delighted if anyone can improve this.

1). First I created a file in /etc/modules-load.d/ to enable the rfcomm module to load at boot.

/etc/modules-load.d/rfcomm.conf

# Load rfcomm at boot
rfcomm

2). Then I made script and placed it in /usr/bin/

/usr/bin/rfcomm0.sh

#! /bin/sh
rfcomm bind rfcomm0 xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx

Where xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx is the MAC address of the bluetooth adapter.
Don't forget to make script executable.

3). Lastly I wrote a service file and placed it in /etc/systemd/system/.

/etc/systemd/system/rfcomm0.service

[Unit]
Description=Eqmod port

[Service]
Type=idle
ExecStart=/usr/bin/rfcomm0.sh

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

I enabled the service with sudo systemctl enable rfcomm0.service
rebooted
Now I can connect to Eqmod Mount through port /dev/rfcomm0
The following user(s) said Thank You: Jasem Mutlaq, Andres Rossi
6 years 9 months ago #17252

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Thanks, but this is basically a nightmare for new users who have no background in LInux, there is no easy way for this?
6 years 9 months ago #17253

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