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Astroberry on and old Pi with 512MB RAM: doable or hopeless?

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Hello everyone,

First of all, thanks to @Kaczorek for his work on Astroberry -- seems to be exactly what I need!

Now, a question: I'm preparing to test it on my local setup (Mallincam Micro-EX camera, a miriad of Celestron/Orion telescopes, and a Celestron AVX mount) but I only have an old Raspberry Pi Model B with 512MB RAM ( this one, to be precise ), and no easy/convenient way to get a Raspberry 3 or 4 as recommended (given the COVID-19 situation and the fact that I'm overseas).

Astroberry's github pageAstroberry's github page seems to indicate that it could be possible to run it, albeit in a non-ideal way (too slow?):
So, to save me the time and heartache in trying to get it running in my puny hardware, I would like to ask: is it doable? Or is it hopeless?

Thanks in advance,
-- Durval.
Last edit: 3 years 1 month ago by Durval Menezes. Reason: (typo in title)
3 years 1 month ago #67105

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Tried to use PI Zero so slightly better than the PI you are using - findings

1. Zero with GUI and mount control plus DSLR using Ekos runs but very very very slow.

2. Zero with NO GUI and just running Indiserver to control the above but with everything else (Ekos or whatever) running on another device (old Vista Laptop) ran better but as Zero (default) has only WiFi it wasn't very reliable.

3. Zero as (2) but just used to control mount and Long USB cable to camera it was fine but again Wifi not reliable.

So I guess in short if you want everything "yesterday" then the answer is no chance, if you can put up with slow response but relying on WiFi then (2) will work depending on your camera/resolution etc.

But there again if you have no other option and are bored during lockdown (whereever you are) try it out - at least its something to do (and learn) :-)
RPI3 Ubuntu 16.04 / AMD desktop Kstars under Ubuntu 16.04 Mounts :azeq6 ,SWAZGoTo

RPI3 Fedora testing out on AMD desktop Fedpra 28 - running kstars 2.9.4 , Indilib 1.7.4 ?????
3 years 1 month ago #67112

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Hi Stash, thanks for your response.

I was not aware of the PI Zero. You mean this one , or the newer Pi Zero W ? Please confirm.

I think the latter, as the former doesn't seem to have wifi (unless you added a USB adapter). Anyway, they both look very similar to my old 512MB model B: same memory, major "upgrade" seems to be only ~40% more clock on the still single-core CPU.

How relevant do you think was the added clock, ie perhaps the reason for slowing down was lack of memory causing swapping/paging?

From your report, I'm now converging to a scenario like the #3 you describe below (ie running only the absolute minimum device-control software on the Pi, and all the rest remotely, communicating with it via INDI). Glad to hear it worked OK for you -- in my case, I have a very reliable USB Wifi adapter (also bought on Adafruit, along with the Raspberry Pi) so perhaps it will work more stably -- but if not, I have ethernet also, so one way or the other, I think IP connectivity is guaranteed,

Thanks again. When I do the testing (still waiting for the mount and camera to become available, as they are now being used in another project), I will report back on how it went.

Cheers,
-- Durval.

3 years 1 month ago #67274

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Hi Durval,

I tried both Zero and Zero(w) with the same result.

I also tried "overclocking" CPU AND SD card but I didn't use a "fast" SD card(Samsung or Scandisk 99mb transfer rates) - just a std cheap SD card but still,IMHO,too slow when Ekos was used!

Without Kstars/Ekos but GUI running it was just usable even over VNC but no Astro stuff - except for the WiFi drop outs (there was a bug on early Zero(w) I believe ).

Extra memory always helps so 512mb is the limiting factor I guess - didn't do any bench marking as it was a "i winder if it will" moment.
RPI3 Ubuntu 16.04 / AMD desktop Kstars under Ubuntu 16.04 Mounts :azeq6 ,SWAZGoTo

RPI3 Fedora testing out on AMD desktop Fedpra 28 - running kstars 2.9.4 , Indilib 1.7.4 ?????
3 years 1 month ago #67295

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