TOPIC: INDI DSLRs FAQ

ATTENTION: Never ever run indiserver or KStars as root user. Not only it is a bad practice security-wise, but it can lead sometimes to unexpected behavior and poor performance. Only run as root when strictly necessary and you know what you are doing.


Would appreciate help if the community can develop a FAQ for DSLRs on INDI so I can put in the main website as well as in the devices page. It seems a lot of people are running into the same issues. So the most obvious questions are:

1. I cannot connect my Cannon/Nikon/etc, what to do?

Disable auto-mounting feature in your desktop environment.

2. I cannot capture an image in Raspberry PI?

Make sure to use the latest Raspberry Pi2 packages . If problem persists, enable full debug logging and attach the log file.

3. How to capture a video preview?

You can enable preview in INDI Main Control Panel, for Canon DSLRs only.

4. How to store images on the remote machine (PC/rpi/..etc)?

Set "Upload Mode" in Options to "Both" to store on machine and in Ekos, Client only to store at Ekos side, and "Local" to store only at machine side.

5. The FOV in Ekos is wrong or the Pixel size is incorrect?

Edit the pixel size in Image Settings of the INDI Control Panel.

6. The Image size is not reported correctly on initial connection, it shows 1024x1024?

The driver does not know the image size until you capture your first image. After that, the image size is displayed correctly.

7. I cannot capture more than 30 seconds

You must set the camera to BULB mode in order for the GPhoto driver to work correctly under INDI.

8. Driver crashes after update

Something failed to update correctly, run these commands:
If you see any errors during the upgrade process, then try to run this command to fix it:

Ok I'm pinning this and adding what I can find on the forums. Those will eventually go in to the "official" FAQ once refined.

1. I cannot connect my DSLR, says "Can not open camera: Power OK?"

jrlaffoon provided the following solution:

sudo rm /usr/share/dbus-1/services/org.gtk.Private.GPhoto2VolumeMonitor.service
sudo rm /usr/share/gvfs/mounts/gphoto2.mount
sudo rm /usr/share/gvfs/remote-volume-monitors/gphoto2.monitor
sudo rm /usr/lib/gvfs/gvfs-gphoto2-volume-monitor

I took a few minutes to document my Raspberry Pi re-image process. This may not be the correct place or subject area, if it's not I apologize in advance
I try to make as few changes to the base install as possible so that doing a re-image is quick and painless. I keep two micro sd cards around so that i always have one working stable image to use.

---

Instructions were done using Windows 10 and Kubuntu 15.04 running as guest on Hyper-V.

Components Used:

1. Raspberry Pi 2
2. Flric Raspberry Pi 2 Case (Amazon FLIRC-FL-53196)
3. Logitech K400R Keyboard/Touchpad (Amazon Logitech-Wireless-K400R-Keyboard-Transceiver)
4. Samsung 16GB Pro SDHC Class 10 (Amazon Samsung-16GB-Class-MB-SG16D)

Installation Steps:

1. Obtain the latest Raspberry Pi image (https ://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads)
   • Download latest NOOBS (1.4.2 as of October 2015)
   • Extract the file
2. Setup the SD card (https ://www.raspberrypi.org/help/noobs-setup/)
   • Follow instructions contained in the online guide
   • Download and install SD Formatter 4.0 (Windows10) (https ://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_4/)
   • Insert your 8GB or higher SD Card into computer and format with SD Formatter 4.0
   • Drag and drop all the files from NOOB extracted onto the newly formatted SD Card
   • Properly eject the SD Card and insert into your Rpi
3. Boot the Rpi to begin install
   • Click Raspbian [RECOMMENDED] and install
   • After the install completes and it reboots you should end up with the desktop
     • If you are using a wireless adapter now is the time to click the wireless setup and enter your info
   • Click the terminal icon
     • Issue the following command: <code>sudo apt-get update</code>
     • Next: <code>sudo apt-get upgrade</code>
     • Next: <code>ifconfig</code> note your ipaddress
     • At this point reboot the RPi and switch over to your Linux machine and issue the rest of the commands through an ssh session once it has rebooted
4. From your main linux machine or virtual machine ssh into your Rpi
   • For Gphoto users remove the sd card automount service:
     <code>
     sudo rm /usr/share/dbus-1/services/org.gtk.Private.GPhoto2VolumeMonitor.service
     sudo rm /usr/share/gvfs/mounts/gphoto2.mount
     sudo rm /usr/share/gvfs/remote-volume-monitors/gphoto2.monitor
     sudo rm /usr/lib/gvfs/gvfs-gphoto2-volume-monitor
     </code>
     
     • Install the dependencies from the indilib Rpi download page (http ://www.indilib.org/download/raspberry-pi.html)
       <code>sudo apt-get install cdbs libcfitsio3-dev libnova-dev libusb-1.0-0-dev libjpeg-dev libusb-dev libtiff5-dev libftdi-dev fxload libkrb5-dev libcurl4-gnutls-dev dcraw libgphoto2-2-dev libgsl0-dev dkms libboost-regex1.49.0</code>
     • Use wget to download the indi library: <code>wget www.indilib.org/download/raspberry-pi/se...or-raspberry-pi.html </code>
       • Rename the downloaded file: <code>cp 9-indi-library-for-raspberry-pi.html libindi_1.1.0_rpi.tar.gz</code>
       • Extract it: <code>tar -xvf libindi_1.1.0_rpi.tar.gz</code>
       • Change to the newly create directory: <code>cd libindi_1.1.0_rpi</code>
       • Install libindi: <code>sudo dpkg -i *.deb</code>
     • To test cd /usr/bin and execute <code>indiserver -vv indi_simulator_telescope indi_simulator_ccd</code>
     • Connect Kstars to the Raspberry Pi and verify everything functions

Another "Can not open camera: Power OK?" reason : Gnome got in the way by automounting the camera on detection.
This default gnome behaviour can be disabled by :
Ideally the INDI driver shows more info on why it cannot open the camera. Something like a check with lsusb for the usb port and a grep of lsof for that device which shows to the user wtf is going on; what other process has already opened this camera device.

-- Hans

Error messages like "unable to download/read image" or strange errors in reading or downloading images might be related to memory card in camera being full or fragmented. Formatting the memory card might help,

Magnus