I built a custom mount and wrote custom driver software with a GUI to run it on a Raspberry Pi 4. So far, so good, but I am now in a predicament where I must choose one thing or the other.


The unforeseen event which put me in this predicament is finding out that my ZWO 294 camera won't work on Ubuntu 18.04 (arm64) without Ekos. I suppose I underestimated the level of sophistication involved with these cameras.


My two choices are now:


1) Rewrite the custom driver in INDI format and abandon the camera functionality and the GUI, using kstars/ekos instead

2) Determine how Ekos makes the ZWO library work and integrate that functionality into my existing software


The easy route would be to take option number 1 -- however, I was planning on using plate solving as a fundamental component of the driver itself. For example, I was going to automate backlash measurements and correct for geometric error via a procedure involving obtaining true position by plate solving. I realize kstars/ekos has some sort of plate solving functionality, but it probably would not be easy to integrate with my reformatted driver. Or, would it?


Alternatively, I could dig through ekos source code and try to figure out how to make the zwo camera work in my homebrew software which is already pretty far along. I was using a makeshift camera for while to develop streaming and snapping pictures within the GUI beside the controls.


I'm curious which option you guys think I should choose and why. I realize how amazing kstars/ekos is, but my goal is to make a much simpler bit of software. That is the main reason option 2 is even on the table. Here is a screen shot indicating the level of simplicity I'm shooting for.


Of course, there are quite a few settings planned in the settings menu, however.


What would be the main difficulties I would face in either choice?

ZWO makes an SDK available for Linux which you may want to look into. See

astronomy-imaging-camera.com/software-drivers

and choose For Developers. INDI uses exactly those drivers and they are packaged in the libasi package. The code for INDI that uses the drivers can be found in the indi-asi package. All of this can be found in the indi-3rdparty GitHub repo.

Thanks, I'll check that out. I don't know how I missed the dev tab.

By the way, one minor correction to your initial post. You wrote "my ZWO 294 camera won't work on Ubuntu 18.04 (arm64) without Ekos" which strictly speaking isn't true. The easiest way is to use INDI (meaning both the drivers and indiserver) and then you can use other software that support this, like CCDCiel, or write your own. Ekos is an app that uses INDI for imaging, guiding, focusing etc. The fact that Ekos is developed by the same people that develop INDI is a small, but convenient, coincidence.