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

Bi-monthly release with minor bug fixes and improvements

Alternate single board computer experimenting

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I liked the Sata port as well. I may not use it but having it there might be useful in the future. I skipped the WiFi dongle as I'm expecting to be wired for observatory (and away from home) use. I may regret that but by the time I paid shipping and dealt with the exchange rate it was adding up. Threw some extra on 64GB eMMc storage though.
1 year 6 months ago #86456

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eMMC is much faster (and so far more reliable) than micro SD cards. An m.2 SSD should be even faster, but eMMC is probably fast enough for most things.

When I went from micro SD to eMMC it was like hitting the turbo button :)

I created a custom case for my ODroid and Waveshare stepper motor HAT. The DB9 connector is for the output from the stepper motor HAT to plug into my focuser.

Imaging computer and focus controller in one box. :)

If you're not plugging anything into the 40-pin GPIO header, then their standard cases are perfectly fine.



Last edit: 1 year 6 months ago by Kevin Ross.
1 year 6 months ago #86457
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Rob as an FYI I've used your setupUbuntuSBC.sh script to do the setup on the ODROID M1. It seemed to run pretty well. I'm having an issue with a package upgrade but that is not related to your stuff. No real life observatory control as yet but solves ran nicely. I don't seem to have icons in the Ekos control buttons (I've seen that often but have not quite worked out what it is caused by).

Thanks again for your work in setting those scripts up.

Bob
1 year 6 months ago #86619

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1 year 6 months ago #86641

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Kevin it looks like you have done a bit with the ODROID GPIO's I've found the pinout for mine and am having a look at making an expansion board to incorporate Dew Heater Control (my old arduino version is documented at www.iceinspace.com.au/63-597-0-0-1-0.html ) and possibly a couple of stepper controllers for Focuser and longer term a rotator. I'm not happy that I understand the limitations (if any) on the GPIO's. I got a surprise as I dug into the GPIO's on the ESP32's and realized how many of them were not really usable for my purposes due to special requirements at boot. So afr I've not found anything for the ODROID that has me convinced that I understand limitations.

I'm thinking of starting a discussion on GPIO usage/resources but trying to workout where it would fit. I found your earlier Waveshare topic but I'm not thinking of just Focusers and Filter Wheels. Thoughts?
1 year 6 months ago #86647

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Yeah as you can see in my 3D model I'm using a Waveshare stepper motor HAT, using the driver I wrote. The hardware pinouts are compatible with the Raspberry Pi 40-pin header, even though addressing the GPIOs are different (different numbering scheme).

So far the only GPIOs I've used are the ones used by the Waveshare HAT for the two motors, in digital output mode.

On the Rock Pi (which also has a compatible 40-pin header, but also with different numbering scheme), I had to disable an i2s kernel module, because it was conflicting with the GPIO. I've had no such problems on my ODroid N2+ though.
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1 year 6 months ago #86648

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My V1 of a HAT for the M1. I'm expecting some revisions will be required (especially tweaking trace widths) but am away soon for a bit so figured I'd get some boards made and test the basics with it.
Slightly wider than the M1 board which is not ideal. It has a 4 channel dew heater control and stepper drivers for a focuser and rotator on board. I could easily remove 2 dew heater channels for my use and retrieve some width in the board but for now it's mostly a learning exercise rather than an attempt to get the final board. I'd not opto isolated the FET circuits in the original Android version of this but have added it this time.

Not tried with this version but I have pondered putting some components upside down to see if a simplified version would fit in the official case with access via the back.
I have not done PCP mounted sockets for the 12V supply or I2C bus at this stage. I2C to talk to a Temp/Humidity sensor to measure ambient conditions. Headers on the board for both currently but version 2 will probably do that differently. I hope there are no I2C or 1-wire conflicts with the M1, I use both, Dallas 1-wire temp sensors under the heater straps to try and track heating.



1 year 6 months ago #86670
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I've made a start on doing some documentation for the ODROID-M1 GPIO's in the format used for the ESP32 @ randomnerdtutorials.com/esp32-pinout-reference-gpios/It's a work in progress but there does not appear to be a single reference document for the M1, to find the capabilities I was looking at posts on other topic's (and often other ODROID models).I've also placed an order for my 3rd version of a HAT for the M1 GPIO's after discovering some wrong assumptions (only a single 1-wire channel, PWM limited to 3 pins one of which is the default for 1-wire) in earlier versions.

Assuming no more incorrect assumptions the HAT should give me a two channel DEW controller with active dewpoint monitoring and temp monitoring from under the heater straps along with stepper motor control for focuser and camera rotator on the HAT.I did some preliminary testing with a DFROBOT Multifunctional Environment sensor using I2C (UART is an option) and was getting back readings from it's range of sensors. It has Temp, Humidity, air pressure, Ambient light and UV light sensors on board. I'm hoping that I can use it for some sky quality monitoring as well as dewpoint.

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1 year 5 months ago #87117
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Not the same company, I believe (Rock64 vs Rock Pi 4)
Rock64 is from Pine64.org, while RockPi4 is from RadXa
I can confirm the problems you had with the Rock64. I bought this sbc to replace an aging RPi 3, mainly because it had a USB3 port and eMMC support. But as you also experienced, the user base is very small and the OS had serious issues. Also, I needed a powered USB hub to get stable operation from my ASI cameras.
The most stable (although not the fastest) platform I have used to date for INDI/Ekos is a Raspberry Pi 4 with the astroberry distro.
Last edit: 1 year 5 months ago by Wim van Berlo.
1 year 5 months ago #87163

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Oh, I didn't realize they were from different companies! My main experience has been with the Raspberry Pi lineup, both the 3's and the 4's. I have played around with a couple of others including the Odroid and the Rock64 as I said before, but yeah, so far I think the Raspberry Pis are the best. I don't use Astroberry though, I use my script to set up Ubuntu Mate on whatever SBC I would be using and it works pretty well for me. I have also experimented with Rasbian and with Manjaro, but I still like Ubuntu Mate the best.

Thanks for the info!

Rob
1 year 5 months ago #87173

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I happened across hackerboards.com/ recently. ... which reminded me of this thread, and reminded me that I was going to do something with a Radxa Zero.
1 year 3 months ago #88937

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I'm yet to find what would be my ideal brick:

- Intel celeron J4125 (less power hungry than a RPI-type ARM processor and runs colder)
- 4-8 gb ram.
- 128gb emmc.
- External SD card.
- 4x USB 3.0 + 1 USB-C PD for power with all the capabilities (i.e. display port etc etc).
- Wifi with external antenna port.
- Very compact layout (smaller than the MeLe), with no ethernet port, no hdmi, no audio jack, no M.2 SSD connector and all the connectors in 2 sides (or maybe even 1 side).

The closest things are the MeLe 2Q (however with a larger format, no external antenna port for wifi -this sucks- and many ports I don't need) and the Asi Air Mini (however with USBs 2.0 and likely more power hungry).
1 year 3 months ago #88954

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