Hi, Patrick,
It all depends what you want to obtain.
If the aim is to have a remote controlled but fix observatory at a place where there is sufficient power sky is the limit.
If, at the contrary, the aim is to move around with your gear, power could become an issue.

I tested yesterday running indiserver on an RPi2 and remote connecting to it from a desktop running KStars and EKOS and this works absolutely fine. RPi2 has sufficient resources because uses only 25% of its memory and is not swapping at all.

The RPi2 is networked with an USB wifi dongle and works well when capturing. The ZWO ASI CAM is powered from the RPi2 USB port an allows capturing but NOT streaming.

I am using my home wifi network with a router running strict MAC to IP binding and DHCP. This router is powered with a 220V to 12V adapter, so I could power it from the battery pack directly. I experimented some time ago with a hotspot run from the RPi2 and that worked but took quite some time to get it configured. Again depending on the energy budget and the resources used on the RPi2 I could imagine to run also the hotspot on the same RPi2 or if necessary use a separate one.

As far as memory available to the processor I would feel more comfortable with the ODROID. It also has USB3 ports what would become the standard of the future but I agree that the ZWO ASI CAM seems to have problems with USB3.

Any experience with other hardware platforms such as the Intel NUC or Parallella etc.?

Regards,

Stefan

Hello Stefan,

Unfortunately I don't have any experiences with any devices other than Rpi and Odroid.
I agree, Odroid is more powerful than Rpi2 and can support more demanding applications.
I assume that to run indiserver & drivers Rpi2 is enough powerful.
Create a hotspot on Rpi2 or Odroid is not really easy I agree but it has the advantage to be fully independent and maybe more efficient. Overall it might be useful when you are on the field far from any home network. And moreover it will save a wire that are yet really numerous.

Regards

Patrick

Hi Patrick,

How is your work with ODROID xU4 progressing?
I am back to reality with my RPi2 devices. They work very well but running KStars together with indiserver is a bit too much for the poor device. On top, I read that you have as main controller KStars running on a laptop. I do not have a laptop with ubuntu but I started understanding that I need a second powerful device similar to my desktop but more compact.

Are you still happy with your ODROID?

Stefan

Hello Stefan,
All looks to work fine now in home context. But for the moment haven't succeeded on a long session (I have 2 feets in place of hands). I need to improve all my processes.
I am working on a computerized focuser using arduino. All look to work too connected to the PC and connected to the Odroid xU4.
I need to work on the mechanic to hold the stepper motor. I think about a braket sticked on the focuser body which could be made with 3D printing.
I have tested indiserver on a Odroid-C1 I own. Unfortunately the usb port drive too few power and with the ZWO cam , the wifi dongle, the mount the device crash. I have to test it with a powered usb hub.
Concerning the laptop I bought a bargain dell latitude E6230. It is very powerful and it is easy to install ubuntu on it. It can be find for a reasonable price on ebay or some equivalent sites.
So my setup is the following (in the linked file)



I think this is a good solution for a nomad setup. Maybe not sufficient for a fix setup because the wifi may be unstable for long distances.

You might be aware of the power on the usb ports if you have some devices that need it.

CS

Patrick

This is great!
For your 3D printed piece, I look forward to see a picture on this forum.
Could you share with us the brand and type of your powered hub? I am already some time looking for one but that is not evident.
For the timebeing I found a parameter on the RPi2 to be set in order to boost the maximum current limit for the USB ports and that seems to work well with the ZWO.

I am working on a same architecture except that I would like to avoid a laptop. My main reason is the powersupply it needs being higher than the 12V of my battery. I experimented a lot with a Samsung tablet PC remote connecting on a headless running RPi2. I am sure this will work also for your ODROID.

I asw also on the site of Odroid that XUBUNTU 15.04 is used. What about 15.10? Do you have experience with it?
Stefan

The nicest thing would be to have a tablet with a mighty battery running linux with kstars and ekos on it. But unfortunately it doesn't exists yet. You can use a tablet running windows, but I don't know if kstars/ekos can run on it. Generally they have a lot better autonomy than a laptop or notebook and can be found at not too expensive price.
My hub is a USB3 on odroid XU4 side and provide 2 USB3 and 4USB2 plus a charging port. The brand is startech ST320USBC. Without powering it and only with USB3 input port it can provide enough power for a set of devices with low consumption. I saw initially the fact that the ZWO 120MM didn't accept to run on the USB3 of the XU4 as an inconvenient. But now I see it as an advantage because I wonder that there is 2 different power source, one low for USB2 and a higher for USB3.ANd the ZWO alone use the only available USB2 port of the XU4 and the other devices share the USB2&3 hub plugs.

Maybe it can help: www.techradar.com/news/software/operatin...-choose-from-1162825

Patrick, thanks a 1.000.000 times. This is very useful info. Especially the clip.
Stefan

Hi Patrick,
Big news !!!!
I just installed indiserver on a simple (old) Raspberry Pi and connected a joystick and my NEQ6 PRo via EQMOD cable to it. This is really lightweight for the machine.
Next I reinstalled my Raspberry Pi 2 and installed bleeding edge KSTARS on it.
You never guess what happened!!!!
I am controlling my RPi2 AND my RPi running resp. KStars and RPi the indiserver with a mount and a joystick completely from my TABLET!!!!
No need for a desktop any more !!!
I could load the images for the planetarium also without the RPi2 starting swapping.
I will now monitor the power consumption without and with the router providing my WiFi in the field.
Next I need to check whether I can attach the ZWO camera but if not I prefer to go for the ONDROID!!!
Just fantastic !!!!

Stefan

Hello Stefan,
Do you installed kstars/ekos on the RPi or on the tablet ?
I am a little bit interested
If it is on the tablet what kind/brand of tablet do you use ?
If not do you use vnc or something equivalent ?

Patrick

Hi, Patrick,

No I run only KStars with Ekos on a RPi2 connecting to an RPi running indiserver with two devices, joystick and EQMOD Telescope.
On the RPi2 I run also x11vnc and configured it in headless mode. I launch x11vnc if the Logitech keyboard/mouse dongle is not inserted in a USB port.
I modified also /boot/confif.txt allowing to use the hdmi settings for max tablet resolution.
Once running I use Remote Ripple Pro for Android. My tablet is a Samsung Galaxy Tab S one.
Remote Ripple was the best I could find in terms of fluent data throughput.

I dreamed about having my tablet running ubuntu but I got stuc on the point that mostly one need first to get root access to the tablet. Rooting Android seems to be
unlawfull and therefore I gave up. I did not followed the trends anymore in this domain.

Stefan

FYI, one of KStars GSoC 2016 ideas to make a Lite version of KStars to run on Tablet/Mobile. So hopefully we get a good student who can work on this project this year.

Morning Jasem,
Thanks for the information. Is the aim to move kstars/Ekos under Android or Windows ? I consider the opportunity to buy a cheap window tablet (onda v820w) to do the job instead a gluttonous laptop. With a good µPC that could make a low consumption nomad killer setup.