I can understand your frustration, I used Ascom and when I first started with Indi & KStars I struggled, especially with the Linux side of things getting all the USB ports set so they didn’t fight over their port numbers at every startup, but I like the all in one place set up so I stuck with it. Now my Pi4 mounts on the scope outside and I sit in the warm house and monitor the progress over VNC.

Stick with it it does work.

I’m sure that Stellarmate will do it’s thing when you get it sorted, this forum & Google will get it working that’s how I achieved it.

Alan

Hi Alan,

Apologies for my negativity and appreciate all those who tell me to hang in there.

I'm kind of thinking that managing work remotely via eKos might be less productive and less reliable than if I managing it locally and directly on the RPi4 using VNC remotely.

Again, being new, I'm guessing I need to download and install VCN on my Windows laptop and access the RPi4 via the Hotspot or via my internal network. I'm guessing if the latter I need to setup the RPi4 to access my internal router system (home network). Which is better??? I'm guessing if the latter (static IP address or wifi?) I could access it with any of my PCs on my home network as long as I have VCN on each regardless where they are. Which option is more reliable: hotspot or WiFi internal setup? Would working via VCN create less headache seeing you are working more locally albeit remotely?

Thanks again for your understanding. I'm kind of a bit fixated with Hotspot and working remotely. Maybe I need to rethink things.

Regards

Jaq

has anyone gotten through an imaging session with 1.4.6 without it freezing up ??? for the life of me I cannot.

We will start sharing images for SM OS v1.4.7 for RPI4 within a couple of weeks. It should provide more stability improvements. If you want to beta test this version, please send an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to express your interest and you will be signed up to receive it in a few days.

Sounds awesome! Will the new version be upgradable using apt or some other tool?

Jaq,
Install Real VNC Viewer on the Windows machine, connect the Pi to your home network and run everything on the Pi4 it is more than capable. You can also put Real VNC Viewer on your phone or tablet & monitor the progress there if you like.

I personally found that the guiding performance wasn’t as good when using it as a server client set up due to lag over the network, unless I ran PHD2 directly on the Pi via the ST4 cable. But that’s a bit of extra work to start PHD2 before you connect the server, again this can be done over VNC if needed.

I found I don’t need a static IP on the network just use the address shown in the Stellarmate tutorial video Stellarmate.local I think from memory.

At least doing it this way you’ll get results.

Try it first with the simulators, then connect the other equipment 1 item at a time and make sure it works before saving the configuration, then shutting down and restarting the Pi before connecting the next item. Doing things this way helps isolate problems with an individual piece of kit.

Good Luck

Alan

Hi Alan

Your giving me a little ray of hope. Ill try this. Tell me one thing... Wireless connectivity: If using VCN on my laptop is there any difference if i use it via home network or hotspot. I would have thought the latter was more direct and more stable?

Regards

Jaq

Jaq,

I would use the home WiFi initially, the hotspot on the Pi4 can be a bit weak at times.
To get it all working and ensure good connectivity in the first instance use a network cable if you have one direct to the modem router, then switch to the home WiFi once you have it working as it should. Take it a step at a time and you shouldn’t have any great issues

From my experiments with the hotspot on the Pi4 it appears to work best when there’s no other WiFi signals about for example in the middle of a field.

Regards Alan

I give up with current 1.4.6 RPi4 build. It simply cannot perform a session without the 120mm mini camera throwing exposure errors. What's odd is it will show a sub-frame when this occurs.

I had the RPi3 Stellarmate with 1.4.6 also mounted and switched to it and successfully guided for an hour. The problems seem to start when I attempt to plate solve and then guide. Restarting will not fix it. Not sure what's going on, it was about 20F outside and everything ran inside all day, but obviously could not guide or solve, sync, track etc. inside.

I gave up on 1.4.6 on my PI4 for exactly the same issue. Everything works until I plate solve and then try to image. crashes on the 2nd image. I have opened a ticket so hopefully it is fixed in the next release. Having a lot of success with ASTAP so didn't want to go back too 1.4.4, reimaged with Astroberry V2 and its been working perfectly the last week over 4 imaging sessions.

At least I am not alone and a one-off problem holder. The Rpi3 is doing quite well, it is just a tad slow.

I ran the rig indoors all freaking day. I tried plate solving but it just fails cause everything is all white. No problems starting and stopping, looping with guide camera and the Nikon. Fingers crossed for the next revision.

I have two ZWO cameras, a 120MC for guiding and a 183MM for imaging. I did have problems last night (first light for the Pi 4 with 1.4.6) where e.g. the 183 would yield a frame of all white pixels, or the 120 couldn't connect. But when I was careful to use PHD's "fork" button to choose the 120 for guiding, and then run an Ekos profile that had no guide camera specified, eventually the issues went away and I got great performance. However, at one point KStars did a CTD and I lost some imaging time before I noticed it had crashed and needed restarting.

So many things going right! Plate solving right on the Pi was just utterly rock-solid, I have never seen it work that well on the Pi 3 (or even on my Mac!). In fact Polaris was down among some tree branches but astrometry.net offline worked anyway! I mean most of the frame was tree branches but you could pick out a few stars, and the whole polar alignment assistant ran flawlessly. FLAWLESSLY. Through a 12-nm Ha filter, no less, and the "refresh" rate was only a second or two.