The only time I had issues with this recently was when I had set my EAF up as an ASI.... and apparently now it wants ZWO. I ended up deleting my equipment config and recreating it using ZWO and had no issues.

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Tracy Perry replied to the topic 'Noob issue images won't save??' in the forum. 3 weeks ago

Are you actually doing a sequence of captures or are you using the camera icon below the sequence list to capture an individual image? If just using the camera icon it does not save the image (by default). To get it ti save you have to set up a sequence and use the arrow shaped button on the right to start the sequence... or at least this is what I figured out when I first started using it.

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Tracy Perry replied to the topic 'StellarmateX on ThinClients' in the forum. 2 months ago

Threads morph. That is and always has been the nature of the internet forum discussions.
As to feedback from those using "thin clients, especially older models", you may not be getting much feedback because there are better solutions, and for many at an equivalent (or slightly higher) cost than buying a larger, bulkier solution that require special mounting requirements/hassles and power supply issues.
I used a Dell Optiplex 7070 micro for a bit... and found it (for my rigs) not an acceptable solution as no mounting solution was fully acceptable and the rig. I also had difficulty sourcing quality 12v solutions that would provide adequate power.
For me (and maybe others), I found that a thin-client was a poor solution for my requirements.
Best of luck.

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Only to monitor what goes on... I can do so much more by using VNC to access the machine. Yes, it's slower (and has some display issues at times)... but there is a major disconnect between the actual StellarMate interface and the app interface. I personally don't want to learn it and have to deal with a small screen when I have 2 Surface Books, 1 Surface Pro and a Toshiba laptop in addition to my desktop I can use to access it.
As for WiFi...I installed a Mesh setup at my home and that took care of most of my dropped WiFi issues.

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3.6.8 can be downloaded at kstars.kde.org . Is there a newer version out?

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Tracy Perry replied to the topic 'StellarmateX on ThinClients' in the forum. 3 months ago

Fact is, some people are fully cognizant that not everyone has a "hoss" mount that can support 100 pounds and they have to be careful of the equipment mounted to the scope.
Can a thin client be a valid option? Definitely yes when one takes into consideration the weight restrictions of their equipment. But the simple fact is, not everyone wants to mount 2-4 pounds of weight onto their telescope if they can get by with 1-2 pounds.
Thin clients (and computers such as the Dell OptiPlex 7070) are great when tripod mounted (or off the scope mount itself), and they work very similar to the mini PC's (like an Intel NUC 11) that can be mounted directly on the telescope itself at 1/2 the weight use. Honestly... a 1 1/2 pound mini PC (Intel NUC 11 style) an be purchased for what most thin clients cost.... and are 1/2 the weight. It's kind of a no-brainer if you want all your equipment on the telescope itself.

If one has a massive mount that they don't have to worry about weight (say something with around 100 pounds) then that is different than someone that may have a 20-40 pound weight limit. You should not be getting upset that users bring forth that caveat because many new to the field may not be fully aware of how much importance on a rig weight is.

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I'd suggest something more like IPS (Invision Community) as it has some great 1st party add-ons that could be useful.
Another would be XenForo, but the "good" add-ons for it are mainly 3rd party, and (even though that is what I'm using on my site) it's life expectancy has come into question by some (but I still renewed my license into latter 2025).

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Tracy Perry replied to the topic 'Can't connect to PPBA' in the forum. 6 months ago

This is my PPBA gen2 screen



I use the auto-search function and if necessary, click on the correct port and then it connects. Once I have confirmed it connects, I save those settings for the device. I haven't had any issues with connecting to it or the mini since I purchased them (although QC on assembly of the PPBA did have issues and required me to re-secure the main board to the case after one screw came out).

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Nope... the Orange Pi is a totally different critter than the Raspberry Pi.
They use different chipsets and I never could get the OS for RPi to work as it has to be compiled for the chipset in use due to being an SBC form factor. Due to space constraints, they try to optimize the OS load for the individual boards.
The Orange Pi is a cheaper option than a Raspberry Pi, especially in the recent past because the Raspberry Pi 4 was very hard to get at a reasonable price, so those other boards started getting used quite a bit.
The RPi 4 uses a Broadcom BCM2711 SoC chip, and the Orange Pi 3 LTS uses a Allwinner H6 SoC, the Orange Pi 4 uses a Rockchip RK3399, and the Orange Pi 5 uses Rockchip RK3588S. Each Orange Pi 4 has it's own OS rolled out by Orange for the device as they aren't interchangeable.
If the OS is on the SD card of the Orange Pi device, you should be able to use Balena Etcher to clone your SD card... but it would probably be better just to get a new SD card and use Balena Etcher to install StellarMate OS on it. I doubt that the OS is installed on the onboard eMMC flash (which on most won't have the storage capacity).

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If it's an OrangePI (don't know what an RPi4 Orange is) then Stellarmate most likely will not work with it. On my Orange Pi 3 LTS I had to use their Ubuntu install routine and roll my own KStars/EKOS system.
I also tried using Armbian with it, but had issues with the WiFi driver in Armbian not working with the Orange Pi 3, which was an immediate killer. It had to do with the kernel not being set up to support that chipset.
I haven't tried any of the newer Orange Pi devices (the 4 LTS or the 5 series) since I went to a NUC based solution using StellarMate X OS.

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One thing to be SURE you do for plate solving (or really for good plate solving) is go into your options on the Alignment tab and download the extra index files.
You need at least down to 4205/5205 (2Mass & Tycho2/Gaia). You will need to change the index files location to get them to download as the default area you cannot write to. You just clock on the box and choose the local stellarmate user storage location.

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