RemoteINDIPAD: control Ekos with a gamepad

RemoteINDIPAD is a new open source tool by INDI community member jctk. It lets you plug a gamepad into a Windows PC and use it to control KStars, Ekos and INDI running on another computer on your network, such as a Raspberry Pi with StellarMate OS or an Ubuntu machine.

With a few button presses you can slew the mount, focus, rotate the camera, change filters and move around the KStars sky map, without touching a mouse.

The idea came from a discussion on the StellarMate Discord about using a joystick with astronomy equipment. A gamepad plugged into a Windows PC cannot be used by INDI drivers on another computer, and the INDI joystick driver only covers mounts and focusers. RemoteINDIPAD solves both by sending gamepad input over the network and controlling KStars directly. You can read the full story in jctk’s blog post introducing RemoteINDIPAD.

How it works

RemoteINDIPAD has two programs:

• Sender (Windows) reads the gamepad and turns each button press into an action, such as “move the mount north” or “next filter”. It sends these actions over the network.
• Receiver (Linux) runs next to KStars. It receives the actions and carries them out through the KStars D-Bus interface, so it works with whatever devices are loaded in your Ekos profile.

What you can control

The rotator starts with small 1 degree moves and speeds up the longer you hold the button. Panning the sky map is not possible yet, because KStars does not offer it over D-Bus.

The default layout on an Xbox style controller is:

• Mount: the D-pad slews north, south, east and west. Push the left stick left or right to change the slew speed. Press the right stick to stop.
• Focuser: X and Y focus in and out. Push the left stick up or down to change the step size.
• Filter wheel: the left and right shoulder buttons change the filter.
• Rotator: A and B rotate. Press the left stick to stop.
• Sky map: the right stick zooms and rotates the map.

You can change any of these in the mapping editor. Short videos show each device in action: sky map, mount, focuser, filter wheel and rotator.

So far it has been tested with the Microsoft Xbox Wireless Controller, ELECOM JC-U3712T and 8BitDo Zero 2 gamepads, and with the Juwei 17 mount, GEMINI EAF focuser, ZWO CAA rotator and ToupTek AWF-L filter wheel. Other INDI devices of the same type should work too.

Download

Get the latest version from the RemoteINDIPAD releases page. There are three ways to install it:

• Ready to run programs for Windows x64 (sender), and Linux aarch64 and x64 (receiver). Pick RemoteINDIPAD-windows-x64.zip for Windows and RemoteINDIPAD-linux-aarch64.tar.gz for StellarMate OS on a Raspberry Pi. This is the easiest option.
• Python wheels you install with pip, one for the sender and one for the receiver. Use these if the ready to run receiver fails to start on your system.
• The source code from the GitHub repository. This needs Python 3.10 or later and PySide6, plus pygame on Windows.

On Windows, keep remote_indipad_sender.exe and gamepad_profiles.json in the same folder.

Getting started

1. On your StellarMate or Linux machine, start KStars and your Ekos profile. If you use a mount, unpark it first.

2. Start the receiver:

   ./remote_indipad_receiver

   It finds the mount, focuser, filter wheel and rotator in your Ekos profile. If you have more than one device of the same type, pick the one you want from its list. The receiver starts listening on port 50007 by default.

   

3. Connect the gamepad to your Windows PC by USB or Bluetooth, then start remote_indipad_sender.exe.

4. Select your gamepad under Controller, then click Edit Mapping to choose what each button, stick and D-pad direction does. The matching entry lights up as you press each button. Click Save, then Close.

   

5. Enter the IP address of your StellarMate or Linux machine under Host and click Connect. Both programs show the connection in their console.

   

6. Control your equipment with the gamepad.

Start with slow, small moves and check that everything works as expected. A mount or rotator that moves the wrong way can damage your equipment, so make sure you can always stop it.

More information

jctk’s blog post tells the story behind the project and shares ideas for the future, such as button sets for each device and support for more than one gamepad. The RemoteINDIPAD README explains every setting, where the settings files are kept, and answers common questions. A Japanese README is also available. RemoteINDIPAD is free and released under the MIT license.