Hello,

I don't know if this has been asked before, but how would one interface the USB port of a Raspberry Pi to a mount which has a 9-pin RS-232 port? Specifically, I would be trying to use a Raspberry Pi with the INDI drivers to control my Takahashi mount running the INDI Temma driver. My Tak. mount only has a 9-pin RS-232 connector.

Thanks,
-Gene

Hello Gene,

You can use any RS232 to USB adapter like this one on Amazon .

Thanks Jasim,
It's that straightforward then? I thought that running it on the Pi was going to require something special. I'm mostly a Windows user so I'm not that familiar with Linux-based OS's. Are the drivers any more difficult to install on the Raspian OS?

I would suggest you get Ubuntu Mate for Raspberry PI 3. It's plug and play after that. You can install INDI/Ekos on RPI3 via the PPA

Very good Jasem, (My apologies for misspelling you name in my previous mesage.)

Is it that simple with Ubuntu? Since I was planning on using the Raspberry Pi I was trying to keep the overhead low and use a more simple OS. I was actually thinking of just loading Raspian Lite because I didn't think I would need all of extra bells and whistles that comes with Ubuntu Mate.

Ubuntu Mate is pretty light as well, specifically designed for the Pi. The advantage is that with Ubuntu you can just update using the PPA repository instead of manually downloading and installing INDI packages. That said, I went to Raspbian anyway as updating too frequently can brake stuff.

Thanks,

Ultimately, I would like to use Raspian Lite because since I want to use the Raspberry Pi as a server only, there's no need to have the window interface. I just want to turn it on, have it autostart the INDI drivers and connect to it with KStars / Ekos on my laptop as the client. i.e., I don't intend to use a keyboard and monitor with the Pi, and I hope I won't need one. Just turn it on and go... I think it will take a while with me though since I'm completely new to all this stuff. I always wanted to find an application to use a single-board computer, so this looks like the perfect learning opportunity.

I tried a Prolific 2030 USB to serial adapter with the Pi and it worked. I found this posting in the Raspberry Pi forum (www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=146215) and was able to see the same messages that are shown after typing lsusb and dmesg commands confirming that it recognized the adapter. Lastly, I started the INDI driver to my mount (Tak. Temma), started it on my client running Ekos, and I was off to the races! :) -Too easy.

Now I'm struggling with getting my Canon DSLR to work. There's a whole FAQ on the subject, but I'm still running into difficulties. However, that will be another forum posting.

I have had a battle with serial-usb adapters and my NJP mount here. The computer in the dome is an atom based x86 unit that has one physical serial port, and when I threw up my hands, plugged the mount into that one instead of using one of the serial-usb gadgets, all my connection problems with the temma just went away. The pl-2303 adapters gave me no end of grief.

We had to take the NJP out of the dome and replace it with the EQ8 earlier this week. It was a silly problem, with an easy solution. We didn't have enough counterweights for the EQ8 to balance the big scope, but do have enough for the NJP, so the NJP came out of the dome and into the office where I'm getting the big one set up for some testing, and the EQ8 went out into the dome for the TOA-130. Problem solved.

It'll be another couple weeks before the NJP moves out to the second dome, which isn't up yet, but should be up real soon now.

Hi Gerry,

I'm sorry to hear that you had so much grief with your pl-2303 with the raspberry pi, it works great. I had no problem hooking my NJP up and it worked first try once I could confirm that the USB to serial adapter was working.