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INDI Library v2.0.6 is Released (02 Feb 2024)

Bi-monthly release with minor bug fixes and improvements

New Astroberry user, getting used to bleeding edge options

  • Posts: 219
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After a year of using KStars/Ekos from a Mac, I've decide to move all the software to a Raspberry Pi 4b (4Gb/64Gb). I've installed Astroberry 2.0.3, updated all the software, connected to the OnStep generated HotSpot and now I'm running KStars/Ekos from inside the raspi controlling the OnStep mount, a Canon EOS DSRL and a ASI120MM guide camera. So far, so good. This deserves an initial thank you to @Kaczorek and @knro to have build this beautiful system.

Now, some questions, because I've still some rouge edges in my setup.

1. The most recent KStars version installed by astroberry is 3.4.3. Unfortunately this version has an incompatibility with OnStep and each time I try to park or unpark the mount, KStars crashes. I'm now that is fixed on nightly builds and I've seen that I can install kstars-bleeding package to get the most recently version. But what I don't understand yet is if is posible to have both version installed in parallel: the most recent oficial one and the nightly. If it is how? and if it's nor posible, could it be posible to switch between them? (install/uninstall the other one).

2. Same situation for FireCapture. Currently in Astroberry is version v2.6 and I'm used to the v2.7beta, because on this new version I can control the mount using INDI driver and I can activate autoguiding to keep the planets inside the small ROI. By the way, version v2.6 crashes just after I finish recording any video.

3. Similar scenario for Siril. The version included on Astroberry is very old. On the last year they have changed completely the layout and improve a lot of functions. Currently there is a 0.99.4 beta, but is not available neither.

4. On other kind of problems... I tried to install a beautiful planetary stacker known as PlanerarySystemStacker. It could be installed using pip3 (is a Python program), but when I try to install it on astroberry I receive a very strange error message

I mean it's seems strange, because I've follow this procedure to install it on some macOS machines.

And that's all, a lot of doubts from a noob user very impressed for that he has seen until this point. Thanks again for building it
3 years 6 months ago #60283

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Re 1: You can compile and install software in parallel using alternative location (not possible if you install from binary packages). Standard would be /usr/local/ instead of /usr/ - this will keep separate version of software for you with executable file located in /usr/local/bin/
Re 2: Astroberry provides stable versions only. Firecapture 2.7 will be available when release reaches stable status (not beta). However you can uninstall v2.6 and install 2.7beta manually
Re 3: Siril is not included in Astroberry image ;-) How did you get it?
Re 4: I was not aware of PlanerarySystemStacker. Looks nice indeed. I was trying to install it on my ubuntu desktop and... ended up with similar errors. I would suggest to report this as a bug on PSS github.

Last but not least, welcome to open source astronomy! Share your experience with other users and enjoy!
3 years 6 months ago #60292

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Re 1. And once I have override the official one with my own compilation... how can I recover it? :D . Today I've been using 3.5 current branch (now OnStep is working fine)
Re 2. I was not able. Any general guide on how to manage software in teneral on Debian?
Re 3. It's available on the standard raspberry distribution: if you go to the software update GUI tool and search for it, you will receive and old version :)
Re 4. Nice to have show you something new. I has been using it for the last 4 months on Mac with very good results. Jupiter, today, capured with a Maksutov 127mm and an ASI120MM. FireCapture v2.6 running on AstroBerry. Latter I've transfer the files to a Mac and processed using PlanetarySystemStacker:


Thank you for the warm welcome :)
3 years 6 months ago #60309
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Progress report:

1. I've been able to compile and run KStars/Ekos 3.5.0 beta (master branch) without any difficulties, so now, OnStep is working again.

2. On FireCapture front, there is no public repo, so I can't try to build it. I've been talking with Torsen Edelman (the author of FC) but there is no plan to publish noting on RP until the official v2.7 is out.

3. Siril. Yesterday I was able to compile and run version 0.99.7 (bleeding edge master branch). It's a pleasure to have an astronomical oriented image processing software running on Astroberry (on the image, the real thing after preprocessing, registering and stacking 30 raw files)



4. PlanetarySystemStacker. I've opened a ticket on the official repo. The author asked for collaboration (nobody has a RP4 apparently) and I've started to work on it. Currently my main problem is that "mkl" seems not be available on Raspberry platform. On this topic, your help will be more than welcome.
3 years 6 months ago #60465
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Why running Siril and PSS on the RP4? Both programs are quite computational intense. I usually run it on a more powerful machine. Well, only a laptop, but I am already considering to switch from 8GB to 16GB RAM. The latest Siril feels slower. Maybe due to the internal 32bit float representation.

PSS also uses a lot of RAM. I hardly managed to process a recording of Mars with 5000 frames at 640x480 on my 8GB laptop.

Otherwise I am currently stuck with the same issue: Broken INDI with OnStep driver in stable. Currently I am too lazy to built INDI/Kstars from scratch and hope the fix will soon find its way into stable.

CS
Guido
3 years 6 months ago #60691

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why? well, why not?. More seriously, I know that they are resource intensive, I'm using them for almost a year now. My point is that is very useful to be able to perform a quick and dirty process while you are in the field adquiring images, to check the quality of the data when you have still the capability to apply fixes.

Currently Sirl works very nice on the RP4. In fact, the GUI is snappier on the PR4 than on my MacBookPro. The main problem is the micro SD writing speed. I've tried it with a SSD drive on the RP4 and the behaviour is amazing good. In fact, if you go to the Sirl forum you can see that one of the main developers use a RP4 as his main development computer.

PSS is a very different beast. it will be really useful when adquiring planetary videos. but it needs a lot of RAM. And this is a problem. Current Astroberry is based on a 32bits OS, so any process can access to more that 2Gb RAM. And PSS needs more.So I've almost abandoned this route.

Thanks for yout thoughts
3 years 6 months ago #60697

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Why are you not using 64 bit Ubuntu on an RPi4 with 8 GB RAM?

I was intrigued by your post, so I tried to install PSS. I am currently stuck at the level where PSS complains that my Ubuntu OS has Python 3.8.2, but it wants Python 3.5<= and <3.7. I need to figure out how to compile the package in a venv without messing up the rest of my fantastically well working Kstars installation. Then I will give it a try.
Keep me posted how it goes for you.

Jo


PS: BTW, Planetary Imager on an x86 mini PC is a definite other option. I have been using that for 2 years, but have not yet figured out either how to compile the binaries for the arm64 architecture. Definitely more complicated than Kstars.
Last edit: 3 years 6 months ago by Jose Corazon.
3 years 6 months ago #60728

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In the beginning I've a very reduced knowledge about Raspberry ecosystem, so I've choose the most beaten path: RPI 4B with 4GB and Astroberry 2.0.3 as a stable, tested platform. Latter, for some comments here, I learned about Ubuntu 64bits and started to investigate: it's beta (this for an operating system is more serious that for a single app), it has a lot of rough edges. I've read the comments about it from a SiriL's team developer. It prefers to keep on 32bits Debian because the instabilities of the 64 bits Ubuntu.

PSS looks like a dead end. I've been talking with the developer and after solving almost all the dependencies I've started to see runtime errors. You can follow and contribute to de discussion on this GitHub issue: github.com/Rolf-Hempel/PlanetarySystemStacker/issues/28

For capturing planetary images, I'm using FireCapture that is currently available on arm. By the way, which kind of mini PR are you using?
3 years 6 months ago #60772

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I am a noob as weel, when it comes to Linux commands. Could you explain me how you manage to do that, step by step, if possible? I too would like to have the bleeding edge version of things.

Also, did you manage to keep the two installations separate? Just in case the new version proves too bugged and I would like to launch the older version.

Thanks!
3 years 6 months ago #60783

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Sorry perhaps my comments are misleading: I'm not a noob Linux user. I'm only a newcomer to the Raspberry platform, but with a long history of working with macOS, Linux and Windows development environment. Only the Raspberry (ARM) particularities are new to me.

So, for compiling KStars/Ekos, I just go to the repository, clone it and follow the instructions on the README.md document. No change is needed. If you want to keep the origina distribution, you can configure your own build to use another path on this command
cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo ../kstars

For example, you can use
cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/home/astroberry -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo ../kstars

for a comple local build for this user
3 years 6 months ago #60786

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My apologies, I meant no offense.

Thank you for the explanation, I'll see what I can do!
The following user(s) said Thank You: Rafa Barberá
3 years 6 months ago #60787

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Oh, no, no offense at all. Sorry, I was trying to explain that is not an easy task for a completely noob Linux user. If you are trying to compile a program on this systems you need to feel reasonable comfortable with some basic tools: shell command line interface, apt package distribution subsystem, git for source code management. Without a basic understanding on all those tools it will be a very frustrating experience.

For example, for KStars, if you follow the steps defined on the GitHub repository one by one, almost sure it will compile and install. But this is not usually the case and then you need to know something more about how the OS is structure, which tools do you can use and all this stuff.
3 years 6 months ago #60789

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