I have a problem with the camera and computer combination in the title.
I can take a few images with the camera, but after a few it stops downloading and just starts retrying the image over and over.
The log shows the error "org.kde.kstars.indi: ZWO CCD ASI183MM Pro : "[DEBUG] ASIGetExpStatus failed (0). Restarting exposure... "

I've tried with a powered hub with no luck, in fact it made things fail quicker. Although I only have a USB2 hub to try.

The camera works fine with an x64 laptop running ubuntu, but not the SBC running armbian.

Has anyone had similar issues with ZWO cameras on the NanoPi?

This seems to be a problem with both the NanoPi-M4 and the NanoPC-T4 friendlyelec SBCs.
indilib.org/forum/general/5272-nanopi-ru...294mc-pro.html#39792

I have the NanoPC-T4 and it also does what you describe, I'm using an ASI294MC Pro camera. I've tried many things over the last few months but nothing completely fixes it.
The camera works fine via usb 3.0 on my linuxmint 19 pc and I also have an AX5 Max tv box that works fine via it's single USB 3.0 port.
Fortunately connecting to one of the USB 2.0 ports on the T4 works fine, just a bit slower, but that doesn't help you as I believe all your USB ports are 3.0
Is it possible to add a usb 2.0 port via gpio on the Nanopi?
I wrote Friendlyelec support about this problem about a month ago and they replied they would look into it. Haven't heard anything yet, send them a note, maybe it will move any fix a bit higher on thier priority list.

That's a pain, I'll have to look into adding a USB 2 port via GPIO if it's even possible.

The annoying thing is that my ASI120MM works perfectly on the NanoPi USB3 ports.

I'll try to contact FriendlyElec, I'm not sure how good their support is though

It's a perfect little computer for this otherwise.

That could indeed by also my problem:

www.indilib.org/forum/focusers-filter-wh...ars-3-3-3.html#41792

I made the exact same observation: ASI120MM works perfectly, ASI1600MM getting stuck after 1 or 2 images. I never moved passed the focuser, though, I was ascribing the bad behavior to the focuser module, not to the USB3 ports in my NanoPi-M4, which I did not suspect, since the port connects the mount, focuser, guide cam, filter wheel and main imaging camera through a single powered USB hub without any problem. All other components seem to work.

I guess what I need to do is test whether the guide module in KStars 3.3.3 is working normally with the ASI120MM. If it does, then the misbehavior is clearly not the problem of the guide module, but of the port, as you describe.

Thanks for this informative report!

Jo

I see the focuser problem on my SBC mini-pc as well where it used to work on the same hardware so I still suspect a bug in the focuser module. I will finally create sensible logs for this tonight.


Wouter

I see that FriendlyElec do an addon HAT for the M4 that adds more USB3 ports and headers for USB2.
www.friendlyarm.com/index.php?route=prod...oduct&product_id=264

That might solve the problem, either with more power for the USB3 ports or by allowing me to use the USB2 ports.

I'll have to see if I can order one from somewhere in the UK

I don't see how that would be a solution. All my USB input goes into a powered hub and from there to the USB3 ports on the NanoPi. Everything else continues to work fine, e.g. the ASI120 guide cam continues to feed images, FW stays connected as does the mount.
I would expect them to drop out as well, if the USB port cannot provide enough power and therefore drops the connection.

Why only the ASI1600MM?

I found this post on the ZWO forum talking about a similar issue on a Rock64. Looks like it may be a kernel problem

bbs.astronomy-imaging-camera.com/viewtop...f=29&t=8253&start=20

Unfortunately all the OS images for the M4 seem to be based on the 4.4 kernel (FriendlyDesktop, Armbian Buster and Armbian Bionic), I'm not sure how easy it is to update the kernel on Armbian

It definately looks like a kernel problem. I had a play with a dev version of Armbian Bionic that uses kernel 5.0.0 and the camera ran perfectly, at least for the quick testing I was able to do.

With the default 4.4 kernel I could only take 2 or 3 images before it would stop. With 5.0.0 it never stopped, I was even able to loop images and start the video streaming too.

Unfortunately the dev versions of Armbian don't include a desktop, I was able to install enough for testing Ekos but it wouldn't have been useful long term. I wonder whether it will be easier to try to install an updated v4 kernel into the existing desktop Armbian install, rather than trying to install a desktop into what looks like very much a beta dev branch running v5.

Cracked it!!

I built the dev branch of Armbian from source, installed that and it worked.
The camera works almost perfectly, occasionally I get a message, seemingly from the driver itself that it can't connect, but unplugging the camera and plugging it back in again fixes that every time, and then it runs fine after that.

The only problem with the OS that I've come across so far is that the WiFi driver appears to be missing. Wired networking is fine though.

Does anyone know what driver the WiFi uses on these boards?
Please could someone do an "lsmod" and find the WiFi driver name, as I can't find out what it's called without going back to an old installation.

If you do an lspci then you should be able to find out which WIFI card you have and you can search for the driver.

lspci returns nothing at all, I've never seen that before