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

Bi-monthly release with minor bug fixes and improvements

Remote INDI server slow image transfer

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Hi,
I know there have been numerous discussions regarding access speed using a KStars/EKOS remote connection to an INDI server. But I have a simple issue here that I just cant explain.

In my remote observatory I have a Linux PC where I can sit and freeze running KStars/EKOS/INDI. So, remotely, on another Linux PC I can connect to the observatory (via WIFI) and work from the house. To do this I have been connecting to the observatory using SSH X11 (X windows) forwarding and running KStars as a remote desktop app. This can be fast and highly usable. However, sometimes the connection just gives up - probably due to the very high rate of traffic? So, I thought I would just try running the INDI server on the observatory PC and connect in using KStars set up to connect remotely. This works fine but the image download time is so slow i.e., 94 seconds for a 33MByte ASI1600MM image! I have checked the network speed between the PCs using iperf and it shows 40Gbits/sec. So why is it so slow to transfer?

Thanks and regards,
Dave
1 year 1 month ago #90158

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I run Kstars on PC in observatory and then connect through VNC with x11vnc. Even if connection gives up nothing happens because everything is running on observatory PC. Also I am connected through PowerLine adapter that gives me 100Mbit speed over 50m distance. So transfer of ASI1600 frame takes 3 seconds.

40Gbit?? You mean Mbit because there is no way to get that speed over wifi. Most likely you have unreliable connection which drops packets that can gives you slow transfers.
1 year 1 month ago #90163

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Thanks for your reply nou!

I had too many consoles open when testing network performance and was actually running the iperf client and sever on the same machine! So apologies for the incorrect information. The actual rate is 30-40Mbits/sec as you expected. I remotely copied a 33MByte fits file using scp, to remove all variables, and that still took 55s. So the 90s is not looking too bad now. As you indicate I will need to obtain a higher band width to work Kstars as a client into a remote INDI sever. Otherwise its remote desk topping or
run a copper cable.
1 year 1 month ago #90199

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As a follow up and for anybody else looking at this thread in the future:
I am now running Kstars on the PC in observatory and connecting in through VNC with x11vnc, as recommended by nou. This has proved to be an excellent trouble free method for access to all my scopes functionality. I would definitely recommend it to anybody looking in to the alterative methods of remote control.
1 year 1 month ago #90722

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I gave up with x11vnc, as I had too many performance issues over WAN. But Im 2 hours away from my observatory. I have been using "Chrome Remote Desktop" which also works great in linux. It does some nice compression to speed things up. Just adding this here in case someone else is struggling with a really remote setup like mine.

Really Im hoping for all features to be pushed into Ekos live, then it will be 100% browser based and mobile friendly to boot!

Thanks

Bryan
1 year 1 month ago #90923

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Hello,
I found that the performance of the remote Indi server strongly depends on the speed of the network connection. I am using a raspberry pi4 runing as Indi server and a MacBook Air running KStars as client.
I am using a dedicated Wireless router, where the PI is connected via ethernet. The Macbook is using the wireless network, provided by the router. The reason for the is, that the wireless performance of the raspberry is not the best.
With this setup, I am able to download 51MB image in about 2.5 seconds,


When using the Remote Desktop setup, I found that RDP (xrdp) on the PI and Microsoft remote Desktop client on the MAC work much better than all VNC configurations.


Regards

Dirk
1 year 1 month ago #90927

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I also run the full KStars/INDI stack on the remote telescope computer and use NoMachine to view and control what's going on there. I use powerline networking to access it from inside my home. There is no image transfer over the network until I want to download all the images captured--and usually I do that by walking in a fast USB stick--though I could transfer over the network if I wanted to wait for the gigabytes of data.

What I've learned is that the responsiveness of this remote desktop setup depends heavily on the remote computer. That is, a Raspberry Pi 4 can support it, but probably uses 75% of its available CPU doing the necessary video encoding, resulting in slower-than-ideal response times. It works, but is laggy.

A year and a half ago I went to running a faster machine at the telescope. I chose an Intel NUC 10 i7, now running Ubuntu 22.04, but there are many mini-PCs available. This made the setup much more snappy.

Hy
1 year 1 month ago #90976

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Yes, the Pi is not great if you can justify more power. I'm using a Beelink 8 core AMD Ryzen nuc computer with Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. Works great. Also it occurred to me after I posted about Chrome-Remote-Desktop, that it only works on windows/mac and linux X86_64. So it won't work on a Pi. Hopefully Google ports it to ARM64 because I'd like to install an Orange Pi 5 in the observatory; since it's off grid it should handle everything but with way less power requirements.

Bryan
1 year 4 weeks ago #90980

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Bryan,

Could you please share your insights about how you got Remote Dekstop to work?

I'm running Kubuntu on my control computer. I can setup Remote Desktop with no problem. If I go to my laptop, I "see" the control computer via the Remote Desktop software, connect to it using the password, observe KDE spinning its wheel, then a blank, black screen. I've tried all kinds of fixes suggested on the internet that involve changing internal files but none of them work.

Thanks,
Bob
4 months 1 week ago #97253

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Due to terrible performance of xrdp, I switched to vnc, and use via a browser with novnc. Works smooth for me. Im still hoping for ekos live to mature to the point where I can replace desktop use. Novnc works great on a computer but not on a phone due to scaling issues. My pixel fold in tablet mode however works fine. Hope this helps!
4 months 1 week ago #97254

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I iust reread my own post from before and had forgotten about chrome remote desktop. I also stopped using this because I kept having issues. The most stable/performant way I have found is outlined above. VNC using Novnc in the browser.
4 months 1 week ago #97255

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Did Remote Desktop work for you "out of the box" or did you have to make tweeks?

Thanks.
4 months 1 week ago #97256

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