Hi!

I am developing a DIY remote observatory, controlled by a RaspberryPi 4B and several microcontrollers. The observatory is in a remote location with no access to main electricity and thus, one of the requirements it is that it must run on batteries. In addition, I am trying to avoid wires, by using ESP8266 microcontrollers and connecting by WiFi. In order to save battery, I am trying to optimize the use of devices, and switch them off when they are not required.

I know that connecting devices to the RPi by wire will save more battery, but it will be a nightmare on cabling. Using WiFi is a bit in contradiction with the battery-efficiency, but I will give a try.

Having a look at INDI drivers code, I realized they mainly use a continuous polling to get status, so it is to difficult to keep the devices saving energy, since they are waken up every 1-2 seconds.

I was considering that it will be interesting exploring how to connect and disconnect devices in the middle of a session. For example, the dome, dustcap, etc... I am considering this sequence:

1. Switch on the power of all devices
2. Start kstars and ekos,
3. Open an ekos profile,
4. Ekos connects to devices,
5. Start session by opening the dome.
6. Once dome is open, switch off dome controller to save power
7. Once dome is required again, switch on dome controller and reconnect to ekos.

Same applies for dustcap or any other driver that will be used just once or twice on the session.

Do you think that it will work? I didn't make any test yet, I will try it in a couple of weeks.

Any other approach for saving battery is also welcome!

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If you're looking for reliability then nothing beats the reliability of cables (at least today). You can conceivably do this for dome:
1. Power on dome
2. Connect Dome driver
3. Perform dome action
4. Disconnect Dome driver (e.g. indi_setprop MyDome.CONNECTION.CONNECTION.DISCONNECT=On)
5. Power off the dome

Now the dome is no longer accessible in Ekos, but if you don't need it then it doesn't matter. Once you need it, you can power it on and then issue a connect, e.g.

Same for Dust cap (assuming it's not actuated in the session for darks/flats..etc)

Thank you!

I know wire is more robust but I would like to reduce the amount of wiring. Wireless comes at the expense of more battery, but anyway, I will give WiFi a try.

I am planing to use it for the dome and dust cap, that are used very little during a session, so I expect it will not interfere among other devices.

In the case of the dust cap, it probably requires another approach, as you said, they may be required during a session in case flats or darks are scheduled. In that case, I should orchestrate it properly.

I was more concerned about Ekos requiring the devices to be active during a session, due to any rule. I have seen this flag on the dome to lock it to the mount and the other way around, lock the mount so the dome is open before unparking the mount. In the case of this lock, I think I should run it this way:
1. Power on dome
2. Connect Dome driver
3. Perform dome action
4. Unpark the mount.
4. Disconnect Dome driver (e.g. indi_setprop MyDome.CONNECTION.CONNECTION.DISCONNECT=On)
5. Power off the dome

Will step 4 work as expected? Or should I configure the mount and dome to be unlocked each other?