Testing of board version 1.0 is progressing well. I have identified a couple of issues and changes needed to make things easier for testing/debugging and enhance functionality (you can follow development in the repo). In the meantime I am re-evaluating some of the assumptions around the needed functionality (especially for the presence of RTC since we will be having a GPS so...) but would like the input on those from as many possible users as possible.

If you can spare 2 minutes, you could help me by going to this survey link:

>> forms.gle/2hAYnpcskWXV3MWS9
and answer to some quick (choice) questions.

Thanks a lot in advance for everyone's input!

Filled in and submitted form for you
Supeb project

Submit

Done.
thank you for your initiative , ppapadeas.

Thank you all for replying on the survey!

Here are some quick results from it:



Based on this feedback and fixes from v1.0 I went ahead and released a v1.1 version of Astrohat.

Major changes:
- Removal of RTC since it is expensive to do it right and people should connect a GPS (or get time from Kstars) anyway
- Formal adherence to the RPi HAT specifications to make software development and user experience much easier (EEPROM FTW!)
- Various component fixes on issues identified from v1.0

here is a pic of what v1.1 looks like


As I write this reply, v1.1 PCBs are in production and will soon be in my lab to continue testing.

Hi,
Waiting for that...good job!

Best regards

I’m late to this party, but I am quite interested in the progress. I’ve been mulling over RTC vs GPS on my Rock64. I already made an Arduino GPS gadget for my Celestron mount.

Good morning, sorry for my english. My name is Ettore and write of Italy, i am interested to HET for my Raspberry PI4.

Hi Folks,
I hope this promising project is still growing ! I'm very impatient to see the final version.
Clear Skies
Franck

Hello everyone!

This is a bit of an update on my side:

Version 1.1 arrived and got assembled. All worked as expected and I can safely say that I am not expecting any major revisions for the schematic and electrical connections. There might be slight updates for component placement since I identified some things that could be done better.
Perhaps most importantly for version 1.1 is the fact that the EEPROM on the HAT works like a charm, meaning that the RPi on boot can identify that there is a HAT with specific needs present and assign quickly the right parameters on all peripherals and GPIOs. I am genuinely impressed by the cleanliness of the EEPROM solution for the HAT since it makes development and usage from end users so much easier.

Due to COVID-19 and some personal family priorities I had little progress on the software development for the past 2 months and things will be slow for the next month too. Since the hardware development is verified though I am inclined to send a board or two around to any takers that can commit on contributing for the software side of things. (@knro Jasem I am looking at you

Thanks for all your supportive messages and thanks for tagging along in this journey. Hopefully we will have something that all people can use soon!

Here is a picture of the v1.1 assembled and under testing

This is fantastic ! I hope you can continue with the work soon and the time comes for us to enjoy it and for you that finally the ingenuity, the time and the economic investment are gratified.