ASIAIR Connection to another indiserver: Page 2

ASIAIR Connection to another indiserver

franco

Had a go at chaining the indiserver on the ASIAir but although I saw the connection on the remote server, the ASIAir just kept saying the mount wasn't connected.

So I changed tack. I started an SSH tunnel to the Air for port 7624 and now it's using my remote indiserver.

On my desktop machine I started the tunnel like so, you can add -N so ssh doesn't log in

franco@opti:~$ ssh root@asiair -R7624:opti:7624
Linux asiair 4.19.97-v7l+ #1294 SMP Thu Jan 30 13:21:14 GMT 2020 armv7l

I started the indisever on the desktop running the simulator

franco@opti:~$ indiserver -v indi_simulator_telescope
2022-07-23T05:22:37: startup: indiserver -v indi_simulator_telescope
2022-07-23T05:22:37: Driver indi_simulator_telescope: pid=3233791 rfd=3 wfd=6 efd=7
2022-07-23T05:22:37: listening to port 7624 on fd 4
2022-07-23T05:22:37: Driver indi_simulator_telescope: HaAxis: TrackRate 1, trackingRateDegSec 15.041067 arcsec
2022-07-23T05:22:37: Driver indi_simulator_telescope: snooping on GPS Simulator.GEOGRAPHIC_COORD
2022-07-23T05:22:37: Driver indi_simulator_telescope: snooping on GPS Simulator.TIME_UTC
2022-07-23T05:22:37: Driver indi_simulator_telescope: snooping on Dome Simulator.DOME_PARK
2022-07-23T05:22:37: Driver indi_simulator_telescope: snooping on Dome Simulator.DOME_SHUTTER

I then selected the Demo Interface as the mount on the ASIAir app

2022-07-23T05:22:52: Client 0: new arrival from 10.7.114.21:56946 - welcome!

And that was it, all working.

Here is port 7624 on t he ASIAir connected to the ssh tunnel

root@asiair:~# netstat -p | grep 7624
tcp 0 0 localhost:7624 localhost:51528 ESTABLISHED 6014/sshd: root@pts
tcp 0 0 localhost:51528 localhost:7624 ESTABLISHED 766/zwoair_guider

This is to prove there's no indiserver running on the Pi.

root@asiair:~# ps -def | grep indi

Obs30

franco Thank you for testing all of this! This is great progress! I had no time yet to continue testing on my side. I hope I get around to it this weekend.

Obs30

franco So cool :-)

I could kind of get it to work with the ssh port tunnelling 😄

I had to first kill the indiserver on the Air, otherwise I keep getting "Warning: remote port forwarding failed for listen port 7624". After I killed the indiserver, this warning disappeared.

In my case I am working on a MacBook Pro. I am using KStars/EKOS to start the local indiserver with the mount/telescope simulators (i.e. remote demo telescope for the Air). Then using the Demo Interface on the Air, any change in the Asiair App is popping up in the log console in EKOS 😃.

I said "kind of", because "indiserver -v indi_simulator_telescope" from the command line does not work with the KStars/EKOS drivers on macOS... but using the KStars/EKOS GUI works. I guess this is specific to how the drivers/executables are setup in KStars under macOS.

Will try this later on the actual mount Pi later this week.

Obs30

franco Even the ASIAIR SkyAtlas works with the Demo Mount :-) Slewing to a target changes the coordinates and crosshair in EKOS and KStars, respectively.

gutaker

@franco How did you manage to get root on asiair?

franco

gutaker lots of guides out there on the internet but it goes without saying that it's entirely at your own risk.

franco

Obs30 I had to first kill the indiserver on the Air, otherwise I keep getting "Warning: remote port forwarding failed for listen port 7624".

The mount toggle in the app starts and stops the indiserver on the Air so it just depends on the order you do things. I believe if you start the tunnel before you toggle on the mount, the ZWO script that starts the indiserver will silently fail but things will still work.

Obs30

w7ay Thank you for the extensive explanations! I have to check out this handshake protocol. This might be the actual problem, why the mount is not "recognised". Great hint!

Obs30

Hi... tunnelling worked, but the mount coordinates did not synchronise nor did the mount move when I used the SkyAtlas function. IP and port address were correct. Very weird. I used the Demo Interface on the ASIair.

Above I stated that the mount accepts the LX200 Basic driver... this is actually only partially true. The indiserver of the mount also launches the indi SkySafari client/driver ("tommyGoodBoy") upon startup. I just realised that the Asiair actually connects to this driver via port 9624 and not the actual mount driver (port 7624). I confirmed this with the INDIGO Control Panel.

So back to square one... or maybe two ;-).

Could I extend the SkySafari driver to support all the commands of the mount?

franco

Obs30 this is my very basic understanding of how the indiserver works. I have written a client for the ccd_simulator but not for a mount but I would assume they work the same way.

Each driver has a baked in set of properties or capabilities. When the client connects to the server, it can read these properties to determine how to talk to the driver. The driver properties should conform to a standard so the client (in this case the ASIAir) doesn't really need to know any specifics except for how to make the initial connection, ie serial or ethernet so that it can prompt the user.

You said you used the Demo interface on the Air, this will not work if the driver name doesn't match the driver attached to the remote indiserver. You can see the actual driver names listed in the drivers.xml file ( I think that's the correct file name) included in the libindi package. You can change this file on the Air to add a new driver.

I tested the tunnelling with the EQMod driver on the Air and it worked fine. The EQMod driver has a built in simulator. It also has an option to use ethernet which you can set from the indi control panel in Ekos. I haven't tried this but it might give you a clue as to how the app behaves when setting an IP address for the mount rather than the default serial connection.

Obs30

franco I might need to look into the driver programming. I would prefer, however, that the manufacturer of the mount would do this. They programmed the original indi driver for the Pi on the mount. I will check with them.

I will check, which driver commands for the mount are standardized. It might be possible to make some adjustments to the SlySafari client …

Yes, the driver.xml is probably the way to go for me…

As for the tunneling… it all worked with the demo drivers and the ethernet address in EKOS. But once the mount was connected… the syncing did not work anymore. I will need to double-check this.

Thank you everyone for all of your help. This is highly appreciated!

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