Proper Way to Connect ASI Camera to Linux System? (ASI120, RP 3)

Runsva

I recently got my hands on a ZWO ASI120MM Camera, and I wanted to connect & take picutres with it using a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B computer via a USB cable.

After searching online, and reading the ASI Cameras Linux Manual from ZWO, it appears to me that one of the ways to record an image from this camera is to use the OaCapture software.

The OaCapture software is supposedly available from the Open Astro Project page, however in the Downloads section of the webpage, there does not appear to be a version of the software available for my RP OS version (I have Raspian 11 Bullseye, and on the site they only go up to Raspian 10). Moreover, the download links listed in the Downloads section themselves do not appear to work. Clicking on any of them either results in nothing, or a plain text page of a compiled binary.

I managed to find a supposed upload of the OaCapture software on GitHub, and I downloaded it onto my RP. This appears to be a CMAKE project, and according to the INSTALL file inside the GitHub project, I'm supposed to run the ./configure command in the Linux terminal on the RP while in the source directory of the project. However, upon running the ./configure command in the terminal, it prompts me with an unrecognized command error. I noticed that there is an autoconfigure file inside the directory with the filename configure.ac, so I thought of installing the autoconfig library to my RP. That, however, yielded no results either.

I'm quite a bit confused at this point, as to how I'm supposed to be able to take pictures from this camera.
Is there a different download source for the OaCapture software?
Am I attempting to install the GitHub repository incorrectly?
Is there an entirely different program that I should be using for this? Perhaps OaCapture isn't maintained anymore?

Also, I want to eventually be able to control the camera through a protocol of some sorts, without a GUI interface. I noitced that in the Linux Manual from ZWO there are mentions to the INDI protocol, supposedly used for controlling the camera. Is there a more detailed guide somewhere out there on how to use this protocol, or some other one, for controlling the camera without a GUI interface, solely via the USB cable?

Thanks for reading my post, any guidance is appreciated.

w7ay

Runsva take picutres with it using a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B computer via a USB cable.

A possibly easiest path for you is to run INDIGO Sky on your Raspberry Pi . Although the latest version is really happier with Raspberry Pi 4 than Raspberry Pi 3, there are older versions that will run on Raspberry Pi 3, since you won't need the latest drivers, etc, and it is a really small sensor we are talking about; not much data to handle.

INDIGO Sky is available free as a SD card firmware that you can flash yourself. Like NOOBS, the image file is compressed and the first time you run the microSD card, it expands the partitions to proper sizes for you -- so the downloads are relatively small.

INDIGO Sky then appears as an INDIGO server on an INDIGO bus when you run some other INDIGO client software (like the INDIGO Dashboard, which is even avalable for downlad at the macOS App Store). INDIGO Dashboard for example, will allow you to connect to the camera and take an image, and save it to your desktop computer as a TIFF or FITS format file.

It does not have fancy GUI, but I take it that all you are looking for is a conduit to grab inages from the camera.

INDIGO Sky can even be configured through a web interface (using a Bonjour address, so you won't even need to know its IP address). Connect the Raspberry Pi to the home network for best throughput, or using WiFi station mode after you configure it as such.

https://www.indigo-astronomy.org/indigo-sky.html

You can also check GitHub and find lots of documentation, and source code and example code etc, in case you are interested in writing your own INDIGO client software.

https://github.com/indigo-astronomy/indigo

Good luck.

Chen

franco

Runsva However, upon running the ./configure command in the terminal, it prompts me with an unrecognized command error. I noticed that there is an autoconfigure file inside the directory with the filename configure.ac, so I thought of installing the autoconfig library to my RP. That, however, yielded no results either.

Did you try running autoreconf -i ?

The ASI SDK contains a demo video capture program. Not sure if I've built and run it in the past. There's also a asi_camera_test.cpp in the indi-asi package, I used it as a basis for a CCD simulator which runs on a RPi.

Runsva

w7ay
Thank you for yor reply;

I'm a bit confused by the intended usage of INDIGO. From the way you worded it, it makes it sound likes it's a program that will need the internet to function, correct?
I'm also using the mounted SD card, to load the RP OS, so I can't really unplug it from my RP. Otherwise I can't boot into my system.

I just want to be able to take an image from the camera. That's it. I tried downloading a program called KStars, however I can't take any images with it because it asks me to put it some information about what sort of atronomical equipment I'm using for a supposed telescope. I don't have any of that, I just want to take an image with the camera.

w7ay

Runsva it makes it sound likes it's a program that will need the internet to function, correct?

Not is the simplest case.

INDIGO servers (one or more) are tied to an Indigo Bus. When used that way, devices such as cameras and filter wheels and telescope mounts that are connected to different Indigo servers all appear to indigo clients that is also connected to this "bus."

However, the bus can consist of a single Indigo server (for example, just your Raspberry Pi).

You can take images on that Raspberry Pi (server) and download them to your desktop computer (client). The camera can be outdoors, for example, while your desktop computer is connected to it wirelessly to the Raspberry Pi's hotspot if there is no existing network.

Or, the client can even be a web browser on the Raspberry Pi itself; in this case, the server, client and bus all live on the Raspberry Pi.

The simplest client is just a Web Browser connected to the http server on the Indigo server. In the browser interface, you can connect a camera, take images, and either keep them on the server, or upload it to the client.

Chen