woohoo - *working* EQ6 control under linux/wine

[rmuhlack]

Yesterday:
"Ascom/EQMOD doesn't work either natively under linux or under wine."
- Challenge accepted.

Today:
Fresh install of U12.04 on a spare pc (an old P4)
Install wine 1.5


Then under wine:

Install Microsoft .NET 2.0 (sp1 and 2), .NET 3.0 (sp1 and 2) and .Net 3.5 (this is now supported in Wine 1.4 and 1.5)
Link ttyUSB0 (in my case) to COM1 in dosdevices (drivers for the EQDirect cable already included in U11.10 onwards)
Install Ascom Platform 5.5 (tried Platform 6 but couldn't figure out how to get through the install without crashing, probably cos i couldn't get .NET 3.5 sp1 to finish installing either))
Install EQDir, EQMOD suite, Stellarium (for windows), StellariumScope
To test - Fire up StellariumScope, connect to scope on COM1 (success), open stellarium, select random object, hit ctrl-1 and watch the mount slew from one side of the room to the other and then engage siderial tracking.

Booyah!

:cool:

[2stroke]

this should be a sticky, would help out the osx guys as well :)

[rmuhlack]

getting PHD guiding to work together with EQMOD under wine is the next challenge. I'm using a QHY5 guidecam, so im hoping i can get everything to play nicely

[2stroke]

Worst case its vmware ect :)
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/c.rogers/QHY/index.htm

[rmuhlack]

proof that it actually works

[baileys2611]

Hi Richard - do you mean symbolic link and do you have any special method other than sudo ln -s (etc etc)?

[rmuhlack]

pretty sure that sudo ln -s <etc> was how I did it.

[Astroman]

Well done Richard, this should open it up for more users now. Well done!

[malclocke]

Hi Richard,

Interested in hearing about your setup with Linux as I may be embarking down this road soon hopefully.

Have you looked at lin_guider for guiding? http://sourceforge.net/projects/linguider/

[rmuhlack]

Because I couldn't find a way to get PHD to work I didn't progress it any further at the time and instead continued to use my win7 installation of EQMOD/PHD/BYE out in the field.

However i'm now contemplating options involving a Pandaboard ES or Beagleboard xM that I can leave permanently attached to the mount. I've read that Kstars / Ekos allow for telescope control, imaging and guiding via the INDI protocol. Don't think there is any support yet for PEC or automated dithering between subs, but I'm keeping a close 'watching brief' on this space.

[steve000]

sigh linux users.

Meanwhile in windows where I just install, plug and play...

Seriously though im just messing. A mate of mine got it working on OSX i'll see if I can get some details from him or get him to post it.

[malclocke]

Raspberry PI looks like another potential platform for a standalone guider, and I think cheaper than a beagle board?

http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/5369851/page/0/view/collapsed/sb/5/o/all/fpart/1

[2stroke]

Great work there Richard, its good to see you are using linux and going a different route. Will have to get a distro back on one day to play with again, lol the last one besides a quick bash in hardy was mandrake that i really used as a primary os. I can't see why they haven't ported PHD yet because all the works really done, maybe some x window managers could be an issue :/

[peeb61]

Nice one Richard,
I have been playing around with this for some time, installed PHD no problems but Ascom was the hurdle, moving on....

Paul