Stellarmate, who’s using one?

Andy01 (Andy) · #1 08-05-2019, 08:51 AM

Hi team,
Anyone tried one of these yet? https://stellarmate.com/
Looks like a viable alternative to SGP for Mac & Linux users.

Auto focussing, plate solving, camera control, filter wheel control, pointing, meridian flips, guiding & polar alignment all pre-loaded via Indi, Ekos & Kstars on a Raspberry pi for under $200 US.

Keen to hear from anyone who’s tried one out.

netwolf · #2 08-05-2019, 04:36 PM

It would be cheaper to buy your own rpi and load there software , the stellermate os is 49$
Btw The zwo asiair is the same oem unit but zwo have customised it . I was looking at theirs as they have better app to control the whole imaging guiding process from tablets.

Spartacus · #3 08-05-2019, 10:59 PM

Hi Andy,

This link gives step by step instructions how to configure a RPi from scratch.
https://indilib.org/support/tutorial...ete-guide.html
I run my KStars/EKOS/INDI on an Odroid and find it works well but it needs a certain amount of technical knowledge and persistence. The advantage with Stellarmate is the user interface, less steep learning curve and support, as Jasem can remote into the Stellarmate to troubleshoot difficult problems.
Let's face it it is still cheap. ASI is similar but I thought that it did not support motor focus and generally it's device support is not as wide as Stellarmate. It is also quite a bit more expensive ($269 on Bintel). However it has a nice intuitive interface.
Hope this helps

Mike

Andy01 (Andy) · #4 09-05-2019, 08:48 AM

Hi Mike & Fahim,
I’m a mac user for a good reason, I’m creative foremost & not especially technical. That said I’ve managed my AP ok manually thus far...

I’m keen to at least partially automate the process, specifically autofocus, platesolve & meridian flip.

So I’m looking for an out of the box, ”it just works” solution.
Then again, I may be dreaming, this is AP after all!

The_bluester (Paul) · #5 09-05-2019, 07:50 PM

If a partial moon Saturday (Where I can't do anything of note with the OSC cam) looks promising maybe come out and I can set up a proper profile in SGP with all the drivers we need and we can give that a good workout rather than the mad rush it was on the weekend to see if we can get it connected in the most basic sense.

Andy01 (Andy) · #6 10-05-2019, 08:34 AM

Er, no - Sunday is Mother’s day- my marriage would be unlikely to survive if I did that!

The_bluester (Paul) · #7 10-05-2019, 03:27 PM

I think the weather forecast means we are both pretty safe anyway, though I did not mean this weekend specifically.

Spartacus · #8 10-05-2019, 09:11 PM

Hey Andy,

If you make it to Qld Astrofest there will be a few people using Stellarmate or at least KStars on RPi. You could judge for yourself if it's right for you.

Mike

Andy01 (Andy) · #9 10-05-2019, 09:28 PM

Hi Mike,
Yep, thanks- you’re going to see (& hear) me there- looking forward to it!

Cheers
Andy

phomer (Paul) · #10 12-05-2019, 08:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andy01

Hi team,
Anyone tried one of these yet? https://stellarmate.com/
Looks like a viable alternative to SGP for Mac & Linux users.

Auto focussing, plate solving, camera control, filter wheel control, pointing, meridian flips, guiding & polar alignment all pre-loaded via Indi, Ekos & Kstars on a Raspberry pi for under $200 US.

Keen to hear from anyone who’s tried one out.

Andy,

Stellarmate is the easiest way for a non technical user to run INDI on a Raspberry Pi.

It can be controlled wirelessly from a Mac using VNC which is already installed on your Mac as "Screen Sharing".

It is probably set up to run under Ubuntu Mate, which is a particular flavour of Linux. I prefer Raspbian but you would need to set this up yourself and although doable it is not a straightforward exercise and well outside your area of expertise, unless you have recently taken up programming.
You can also run INDI on a Mac but I have not tried this.

There are a number of advantages running this on a Raspberry Pi and controlling it remotely.

$50 computer exposed to the weather
much lower power requirement
small footprint that can sit on the mount
wireless access

For a Mac or Windows user this is unfamiliar territory so there is a learning curve associated with setting it up but the Stellarmate option makes this a lot simpler.

INDI itself is fantastic, it has progressed rapidly over the last few years as support for most astronomy gear has been added and the interface has been improved.

Paul

Andy01 (Andy) · #11 12-05-2019, 02:08 PM

Sounds great Paul- are you using one yet?
Keen to hear from other users too

Cheers
Andy

billdan (Bill) · #12 12-05-2019, 07:15 PM

Andy, Astro Imaging Channel has a Q&A video on YouTube with Jasem Mutlaq, developer of INDI, KStars, and StellarMate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkgwY_KsBjc&t=85s

The_bluester (Paul) · #13 12-05-2019, 07:18 PM

If I had a spare Pi we could have a crack at a homebrew job Andrew. I might buy another in a week or two, I need another one sooner or later to be a media center PC.

phomer (Paul) · #14 22-05-2019, 11:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andy01

Sounds great Paul- are you using one yet?
Keen to hear from other users too

Cheers
Andy

Andy,

No, I am not using one but I am using the equivalent of one - a Raspberry Pi 3 with INDI installed. Having built it myself I have set it up for my own use but I believe the Stellar Mate is going to be similar. I do like the name, it sounds very appropriate for use in Australia

.

Paul

RugbyRene (Rene) · #15 07-06-2019, 02:32 PM

Hi,

I'm using one. Actually it's an ASIAIR (which I don't like) that I've re-purposed as a Stellarmate by burning the SM image onto a mini SD card.

I love it. It's an affordable way to get remote access to my imaging rig (especially as it's cold these days).

As for KStars/Ekos, I love it and can't believe it's basically free (unless you bought the SM image, which isn't all that much).

The software is incredible powerful and feature rich and has a very active development community. There is a very active forum which puts you in direct contact with the developers, including Jasem. There are very helpful YouTube tutorials, hosted by Jasem. You can download stable builds or nightly builds (less stable).

The only thing I will say is that as it's such a feature rich piece of software, there is a very steep learning curve. But anyone who has used astrophotography software in the past will pick it up fairly quickly.

I love it as it's a Swiss army knife. It does everything.

Hope this helps.

Rene

Andy01 (Andy) · #16 11-06-2019, 08:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RugbyRene

Hi,

I'm using one. Actually it's an ASIAIR (which I don't like) that I've re-purposed as a Stellarmate by burning the SM image onto a mini SD card.

I love it. It's an affordable way to get remote access to my imaging rig (especially as it's cold these days).

As for KStars/Ekos, I love it and can't believe it's basically free (unless you bought the SM image, which isn't all that much).

The software is incredible powerful and feature rich and has a very active development community. There is a very active forum which puts you in direct contact with the developers, including Jasem. There are very helpful YouTube tutorials, hosted by Jasem. You can download stable builds or nightly builds (less stable).

The only thing I will say is that as it's such a feature rich piece of software, there is a very steep learning curve. But anyone who has used astrophotography software in the past will pick it up fairly quickly.

I love it as it's a Swiss army knife. It does everything.

Hope this helps.

Rene

Thanks Rene, I’ll have to check put those YouTube tutorials then, cheers!