Small form PCs

[pmrid]

Raspberries and ASUS boards are being discussed here as having a useful role in various roles associated with scope control and imaging. Not being familiar with Pi boards and the like, I have taken the cowards option of an Intel Compute Stick. And I must say, the current device is significantly better than its predecessor of a couple of years back. The one I bought uses a Quad Core Atomx5 x5-Z8300 Processor (2M Cache and RAM 32GB).

I was unsure whether the software I planned to run on it would actually load on an Atom processor but I'm happy to say it does - Cartes de Ciel, MaximDL6, SharpCap and Olympus Capture (with live view). All run smoothly and I am delighted. I haven't done a live test of the device at the actual scope yet - and the weather gods seem determined that won't happen for another week or more. But it is likely I will be able to run at least Maxim with a guide cam and Olympus Capture. I'm determined to give my OMD-EM1 and run at the scope. It may not work out but what the hell!!

Peter

[RickS]

You took the right option since you want to run Windows/x86 software, Peter. ARM CPUs are good if you're working with Linux and open source apps.

Good luck. I'll watch with interest :thumbsup:

Cheers,
Rick.

[Camelopardalis]

Peter, I run the "big box" version (Intel NUC) with the same CPU and it runs like a charm. I run PHD2, APT/SGPro, Carte du Ciel, and EQmod. While imaging, I measured power consumption with an inline watt meter inline and found it was consuming a huge 2W while imaging ;) the cooler on my camera consumes significantly more...