SupersidPi now connected to supersid receiver

Mar11
by catz on March 11, 2021 at 09:23
Posted In: astronomy, tech

SuperSID receiver


Great! The experimental SuperSIDPi was connected to the SuperSID receiver yesterday morning and is now data logging real live data.
The data file is being saved to the pi and then once an hour sync’d to the file server.
It looks something like this:
#
# stations = NWC NPM NAA NLK NML
# frequencies = 19800 21400 24000 24800 25200
# transmitter lines consist of a name count of variables variable name/value pairs and then the line shape
# group = nwc 19500 20100 1
# transmitter = NWC 19800 2 f0 19800 sig 47 lambda f: np.exp(-((f – f0)/sig)**2/2)
# group = npm 21100 21700 2
# transmitter = NPM 21400 2 f0 21400 sig 47 lambda f: np.exp(-((f – f0)/sig)**2/2)
# group = naa 23600 24400 1
# transmitter = NAA 24000 2 f0 24000 sig 47 lambda f: np.exp(-((f – f0)/sig)**2/2)
# group = group2 24350 25800 2
# transmitter NLK 24800 2 f0 24805 sig 47 lambda f: np.exp(-((f – f0)/sig)**2/2)
# transmitter NML 25200 6 f0 25200 sig 49 f1 f0+3.8*sig f2 f0-4.0*sig sig2 0.38*sig g np.exp(-((f – f0)/sig)**2/2)
# transmitter = NML 25200 2 f0 25200 sig 72 lambda f: OrthPoly.silineshape((f – f0)/sig)**2
#

00:00.3 -7.3 2.762 1307.5 -1.338
00:05.8 -11.72 2.886 1269.8 6.3
00:11.3 -11.42 -18.14 1180.9 -3.74
00:16.8 -30.63 4.21 1211.6 9.27
00:22.3 -14.54 -4.95 1132.8 -6.41
00:27.8 -11.79 22.66 1131.9 6.18

Now we have to look at python code to generate graphs, annotate NOAA data and start uploading to the cloud database again.

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supersid pi project failure 2020Feb Notes

Feb26
by catz on February 26, 2021 at 14:41 and modified on February 26, 2021. at 15:20
Posted In: astronomy, tech

These are the notes we made during another attempt at replacing the windows netbook running supersid v1.2.2 with a raspberry pi project.
This would hopefully use less power (up to $0.36/kwh during peak time of use here at upto 40 watts all year long comes out as $82/year), hopefully not loose a days worth of data if the data logger stopped, stop the ever decreasing Y axis power intensity over time, and we hoped to get better graphing than our own ‘R’ code was doing.
Sample screen capture of power density averaging negative over time

In the end this failed, we think to multiple complex library dependencies failing to install.

Sunday 2020 Feb 16
* supersidpi project

From Eric Gibert
https://github.com/ericgibert/supersid

Objectives
Monitoring the Sudden Ionospheric Disturbances (SID) is an easy yet exciting Home Based Radio Astronomy Project. This project is an implementation of Stanford SOLAR Center’s SuperSID.

The default SuperSID project software runs on Windows OS to record the pre-amplified signal received by the antenna with a “SuperSID Monitor”.

This SuperSID project is an Open Source implementation that runs on Linux and Windows. The scripts are executable by Python 2.7 and Python 3, at your choice.

This SuperSID includes a text mode which allows to turn your Raspberry Pi in a SID monitor (tested on Raspbian Wheezy & Pidora distro). TkInter in the default GUI to ensure Python 2 and 3 compatibility (but wxPython is still supported for Python 2 only).

supersid.py:
More options in the [configuration file (.cfg)] (docs/ConfigHelp.md)
Continue recording after interruption
Auto adjustment of the interval period for better accuracy
New extended file format with time stamp to the 1.000th of second
sidfile.py can be used as a utility to manipualte SID files

supersid_plot.py:
Accepts multiple files to display up to 10 days in continue (wildcards possible)
Can connect to NOAA to draw the day’s events
Can send the graph as PDF by email

pi@supersidpi:~/supersid $ pwd
/home/pi/supersid
pi@supersidpi:~/supersid $ ls -l
total 144
drwxrwxrwx 2 pi pi 4096 Jan 5 09:28 backup
drwxrwxrwx 2 pi pi 4096 Jan 5 09:41 Config
-rw-rw-rw- 1 pi pi 5287 Jan 5 09:42 confighelp.txt
-rw-rw-rw- 1 pi pi 12085 Jan 5 09:48 config.py
drwxrwxrwx 2 pi pi 4096 Jan 5 09:29 Data
-rw-rw-rw- 1 pi pi 5090 Jan 5 09:49 ftp_to_stanford.py
-rw-rw-rw- 1 pi pi 985 Jan 5 09:47 _getch.py
-rw-rw-rw- 1 pi pi 4941 Jan 5 09:49 logger.py
-rw-rw-rw- 1 pi pi 6599 Jan 5 09:50 NOAA_flares.py
-rwxrwxrwx 1 pi pi 1439 Jan 5 09:25 Note.txt
drwxrwxrwx 9 pi pi 4096 Jan 5 09:34 pyaudio
-rwxrwxrwx 1 pi pi 4703 Jan 5 09:25 ReleaseNotes.txt
-rw-r–r– 1 pi pi 10819 Jan 5 09:51 sampler.py
-rw-r–r– 1 pi pi 26754 Jan 5 09:52 sidfile.py
-rw-r–r– 1 pi pi 5426 Jan 5 09:52 sidtimer.py
-rw-rw-rw- 1 pi pi 1384 Jan 5 09:43 supersidonraspi3.txt
-rw-rw-rw- 1 pi pi 10512 Jan 5 09:45 supersid.py
drwxrwxrwx 2 pi pi 4096 Jan 5 09:45 v1.2.2

pi@supersidpi:~/supersid $ python supersid.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “supersid.py”, line 21, in
from matplotlib.mlab import psd as mlab_psd
ImportError: No module named matplotlib.mlab

Time synchro over the Internet: ”” sudo apt-get install ntpdate ntp ”” Follow tutorial at https://victorhurdugaci.com/raspberry-pi-sync-date-and-time
Virtualenv management for Python:
sudo apt-get install virtualenv
This Raspi 3 is dedicated to SuperSid or you do not plan to mix various libraries: install at system level all the libraries.
sudo apt-get install python3-matplotlib
sudo apt-get install libasound2-dev
sudo pip3 install pyalsaaudio
pip install matplotlib

many minutes go by

The configuration file is a simple text file formatted as a classic ‘.ini’ structure i.e. sections with squared brackets and a list of pairs ‘key=value”
The supported sections are:
PARAMETERS
STATION_x where x is a number in [1..n]
Capture
Email
FTP
Monitor Identification
contact: email or phone number of the SuperSID owner. Mandatory
site_name: unique identification of the SuperSID monitor. Mandatory
monitor_id: unique id to distinguish the monitors running on one site
longitude: in decimal form
latitude: in decimal form
utc_offset:
time_zone:
Log Parameters
audio_sampling_rate: 48000 or 96000 (you can experiment with other value as long as your card support them)
log_interval: number of second between two reading. Default is ‘5’ seconds. Reading/sound capture last one second.
log_type: filtered or raw. When filtered is indicated, bema_wing function is called to smoothen raw data before writting the file else in raw mode, captured data are written ‘as is’. Note that sidfile.py can be used as an utility to apply ‘bema_wing’ function to an existing file (raw or not) to smoothen its data.
data_path: fully qualified path where files will be written. If not mentionned then ‘../Data/’ is used.
log_format:
sid_format: one file per station with first data column as timestamp and second data column as captured value
supersid_format: one file for all station. No timestamp but one data column per station. Each line is log_interval seconds after the previous, first line at 0:00:00UTC.
supersid_extended: one file for all station. First data column is extended timestamp HH:MM:SS.mmmmm and following data column as one per station.
hourly_save: yes / no (default). If yes then a raw file is written every hour to limit data loss.

FTP to Standford server
Version 1.4: FTP information are no longer part of the [PARAMETERS] section. Refer to the [FTP] section below.

Extra
scaling_factor:
mode: [ignored] Server, Client, Standalone (default) . Reserved for future client/server dev.
viewer: text for text mode light interface, wx for wxPython GUI or tk for TkInter GUI (default)
bema_wing: beta_wing parameter for sidfile.filter_buffer() calculation. Default is ‘6’.
number_of_stations: specify the number of stations to monitor. Each station is described within its own section.
## [STATION_x] ## Each station to monitor is enumerated from 1 till n=*number_of_stations*. For each station, one must provide: * call_sign: Station ID (various VLF station lists exist like [AAVSO’s] (http://www.aavso.org/vlf-station-list) and [Wikipedia’s] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Very_low_frequency#List_of_VLF_transmissions)) * frequency: emission frequency in Hz * color: [rgbyw] to draw multiple graph together in *SuperSID_plot.py*.
## [Capture] ## This section can be omitted if you plan to use the ‘pyaudio’ library. If you want to use the “alsaaudio” library then you can declare: * Audio: python library to use **alsaaudio** or **pyaudio** (default), **server** reserved for client/server future dev. * Card: [for alsaaudio only] card name for capture. Default is ‘External’. * PeriodSize: [for alsaaudio only] period size for capture. Default is ‘128’.
## [Email] ## The ‘supersid_plot.py’ program can send you an email with the attached plot as a PDF file. In order to use this feature, you must provide the information necessary to contact your email server as well as which email to use. * from_mail: sender’s emai * to_mail: recipient’s email * email_server: email server to use (SMPT) * email_login: [optional] if your server requires a login for identification * email_password: [optional] if your server requires a password for identification
## [FTP] ## Group all parameters to send data to an FTP server i.e. Standford data repository. * automatic_upload: [yes/no] if set to ‘yes’ then trigger the FTP data upload * ftp_server: URL of the server (sid-ftp.stanford.edu) * ftp_directory: target folder on the FTP server where files should be written (on Standford’s server: /incoming/SuperSID/NEW/) * local_tmp: local temporary directpry used to write the files before their upload * call_signs: list of recorded stations to upload. Not all recorded stations might be of interrest: list only the most relevant one(s).
supersid.cfg
[PARAMETERS]
viewer = text
site_name = EXAMPLE
monitor_id = SAMPLE1
contact=ericgibert@yahoo.fr
longitude = 103.8
latitude = 1.367
utc_offset = +08:00
time_zone = SGT
audio_sampling_rate = 48000
log_interval = 5
log_format=sid_format
log_type = filtered
scaling_factor = 1.0
hourly_save = YES
data_path = /tmp/Data
number_of_stations = 2
[STATION_1]
call_sign = NWC
color = y
frequency = 19800
[STATION_2]
call_sign = VTX3
color = k
frequency = 18200
[Capture]
Audio=alsaaudio
#Card=External
Card=ICH7
PeriodSize = 128
[FTP]
automatic_upload = no
ftp_server = sid-ftp.stanford.edu
ftp_directory = /incoming/SuperSID/NEW/
local_tmp = /tmp
call_signs = NWC
pi@supersidpi:~/supersid $ df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/root 14G 5.8G 7.6G 44% /
devtmpfs 459M 0 459M 0% /dev
tmpfs 464M 0 464M 0% /dev/shm
tmpfs 464M 6.3M 457M 2% /run
tmpfs 5.0M 4.0K 5.0M 1% /run/lock
tmpfs 464M 0 464M 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/mmcblk0p1 253M 53M 200M 21% /boot
tmpfs 93M 0 93M 0% /run/user/1000

python supersid.py
pi@supersidpi:~/supersid $ python supersid.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “supersid.py”, line 21, in
from matplotlib.mlab import psd as mlab_psd
File “/home/pi/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/__init__.py”, line 133, in
from matplotlib.rcsetup import defaultParams, validate_backend, cycler
File “/home/pi/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/rcsetup.py”, line 31, in
from matplotlib.fontconfig_pattern import parse_fontconfig_pattern
File “/home/pi/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/fontconfig_pattern.py”, line 28, in
from backports.functools_lru_cache import lru_cache
ImportError: No module named functools_lru_cache

pi@supersidpi:~ $ pip install “backports-functools_lru_cache”
Looking in indexes: https://pypi.org/simple, https://www.piwheels.org/simple
Collecting backports-functools_lru_cache
Using cached https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/da/d1/080d2bb13773803648281a49e3918f65b31b7beebf009887a529357fd44a/backports.functools_lru_cache-1.6.1-py2.py3-none-any.whl
Installing collected packages: backports-functools-lru-cache
Successfully installed backports-functools-lru-cache

try again 11:51
python supersid.py
failed
ImportError: No module named functools_lru_cache

pi@supersidpi:/ $ find . -iname functools*
./usr/lib/pypy/lib-python/2.7/__pycache__/functools.pypy-41.pyc
./usr/lib/pypy/lib-python/2.7/functools.py
./usr/lib/python2.7/functools.pyc
./usr/lib/python2.7/functools.py
./usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/mypy/typeshed/stdlib/2/functools.pyi
./usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/mypy/typeshed/stdlib/3/functools.pyi
./usr/lib/python3.7/__pycache__/functools.cpython-37.pyc
./usr/lib/python3.7/functools.py
./home/pi/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/backports/functools_lru_cache.pyc
./home/pi/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/backports/functools_lru_cache.py

sudo cp -auvx python2.7/* /usr/local/lib/python2.7/
sudo pip install lru_cache
pi@supersidpi:~/supersid $ sudo pip install functools_lru_cache
Looking in indexes: https://pypi.org/simple, https://www.piwheels.org/simple
Collecting functools_lru_cache
Could not install packages due to an EnvironmentError: 404 Client Error: Not Found for url: https://pypi.org/simple/functools-lru-cache/
sudo pip install backports_functools_lru_cache
Looking in indexes: https://pypi.org/simple, https://www.piwheels.org/simple
Collecting backports_functools_lru_cache
Downloading https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/da/d1/080d2bb13773803648281a49e3918f65b31b7beebf009887a529357fd44a/backports.functools_lru_cache-1.6.1-py2.py3-none-any.whl
Installing collected packages: backports-functools-lru-cache
Successfully installed backports-functools-lru-cache
failed failed failed

start ALL over
Latest image downloaded as .ZIP: 2017-09-07-raspbian-stretch.zip Download and use the easy tool to write this image etcher. Highly recommended. Boot on the new micro-SD card, follow normal process for any fresh system install.
Execute the classic:
firmware upgrade
apt-get update and upgrade
This Raspi 3 is dedicated to SuperSid or you do not plan to mix various libraries: install at system level all the libraries.

““
sudo apt-get install python3-matplotlib
sudo apt-get install libasound2-dev
sudo pip3 install pyalsaaudio

remove microsd card and place into anker usb adapter. run balena etcher, select s:\2018-10-09-raspbian-stretch-lite
flash
reassembled back in observatory
dhcp new address of
raspberrypi 192.168.1.23

* supersid pi – new install of raspbian stretch lite with balena etcher onto 16GB microsd
raspiconfig, enable vnc and ssh, reinstall in scgo and turn on
remote ssh to 192.168.1.23
change password to house
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/root 15G 1.3G 13G 9% /
devtmpfs 460M 0 460M 0% /dev
tmpfs 464M 0 464M 0% /dev/shm
tmpfs 464M 12M 452M 3% /run
tmpfs 5.0M 4.0K 5.0M 1% /run/lock
tmpfs 464M 0 464M 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/mmcblk0p1 44M 23M 21M 52% /boot
tmpfs 93M 0 93M 0% /run/user/1000
reboot
ssh 192.168.1.23

sudo apt-get install libasound2-dev
sudo apt-get install ntpdate ntp
ok
sudo pip3 install pyalsaaudio
pip3 not installed
sudo apt-get install python3-matplotlib
pip3 not installed
sudo apt-get install python-pip
still no pip3
try again
sudo apt-get install python3-pip
get supersid-master.zip
unzip supersid-master.zip
cd supersid/Config
vi supersid.cfg
cd supersid
python supersid.py
pi@supersidpi:~/supersid/supersid $ python supersid.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “supersid.py”, line 23, in
from matplotlib.mlab import psd as mlab_psd
ImportError: No module named matplotlib.mlab
sudo apt-get remove python3-matplotlib
sudo apt-get install python3-matplotlib

pi@supersidpi:~/supersid/supersid $ python supersid.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “supersid.py”, line 23, in
from matplotlib.mlab import psd as mlab_psd
ImportError: No module named matplotlib.mlab
sudo pip install matplotlib
RuntimeError: Python version >= 3.5 required.
—————————————-
Command “python setup.py egg_info” failed with error code 1 in /tmp/pip-build-oaTHq2/matplotlib/

$ sudo rm python
pi@supersidpi:/usr/bin $ sudo ln -s python python3.5
ln: failed to create symbolic link ‘python3.5’: File exists
pi@supersidpi:/usr/bin $ sudo ln -s python3.5 python
sudo pip install matplotlib
Requirement already satisfied: matplotlib in /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages
pi@supersidpi:/usr/bin $ sudo pip remove matplotlib

pi@supersidpi:~/supersid/supersid $ python supersid.py
Reading supersid.cfg …[‘../Config/supersid.cfg’]
SuperSID initialization

———————————————————————-
Site: SCO Monitor: 9193
———————————————————————-
F) save Filtered buffers
R) save Raw buffers
E) save Extended raw buffers
———————————————————————-
C) list the Config file(s) parameters
V) Version
?) display this menu
X) eXit (without saving)
———————————————————————-
ALSA lib confmisc.c:767:(parse_card) cannot find card ‘ICH7’
ALSA lib conf.c:4528:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_card_driver returned error: No such device
ALSA lib confmisc.c:392:(snd_func_concat) error evaluating strings
ALSA lib conf.c:4528:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_concat returned error: No such device
ALSA lib confmisc.c:1246:(snd_func_refer) error evaluating name
ALSA lib conf.c:4528:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_refer returned error: No such device
ALSA lib conf.c:5007:(snd_config_expand) Evaluate error: No such device
ALSA lib pcm.c:2495:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM sysdefault:CARD=ICH7
From Sampler object instance:
Could not open capture device. Please cError alsaaudio
No such device [sysdefault:CARD=ICH7]
To debugg: remove the try/except clause to get detail on what exception is triggered.
Traceback (most recent call last):

FAILED FAILED FAILED…
put it all back on a shelf

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SuperSID Raspberry Pi SUCCESS!

Feb23
by catz on February 23, 2021 at 08:38 and modified on February 26, 2021. at 14:21
Posted In: astronomy, tech


After the last failure of trying to get python data logging code onto a Raspberry Pi 3B and failing with the latest Raspbian Buster OS (20210111), we decided to try using an older starting point, namely Raspbian Buster OS (20190926).
Spoiler: IT WORKED!

How to:
Download the Raspberry Pi Raspbian Buster OS from 20190926, or any other older one that uses ALSA for the audio server.

We then flashed it to the 16GB microsd card using balena etcher … that took about 10 minutes.
That was installed into the raspberry pi along with an HDMI video cable, an ethernet network cable, a USB mouse and keyboard and the USB audio adapter, and started up.
After configuring a new password, configuring location and language and keyboard, we then went into the builtin apps to the raspberrypi config menu and enabled SSH and VNC.
Note: we did NOT do any operating system upgrades at this time, fearing that perhaps the ALSA sound system would be replaced in the update.
We were able to SSH in remotely using a windows program called putty, and also from another linux server.
Great. Remote access up and running!
Now lets try remote graphical desktop access. We fired up a REALVNC viewer and successfully connected to the graphical remote desktop.
The USB sound card/adapter was plugged in this whole time.
We got it from amazon.ca for approx $18. there is little to no info on the actual chipset inside of it.
“Daffodil US01 USB External 7.1 Channel Sound Card / Audio Adapter / Plug and Play / Microphone (Mic) In and 3.5mm Speaker Out – For Windows XP / VISTA / 7 ”
This was the most complex part of the whole project… getting the audio to work with the python code that we could find… we needed a MIC analog input.

On the audio icon of the pi desktop, we looked and saw the USB sound interface, chose the input “analog”, selected the mic input and ran it up to 100, and checked the the AGC (Auto Gain Control) was off.
This was much more promising than last time.

From the graphical remote desktop we opened a command terminal and issued the following commands

sudo apt-get install software-properties-common
sudo apt-add-repository universe (this failed)
sudo apt-get install python-pip (this was already installed)
python -m pip install -U pip
sudo apt install python3.7 python3.7-dev python3.7-venv (these were already installed)
sudo apt-get install python3-pip (this was already installed)
sudo apt-get install python3-numpy (this was already installed)
sudo apt-get install python3-matplotlib
sudo apt-get install libasound2-dev
sudo apt-get install python3-alsaaudio
sudo apt-get install python3-scipy

this tells us about the sound system
arecord -L

the important bit here with our specific USB adapter was:
plughw:CARD=Device

From the user pi home directory /home/pi we extracted the SIDMON software by Nathan Towne. The sidmon.tar.gz file was downloaded from
https://myplace.frontier.com/~nathan56/ using the pi chromium browser.
tar xf sidmon.tar.gz
then we needed to copy the python scripts from /home/pi/sidmon/src/ to /home/pi/sidmon using the command
cp src/*.py .
We then edited the Header.txt file, thinking it is the main supersid config file.
Ours looks like this now:
We chose to monitor/configure only the strongest station at this time.

pi@raspberrypi:~/sidmon $ cat Header.txt
# Site = SCO
# Contact = xxx xxx@xxx.com
# Longitude = -76.76
# Latitude = 44.37
# monitor_id = ####
# the integration time
# loginterval = 5.0
# orientation is ~70 degrees
# Stations = NAA
# Frequencies = 24000
# groups and transmitters 2021feb22
# transmitter lines consist of a name, count of variables, variable name/value pairs, and then the line shape
# group = naa, 23600, 24400, 1
# transmitter = NAA, 24000.0, 2, f0, 24000.0, sig, 47.0, lambda f: np.exp(-((f – f0)/sig)**2/2)

After that it was time to fire it up and see if it worked. And it did! every 5 seconds it would take a reading, log it to a log file and also generate a graph!
./sidmon.py -d plughw:CARD=Device -lp 1

There is a lot more work to be done, like seeing if it successfully connects to NOAA to annotate flares, sunrise, sunset info onto the graph, if it generates any graphs locally, to set up routines to backup the data to our house server, to set it up as a service, so that it will autostart on raspberry pi powerup, and to see if it survives an operating system update and upgrade (ie sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get upgrade), and lastly, to see if it autouploads the data to the Stanford Data Repository.

There are many other features and command line parameters in the documentation, which we will have to figure out.

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Raspberry Pi SuperSID

Feb21
by catz on February 21, 2021 at 13:32 and modified on February 23, 2021. at 08:31
Posted In: astronomy


Here we go again.. another attempt at building a SuperSID Monitor and data logger on a Raspberry Pi computer.
Current running on a netbook with Windows 7, the netbook is old, often forgets is drive and crashes, and most importantly, the data being logged by the provided supersidv1.2.2 software seems to have a decreasing averaging issue. After a few days the Power Spectral Density (db/Hz) seems to go down to zero and then into negative numbers.

This graph was captured just after a restart. All of the Y axis values look good, ie well above zero!
So.. the SuperSID on a raspberry Pi project begins again!
We have a Raspberry Pi 3B, a 16GB microsd card, a USB External 7.1 Channel Sound Card

We went to https://www.raspberrypi.org/software/operating-systems/#raspberry-pi-os-32-bit and downloaded Raspberry Pi OS with desktop Release date: January 11th 2021 Kernel version: 5.4 Size: 1,171MB.
It was extract to a 4GB .img image file.
We then flashed it to the 16GB microsd card using balena etcher … thattook about 10 minutes.
That was installed into the raspberry pi along with an HDMI video cable, an ethernet network cable and the USB audio adapter, and started up.
After configuring a new password, configuring location and language and keyboard, it started an OS update. That took about 20 minutes, and rebooted.
We then went into the builtin apps to the raspberrypi config menu and enabled SSH and VNC.
We were able to SSH in remotely using a windows program called putty, and also from another linux server.
Great. Remote access up and running!
Now lets try remote graphical desktop access. We fired up a windows VNC viewer (ultraVNC v1.2.2.4) but that failed with a “no supported authentication methods” error.

**UPDATE***
Got it! Apparently all VNC is not alike. To access the Raspberry Pi Raspbian Buster VNC server, one MUST use the RealVNC client/viewer… NOT ultravnc which has been my default.
Awesome! Now we have full graphical desktop remote access to a linux install!

**UPDATE** After a few more hours of installing libraries, dependencies and packages, and trying to troubleshoot, we concluded that using Raspbian buster 20210111 with the PulseAudio sound server, would *NOT* work with the existing python code, which was designed around the older ALSA sound system.

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Mars and Uranus 2021Feb03

Feb07
by catz on February 7, 2021 at 10:23 and modified on February 7, 2021. at 10:34
Posted In: astronomy

We successfully imaged the planet Uranus back on 2021Jan24.
At that time, an out of focus image helped to identify the planet showing a greenish cast. The most recent image was infocus, as we were pretty sure how to identify Uranus.

For planets, it is always a good idea to revisit them a few days later to ensure a positive ID by their movement across the background of stars.
This is an image from 2021Feb03, 10 days later.
I have also discovered that Irfanview can annotate circles onto the image, as wel las text annotations.

This is a 30 second exposure with a Canon T7i with a 75-300mm zoom lens at 75mm f4, 1600 ISO, on a tripod, with a 2 second timer.

Below is a closeup of Uranus in the two images.

2021Jan24

 2021Feb03
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Home air filter

Feb07
by catz on February 7, 2021 at 09:56 and modified on February 7, 2021. at 09:58
Posted In: life the universe and everything, tech

CBC Marketplace had an interesting segment this week, on home air filters.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/portable-air-purifier-tests-marketplace-1.5900782

Interesting as well because we had built a DIY air filter a month or two ago:


Unlike the one featured on Marketplace, ours featured two filters to provide for more airflow, lessening the load on the fan motor.

In any event, their testing showed the most expensive Dyson (at $800), was one of the worst performing. The smallest unit was the worst performing on the CADR scale, a combination of how well it filters and how much air it moves.

Our DIY unit came in the middle of the pack but at the absolute lowest price. It’s airflow is pretty high, so I suspect it lags a little in the filtration arena.

Ours used an existing box fan and the purchase of two furnace filters from Home Depot for approx $20 each.
Our history with air cleaners in the past was that when it came time to purchase a new filter, they had gone out of production and you could not get them at all. Meaning the entire $100+ air cleaner was useless. Hence the DIY design. furnace filters will never go out of production.

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ISS 2021feb06

Feb07
by catz on February 7, 2021 at 09:29 and modified on February 7, 2021. at 09:31
Posted In: astronomy


The International Space Station passed over our location last night.. a low pass, peaking at 24 deg altitude. The issue was twilight… it was not dark enough to use a full 30 second exposure nor a higher ISO to capture more background stars. So we have to lower the ISO and exposure to a compromise. This chart is from heavens-above.com, the premium satellite pass prediction website.

Below are three images, each a 20 sec exposure, showing the ISS coming low out of the west, heading SSE.

This is taken with a Canon T7i DSLR on a tripod, using a 2 second timer.. and it was about -8C with a good stiff wind.


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Home Automation

Feb01
by catz on February 1, 2021 at 13:19 and modified on February 1, 2021. at 13:47
Posted In: life the universe and everything, tech

Home Automation has always been a goal… automating, making more convenient, better information and better control. Over the years we have tried many items. The very old X10 power system worked well enough at the time, but intermittent faults (lights coming on in the middle of the night come to mind), and failing modules led us to removing the entire system decades ago. Wifi webcams were a good idea, but not the way they were implemented, requiring a connection to a 3rd party external server and usually with $subscription$ required as well. So that came down.

This is the latest product that we have tried out and to date (about one year), it has worked as intended.
SENSKY 8.2ft/2.5M Motion Activated LED Strip Light Kit (3000-3500K).
At about $25Can these are much less than most lighting fixtures but more than an LED bulb…
If they last more than a few years, it will be a bonus.
As well, standard 12VDC power supplies can easily be replaced as well as component parts of the motion sensor or switch.

We installed the first test in the laundry room, with the motion sensor pointed at the door and a lengthy 5 minute timeon after triggering. The LED light strip is self adhesive and was placed so as to not shine in anyones eyes.
We loved it. The cats loved it (that’s where their food and litter were.. so a little more lighting at night was good for them too).

So, locations that would nice to be handsfree included places where your hands may have been full, dark sunglasses on and you can’t find the switch, etc. We tried this next on the front door closet. Awesome… before it had no lighting at all and you could rarely see inside of it. Then followed the kitchen pantry cupboard. Again, no lighting at first, then a rope light that was not too bright and the switch was often hard to manipulate. Now, an 8′ lighting strip provides excellent lighting coverage and motion sensor switch detection. Love it!
All of these were installed with a manual on/off switch as well, if for instance the motion sensor ran amuck and constantly turned on the lights. That has not happened yet.
The bedroom closet (again no previous lighting) was installed next.. no motion sensor on this one as it would be triggered constantly.. just a manual switch.
Lastly another storage space, under the stairs, that had no lighting, is no wonderfully lit with a motion sensor.

There appears to be no more low hanging fruit of locations to install into. We previously had another manufacturers 15′ strips installed in unheated spaces outside. Coming up on 3 years now and a lot of the LED segments have blown out. Unsure if it is because of the uncontrolled environment (hot and cold) or because it is 15′ long instead of 8? Once they get to the point of needing replacement we will compare them to the current set and choose then.

All of the new indoor sets were lower colour temperature (a warm yellow of 3000 to 3500 deg K) rather than the other bright blue white 6000K ones. The blue white is quite harsh at times.

If you are considering any home automation, ensure that you do *NOT* require the use of an outside provided. Wink, a home automation provider, just went down, stayed down and is suspected of bankruptcy. Oh, guess what? none of the equipment in your home works anymore! Revolve was bought out by Nest (owned by Google) in 2014. Nest then shut down its 3rd party servers. In 2019 Nest itself shut down in August. Keep the control inside your home borders!

In general, the above mentioned automation project involves seldom used dedicated spaces/functions.

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Mercury 2021 Jan 23

Jan25
by catz on January 25, 2021 at 17:15 and modified on January 25, 2021. at 17:16
Posted In: astronomy

This is an image of Mercury, at its Greatest Eastern Elongation on 2021 January 23rd, looking West Southwest.
At the time this image was taken, Mercury had a magnitude of -0.67 and an altitude of 7 degrees 4 minutes,
This was a 6 second exposure at 400 ISO at 75mm on a Canon 5-300 zoom lens and Canon T7i camera.

We were outside earlier trying to spot it visually. It wasn’t until almost 45 minutes past sunset that we did spot it.
As it turns out, the camera did find it first but we did not know that at the time.

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Mars and Uranus 2021 Jan 24

Jan25
by catz on January 25, 2021 at 17:04 and modified on January 25, 2021. at 17:07
Posted In: life the universe and everything

This is a size reduced annotated image of the planet Mars and the planet Uranus on the COLD! evening (-16C) .
Mars (top of image) was placed nicely overhead and was Magnitude 0.3 and Uranus (bottom of image) was Magnitude 5.7. THey were approximately 2 degrees 41 minutes apart at the time of this photo.
Uranus being out of focus, made it much easier to identify, what with the telltale colour of a bluish green, totally unlike any star. As was the 30 second exposure to have the colour trail out behind each of the planets.

This was taken with a Canon T7i DSLR camera on a tripod with a 30 second exposure at ISO 800, f5.6 with a Canon variable zoom lens 75-300mm.

Another shot taken at 1600 ISO had much too bright of a background, making Uranus actually harder to see than at 800 ISO.

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2021jan08 – 3 planet conjunction

Jan10
by catz on January 10, 2021 at 12:26 and modified on January 13, 2021. at 21:13
Posted In: astronomy

We searched out via google maps for a location with a good horizon to the southwest. Tonight was going to be the first clear evening in days.. weeks almost!

We stayed outside in the -4C to -6C for about an hour waiting for it to get dark enough. The sun set was at 16:45 and we were on Bethel Road, very close to Rose-Maries brother? The view was almost perfectly to the horizon.. almost.

Kim was using a telescope and binocs, I was using two DSLRs, one with a 300mm telephoto zoom lens and the other a 500mm f8 lens.

The 500f8 did not work out at all.. much too dark/slow for that and the old canon 300D camera.

The telephoto zoom however worked quite well. Jupiter was near mag -2, Mercury near -1 and Saturn near +1 with Jupiter highest at 5 deg 44min, then Saturn at 4 deg then Mercury at 1 deg 44 minutes above the horizon.. very very low.

This is the best image to come out of that observing session, taken at 17:23 EST, the best combination of sky darkening and Mercury still being high enough not to go all atmospheric extinction on its

I used MS Paint to annotate the name, magnitude and altitude onto the image.. hmm. Once set you cannot go back and edit the text! Grr.

We were going to head out again tonight, but the clear dark skies that were forecast, aren’t clear or dark.

It was great! If not for the cold… getting too old for this *$@(&@. The sunset was gorgeous

See the tweet from the field:

20210108_172321_CanonT7i_1T125s_F5.0_f155.0mm_ISO1600.jpg-IMG_2828annotated.jpg

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winter comes

Jan07
by catz on January 7, 2021 at 15:04 and modified on January 7, 2021. at 15:04
Posted In: life the universe and everything

And just like that it is 2021, start of a new year and a new decade.
These are the days… of binge watching television series.
So far:
Brave New World – Season 1 – thumbs up. interesting and just a little different
Letterkenny – Season 9 – undecided – better than season 8
temple – season 1 – tumbs up – a nice british paced series with Mark Strong
the mandalorian – season 2 – thumbs up – hitting its stride a little better
young sheldon – season 4 – thumbs up- season not complete
curse of oak island – season 8 – thumbs down – oh my god.. find something or go home!
yellowstone seasons 1-3 – thumbs up – who would have thought that we would like a right wing extremist show about cowboys?
trickster – season 1 – thumbs up – another differently paced canadian series
truth seekers – season 1 – undecided – who would have thought that nick frost and simon pegg could be humdrum?
war of the worlds 2019 – season 1 – undecided – slow in places, strange in others. lack of english subtitles made it difficult to understand.
star trek discovery – season 3 – undecided – really wonder about the writers in most episodes. totally bad pacing, totally inappropriate character speaches to each other while the ship is burning.. etc. etc..

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