34 replies to this topic

[fmendes]

Aaaahhh, read a little about Tycho Tracker. It runs on Apple silicon, so maybe you have a chance with a Mac Mini M4 and Indigo A1. It is small and fast. 

[TheRoadRanger]

An N100 with 16GB of ram is capable of running PI. On mine I do mostly flats inspection and live stacking with EZ Processing Suite. But if you're expecting to do WBPP, it won't be a good suggestion.



I believe he means 2 TB. But if it won't work for you, doesn't matter.



You do not need remote desktop to access your files remotely. You can share the mini PC drive, and from the other PC, you access it through something like //mini-pc/drive_letter. It is slightly faster than remote desktop. But I don't know about that NEO.

I believe a powerful mini PC will have similar performance as a notebook, except for GPU-optimzed tasks (I don't know any small mini PC with a GPU). And I wouldn't leave a powerful (and expensive) mini PC outside subject to dew, rain and sprinklers.

I use RD for control when I’m configuring nina etc!! I use file explorer -> network etc to transfer files via my main desktop screen haha

I might see if I can install Tycho Tracker on the N100 and operate it while Nina is doing its thing as well to see what happens!!

I personally would leave an expensive mini pc outside with the scope!! If it’s fanless, the heat generated keeps the dew away nicely and I’d say even with fans, the case may get warm enough to not dew up!! We don’t run sprinklers so don’t need to worry about that and I’d only run the expensive mini pc if I was going to be awake all night ….. just in case it rains

[LauraMS]

Hi all

Just purchased a second astro camera to get my second telescope imaging up and running so in the market for another mini pc!!

Currently running a MeLe 4c which I’m thinking of demoting to my smaller rig as it’s more portable and getting a beefier new mini pc to run my larger rig!!

I’m looking for a mini pc suitable to run an astro camera, telescope and star tracker (light work in all honesty) AND run Tycho Tracker (image stacking software that detects asteroids/comets, quite intensive) at the same time so it will need to have decentprocessing power and memory capabilities for this!! Ideally in the most compact frame possible without compromising on peripheral connections too much!!

Would definitely love it to be an AMD/NVidia combo but not a deal breaker!! Would definitely need NVidia GPU and able to have ram and storage expanded

Much love and clear skies!!

Hi RoadRanger,

 

I understand your need of real compute power by the telescope - I was in a similar position like you and, after trying some other options, ended with a MINISFORUM MS-01 mini-pc: https://www.minisfor...=49669512462642 . If you check Google, you will find these receive great reviews.

 

These are a bit bigger than normal NUCs, but they have quite capable CPUs (I have the Intel I9-13900H CPU with 14cores/20 threads, 6P+8E). What is nice is that these also have a PCIe x16-slot for thin GPUs such as a rtx2000sff or rtx4000sff  (if you need it - I currently don't), dual 10Gbe and in addition dual 1GbE NICs, and three NVMe slots (one of them NVMe or U.2). Although not a big housing, cooling is quite capable.

 

Initially, I wanted to mount it on top of my rig, but it is a bit heavy for that. So I decided to have it in a small metal box outdoor right next to my telescope, with 10GbE fiber  connection to indoors (where main storage and compute PC are located), and USB3-connections to telescopes and cameras. I am running it with 96GB RAM and almost 11TB of SSD space (7.84 TB U.2 and 2 TB NVME for data, 1 TB NVMe for Windows).

 

I was one of the first buyers of those MS-01s more than a year ago and never regreted it. If I would buy now, I'd probably go with the latest MS-A2 (not MS-A1 !) which came out recently, and which have AMD processors but all other specifics are quite similar. You can buy it with Ryzen9 9955H (16cores/32threads) with dual 2.5GbE and dual 10GbE network : https://www.minisfor...inisforum-ms-a2

 

Not shure how much these mini-pcs help you with Tycho software (I have tried Tycho superficially only once when imaging the JWST take-off, but no real experience), but I'd first test without GPU and see how far they get you. If necessary, go with the mentioned thin GPUs.If that won't work, you need a "real" PC next to your scope.

 

One remark for having NUCs etc. outdoor: Before the MS-01, I had a Shuttle NC02U5 (i5-6500, 4 core/4thread) mini-pc mounted at my pier, which controlled everything, and had a real RS-232 interface to directly connect to my mount. I had it running perfectly outdoors for five years under a Telegizmos 365 cover without any issues.To prevent from dew damaging the electronics, I left it turned on all the time. Not shure if this was the key issue, but when at one occasion power failed and the NC02U5 was outside but not running it failed when I found it (after a few weeks of no observing). So, my advice: keep your mini-pc, nuc or whatever switched-on permanently under a Telegizmos 365. It will also keep dew from your mount (I never switch that one off) and your telescope(s). And, ideally have a UPS for it, or check power on regular intervals.

 

AND: Stay safe when connecting anything outside by your telescope to main electricity ! Most commercial devices are not built to be operated in humid or wet environments and this can be dangerous! So consider the above written as some general ideas ...electrical safety (and lightning protection) are completely different topics and your own responsibility ...

 

Maybe some food for thought

Laura

Edited by LauraMS, 07 May 2025 - 10:10 AM.

[TDPerry]

It also means I have a backup pc capable of running PixInsight to some degree plus the portability of it

Honestly.. for me, this is a major issue/question I have.  I prefer to have my capture computers light and able to do the job of captures.  For my processing, I want a separate computer that is devoted to that (hardware wise).  Otherwise, why not just take a big honking desktop out and set on the ground beside your capture rig and use it that way.  

I've been a firm believer in using tools for exact jobs and not trying to shoe-horn a device into performing multiple jobs.  My capture devices all work well with the hardware I use.  And then for my processing, my desktop unit suffices (it has more memory/storage and processing power).

I've come across a few Dell Optiplex 7070's and 9020's that the SSD/NVMe drives have given up the ghost on from the business I help with and they do not want to pay for new drives on those older computers and have opted for MeLe OC4's since they get a take break on them due to not having to do extra paperwork on them.  So I get the old computers to "upgrade" and then play with.   They are perfect (if you have AC power) for using with N.I.N.A. (not my poison of choice) or an Ubuntu derivative using KStars/Ekos/Indi.  And that's what I am setting them up with.  I plan on giving some of them away on my site.  I just have not figured out yet exactly how I want to do that.  I am leaning towards a raffle, but I have to buy an add-on that will allow me to do that easily. 

Edited by TDPerry, 08 May 2025 - 05:58 AM.

[LauraMS]

I agree with TDPerry - not having to much/expensive compute power outside/by the telescope is certainly a strategy making sense.

 

For my above described (post #28) applicaton, however, the reason for the relatively powerful mini-pc was that I am mainly into solar imaging, generating videos of up to 10GB every 30-60sec, and that in three different wavelengths. If one is doing that for extended time (hours) it is getting seriously difficult to transfer those data to the main computer, and compute everything there quickly. So my first idea was to do flatfielding at the mini-computer (during acuqisition of the next video), and then transfering to the inhouse computer for subsequent image stacking and further processing. In hindsight I found that this is not needed because it is not the bottleneck because I have 10GbE network lines and a powerful postprocessing computer (Threadripper 3270x with 32cores/64threads).

 

The second and main reason I went with the MS-01 mini-computer was that with my old mini-pc (Shuttle NC02u5 w/Samsung 980 Pro with 2TB SSD) I had serious issues with SSD throttling because of extended writing of large files - this was a thermal issue which could be somewhat mitigated by manual adjustment of the Shuttle's fan speed. So I wanted better cooling, and a datacenter-type SSD (the 7.84 TB SSD). For writing that much data on NVME SSD at PCIe 4 speed of 3-7 GB/sec, the N100 CPU in a MeLe-type of mini-pc just doesn't have enough PCIe lines, CPU power, cooling capacity, and network speed. With the new setup, I never had throttling issues, even when writing continously over half a day.

 

So it really depends where your bottleneck is: I use a MeLe OC4 and a Raspberry Pi4 for deep sky imaging with my KStars/Ekos/Indi, but without any postprocessing done at the rig. In that case, where data are transferred via WiFi or 1GbE, it is perfectly fine.

 

If there is a more demanding application, the situation may change: If TheRoadRunner really needs Tycho software running at the scope, right after acquisition, there is probably a need for sufficient CPU (if not GPU) power. Or sufficiently rapid network connection ... In such a case a MS-01 or MS-A2 may help, maybe with one of the mentioned GPUs. Or just get a mini-pc which can drive a 10GbE-network line (a MeLe or RPI typically can't do this) to transfer everything quickly to the main computer.

Edited by LauraMS, 08 May 2025 - 07:36 AM.

[astrohamp]

Consider buying/building a mini ITX computer to run in parallel with your mount/acquisition computer or stand alone.

 

If necessary, put it in an environmental box (I use cooler/ice chests some of which are power ventilated temperature regulated).

[TheRoadRanger]

@LauraMS I’m single-handedly highly jealous of your cpu haha I built my own desktop for processing and was seriously considering a thread ripper but at the time I couldn’t justify the budget blowout so settled for the 9950X!! Managed to snag an early finish at work (no logs around and it was a Friday) at the same time I got the last 9950X in the region so went home and built the PC

The threadripper 7970X would cost be about $5000 in New Zealand, compared to $1100 for the 9950

[LauraMS]

Hi TheRoadRunner,

buy once, cry once... Well, that is not absolutely true for computers because of rapid replacement of technology with newer technology. For me it was to enter the world of multicore computing, network and storage technology.

One of the things I learned (I am not a computer specialist) and which is absolutely obvious: you need to have the software and application supporting many cores. I have no clue about Tycho software (does it support CPU-based multicore computation?),. But a bit with PuxInsight. Mains applications I use are Autostakkert and PlanetarySystemStacker, next to IMPPG.

In many software most processes cannot be parallelized (simple to understand example: reading from a file). In these cases the *50 series of CPU (e.g. 9950x) are computationally better than Threadripper because their single core clock speed is much higher than that of severely parallelized CPUs (such as Threadripper). This is also among the reasons why GPUs are not helping to speed up everything.

Only if you have the application where you have massively long and parallelizable computation, Threadripper-like systems make sense.

[Ansu]

I am trying to get back in and trying to re-purpose mele quieter 3q with limited success. For accusition and control all works indoors but with remote desktop it looses connectivity anytime we have an issue with a port or the application becomes unresponsive. Used to use an older laptop and remote desktop was  never an issue until I started Mele with Windows 11 Pro. I think any of these smaller low profile, fanless pc(s) with Windows on are not great if we plan on using any astronomical automation software. 

[rgsalinger]

I have several of these and they all work just fine. You might want to check a few things.

 

First, are the USB hubs set to allow Windows to power them off? If so change it.  

 

Is the computer set to NEVER turn off or hibernate or anything similar? 

 

Have you set the hours of operation to be during the night so that updates don't foul things up? 

 

Load up your apps and then check with task manager how much ram you have. These days, anything less than 16GB can be a problem depending on what you load up. 

 

If you're losing connectivity while using remote desktop, it doesn't matter. The system will continue on.

 

Finally, check that you WIFI signal is strong - when the computer goes between the OTA and your router, the signal is going to drop quite a bit, for example. You'd never notice this in the house. You may need an access point.