AstroBox M4 inside

Here are ugly internals:

• one relay module with four relay ports, used to gate power outlets for DLSRs and multipurpose 12V; one relay is used to control the shutter release of DSLR (NanoPi has only one serial port, used for telescope so I had to control shutter with GPIO&relay)
• two DC/DC voltage convertors, one from 12 to 5V for powering NanoPi M4 board, one from 12 to 7.4V for powering DSLR cameras
• one PWM module which takes as input the hardware PWM from NanoPI and 12V DC, output is modulated 12V, used to power dew heater
• one module to convert serial TTL levels to RS232, to control the telescope mount

AstroBox M4

A new toy: NanoPi M4,

brand new development board, similar to RPi but better(!) in quite a few areas. It has 2GB RAM, speed Rockchip Rk3399 processor and a lot of other goodies (WiFi, 1G ethernet, 4 USB3.0 and 3 USB2.0 ports, etc).

I decided to make a new AstroBox with it because the former built on OrangePi had not enough processor power and too little RAM. Now it is ready and runing great.
It is self contained with INDI, Kstars and Ekos. You have to connect to it to initiate the session, but while it is running (making photos, guiding, focusing), you can disconnect and it does not disrupt the session.

It provides the following conectivity to telescope and other astro devices:

• 2 x 7.4V switchable power outlets for DSLR cameras
• 1 x shutter release mini jack for Canon or Pentax DSLRs
• 1 x RS232 with RJ11 socket (for simple 1 to 1 connection to Celestron mount)
• 1 x 12V PWM for heater
• 2 x 12V switchable power outlets for other devices
• 4 x USB 3.0
• 2 x USB 2.0
• 1 x USB3 socket (but USB 2.0 speed only)
• 1 x 1G ethernet
• HDMI (not used)
• headphones (not used)

From the PC side, one can connect to it using VNC or RDP.

Basically it covers all the AstroBox v1 did, but just better...