This README and our Wiki pages will help get your Allsky camera up and running. Please review them before submitting an Issue.

This is the source code for the Allsky Camera project described on Instructables.

NOTE: When upgrading from a release prior to 0.8.3 you MUST follow the steps here.

sudo systemctl enable allsky.service     # starts the software when the Pi boots up
sudo systemctl disable allsky.service    # does NOT automatically start the software

sudo systemctl start allsky
sudo systemctl stop allsky
sudo systemctl restart allsky
sudo systemctl status allsky

alias start='sudo systemctl start allsky'

sudo systemctl stop allsky
cd ~/allsky
./allsky.sh

./allsky.sh preview

sudo gui/install.sh

http://your_raspberry_IP_address
    OR
http://allsky.local

http://piname.local

http://your_raspberry_IP/public.php

cd ~/allsky
website/install.sh

PROTOCOL='local'
IMAGE_DIR='/var/www/html/allsky/'
VIDEOS_DIR='/var/www/html/allsky/videos'
KEOGRAM_DIR='/var/www/html/allsky/keograms'
STARTRAILS_DIR='/var/www/html/allsky/startrails'

TIMELAPSE="false"

cd ~/allsky
scripts/generateForDay.sh -t 20220710

cd ~/allsky
scripts/generateForDay.sh -k 20220710

cd ~/allsky
scripts/generateForDay.sh -s 20220710

DAYS_TO_KEEP=14

WEB_DAYS_TO_KEEP=28

tail /var/log/allsky.log

cd ~/allsky/scripts
mv endOfNight_additionalSteps.repo  endOfNight_additionalSteps.sh

If you want your allsky camera added to the Allsky map, see these settings.

• version 0.8:

  • Workaround for ZWO daytime autoexposure bug.
  • Improved exposure transitions between day and night so there's not such a huge change in brightness.
  • Decrease in ZWO sensor temperature.
  • Lots of new settings, including splitting some settings into day and night versions.
  • Error checking and associated log messages added in many places to aid in debugging.
  • Ability to have "notification" images displayed, such as "Allsky is starting up" and "Taking dark frames".
  • Ability to resize uploaded images.
  • Ability to set thumbnail size.
  • Ability to delete bad images (corrupt and too light/dark).
  • Ability to set an image file name prefix.
  • Ability to reset USB bus if ZWO camera isn't found (requires "uhubctl" command to be installed).
  • Ability to specify the format of the time displayed on images.
  • Ability to have the temperature displayed in Celcius, Fahrenheit, or both.
  • Ability to set bitrate on timelapse video.

• version 0.8.1:

  • Rearranged the directory structure.
  • Created a Wiki with additional documentation and troubleshooting tips.
  • Renamed several variables in config.sh and ftp-settings.sh.
  • CAMERA type of "auto" is no longer supported - you must specify "ZWO" or "RPiHQ".
  • Startrails and keograms are now created using all CPUs on the Pi, drastically speeding up creation time.
  • Installing the WebUI now preserves any website files (keograms, startrails, etc.) you have. This allows for non-destructive updates of the WebUI.
  • New script called upload.sh centralizes all the upload code from other scripts, and can be used to debug uploading issues. See this Wiki page for more information.
  • The RPiHQ camera does much better auto-exposure if you set the -mode-mean and -autoexposure options.
  • The WebUI will now show the Pi's throttle and low-voltage states, which is useful for debugging.
  • Darks work better.
  • Many bug fixes, error checks, and warnings added.

• version 0.8.3:

  • Works on Bullseye operating system.
  • RPiHQ version:
    • Has an improved auto-exposure algorithm. To use it, set CAPTURE_EXTRA_PARAMETERS="-daymean 0.5 -nightmean 0.2" in config.sh (a future version will allow this to be set via the WebUI).
    • Has many new settings including support for most of the text overlay features that are supported by the ZWO version. The "extra text" feature will be supported in a future version.
  • New and changed config.sh variables, see the Software Settings Wiki page for more information:
    • IMG_UPLOAD_FREQUENCY: how often the image should be uploaded to a website. Useful with slow uplinks or metered Internet connections.
    • IMG_CREATE_THUMBNAILS: specifies whether or not thumbnails should be created for each image.
    • REMOVE_BAD_IMAGES now defaults to "true" since bad-image detection is now done after a picture is saved rather than once for all pictures at the end of the night. This helps decrease problems when creating startrails, keograms, and timelapse videos.
    • IMG_PREFIX: no longer used - the name of the image used by the websites is now whatever you specify in the WebUI (default: image.jpg).
    • NOTE: When upgrading to 0.8.3 you MUST follow the steps listed here.
  • Replaced saveImageDay.sh and saveImageNight.sh with saveImage.sh that has improved functionality, including passing the sensor temperature to the dark subtraction commands, thereby eliminating the need for the "temperature.txt" file.
  • The image used by the websites (default: image.jpg) as well as all temporary files are now written to allsky/tmp. NOTE: if you are using the Allsky Website you will need to change the "imageName" variable in /var/www/html/allsky/config.js to "/current/tmp/image.jpg".
  • You can significanly reduce wear on your SD card by making allsky/tmp a memory-based filesystem.

• version 0.8.3.3:

  • Added ability to have your allsky camera added to the Allsky map by configuring these settings. Added Allsky Map Setup section to the WebUI to configure the map settings. The "Lens" field now shows in the popout on the Allsky website (if installed).
  • Significantly enhanced Wiki - more pages and more information on existing pages. All known issues are described there as well as fixes / workarounds.
  • Added an option to keograms to make them full width, even if few images were used in creating the keogram. In config.sh, set KEOGRAM_EXTRA_PARAMETERS="--image-expand".
  • Added/changed/deleted settings (in config/config.sh unless otherwise noted):
    • Added WEBUI_DATA_FILES: contains the name of one or more files that contain information to be added to the WebUI's "System" page. See this Wiki page for more information.
    • Renamed NIGHTS_TO_KEEP to DAYS_TO_KEEP since it determines how many days of data to keep, not just nighttime data. If blank (""), ALL days' data are kept.
    • Deleted AUTO_DELETE: its functionality is now in DAYS_TO_KEEP. DAYS_TO_KEEP="" is similar to the old AUTO_DELETE=false.
    • Added WEB_DAYS_TO_KEEP: specifies how many days of Allsky website images and videos to keep, if the website is installed on your Pi.
    • Added WEB_IMAGE_DIR in config/ftp-settings.sh to allow the images to be copied to a location on your Pi (usually the Allsky website) as well as being copied to a remote machine. This functionality already existed with timelapse, startrails, and keogram files.
  • The RPiHQ camera now supports all the text overlay features as the ZWO camera, including the "Extra Text" file.
  • Removed the harmless deprecated pixel format used message from the timelapse log file. That message only confused people.
  • Improved the auto-exposure for RPiHQ cameras.
  • Made numerous changes to the ZWO and RPiHQ camera's code that will make it easier to maintain and add new features in the future.
  • If Allsky is stopped or restarted while a file is being uploaded to a remote server, the upload continues, eliminating cases where a temporary file would be left on the server.
  • Decreased other cases where temporary files would be left on remote servers during uploads. Also, uploads now perform additional error checking to help in debugging.
  • Only one upload can now be done at a time. Any additional uploads display a message in the log file and then exit. This should eliminate (or signifiantly decrease) cases where a file is overwritten or not found, resulting in an error message or a temporary file left on the server.
  • Added a --debug option to allsky/scripts/upload.sh to aid in debugging uploads.
  • Upload log files are only created if there was an error; this saves writes to SD cards.
  • The removeBadImages.sh script also only creates a log file if there was an error, which saves one write to the SD card for every image.
  • Allsky now stops with an error message on unrecoverable errors (e.g., no camera found). It used to keep restarting and failing forever.
  • More meaningful messages are displayed as images. For example, in most cases ERROR. See /var/log/allsky.log messages have been replaced with messages containing additional information, for example, *** ERROR *** Allsky Stopped! ZWO camera not found!.
  • If Allsky is restarted, a new "Allsky software is restarting" message is displayed, instead of a "stopping" followed by "starting" message.
  • The timelapse debug output no longer includes one line for each of several thousand images proced. This make it easier to see any actual errors.
  • The "Camera Settings" page of the WebUI now displays the minimum, maximum, and default values in a popup for numerical fields.
  • Startrails and Keogram creation no longer crash if invalid files are found.
  • Removed the allsky/scripts/filename.sh file.
  • The RPiHQ Gamma value in the WebUI was renamed to Saturation, which is what it always adjusted; Gamma was incorrect.
  • Known issues:
    • The startrails and keogram programs don't work well if you bin differently during the day and night. If you don't save daytime images this won't be a problem.
    • The minimum, maximum, and default values in the "Camera Settings" page of the WebUI, especially for the RPiHQ camera, aren't always correct. This is especially try if running on the Bullseye operating system, where many of the settings changed.

If you found this project useful, here's a link to send me a cup of coffee :)