SatNOGS Client Ansible

Intro

SatNOGS Client Ansible is the suggested method to install SatNOGS Client (and friends) to any Debian-based system.

Raspbian

For Raspberry Pi 3, which is the reference platform for SatNOGS, a Raspbian image with SatNOGS Client Ansible pre-installed is available.

Debian

These sections contain generic instructions for installing SatNOGS Client on any Debian-based system.

Prerequisites

• A user which is member of 'sudo' group exists on the target system
• An SSH server running on the target system
• A host system with Git and latest version of Ansible installed

Instructions

On the host system run the following commands:

$ git clone https://gitlab.com/librespacefoundation/satnogs/satnogs-client-ansible.git    # Clone SatNOGS Client Ansible repository
$ cd satnogs-client-ansible                              # Change to cloned repository directory
$ cp -r production.dist production                       # Copy dist configuration
$ vi production/inventory/hosts                          # Update file with your own target host, user and SSH password
$ ssh youruser@yourtargetsystem true                     # Test SSH connection to target system
$ ansible-playbook -i production/inventory -K site.yml   # Run Ansible playbook
$ ssh -t youruser@yourtargetsystem sudo satnogs-setup    # Setup SatNOGS client (see below)

SatNOGS Client Setup

satnogs-setup is a script for configuring a system installed with SatNOGS Client Ansible.

Initial Setup

Right after the first boot of the system, packages and the configuration tool itself must be updated. Follow the Updating instruction found below.

To configure a SatNOGS Client Ansible system:

1. SSH into the system and run sudo satnogs-setup; this will bring up the configuration menu
2. Set Basic Configuration (see below)
3. Select Apply and the Raspberry Pi will configure itself; this may take some time
4. Select Back to exit

You can always reconfigure the software by running sudo satnogs-setup again.

Basic Configuration

Setting	Description
SATNOGS_API_TOKEN	The API token assigned to your ground station on the SatNOGS Network website.
SATNOGS_NETWORK_API_URL	The API for the SatNOGS network site. This is https://network.satnogs.org/api/.
SATNOGS_RX_DEVICE	If you are using an RTL-SDR, this is rtlsdr. Other devices supported by gr-satnogs include usrpb200, usrp2, airspy or hackrf; a complete list can be found here.
SATNOGS_STATION_ELEV	The elevation of your ground station in metres.
SATNOGS_STATION_ID	The ID assigned to your station in the SatNOGS Network site.
SATNOGS_STATION_LAT	The latitude of your station. North is positive, south is negative.
SATNOGS_STATION_LON	The longitude of your station. East is positive, west is negative.
HAMLIB_UTILS_ROT_ENABLED	Whether or not to enable the Hamlibs rotator daemon. Rotctld is a software daemon that provides a network server to control a rotator on a serial port. If you don't have a rotator (like the No rotator setup), enter False.
HAMLIB_UTILS_ROT_OPTS	Options for rotcld. For a yaesu rotator, use -m 601 -r /dev/ttyACM0 -s 9600 -T 0.0.0.0

Advanced Setup

Changing these settings is not recommended unless you're developing SatNOGS.

Setting	Description
SATNOGS_CLIENT_URL	If you to try a development version of satnogs-client, you can change the URL here. The URL needs to be in PIP format. Here are some examples: git+https://gitlab.com/librespacefoundation/satnogs/satnogs-client.git@0 -- the '0' branch (the current development version) of satnogs-client git+https://gitlab.com/jdoe/satnogs-client.git@new-feature -- the 'new-feature' branch of jdoe's fork of satnogs-client
SATNOGS_RADIO_GR_SATNOGS_PACKAGE	This options allows you to change the installed package of gr-satnogs. For example, to install nightly development builds use: https://gitlab.com/librespacefoundation/satnogs/gr-satnogs-package/-/jobs/artifacts/master/raw/build/debian/output/armhf/gr-satnogs_armhf.deb?job=nightly-armhf
RF_GAIN	RF Gain value for your SDR hardware. Defaults can be found here. For rtl-sdr possible values are the following: 0.0 0.9 1.4 2.7 3.7 7.7 8.7 12.5 14.4 15.7 16.6 19.7 20.7 22.9 25.4 28.0 29.7 32.8 33.8 36.4 37.2 38.6 40.2 42.1 43.4 43.9 44.5 48.0 49.6

Updating SatNOGS Client software

To update all Debian packages to the latest you can use the normal APT updating methods. SSH into the system and run the following commands:

$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get -y upgrade
$ sudo reboot

To update SatNOGS software, incuding the configuration tool itself:

1. SSH into the system and (re-)run sudo satnogs-setup; this will bring up the configuration menu
2. Select Update to update the configuration tool
3. Select Apply and the Raspberry Pi will update itself; this may take some time
4. Select Back to exit

WARNING: An update can potentially interrupt a running observation!

Verification of correct installation

To see if satnogs-client has started successfully, check the logs with journalctl:

journalctl -u satnogs-client.service

You should see entries running approximately once per minute that look like this:

Oct 01 23:02:13 raspberrypi satnogs-client[6695]:  * Running on http://0.0.0.0:5000/ (Press CTRL+C to quit)
Oct 01 23:02:14 raspberrypi satnogs-client[6695]: 2017-10-01 23:02:14,466 - satnogsclient - INFO - [LD] Downlink thread waiting for first downlink packet
Oct 01 23:03:14 raspberrypi satnogs-client[6695]: 2017-10-01 23:03:14,450 - apscheduler.executors.default - INFO - Running job "get_jobs (trigger: interval[0:01:00], next run at: 2017-10-01 23:03:14 UTC)" (scheduled at 2017-10-01 23:03:14.423393+00:00)
Oct 01 23:03:47 raspberrypi satnogs-client[6695]: 2017-10-01 23:03:47,324 - satnogsclient - DEBUG - Opening TCP socket: 127.0.0.1:5011
Oct 01 23:03:47 raspberrypi satnogs-client[6695]: 2017-10-01 23:03:47,325 - satnogsclient - DEBUG - Sending message: []
Oct 01 23:03:47 raspberrypi satnogs-client[6695]: 2017-10-01 23:03:47,327 - apscheduler.executors.default - INFO - Job "get_jobs (trigger: interval[0:01:00], next run at: 2017-10-01 23:04:14 UTC)" executed successfully
Oct 01 23:04:14 raspberrypi satnogs-client[6695]: 2017-10-01 23:04:14,453 - apscheduler.executors.default - INFO - Running job "get_jobs (trigger: interval[0:01:00], next run at: 2017-10-01 23:04:14 UTC)" (scheduled at 2017-10-01 23:04:14.423393+00:00)
Oct 01 23:04:14 raspberrypi satnogs-client[6695]: 2017-10-01 23:04:14,484 - apscheduler.executors.default - INFO - Running job "post_data (trigger: interval[0:02:00], next run at: 2017-10-01 23:04:14 UTC)" (scheduled at 2017-10-01 23:04:14.436367+00:00)
Oct 01 23:04:14 raspberrypi satnogs-client[6695]: 2017-10-01 23:04:14,489 - apscheduler.executors.default - INFO - Job "post_data (trigger: interval[0:02:00], next run at: 2017-10-01 23:04:14 UTC)" executed successfully
Oct 01 23:04:15 raspberrypi satnogs-client[6695]: 2017-10-01 23:04:15,627 - satnogsclient - DEBUG - Opening TCP socket: 127.0.0.1:5011
Oct 01 23:04:15 raspberrypi satnogs-client[6695]: 2017-10-01 23:04:15,628 - satnogsclient - DEBUG - Sending message: []
Oct 01 23:04:15 raspberrypi satnogs-client[6695]: 2017-10-01 23:04:15,629 - apscheduler.executors.default - INFO - Job "get_jobs (trigger: interval[0:01:00], next run at: 2017-10-01 23:05:14 UTC)" executed successfully

You can also try visiting satnog-client's web interface. In your browser, go to http://(ip address of your raspberry pi):5000. You should see something like this:

SatNOGS client web page

If you see that, great -- you're ready to schedule your first observation! If not, check out the Troubleshooting page.