SatNOGS Client Setup
Contents
Introduction
satnogs-setup
provides a set of scripts for configuring a SatNOGS Client system. satnogs-setup
main function is to bring up a menu-driven console configuration utility and provision the system using 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 system:
- SSH into the system and run
sudo satnogs-setup
; this will bring up the configuration menu - Set all options in Basic Configuration (see below)
- Select
Apply
and the Raspberry Pi will configure itself; this may take some time - Select
Back
to exit
Basic Configuration
Setting | Description |
---|---|
SATNOGS_API_TOKEN
|
The API token assigned to your ground station on the SatNOGS Network website, please don’t share your api key as this can give access to anyone to upload and change things in network related to your station and its observations. |
SATNOGS_SOAPY_RX_DEVICE
|
If you are using an RTL-SDR, this is driver=rtlsdr . See pothosware/SoapyRTLSDR/wiki#modules for other SDR modules (linked in the navigation bar at the right side of the page). If multiple devices are attached to your station you should also specify the serial of the desired device here, e.g. driver=uhd,serial=3164495 .
|
SATNOGS_RX_SAMP_RATE
|
Specify the receiver sampling rate. Example value for RTL-SDR: 2.048e6 (for 2Msps).
|
SATNOGS_STATION_ELEV
|
The height of your ground station above sea level in metres. |
SATNOGS_STATION_ID
|
The numeric ID assigned to your station in the SatNOGS Network site when the groundstation was created. |
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. |
Advanced Setup
A more detailed description on setting up a development environment using the SatNOGS reference setup is given in SatNOGS_Client_Development.
NOTE: To get your station online, you need to set SATNOGS_NETWORK_API_URL to https://network.satnogs.org/api/
Setting | Description |
---|---|
SATNOGS_RF_GAIN
|
RF Gain value for your SDR hardware. Run SoapySDRUtil --probe to see all possible gain values for your hardware.
|
SATNOGS_RX_BANDWIDTH
|
TODO |
SATNOGS_ANTENNA
|
TODO |
SATNOGS_ROT_MODEL
|
Hamlib rotator model. If you don't have a rotator (like the No rotator setup), leave it empty.
Use the macro name for your rotator model from this list of rotator models in Hamlib. |
SATNOGS_ROT_BAUD
|
Baud rate for Hamlib rotator serial port. |
SATNOGS_ROT_PORT
|
Serial port for Hamlib rotator. |
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. |
HAMLIB_UTILS_ROT_OPTS
|
Options for rotcld:
For a yaesu rotator, use For a SatNOGS rotator |
EXPERIMENTAL
|
Install latest (experimental) versions of all software |
APT_REPOSITORY
|
This options allows you to change the SatNOGS packages repository. For example, to install unstable package builds use:
|
APT_KEY_URL
|
This options allows you to change the SatNOGS packages repository key URL. For example, to install unstable package builds use:
|
APT_KEY_ID
|
This options allows you to specify an alternative SatNOGS packages repository key ID. |
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:
|
SATNOGS_RADIO_FLOWGRAPHS_VERSION
|
This options allows you to change the version of satnogs-flowgraphs package to be installed. For example:
|
LOG_LEVEL
|
Define SatNOGS client log level, available values: ERROR , WARNING , INFO and DEBUG
|
Obsolete Setup Variables
The following options were available in previous versions of the SatNOGS client system and have no effect on the latest stable version.
Setting | Description |
---|---|
SATNOGS_RX_DEVICE
|
If you are using an RTL-SDR, this is rtlsdr . Other devices supported by gr-satnogs include usrpb200 , usrp2 , airspy/airspymini , lime , or hackrf .
|
SATNOGS_PPM_ERROR
|
gr-satnogs: The PPM correction [1] |
SATNOGS_DEV_ARGS
|
gr-satnogs: SDR device specific arguments [2] |
SATNOGS_IF_GAIN
|
gr-satnogs: Intermediate frequency gain [3] |
SATNOGS_BB_GAIN
|
gr-satnogs: Baseband gain [4] |
SATNOGS_RADIO_GR_SATNOGS_VERSION
|
This options allows you to change the version of gr-satnogs package to be installed. For example: 1.5.1-1
|
Updating SatNOGS Client Software
To update SatNOGS software, including the configuration tool itself:
- SSH into the system and (re-)run
sudo satnogs-setup
; this will bring up the configuration menu - Select
Update
to update the configuration tool and all distribution packages to the latest - If you are prompt for a reboot during the upgrade, once the upgrade is finished, select
Reboot
, SSH back into the system and re-runsatnogs-config
to continue to the next step - Select
Apply
and the Raspberry Pi will update itself; this may take some time - Before exit, check at the top that you have the latest satnogs-client and gr-satnogs versions
- Select
Back
to exit
WARNING: An update can potentially interrupt a running observation!
Upgrading from Debian 'stretch' to 'buster'
Debian stretch
is no longer supported. If you have already installed an older version of Debian or Raspbian SatNOGS image based on stretch
(releases <= 2018080300), you must upgrade to buster
otherwise it will be impossible to receive updates or upgrades in the future.
Method 1: Reflashing and reinstalling (recommended)
The recommended method to upgrade to buster
is reflashing the latest Raspbian SatNOGS image (or reinstalling latest Debian). Follow Raspberry Pi installation instructions and reinstall from scratch.
Method 2: Release upgrade using the configuration tool (advanced)
To upgrade from stretch to buster using the configuration tool:
- SSH into the system
- Make sure you have enough free space on your SD card (>2GiB) by running
df -h /
on the console - Run
sudo satnogs-setup
to bring up the configuration menu - Select
Update
to update the configuration tool and all distribution packages to the latest; this will also prompt you for a distribution upgrade, if it detects that one is needed - Keep an eye on the upgrade progress;
dpkg
may prompt for changes - Once the upgrade is completed select
Reboot
- After the reboot, SSH back into the system and make sure you are on the correct release by running
lsb_release -a
- Re-run
sudo satnogs-setup
and selectUpdate
and thenApply
; this may take some time - Before exit, check at the top that you have the latest satnogs-client and gr-satnogs versions
- Select
Back
to exit
Verification of correct installation
To see if satnogs-client has started successfully, check the logs with systemctl
:
$ systemctl status satnogs-client
You should see an output that looks like this:
● satnogs-client.service - SatNOGS client
Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/satnogs-client.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled) Active: active (running) since Wed 2020-03-04 19:30:56 GMT; 6min ago Main PID: 6309 (satnogs-client) Tasks: 11 (limit: 2200) Memory: 37.9M CGroup: /system.slice/satnogs-client.service └─6309 /var/lib/satnogs/bin/python3 /var/lib/satnogs/bin/satnogs-clientMar 04 19:30:56 raspberrypi systemd[1]: Started SatNOGS client.
If you see that, great -- you're ready to schedule your first observation! If not, check out the Troubleshooting page.