In the world of astronomy, automation and remote control of observatory equipment have become increasingly popular. With the Raspberry Pi’s affordability and versatility, enthusiasts can set up a dedicated system for controlling their astronomical devices remotely. In this guide, we’ll walk through the steps to configure a Raspberry Pi 5 as a wireless access point (AP) while hosting an INDI server, allowing astronomers to connect to their equipment wirelessly.

Prerequisites:

Before getting started, ensure you have the following:

1. Raspberry Pi 5 with Wireless LAN enabled running in desktop mode.
2. Ethernet cable for initial setup
3. INDI server installed on the Raspberry Pi 5. If you haven’t done so already, check out our post Harnessing Astronomy with Raspberry Pi 5: Installing INDI for Stellar Exploration

Step 1 : Setting Up the Raspberry Pi as a Wireless Access Point

For this initial configuration, you should ensure that your Raspberry Pi 5 is connected to your ethernet using a fixed cable or you have access to a console running a desktop environment.

From the default desktop environment, click the network icon in the top right of the display, then hover over Advanced Options to open the sub menu, then click on Create Wireless Hotspot…:

Provide a Network Name that you will use to connect from your other devices, and set the required security level, which we recommend to be WPA & WPA2 Personal, then provide the Password you will use to connect. Finally, click on the Create button.

Your Raspberry Pi 5 will automatically disconnect from any connected wireless network and reconnect to your new wireless access point.

Clicking on the network icon again should show your new wireless access point connected and which is now available for your other devices to connect to. You will no longer be able to connect to a wireless network from your Raspberry Pi5 when you are in access point mode, so any previously listed available wireless networks are no longer shown:

If you do need to connect to some other wireless network then just click your connected wireless access point and disconnect. All available wireless networks, including your new access point, are now available for you to connect to, but any devices that were connected to your access point will now be disconnected!

At this point, the IP address used for the new access point is automatically assigned from the class A private network range (10.0.0.0 to 10.255.255.255) which may be difficult to remember, so you will probably want to use an address that is more memorable. Click the network icon again, then hover over Advanced Options to open the sub menu, then click on Edit Connections…:

From the list of network connections, select your wireless access point name before clicking the cog button:

In the edit form, click the IPv4 Settings tab and ensure the Method is set as Shared to other Computers, then click the Add button to add an entry line. Fill in the details of the entry using an IP address range that you can easily remember. In this example, we will use a typical Class C private gateway address of 192.168.0.1 with a net mask range of 24 (255.255.255.0). This address and mask are used to determine the address range that will be issued to any devices connecting your access point. The Gateway can be left empty:

Hit the Save button.

We want out wireless access point to be enabled by default when we’re out in the field, so we set this by clicking the General tab and making sure the Connect automatically with priority is checked and the priority value set to 0:

Hit the Save button.

Close the Network Connections panel to complete the wireless access point configuration then disconnect and reconnect your access point to see the newly assigned IP address. Reboot your Raspberry 5 then test and validate your wireless access point configuration by connecting a device.

Step 2 : Connecting to the Raspberry Pi 5 Access Point from another Device

With your Raspberry Pi 5 now acting as a wireless access point, connecting to it no longer requires both devices to be connected to the same network, wirelessly or wired, through a router or any other type of wireless access point. To access directly from your device, open the network connections page and look for the name you gave to your Raspberry Pi 5 access point in the list of available networks, then connect to it providing the password you configured earlier.

Now you can configure your INDI client applications to wirelessly access your INDI server running on you Raspberry Pi 5, by providing the IP address of the access point in the INDI server connection details. The configuration below is from Stellarium running on a Windows 11 laptop, directly connected to the Raspberry Pi 5 wireless access point.

Conclusion:

You’ve successfully configured your Raspberry Pi 5 as a wireless access point. This setup allows astronomers to connect to their observatory equipment wirelessly within the wireless network created by the Raspberry Pi. By hosting an INDI server on the Pi, you can remotely control your astronomical devices, making your stargazing experience more convenient and enjoyable. Happy observing!