INDI

INDI is a cross-platform, freely distributed, open source, simple, small, and easy-to-parse software project, a non-interactive daemon that has been created from the ground up to act as an astronomical control protocol for GNU/Linux and UNIX-like operating systems. It is implemented in C/C++.

An instrument neutral distributed interface control protocol

The software aims to provide an instrument neutral distributed interface control protocol that implements backend driver automation and support for a number of astronomical devices, including telescopes, focusers, and CCDs (Charge-coupled devices).

Supports a wide range of devices

Currently supported devices include numerous telescopes, CCDs (Charge-coupled devices), filter wheels, focusers, and several video cameras. INDI is used in popular astronomy suites, including Xephem, KStars, DCD, and Cartes Du Ciel.

It also support various classes of astronomical instrumentation, can be easily nested with other XML protocols, and it is supported by a wide range of clients. At the moment, it has been tested on 32 and 64-bit systems. Detailed installation instructions are provided by Softoware below.

Getting started with INDI

Installing the INDI software on a GNU/Linux operating system is quite easy, as you will only have to download the latest source package from Softoware, save the archive on your Home directory, extract its contents using an archive manager utility, and open a terminal window.

In the terminal window, run the ‘cmake .’ command to configure the program, assuming that all of its runtime dependencies have been installed (libnova, cfitsio, GSL), followed by the ‘make’ command to compile it.

After a successful compilation operation, you must run either of the ‘sudo make install’ or ‘make install’ command, depending if you’re a user with privileges or root, to install INDI system wide, making it available to all users on your computer. Detailed usage instructions are provided in the README file inside the source package.

What is new in this release:

• INDI::Weather for support of weather devices.
• INDI::GPS for support of GPS devices.
• WunderGround weather driver.
• Meade DSI I & II support.
• FocusLynx focuser support.
• PerfectStar focuser support.
• World Coordinate System (WCS) support in generated FITS.
• Updated Losmany driver.
• New Celestron driver.
• New IEQPro driver.
• Support for custom parking in dome drivers.
• Support Open Loop dome controllers.
• Various QHY CCD & Filter Wheel fixes and QHY OSX support.
• SBIG External Guide CCD fixes.
• Custom parking support for Celestron/Astrophysics/AstroElectronics/IEQPro
• Updated ASI ZWO drivers.
• Updated Apogee library. Improved NET support in INDI Apogee driver.
• Standarizing mount slew and track rates.
• Video4Linux 2 fixes and improvements: (16bpp pixel formats(Y16 and BYR2), pwc
• flashled, colorSpace/linearization, stacking), Simutaneous record/stream/exp. Stream
• rate divisor. Rec. file patterns.
• EQMod fixes: Keep tracking after joystick motion is stopped. Park initialization
• always set encoders.
• Improved support for drivers on ARM architecture.
• Improved logging capability.
• Deprecated: LX200Legacy and indimain library.

What is new in version 1.0.0:

• 3rdparty: Support for QHY CCDs and CFWs (BETA).
• 3rdparty: Support for Meade DSI (BETA).
• 3rdparty: Support for FFMV cameras.
• Support for STAR2000.
• Support for Baader dome.
• Support for Baader SteelDrive focuser.
• Support for dome slaving (BETA).
• Subframing and debayer support in GPhoto driver.
• Improved CFW handling and external tracking CCD for SBIG CCDs.
• Add debayer support for color cameras with user-configurable options. Debayer is performed at the client level.
• Fixed deinterlacing and subframing support in Starlight Xpress drivers.
• Fixed issues with joystick support in some drivers. Added joystick support to focuser and filter wheels.
• Improvements in generation of FITS header.
• Improvement in performance of some drivers under SBCs like Raspberry PI.
• Added fan and readout speed controls to QSI CCD.
• Fixed locale issue in INDI driver.
• Fixed regression in LX200Basic driver.
• Fixed issue with INDI Server resetting environment variable for skeleton and config files.
• Various fixes for loading/saving of user configuration.

What is new in version 0.9.7:

• Support for EQMod and ATIK CCD drivers in Linux and OSX.
• Joystick support for telescope drivers.
• Improved telescope and focuser drivers.
• Bugfixes.

What is new in version 0.9.6:

• This version supports the Starlight Xpress Adaptive Optics unit, Arduino boards (with customizable drivers for common observatory auxiliary devices), and the GPUSB Guide Port Interface.
• It improves support for Startlight Xpress CCDs and Filter wheels.

What is new in version 0.9.5:

• Major improvements to INDI Base and Client libraries, bugfixes in LX200, Magellan, and Celestron drivers, a new focuser simulator, and improvements to the existing simulator suite.

What is new in version 0.9.1:

• This version minor bugfix release fixes compilation issues on non-Linux OSes.

What is new in version 0.9.0:

• INDI::Base drivers are now used for most classes of astronomical instruments.
• New iEQ45 GoTo German Equatorial Mount Driver.
• New improved QSI CCD & Filter driver.
• New improved Starlight Xpress CCD & Filter driver.
• New improved RoboFocus driver.
• libboost is no longer required to build libindi.
• Improved support for building on non-Linux OSes.
• Numerous bug fixes and minor improvements.

What is new in version 0.8.0:

• Support for new devices.
• Starlight Xpress CCD and Filter Wheel.
• EQ Synscan Mount.
• TCFS Focuser.
• QSI CCD.
• Radio Astronomy Supplies Spectracyber Hydrogen Line Spectrometer.

What is new in version 0.7.1:

• A change filter bug in the true technology filter wheel was fixed.
• INDI::Mediator functionality was improved, and buffer reading in INDI::BaseClient was fixed among other miscellaneous fixes.

What is new in version 0.7:

• Dynamic renaming of drivers upon run time: indiserver currently sends clients a static name of the driver, which is usually hard-coded in the driver source code. This presents a dilemma for identical drivers that need to run simultaneously. Suppose we have an encoder driver and two encoder devices (e.g. Alt & Az encoders). As it stands now, the driver cannot change its name (e.g. "ENCODER") to (e.g. "AZ_ENCODER") on run time. In libindi v0.7, indiserver supports dynamic renaming of drivers.
• Standard helper API to create and utilize INDI clients: Sometimes it is necessary for a meta driver to act as client to other drivers (i.e. ability to send commands). Prior to v0.7, this mundane task was done manually. Now with the aid of helper classes, it is a trivial task.
• Ability to load driver properties from an external XML file. No need to hard code properties any more!
• Ability to write/read XML configuration files for driver values to be loaded at run time: Long requested feature is now at works! In libindi v0.7, all drivers under the new framework can automatically read and save XML configuration files for startup values or last-setup values.
• Facilitating debugging and simulation of drivers.
• New C++ framework to facilitate the development of new INDI drivers.
• Multitude of new 3rd party drivers!
• Several bug fixes for current drivers and framework.

What is new in version 0.6:

• Astrophysics mount support.
• SBIG and Apogee driver support and enhancements.
• A new modular build to support 3rd party drivers.
• An updated API to facilitate scripting and automation of drivers.