Installing SatMe-Node on a Raspberry Pi

Version française

SatMe-Node puts QO-100's receivers and transmitter next to the antenna, on a Raspberry Pi, and drives them over the network from SatMe-PC or the phone:

• DATV: the MiniTiouner (LongMynd) — or SatMe's DVB-S2 demodulator with a Pluto or a bladeRF;
• SDR: a bladeRF or a Pluto, whose narrow band reaches SatMe-PC like a board plugged in there (QO-100 cockpit, waterfall, FT8, beacon, recording);
• transmitting (Pluto or bladeRF), DATV and SSTV, off at first;
• its health: temperature, load, memory, microSD, network, USB, services, log.

Which Raspberry Pi#

What you need#

• The Raspberry Pi, its official power supply (3 A for a Pi 4, 5 A for a Pi 5: the bladeRF draws current, a weak supply throttles the Pi), a microSD card of 16 GB or more.
• Ethernet: the SDR stream is about 34 Mbit/s at the full rate (1.058 MS/s); over Wi-Fi, choose 529 or 265 kS/s.
• The MiniTiouner (Pro TS2 included) and its supply if it has one; the bladeRF or the Pluto.
• With a twin-output LNB: output 1 → MiniTiouner, which powers the LNB at 18 V (horizontal, DATV); output 2 → bladeRF through a 13 V bias injector with a DC block (vertical, narrow band) — the bladeRF must never get the LNB's voltage.

1. Prepare the card#

With Raspberry Pi Imager (raspberrypi.com/software):

• Device: your Pi. System: Raspberry Pi OS Lite (64-bit).
• Settings (the gear): host name satme-node, a user and password, SSH enabled, Wi-Fi only if no cable.

Put the card in the Pi, plug in the network, power it up, wait a minute.

2. Install#

From a PC on the same network, log in to the Pi:

ssh <user>@satme-node.local

Then, in the home folder (where ssh lands), the guided install (it sees a Raspberry Pi without a desktop and offers SatMe-Node):

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/f4ioz/SatMe/main/installe-satme.sh -o installe-satme.sh
bash installe-satme.sh

Or by hand:

cd ~
curl -LO https://github.com/f4ioz/SatMe/releases/latest/download/satme-pc.tar
tar xf satme-pc.tar
sudo ./satme/noeud/installe-noeud.sh

The script is not in the home folder but in satme/noeud/, made by tar (it is already executable). "command not found": check with ls satme/noeud/ that the archive was unpacked.

About ten minutes on a Pi 3, a little more on a Pi 4 (LongMynd is compiled). The script:

• installs Java (the first the system offers: 21 on a recent Raspberry Pi OS, Debian 13 "trixie");
• builds LongMynd (BATC) and opens the MiniTiouner to it (udev);
• installs the bladeRF tool (bladeRF-cli), its USB access and its FPGA image (xA4 and xA9);
• copies SatMe to /opt/satme and starts the satme-noeud service (port 8090), its user in the plugdev (bladeRF) and video (the Pi's temperature) groups.

It ends with the node's address and its six-digit code: write them down. Running it again breaks nothing: it redoes everything.

Then plug the MiniTiouner and the bladeRF (USB 3) into the Pi, or unplug and plug them in again. The Pluto needs nothing: plugged in over USB it shows up as a network card (192.168.2.1).

3. Join it#

• SatMe-PC: DATV tab → MiniTiouner Changer → the node's address (192.168.1.30 or satme-node.local) and its code → Associer. Then:
  • SDR tab → receiver "SDR du SatMe-Node": the narrow band of the node's bladeRF or Pluto;
  • Station › SatMe-Node: its page — health, boards and their roles, services and their actions, version (and how to update it).
• The phone: QO-100 screen → DATV → the node's address (its IP: phones do not always find .local names) and its code → Join.

Each keeps the key the node gave: the node, the PC or the phone can restart without joining again. The code again, on the Pi: journalctl -u satme-noeud | grep Code.

Checking#

• http://satme-node.local:8090/ in a browser: what the node is and what its boards do (never its code).
• On the Pi: systemctl status satme-noeud, journalctl -u satme-noeud -f.
• bladeRF-cli -p: is the bladeRF seen? The health card flags a bladeRF on USB 2 (black port): move it to a blue one.
• "MiniTiouner introuvable": plugged in? "pas d'accès": unplug and plug it in again (the udev rule applies on plugging).
• High temperature or "throttled" in the health card: a heatsink or a fan, a better supply.

Update#

On the Pi, the same commands as in step 2 (latest published release). Settings, code and keys are kept in /var/lib/satme-noeud. Relancer SatMe sur le node from SatMe-PC (Station › SatMe-Node › Services) only restarts the service, not the Pi.

Restarting or switching off the Pi#

From SatMe-PC, Station › SatMe-Node › Services: Redémarrer le Pi and Éteindre le Pi (also on the node's own page opened on the Pi). The node first stops the transmission (only when asked in the dialog; otherwise it refuses while transmitting), DATV reception and its LNB supply, the SDR stream, writes its settings, answers, then runs sudo -n /usr/bin/systemctl reboot or poweroff. The installer grants those two commands only to the service's satme account, in /etc/sudoers.d/satme-noeud (checked by visudo -cf, mode 0440). If SatMe-PC says the right is missing: run the installer again (sudo ./satme/noeud/installe-noeud.sh). A node started by hand (not by its service) refuses. Once off, the Pi only comes back on site: remove and restore its power.

Safety#

• Without its key the node only says what it is; what changes it is a POST.
• Its LNB supply stays off unless chosen from SatMe-PC or the phone (13 V or 18 V): never when something else powers the LNB.
• The node's transmitter needs two boxes, both off at first: "Émettre par le SatMe-Node" in SatMe-PC, and "émission autorisée", which can only be ticked on the node itself (its page opened on the Pi, or through an SSH tunnel). The node has its own bands, duration and power cap; it stops transmitting if SatMe-PC is silent for 1.5 s or disconnects. One board never receives and transmits at once.
• Meant for your home network: do not open the port to the Internet (no encryption).