First steps in guiding

Finally I have taken the plunge and invested in a guiding setup. I decided for the SkyWatcher ST80 scope with ZWO ASI120MM camera. The camera is the older USB2 version.
As I don't want to take my laptop out in the field, I intend to use a RaspberryPi as a guiding computer.
The last couple of days and nights, I have been trying to get this to work. My configuration at the moment is this:
ASI120MM connected to RaspberryPi, running Ubuntu Mate as an operating system.
The Pi also holds an INDI server and the lin_guider software. The camera connects to the Pi and receives guiding pulses which it sends on to the mount (SW AZ-EQ6 GT) via the ST4 port.
Installation was quite straightforward, despite warnings that the camera driver may not be stable. Setting the exposure time to 1 sec in Lin_guider seems to work fine though.
Last night, despite partial cloud cover, I was able to test the guiding, and it worked fine.
Lin_guider connected to the camera, and frames started to flow in. Focussing was a bit of a hassle. I had to take my laptop out (despite the dew), and because there is no live view, it took a while to get focus right. In the end I had my setup guiding on Vega (which was grossly overexposed at any gain setting), and later on a nearby much fainter star. This worked fine until the stars disappeared behind my neighbour's trees and clouds rolled in.
I haven't tried imaging yet, and I still have to figure out the best settings for PID gain, but so far so good.