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Asiair v stellar mate

Fieldsy
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BillyBoy

BillyBoy

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Hello,

well yes I have used Stellarmate and it’s superb, the ASIair is very similar, BUT it only works with ASI cameras, whereas SM is a complete package for all cameras and kit like SGPro, in fact in my opinion it’s much better than SGPro, as it’s an all in one package with all you need, and it runs on a £32 raspberry PI on the mount, which you then connect to from a PC so it just acts as a server, then you can run the Kstars software on your more powerful PC, and all the kit I’d connected to the rpi, so no annoying Ascom to worry about.

The ASIair is also a raspberry pi with a special version of Stellarmate installed but as I said it only works with there cameras, so not as useful IMHO, unless of course you only have ASI cameras and don’t intend to have others.... HTH.. :)

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david_taurus83

david_taurus83

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The ASIAir supports DSLR now and works off a tablet or mobile phone. No PC or laptop needed whatsoever. It has internal guiding and platesolving. Basically plug and play. But definitely tailored more to ZWO products. If it would support my autofocuser (DeepSkyDad) and offered more control over guiding and dithering I would be all over it. Don't think I can give up the functionality of APT for it just yet.

 

The Stellarmate is probably much more functional with wider support options but it needs a bit more user input to setup, (from what I gather as I've never tried it) and I'm not sure whether you still need a PC to control from your 'warm room' side of things!

 

So if you want a fully mobile setup and you have ASI or a DSLR cameras, I would say the Air is the way to go.

 

FYI theres a very good group on FB for the ZWO ASIAir with plenty of support. I've joined it to keep tabs on development. The Air is not without its bugs and niggles but ZWO themselves are active in the group and do take stuff onboard. That said, even with a laptop the hobby isn't without its bugs and niggles...

Edited by david_taurus83
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BillyBoy

BillyBoy

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Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, david_taurus83 said:

The ASIAir supports DSLR now and works off a tablet or mobile phone. No PC or laptop needed whatsoever. It has internal guiding and platesolving. Basically plug and play. But definitely tailored more to ZWO products. If it would support my autofocuser (DeepSkyDad) and offered more control over guiding and dithering I would be all over it. Don't think I can give up the functionality of APT for it just yet.

 

The Stellarmate is probably much more functional with wider support options but it needs a bit more user input to setup, (from what I gather as I've never tried it) and I'm not sure whether you still need a PC to control from your 'warm room' side of things!

 

So if you want a fully mobile setup and you have ASI or a DSLR cameras, I would say the Air is the way to go.

 

FYI theres a very good group on FB for the ZWO ASIAir with plenty of support. I've joined it to keep tabs on development. The Air is not without its bugs and niggles but ZWO themselves are active in the group and do take stuff onboard. That said, even with a laptop the hobby isn't without its bugs and niggles...

All good info...

The Stellarmate can work direct from the rpi, no other computer is needed but that is not the most efficient way to use, and at the end of the month with the new version there is an app that will control it all, so can be controlled by tablet or phone just like the ASIair, there is also a Facebook user group for the Stellarmate, so in my opinion the SM still wins as it controls all cameras and hardwear including DSD focusers... :)

Edited by BillyBoy
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david_taurus83

david_taurus83

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5 minutes ago, BillyBoy said:

All good info...

The Stellarmate can work direct from the rpi, no other computer is needed but that is not the most efficient way to use, and at the end of the month with the new version there is an app that will control it all, so can be controlled by tablet or phone just like the ASIair, there is also a Facebook user group for the Stellarmate, so in my opinion the SM still wins as it controls all cameras and hardwear including DSD focusers... :)

How much input is needed to setup the SM? Is it easy to use? This is coming from someone who's only ever used Windows. Do you need Linux to run it? I have a laptop here that's in the drawer unused...

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BillyBoy

BillyBoy

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33 minutes ago, david_taurus83 said:

How much input is needed to setup the SM? Is it easy to use? This is coming from someone who's only ever used Windows. Do you need Linux to run it? I have a laptop here that's in the drawer unused...

There is no real input needed, that’s the beauty of it, you can run it all from the rpi unit, or as I do, run Kstars / Ekos on a laptop either a windows or Linux laptop, as there is versions of Kstars / Ekos for both.. it’s just INdI that has to be on the rpi, which is what replaces Ascom...

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Adam J

Adam J

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2 hours ago, Fieldsy said:

Hi guys 

has anyone had any experience with either of these and if so what’s ur verdict? 

Many thanks 

My impression is that the Stellermate is harder to setup and get working than the ASI AIR which is a little more plug and play. Since the issues you are having are to do with inexperience (no offense) I think that you might be swapping one confusing system (ASCOM) for another in Stellermate. The ASI AIR will only work with ASI cameras and guide cameras. So you would need to purchase a ASI120mm guide camera if you wanted to go that way.

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Fieldsy

Fieldsy

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41 minutes ago, Adam J said:

My impression is that the Stellermate is harder to setup and get working than the ASI AIR which is a little more plug and play. Since the issues you are having are to do with inexperience (no offense) I think that you might be swapping one confusing system (ASCOM) for another in Stellermate. The ASI AIR will only work with ASI cameras and guide cameras. So you would need to purchase a ASI120mm guide camera if you wanted to go that way.

Hi Adam ur right I am looking at the asiair purely for its simplicity. 

So yes I would need a new asi camera .

But also when I'm at work I travel to some dark skies and with a smaller portable setup(tri pod,st80,asi178,asiair,phone) maybe able for a little more time imaging sky.

Edited by Fieldsy
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BillyBoy

BillyBoy

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56 minutes ago, bottletopburly said:

Apt  3.70 now indi supported so will work via stellarmate 

That’s not quite right...

APT does now support INdI, but APT still has to be run on your PC it just connects to an raspberry PI running INdI server, rather than Ascom, there is no need for SM OS just INdI to be installed on an rpi.....

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bottletopburly

bottletopburly

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5 minutes ago, BillyBoy said:

That’s not quite right...

APT does now support INdI, but APT still has to be run on your PC it just connects to an raspberry PI running INdI server, rather than Ascom, there is no need for SM OS just INdI to be installed on an rpi.....

thanks for clarification 👍

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FredM

FredM

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Does Kstars/Ekos run more smoothly on the StellarMate software?  I've run KStars/Ekos on my mac and I'm not terribly pleased with it.  It doesn't consistently work as I would like it to.  I'm considering buying the software for my Raspberry Pi 4 but if the functionality remains the same, I might be better off just getting the ASIAIR pro (I already have a ZWO camera and guide camera).

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Robindonne

Robindonne

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On 26/03/2020 at 16:29, FredM said:

Does Kstars/Ekos run more smoothly on the StellarMate software?  I've run KStars/Ekos on my mac and I'm not terribly pleased with it.  It doesn't consistently work as I would like it to.  I'm considering buying the software for my Raspberry Pi 4 but if the functionality remains the same, I might be better off just getting the ASIAIR pro (I already have a ZWO camera and guide camera).

Did you continue using Stellarmate?  I bought the software recently but cant find any good comparison or tutorial.   I’m happy with asiair and planning to buy a dedicated camera other than ZWO.   So while playing around with Stellarmate, all looks to work similar as asiair. One questionmark for example is, does Stellarmate have the same sort of polaralignment tool built in? Or is that part of the Ekos Live monthly contract?   

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