ASIair Pro & WiFi

[nephilim]

Hi, I'm looking at getting the above to control my imaging sessions but I'm not 100% sure about the WiFi set up.

From what I've read it acts as it's own WiFi hotspot. Does this mean I can take this to and use it in an area where there is no public or private WiFi signal? 

I have the Explore Scientific EXOS ll mount which also has its own WiFi hotspot & I'm able to use it anywhere & was wondering if the ASIair is the same type of set up before I press that 'buy it now' button.

Tia 

Steve

 

 

 

[nephilim]

Someone..... Anyone?

[StevieDvd]

Hi Steve

Yes the ASIair Pro (AAP) have the same wifi solution as it's primary use is expected to be a standalone, away from home one.

The reach of the wifi is a bit poor as the aerial is a small part of the Raspberry Pi circuit board,  which the ally case seems to impair slightly. So not good to use from indoors when the mount and AAP are in the garden.

The AAP can be the hotspot or it can connect to your home network - but you will come across a lot of folk who recommend an external wifi extender which can be used at home and/or out & about.

There are quite a few happy AAP users here at SGL so feel free to ask questions.

Regards

Steve

[nephilim]

22 minutes ago, StevieDvd said:

Hi Steve

Yes the ASIair Pro (AAP) have the same wifi solution as it's primary use is expected to be a standalone, away from home one.

The reach of the wifi is a bit poor as the aerial is a small part of the Raspberry Pi circuit board,  which the ally case seems to impair slightly. So not good to use from indoors when the mount and AAP are in the garden.

The AAP can be the hotspot or it can connect to your home network - but you will come across a lot of folk who recommend an external wifi extender which can be used at home and/or out & about.

There are quite a few happy AAP users here at SGL so feel free to ask questions.

Regards

Steve

@StevieDvd Thanks for the reply. I emailed FLO in the end as I'd had no answer here, Grant confirmed what you have also said.

That's good to hear, I was going to use my laptop but having seen the reviews of the AAP it looks a far better suited piece of kit. I'm going to watch a few more tutorials today & more than likely buy it later today although there's is a wait on it of a few weeks, I still have to buy my camera though so I'm in no hurry 🙂

Edited December 31, 2020 by nephilim

[teoria_del_big_bang]

Steve,

I am not that familiar with the Asair but from the look of it it is more or less a Raspberry Pi with some clever software pre-loaded and is not exactly cheap. 

Regarding the WWi-Fi then as it is essentially a RPi it will suffer from a poor Wi-Fi connection and as Steve says above (Blimey all Steve's on the tread so far !) you would need a wi-fi repeater or do what I do on my RPi setup and use a LAN cable which can be up to 100M and work flawlessly.

Steve

[nephilim]

2 minutes ago, teoria_del_big_bang said:

Steve,

I am not that familiar with the Asair but from the look of it it is more or less a Raspberry Pi with some clever software pre-loaded and is not exactly cheap. 

Regarding the WWi-Fi then as it is essentially a RPi it will suffer from a poor Wi-Fi connection and as Steve says above (Blimey all Steve's on the tread so far !) you would need a wi-fi repeater or do what I do on my RPi setup and use a LAN cable which can be up to 100M and work flawlessly.

Steve

Thanks for the info (we need more Steve's in this thread though 🤣) I'll be using it mainly at home but also taking it into the middle of nowhere & will be pretty much right next to it during those sessions, I will get a repeater though.

As you mention, it's not cheap so I wanted to be 100% sure about it's capabilities.

[teoria_del_big_bang]

4 minutes ago, nephilim said:

 I still have to buy my camera though so I'm in no hurry 🙂

Are you intending to buy a ZWO camera ?

I am not sure if it is still the case, or was just an issue in the earlier days of the Asair Pro, but I seem to remember a lot of threads about some non-zwo cameras not being supported. This is what put me off getting one and decided to go the RPi and Astroberry route. This is a lot cheaper way to go but certainly not an "out of the box" solution. 
I may be wrong so don't go on my say so alone but I sort of recall seeing people saying with ZWO cameras they were a great way of running your sessions but not necessarily with other cameras.
Have you considered the Stellarmate Plus, both this and the Asair are essentially Raspberry Pi's anyway but the advantage is they come with pre-loaded software and I believe the ability to get help if needed so a much easier solution than loading a RPi up yourself.

Steve

[nephilim]

14 minutes ago, teoria_del_big_bang said:

Are you intending to buy a ZWO camera ?

I am not sure if it is still the case, or was just an issue in the earlier days of the Asair Pro, but I seem to remember a lot of threads about some non-zwo cameras not being supported. This is what put me off getting one and decided to go the RPi and Astroberry route. This is a lot cheaper way to go but certainly not an "out of the box" solution. 
I may be wrong so don't go on my say so alone but I sort of recall seeing people saying with ZWO cameras they were a great way of running your sessions but not necessarily with other cameras.
Have you considered the Stellarmate Plus, both this and the Asair are essentially Raspberry Pi's anyway but the advantage is they come with pre-loaded software and I believe the ability to get help if needed so a much easier solution than loading a RPi up yourself.

Steve

Ive already got the ZWO asi 1200mm-s for guiding & my main imaging camera will be the ZWO 533MC-Pro, I'd also read about AAP camera compatibility issues but as mine will both be ZWO it made sense to use the AAP rather than Stellamate (although i'm not sure if Stellamate is easier or harder to figure out when it comes to ease of use.)

Im in no way tech savvy so it hadnt crossed my mind to build my own Raspberry Pi, just the thought gives me a headache.

[teoria_del_big_bang]

No I know what you mean about doing it yourself route and with these cameras I think it will be great,. As I say I have no experience with them myself but many using them seem well happy  and despite being a bit pricey for hardware that is say £70 to source it is often well worth it to save the hassle of messing about with bits f software yourself.
If you get one I would be very interested in your thoughts as my cameras are mostly ZWO anyway so not ruled out getting one 🙂 

Good luck with it and I hope we get some clear skies up North in 2021 🙂 

Steve

[nephilim]

1 minute ago, teoria_del_big_bang said:

No I know what you mean about doing it yourself route and with these cameras I think it will be great,. As I say I have no experience with them myself but many using them seem well happy  and despite being a bit pricey for hardware that is say £70 to source it is often well worth it to save the hassle of messing about with bits f software yourself.
If you get one I would be very interested in your thoughts as my cameras are mostly ZWO anyway so not ruled out getting one 🙂 

Good luck with it and I hope we get some clear skies up North in 2021 🙂 

Steve

Thanks, I'll keep you in the loop when I'm finally up & running, it'll be a couple of months as I've still the 533 to buy. I know what you mean about the weather, I'm in Killinghall at the moment so not very far from you. I'm heading back to Cumbria in a few days where I'll then be trapped a its gone into tier 4. Although that means plenty of free time research & practice.

All the best

Steve

[Adreneline]

6 minutes ago, nephilim said:

Ive already got the ZWO asi 1200mm-s for guiding & my main imaging camera will be the ZWO 533MC-Pro, I'd also read about AAP camera compatibility issues but as mine will both be ZWO it made sense to use the AAP rather than Stellamate (although i'm not sure if Stellamate is easier or harder to figure out when it comes to ease of use.)

Im in no way tech savvy so it hadnt crossed my mind to build my own Raspberry Pi, just the thought gives me a headache.

Hi.

I don't have the AAP but I do have the ASIair which I've used for the last 14 months. It rates as one of the best things I have bought in the AP world - I love it! Like most things it is not perfect but name me one piece of software that is - although I do think BYEoS (IMHO) gets pretty close. There are a couple of features I would like to see added to the software but they are not show stoppers.

The air will work remotely and without the home network. I control my air with an iPad and it works seamlessly. I've not carried out a rigorous test to see just how far from the air I can go before I lose contact but it certainly seems good up to 5/6 metres (lounge to patio).

I use an ASI1600MM-Pro for imaging along with a ZWO EAF and EFW. I have used an ASI120-mini to guide but as I use a CEM25-EC tracking is certainly good up to 180s exposures so I tend not to guide. I connect my EFW to the 1600; the 1600, the EAF and the mount are hard wired to the air.

The ASIair is based on a standard Pi3B+. I have tried using Pi3 and Pi4 with Astroberry and been driven to the point of distraction. In my view there is no comparison regarding ease of use and setup between the two. I accept the ASIair can only be used with ZWO products (and a subset of Canon and Nikon cameras) but I for one don't have an issue with that - ZWO have developed an excellent imaging control environment so why shouldn't they restrict it ot their own products. Interestingly I don't see people bemoaning the fact that Atik software only works with Atik cameras.

Is it expensive? I guess it is but it represents less than 10% of the cost of everything else that is sitting on the tripod (mount, imaging scope, guide scope, imaging and guide cameras, EAF, EFW, filters(!!!), dew heaters, etc.). ASIair works seamlessly with SkySafari running on the iPad- it is highly responsive (unike Ekos).

My ASIair failed two days before Christmas - I was distraught! ZWO came to the rescue within 24 hours with a revalidation code so I could replace the Pi3B+ with one of my own - the code arrived Christmas morning. That and the fact that FLO also offered to replace the unit as it was less than two years old.

Would I buy another - a Pro - without doubt.

Hope this helps.

Adrian

[teoria_del_big_bang]

Thanks Adrian that is great information  🙂 

Steve

[nephilim]

11 minutes ago, Adreneline said:

Hi.

I don't have the AAP but I do have the ASIair which I've used for the last 14 months. It rates as one of the best things I have bought in the AP world - I love it! Like most things it is not perfect but name me one piece of software that is - although I do think BYEoS (IMHO) gets pretty close. There are a couple of features I would like to see added to the software but they are not show stoppers.

The air will work remotely and without the home network. I control my air with an iPad and it works seamlessly. I've not carried out a rigorous test to see just how far from the air I can go before I lose contact but it certainly seems good up to 5/6 metres (lounge to patio).

I use an ASI1600MM-Pro for imaging along with a ZWO EAF and EFW. I have used an ASI120-mini to guide but as I use a CEM25-EC tracking is certainly good up to 180s exposures so I tend not to guide. I connect my EFW to the 1600; the 1600, the EAF and the mount are hard wired to the air.

The ASIair is based on a standard Pi3B+. I have tried using Pi3 and Pi4 with Astroberry and been driven to the point of distraction. In my view there is no comparison regarding ease of use and setup between the two. I accept the ASIair can only be used with ZWO products (and a subset of Canon and Nikon cameras) but I for one don't have an issue with that - ZWO have developed an excellent imaging control environment so why shouldn't they restrict it ot their own products. Interestingly I don't see people bemoaning the fact that Atik software only works with Atik cameras.

Is it expensive? I guess it is but it represents less than 10% of the cost of everything else that is sitting on the tripod (mount, imaging scope, guide scope, imaging and guide cameras, EAF, EFW, filters(!!!), dew heaters, etc.). ASIair works seamlessly with SkySafari running on the iPad- it is highly responsive (unike Ekos).

My ASIair failed two days before Christmas - I was distraught! ZWO came to the rescue within 24 hours with a revalidation code so I could replace the Pi3B+ with one of my own - the code arrived Christmas morning. That and the fact that FLO also offered to replace the unit as it was less than two years old.

Would I buy another - a Pro - without doubt.

Hope this helps.

Adrian

@Adreneline Thanks for reply Adrian,  everything I've heard so far is very positive more or less. I think your comment regarding expense is correct, 10% of final set up cost is more or less the same for me. Anything that makes for a more streamlined session can only be a good thing.

All the best

Steve

 

 

 

[nephilim]

Thanks for all the replies. I've now bought it. It's out of stock just like everything else at the moment but the month or so wait will give me plenty of time for reading up on it 🙂

[Adreneline]

2 minutes ago, nephilim said:

everything I've heard so far is very positive more or less

Hi Steve,

I should perhaps mention the two things I would like to see in the ASIair OS that for me would make it perfect.

In the Autorun screen you can set the various parameters for an imaging run, e.g. number of exposures, length of exposure, filter, object name, etc. It would be perfect - for me - if in addition you could set the focus position for the EAF for each filter. I know the ASIair can do autofocus but my experience with autofocus is very mixed and I prefer to manually input the focus position having carefully established it with the BM and the zoom feature on the iPad display. The other things I would like is to be able to input a custom filter name, e.g. L and L3 in my case. I've passed both of these suggestions to ZWO for what they are worth.

I have used the ASIair PA feature and it seems to work just fine and is ideal on the odd occasion I've operated away from home. As I also have a PoleMaster I tend to use a PC laptop to complete PA before starting an imaging session.

With my light-weight setup I can be up and imaging in about 20 minutes, including carrying the tripod and scope outside. Generally I connect to the mains power supply and use a 12.5V psu unit, but I also have a powertank  for operation away from the house - everything is housed in a Makita tool box! The tool box is also big enough to accommodate my Intel NUC for the occasions I want to use my Canon camera and BYEoS.

HTH

Adrian

 

[Adreneline]

2 minutes ago, nephilim said:

I've now bought it.

Excellent!

Happy New Year Steve - hope the AAP comes soon for you.

Adrian

[nephilim]

1 minute ago, Adreneline said:

Excellent!

Happy New Year Steve - hope the AAP comes soon for you.

Adrian

Happy New Year to you too Adrian & fingers crossed for a speedy delivery.

Clear Skies

Steve

[nephilim]

19 minutes ago, Adreneline said:

Hi Steve,

I should perhaps mention the two things I would like to see in the ASIair OS that for me would make it perfect.

In the Autorun screen you can set the various parameters for an imaging run, e.g. number of exposures, length of exposure, filter, object name, etc. It would be perfect - for me - if in addition you could set the focus position for the EAF for each filter. I know the ASIair can do autofocus but my experience with autofocus is very mixed and I prefer to manually input the focus position having carefully established it with the BM and the zoom feature on the iPad display. The other things I would like is to be able to input a custom filter name, e.g. L and L3 in my case. I've passed both of these suggestions to ZWO for what they are worth.

I have used the ASIair PA feature and it seems to work just fine and is ideal on the odd occasion I've operated away from home. As I also have a PoleMaster I tend to use a PC laptop to complete PA before starting an imaging session.

With my light-weight setup I can be up and imaging in about 20 minutes, including carrying the tripod and scope outside. Generally I connect to the mains power supply and use a 12.5V psu unit, but I also have a powertank  for operation away from the house - everything is housed in a Makita tool box! The tool box is also big enough to accommodate my Intel NUC for the occasions I want to use my Canon camera and BYEoS.

HTH

Adrian

 

  @Adreneline  That looks a very nice & tidy set up.

I've recently bought the Samyang 135mm lens which I'll be using with the ZWO 533, guiding with the Evoguide 50ED & ZWO 120mm-s all mounted on the ES EXOS 2 PMC 8 so I'll be well within my weight bearing capacity. I do have the option to power straight from the mains at the front of the house but for the back (North West) i'll be further down the garden & using my Celestron LiFePO4 powertank which will easily see me through an evening session.

I will be getting a scope later on in the New Year, again light weight & looking at the WO GT 71 or 81.

Steve

Edited December 31, 2020 by nephilim