ASIAIR driving me bonkers

[Davey-T]

Last night the ASIAIR autoguiding froze and had to reboot it, tonight the focus screen froze and restarting just got it started on the same frozen page so the only way to get rid of it was to delete the ASIAIR app and reinstall it then as soon as it started up it wanted to update with no way of refusing the offer I clicked on it to start and nothing happened except a little circle going round saying "transferring firmware" and a big circle saying "not started" a message saying it will take several minutes and not to switch it off, been half an hour now and nothing happening so with one thing saying it transferring firmware and the other saying not started who thinks I should switch it off ?

Dave

[Adreneline]

THat's a tricky one.

I had problems with my ASIair just before Christmas - froze and nothing happening - and in an attempt to sort it I re-installed the OS from the backup image  I made when I bought it. Did all that and it still was giving me grief and it turned out to to be the wifi unit on the Pi board that had failed (or at least partially failed). I had a spare Pi3B+ which I installed but of course it wouldn't validate the licence. To be fair ZWO came up trumps - I emailed the problem on Christmas Eve and got a response Christmas morning and had my new Pi validated and up and running within 20 minutes. Amazing customer service but so glad I kept an image of the OS.

Sorry I can't help/advise any more.

Adrian

P.S. That problem aside by ASIair is still one of the best things I have ever bought for AP.

[Robindonne]

Had the same issue.   Transferring lasted for ages.  Just switched it off and restarted and all went fine.   The update took some seconds.   

[michael8554]

Software that freezes can usually be closed by Windows Task Manager.

Right/Click on the Task and select "End Task".

Michael

[Davey-T]

4 minutes ago, michael8554 said:

Software that freezes can usually be closed by Windows Task Manager.

Right/Click on the Task and select "End Task".

Michael

It's on an iPad and Apple don't like you doing that sort of thing, I can end it by just turning it off but it just restarts on the same frozen screen.

1 hour ago, Adreneline said:

but so glad I kept an image of the OS.

Made an image on another SD card but that wont work either.

1 hour ago, Adreneline said:

it turned out to to be the wifi unit on the Pi board that had failed (or at least partially failed)

Mine has a very weak WiFi signal only the two bottom bars even when right next to the iPad.
Kept dropping out and auto reconnecting a lot.

Dave

[Adreneline]

11 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

I can end it by just turning it off but it just restarts on the same frozen screen.

On my iPad if I swipe to the middle of the screen the app window will appear reduced in size (along with other open apps). Swiping off the screen shuts down and closes the app completely.  Apologies if I’m telling you something you already know.

[Davey-T]

9 minutes ago, Adreneline said:

On my iPad if I swipe to the middle of the screen the app window will appear reduced in size (along with other open apps). Swiping off the screen shuts down and closes the app completely.  Apologies if I’m telling you something you already know.

Couldn't shift the frozen focus screen and now can't shift  the update screen

The only way to get rid of it is to  delete the app and download it again but just end up in this situation again.

Dave

[JamesF]

It's not possible to use the wired network to do the update, I assume?

James

[StevieDvd]

What's the usual network you use with the AAP? 

It's trying to update by passing the firmware from your android/ios  device across to the ZWO - so they both need to be using the same wi-fi host.

As James has mentioned, you may be able to get a good network connection if you boot the AAP with an ethernet cable to your home network and connect your ipad to the same network and retry.

 

 

[Davey-T]

10 hours ago, JamesF said:

It's not possible to use the wired network to do the update, I assume?

James

No it all works wirelessly.

Dave

[Davey-T]

18 minutes ago, StevieDvd said:

What's the usual network you use with the AAP? 

It's trying to update by passing the firmware from your android/ios  device across to the ZWO - so they both need to be using the same wi-fi host.

As James has mentioned, you may be able to get a good network connection if you boot the AAP with an ethernet cable to your home network and connect your ipad to the same network and retry.

 

 

They're both connected via home network and only work via Wii Fi.

Dave

 

[JamesF]

That's a pain.  Are you able to connect from a different device and get a more reliable connection, or does it look like the ASI Air just doesn't have a very good wifi signal?

James

[StevieDvd]

57 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

They're both connected via home network and only work via Wii Fi.

Dave

 

I just tried with mine. I connected an ethernet cable to the AAP from my router and booted it up, in the IOS app it shows it is connected to my home network via the 'Wired Ethernet'  and gives the ip address.  My iphone is connecting wireless of course and can interact with the AAP fine.

Are you just  using the AAP as host and connecting your phone to it?  I reset mine to do the same and tried the network cable on that setup too, it seems to default to a wired network (probably as that's the default of the Pi too)

Edited January 26, 2021 by StevieDvd
Updated the connections tested

[Davey-T]

The app still starts with the frozen failed update page.

 

Got a copy of the original firmware so will try copying that to a new SD card to see if that's any better.

The

[Davey-T]

1 hour ago, JamesF said:

or does it look like the ASI Air just doesn't have a very good wifi signal?

The WiFi is really poor on my ASIAIR even with the iPad next to it, don't know if this is normal but a few folk have fitted USB extenders, supposed to reach 5 meters but if I  take it more than a couple of feet it drops the connection and sometimes drops connection when next to it,  what it really needs is an external aerial.

Dave

[Davey-T]

Made a new boot SD card from the backup I made when new but instead of producing a D/ boot disc on the SD card it has made D/ F/ G/ and /H and nothing happens when put in the ASIAIR.

Dave

[StevieDvd]

The aerial on the Pi is part of the circuit board and has no external connector as standard, a few have modded their pi boards (needs somone with small part soldering skill).  So yes poor wifi is normal when using the AAP as the host. Better to add a stronger signal source next to the AAP - my home signal is boosted so can now be used in my garden. Others use TPLink routers etc - some of which will let you connect a short ethernet cable to you AAP to get the best network connections.

I had that error before but I only had to power the AAP off and kill the phone app as well and retried it.  Did not resort to a new SD card though I'd already created a couple of backups just in case.

[StevieDvd]

1 minute ago, Davey-T said:

Made a new boot SD card from the backup I made when new but instead of producing a D/ boot disc on the SD card it has made D/ F/ G/ and /H and nothing happens when put in the ASIAIR.

Dave

It should create more than one drive letter, though windows won't see the data on any but the d: drive.

I use a windows app called Rufus (run as admin) to create my sd cards for Linux, it copes better with sd cards previously created from image files.

[Davey-T]

15 minutes ago, StevieDvd said:

It should create more than one drive letter, though windows won't see the data on any but the d: drive.

I use a windows app called Rufus (run as admin) to create my sd cards for Linux, it copes better with sd cards previously created from image files.

According to YT tutorial Windows only sees D/ and a few folders  but on the one I created there is a long list of files on other drives and it doesn't boot the ASIAIR.
Used Win32 Disk Imager as recommended by ZWO.

Have now deleted the app again as it was the only way to remove the frozen download page and about to try cable connection
I think the ASIAIR is defaulting to using it's hotspot but can't alter it to home network without starting it and can't start it  

Dave

[Davey-T]

13 hours ago, JamesF said:

It's not possible to use the wired network to do the update, I assume?

James

Just searching for a cable, does it need to be straight through or crossover ?

Dave

[JamesF]

22 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

Just searching for a cable, does it need to be straight through or crossover ?

Going into a router then I'd have said straight through.  If it's to another machine then probably crossover.

James

[Davey-T]

4 minutes ago, JamesF said:

Going into a router then I'd have said straight through.  If it's to another machine then probably crossover.

James

In router so will try straight through

Thanks

Dave

[Davey-T]

Praise the lord it seems to be working again now it's updated the firmware, needed cable to do it, it's even got autofocus as a bonus

It's also got a full WiFi signal indicator which it's never had from new, only ever had the bottom couple of bars lit up.

Thanks @StevieD@JamesF @Adreneline 

Still seems some flaky software design that freezes the app when it goes cranky.

Just need a clear night now to try it.

Dave

 

[Davey-T]

Still need to get to the bottom of why the backup didn't work, does the fact that Windows can see all the files mean it didn't save them as Linux just windows especially as the ASIAIR doesn't recognise the SD card  ?

Dave

[StevieDvd]

6 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

Still need to get to the bottom of why the backup didn't work, does the fact that Windows can see all the files mean it didn't save them as Linux just windows especially as the ASIAIR doesn't recognise the SD card  ?

Dave

It's to do with the partition information and how Windows & Linux store their size & location.  When it works you can usually see the boot partion in Windows and the rest as empty/invalid drives on the PC.  And the other impact is that Linux does not see the boot settings correctly either.

The app used to write the image files to sdcard has to keep up with changes, that's why I like Rufus it gets updated often.

ZWO keeping the hardware locked down to it's own devices has resulted in them closing down normal channels to connect to the AAP, it's easier to do upgrades on astroberry & stellarmate when you can connect over the network.