ASIAR PRO and Pegasus Powerbox connection and compatibility

[cosmosankara]

Hi there! Just wanted to make you some questions about an setup i'm planning.

I want to automate as much as possible the astrophotography capture process and control the wire issue and i've been thinking of buying an ASIAIR pro with a Pegasus Micro powerbox. I want to ask you: if i have a celestron lithium pro powertank, would be enough to power the pegasus powerbox which would connect to the asiair, 2 dew heaters, a zwo electronic focuser and a zwo 120 mini guide camera? Does the powerbox (considering it has a detector of dew and temperature) manage and control the dew heaters without a pc?(It says in opt website that "All you need to do is plug in the cables, set up the "autodew" functionality..."). And finally, if in a far future i get a tec camera like an zwo 294' would work? I'm a bit new with this fully-automatized setups and with electricity and i would be very thankful if you enlight me. 

[Stuart1971]

4 hours ago, cosmosankara said:

Hi there! Just wanted to make you some questions about an setup i'm planning.

I want to automate as much as possible the astrophotography capture process and control the wire issue and i've been thinking of buying an ASIAIR pro with a Pegasus Micro powerbox. I want to ask you: if i have a celestron lithium pro powertank, would be enough to power the pegasus powerbox which would connect to the asiair, 2 dew heaters, a zwo electronic focuser and a zwo 120 mini guide camera? Does the powerbox (considering it has a detector of dew and temperature) manage and control the dew heaters without a pc?(It says in opt website that "All you need to do is plug in the cables, set up the "autodew" functionality..."). And finally, if in a far future i get a tec camera like an zwo 294' would work? I'm a bit new with this fully-automatized setups and with electricity and i would be very thankful if you enlight me. 

First of all, will the ASIair allow you to add a Pegasus INdI driver for the power box, hmmmm, I’m not sure…🤔

[StevieDvd]

You have a fair bit of duplicated technlogy in that setup.  The Asiair is popular as an 'all in one' solution for newcomers with it's built in power ports and IOS/Android app (the only interface).  As you know this restricts anything connected to be on of the ZWO add-ons (except some DSLRs). It is also well noted that external power can be desirable, so quite a few users add a pegasus to power other devices, and/or a USB hub as well. The metal case of the Asiair can create problems with wifi signals so another issue to consider.

The pegasus can run without a software interface being used, and if the dew detector is used can set the dew settings for you, I'm only basing that on having read the specifications like you have. 

Have you considered either Stellarmate (has an app) which can be bought as an OS or with the Raspberry Pi already cased, or the free Astroberry OS?  That way you can spend more on a Pegagus unit with power & usb support, and these will let you run the software for Pegasus and give you control of the power and dew controllers.

[cosmosankara]

5 hours ago, StevieDvd said:

You have a fair bit of duplicated technlogy in that setup.  The Asiair is popular as an 'all in one' solution for newcomers with it's built in power ports and IOS/Android app (the only interface).  As you know this restricts anything connected to be on of the ZWO add-ons (except some DSLRs). It is also well noted that external power can be desirable, so quite a few users add a pegasus to power other devices, and/or a USB hub as well. The metal case of the Asiair can create problems with wifi signals so another issue to consider.

The pegasus can run without a software interface being used, and if the dew detector is used can set the dew settings for you, I'm only basing that on having read the specifications like you have. 

Have you considered either Stellarmate (has an app) which can be bought as an OS or with the Raspberry Pi already cased, or the free Astroberry OS?  That way you can spend more on a Pegagus unit with power & usb support, and these will let you run the software for Pegasus and give you control of the power and dew controllers.

Hi there! Thanks for the help. As i said, i'm a bit new to all this automatization of the capture process so thanks for the enlighment.  In this case i could control the pegasus from the stellarmate for example? Sounds good to me if that's the case. It's going to hit me a little harder buying it than the asiair but i can live with that. Anyway, the stellarmate and this kind of devices do require to always be connected to my phone to work or if i just left all setup and the image capture running will keep going if i unconnect my phone and go to check it out later? And the most important question: i'm guessing that to power the stellarmate with my celestron lithium pro i would be fine? I'm reading in opt that the stellarmate has "12v to 5v 2 meter USB C cable" so if i connect it to the lithium battery that has an output of 12v should do just fine, right?

[Stuart1971]

6 minutes ago, cosmosankara said:

Hi there! Thanks for the help. As i said, i'm a bit new to all this automatization of the capture process so thanks for the enlighment.  In this case i could control the pegasus from the stellarmate for example? Sounds good to me if that's the case. It's going to hit me a little harder buying it than the asiair but i can live with that. Anyway, the stellarmate and this kind of devices do require to always be connected to my phone to work or if i just left all setup and the image capture running will keep going if i unconnect my phone and go to check it out later? And the most important question: i'm guessing that to power the stellarmate with my celestron lithium pro i would be fine? I'm reading in opt that the stellarmate has "12v to 5v 2 meter USB C cable" so if i connect it to the lithium battery that has an output of 12v should do just fine, right?

You will need an 8” screen minimum, I use a 12” and with my old eyes I struggle a bit with that….

And yes, you can just leave the SM unit running and disconnect if using from a PC, or via a tablet if just running Kstars / Ekos direct from the SM unit, over VNC or similar,  but not if using the app, as it needs to be connected at all time, as the app is stored on the tablet or phone…

As for power you need a solid 5v and an absolute minimum of 3amps power, 4 is better, and for unpowered devices such as ASI cameras or any device that does not have its own power supply, you will need a powered USB hub on the mount too connected to SM unit, as the SM unit USB ports are not very powerful and this can cause issues if you try and connect too many unpowered devices directly too it….👍🏼

Edited June 13, 2021 by Stuart1971