ZWO ASIair pro reviews please!

[Robculm]

Thanks Stu & Dave.

The mirror lock-up feature is just something I've always used, so I guess I've no evidence to 'compare' it's important! It's certainly a topic of much debate on various forums. The 200PDS (I think you have similar Stu) is rather unweildy on an HEQ5 mount, so I try to minimise any 'wobble'! But let's see...

To be honest, guiding without having to use a laptop is my main aim with the ASIair pro. I was pretty happy with the camera triggering using my intervalometer. But the dither features using the app are appealing...

Cheers,

Rob

[Chefgage]

Just my quick take on this. I have used the asiair pro on a star adventurer pro mount. It really made the process of using this mount easy. By that I mean the first step of polar aligning using my guide cam was all done in a couple of minutes. Then I figured out how to use the plate solve function. As my mount is a manual non go to, finding some targets was very hard due to the bortle 8 skies and the fact I cannot often see many stars near the target. But by pointing in the general direction and then plate solving and comparing the coordinates in sky safari I was able to find quite a few targets that I did not think was possible. Guiding was also easy to set up on the star adventurer.

I have just now tried the asiair pro on a heq5 pro mount. Again this was easy to set up (more things to do than the star adventurer pro). I have set it up using the eqmod cable so that the hand controller is not needed. The novelty of pressing a button on my phone or tablet and the mount moving to the target brought a smile to my face in the dark.

One thing that the asiair pro surprised me was when after moving to the target the star was not quite centered in the field of view. But not to worry the asiair then automatically took a picture, plate solved and then centered the star. Excellent.

Edited June 23, 2021 by Chefgage

[maxchess]

My understanding is that the ASAIR pro is a proprietary derivative of IndiEkos. It has some additional front end interfaces but is limited to ASI products. So if you wanted to use a A focuser or camera or other device made by a competitor you cannot. There are various standard ready to load images like Astroberry or StellarMate or you can do a full install yourself. I have been using it on a RPI for over 3 years with equipment from ZWO plus a QHY guide camera, a Celestron focuser and a Skywatcher mount. It also integrates with PhD. It requires a little more technical knowledge than a windows system but has been very reliable.  I recently bought a Celestron Rasa 8 and there is a matching focuser I couldn’t have used with Assir.

[StevieDvd]

As you've made the purchase of the Asiair Pro (AAP) then let's stick with help on using that.

The weak point of any of the Pi based systems is the wifi, worse if the case is metal.  I'd recommend an external wifi extender that plugs into your Asiair ethernet to bridge that weakest link - this would either connect to your home network or be the base station for use away from home (changed between these setups by the config options of the extender).

Down the line you can try using Astroberry sdcard in the as there are now indi drivers to utilise the power ports too.

As others have said the AAP limits the equipment that can be connected to the ZWO world (apart from certain DSLR cameras),  so your electronic focuser, filter and guide camera must be ZWO. And if you upgrade the imaging camera from a DSLR then again it has to be a ZWO. * except if Astroberry is used as the OS.

[Davehux]

As a very happy ASIair user for a couple of years (V1 and now Pro), thought I’d add my 2p to the comments on here

WiFi - yes, the Pro on its own has the range of a length of spaghetti -it’s a well known ‘feature’ of the metal case. Many of us use the TP-Link AC 750 travel router. Mine sits on top of the Pro using 4 Velcro pads. I power it from one of the Pro USB ports. Gives me the 30m I need to connect to my home WiFi router, so I can control the Pro from anywhere within my home WiFi range.

Flats & Dark Flats - the latest firmware has an Auto function for flats. Just select it and the Pro will set a suitable exposure time for the flats. For dark flats, press the dropdown button next to the exposure and it will fill in the same exposure time as your flats.

If you like ZWO cameras and accessories, it’s a great bit of kit. Just think of it as the Apple of the Astro World - connect the right bits to it, and it all just works 🙂

Also, join the official ZWO ASIAIR Facebook page. You will get all the updates on the new software releases, and tons of help from very friendly people about using your Pro.

 

 

Edited June 29, 2021 by Davehux

[Robculm]

Thanks for the additional comments 🙂

I've established the initial set up, app, connections etc... Just waiting on the weather now! 🙄

[Robculm]

Just to add my short review of the ASIair Pro now that I've got it set up & finally had some clear nights...

Overall - Fantastic, really love it!

OK, so for sure the bar was set pretty low as I was basically coming from un-guided & using the Synscan controller!

Yes, the WiFi is 'challenging'! But I've managed to get it operating on station mode with my existing wifi extender relocated to the window sill! (indoors).

Couldn't get on with driving it through the hand controller, so got the EQDIR cable which works great, Synscan is now well & truly consigned to the 'spares' box!

Polar alignment works great.

Locating objects is now a breeze & the framing of them / actually be able to see your image there & then is amazing! Gone are the days of taking out the camera SD card, running inside to check it on the computer, back out & trying to guess which direction & how far to move...

Guiding is great (sure I guess that's the same whatever 'platform' you're using, but coming from unguided, brilliant, no more filtering through the images & throwing half of them in the bin!).

Seems to work great with the Canon 800D DSLR...

Being able to monitor what's going on while back indoors with the pad is great (although have had a few occasions with the wifi dropping!)...

Only negatives so far are that I'm running it together with the mount from my battery pack & it sure drains power a lot faster, but that's easily solved - Lynx Astro power supply is in the mail! And struggling with the live view (i.e. unable to use it when I focus (Bahtinov mask), so having to focus on the DSLR screen), would be nice to get a larger image!

So very happy & looking forward to the longer / darker nights... 😀

[powerlord]

when using mine with a DSLR i tend to use liveview too - nice and easy. just remember and turn it off afterwards.

stu

[Richard_]

On 17/07/2021 at 17:21, Robculm said:

Only negatives so far are that I'm running it together with the mount from my battery pack & it sure drains power a lot faster, but that's easily solved - Lynx Astro power supply is in the mail! And struggling with the live view (i.e. unable to use it when I focus (Bahtinov mask), so having to focus on the DSLR screen), would be nice to get a larger image!

So very happy & looking forward to the longer / darker nights... 😀

Power wise, I think the AAP requires minimum 2A @ 12V to function. However, if you add in peripherals like guide camera and dew heaters, then the AAP will draw more current. I feed mine 5A from a mains power supply so perhaps your AAP is drawing this much current from your battery pack and draining it faster than the expected 2A?

Also, what is the issue with with the live view for focusing? Your comment mentions you use a pad (iPad or Android?) and you are struggling to get a larger image? You can do two things in AAP to help focus: you could either use the dedicated "Focus" mode without the Bahtinov mask (this mode uses FWHM of a selected star to determine focus) or you can use "Preview" mode and take a quick exposure each time you make an adjustment to check the diffraction pattern from the Bahtinov mask. You should be able to see this directly on the tablet/pad and you shouldn't have to look at the DSLR screen anymore. 

[Robculm]

Hi Richard,

Thanks for your comments. In terms of power, I've now sorted a mains to 12VDC supply.

I didn't realise there was this focussing option in the main camera menu, I thought the APP focussing features were all associated with auto focus, so since I don't have one of those I kind of ignored the whole topic & carried on doing it on the camera... I will give that a try, both the 'dedicated' focus & the preview with my Bahtinov mask. 

To be honest I've still not had a lot of 'live' time with the AAP as the weather has been rubbish recently. As soon as we get some clear nights will get on to this...

Cheers,

Rob

Edited July 30, 2021 by Robculm

[powerlord]

I find dslr live view with bahtinov still much better than preview. You get far more instant feedback - do remember to use you camera zoom controls though to zoom into the star to focus. And have adjusted your menus so you get 10x zoom.

 

[johnst]

I find this thread amazing as I have the ASIair pro with a canon 700d and WO 72d on a HEQ5 mount but not as yet used it seriously. All the comments so far are a real help and I wonder if there could be a continuous permanent thread specially for ASIair users. Just a thought?  

[powerlord]

I was saying the other day in a thread we could do with a new section for controllers, as there isn't one. i.e. seperate from software, as if it's a 'black box' controller like asiair, it doesn't really fit anywhere else.

ASIAIR, maybe astroberry, etc

Equipment / Discussions - Controllers

how about it @admin ?

stu

[admin]

7 hours ago, powerlord said:

how about it @admin ?

For easy navigation we resist adding new discussion boards unless demand is significant.

Until today nobody has requested one but we will happily consider it if later we find there is enough demand. 

HTH

[iapa]

5 hours ago, admin said:

For easy navigation we resist adding new discussion boards unless demand is significant.

Until today nobody has requested one but we will happily consider it if later we find there is enough demand. 

HTH

I’d support this as there is a large number of control devices as @powerlord says, but discussions in spread across many other discussion areas.

To me, it makes sense now to have separate area in the same way as cameras, mounts and such.

 

Just my tu’pence worth

[iapa]

One thing I’ve not been able to resolve/confirm is the ability of the AAP to recenter on target e.g. when cloud has come in and guiding has failed for a while.

anyone found this?

Edited January 3, 2022 by iapa

[fireballxl5]

6 minutes ago, iapa said:

One thing I’ve not been able to resolve/confirm is the ability of the AAP to recenter on target e.g. when cloud has come in and guiding has failed for a while.

It should be as simple as loading a previously taken sub and centering on this.  AAP will automatically plate solve the selected image and go to the centre.  Did this last night for the first time and it worked OK. 

[Robculm]

With small periods of 'star lost' (like I'm having tonight here in Devon), the AAP picks up the star again as soon as it's cleared & continues as normal. I'm not sure for longer periods though (I'm hoping we can avoid them tonight as it's the first clear one for months!!!).

One thing I've found very useful though is that if you make adjustments to the centering (i.e. changing the framing of your target away from the default), you can save that (add in favourites & use current mount position), so that you can come back to the same point again. I regularly use this so that I can re-focus or come back to the same exact position on another night.

 

[iapa]

I was thinking more of when there is an hour or more of broken cloud causing guiding to fail.

[maxchess]

I have been imaging for 5 years now & have tried many of the Apps discussed. Here is my (abbreviated) journey to the ASIAir Plus:

Started with Indi-Ekos (aka, Stellarmate, Astroberry) on Raspberry Pi, controlling HEQ5 Pro.  Worked well but occasionally developed faults which often required knowledge of Linux command line. Great value for money. But decided I wanted SharpCap as well for video and its then ground-breaking Polar Alignment so move to Windows PC.

Used old PC and implemented "APT - Astro Photography Tool" pretty good with Sharpcap for video. Built roll-off shed observatory and upgraded mount to CEM120.  Then discovered NINA.  Astonishingly good and reliable with regular additional features that were so much better than anything else:  best fastest Auto-Focus, new PA routines, and Advanced scheduler to name a few. Fantastic, but still kept Sharpcap for video.

This year: putting together a rig for travel, or at least darker sites, mainly using Widefield scopes, like Samyang 135. I Bought SW Star Adventurer GTI, the new one with GOto etc. Initially used Raspberrt Pi with Indi Ekos, but the wiring was all too complicated for a little mount, especially power. So reluctantly have just ordered ASIair-Pro. I know it limits me to ZWO cameras etc but friends who use it say it's reliable. (Last year I took a PI on holiday and it froze on me) But the real attraction is the wiring simplicity. One box on the mount handles all USB connections and power distribution. So just ONE cable to the mount. Joy.  But I wouldn't use it on my main mount.