ASIAIR Type Clone?

[Phillyo]

I'm just curious as to why there are no other manufacturers making something similar, especially one that is open to ALL cameras/guiders etc rather than being locked to a single ecosystem. It seems that they are very popular (I liked mine while I had it) but are let down by locking people into using only ZWO equipment? Or have I missed something

Phil

[StevieDvd]

Yes you could get a Stellarmate or Astroberry setup. They both use the same Opensource platform that ZWO uses, the ZWO has restricted theirs to own brand equipment.

Astroberry is free and runs on your own Raspberry Pi

Stellarmate has a small fee for the OS only and is coming out with some very nice equipment which makes the Asiair pale in feature connections.

You can also run Astroberry/Stellarmate on the AsiAir Pro as the OS is on the sd-card for that model.

[ONIKKINEN]

Mini-PCs do exist and are very popular in place of an Asiair if someone wants to have non ZWO cameras. I guess the reason why other manufacturers have not jumped on the Asiair competitor opportunity is that the Asiair is actually well priced for what you get with it. ZWO can sell the Asiair at a good price because they make the money back tenfold by imprisoning the user to the ZWO product catalogue for good.

Another reason might be that its difficult to make one product to fit all imagers (which the Asiair does not do by the way). DSO imagers might be happy with slow storage, slow RAM, slow CPU speeds and USB2 ports while planetary and lunar imagers will absolutely need faster everything and USB3 ports.

[Skyline]

I use a Mele Mini PC with USB 3 ports loaded with Ubuntu and Ekos/INDI, its universal support is a better option instead of something locked down to just ZWO. You can also run the same setup using a Raspberry Pi 4, the mini pc does run a lot smoother though.

Edited April 18, 2023 by Skyline

[skybadger]

Once you get past hotspot in Win11 and power and usb issues it's all fine.

[Phillyo]

I already use a Mini PC and it works fine, I love it. I was just curious about the ASIAIR type of ecosystem more than anything else. It is very handy

[Dark Raven]

Work in progress. Ordered and got the parts, took far longer than wished for. Sitting in storage for some time as no bandwidth to work on it at the moment. Idea is to put together Stellarmate secondary setup based on RPI CM4 maxed at 8 GB RAM and 32 GB eMMC with with 4 way MOSFET switch. Power board and mosfet switch should enable it or run on and distribute 12V the rest of setup. This should in theory be slightly better than the ASIAIR plus as it would have 8GB (instead 4) of ram and 4 USB 3.0 (instead 2). 

Main components:

PiBorg | PicoBorg - Quad Motor Controller Not happy with this as 2.5A MAX, will search for alternative, perhaps Teleskop-Express: ZWO Board for ASIAIR Pro - ASI_AIR V1.3

Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 | The Pi Hut

DockerPi PowerBoard (seeedstudio.com) 

 

 

In theory it should allow for controlled setup. My previous experience with RPI based Stellarmate / EKOS were quite frustrating, but that might be to user inexperience at the time. 

Using ZWO ASIAIR PRO power board would make it more elegant as EKOS/INDI already support it natively, but they are hard to come by.

When / if I get around to putting it together I will post it. In the meantime happy using ASIAIR Plus as it just works 

[mattadams]

On 18/04/2023 at 09:27, Skyline said:

I use a Mele Mini PC with USB 3 ports loaded with Ubuntu and Ekos/INDI, its universal support is a better option instead of something locked down to just ZWO. You can also run the same setup using a Raspberry Pi 4, the mini pc does run a lot smoother though.

I'm curious, what was the reason you went with linux instead of windows? Did the mele not come preloaded with it? Always feel that windows has more support / options but that may be a v. uninformed view.

[Skyline]

I actually found the linux Ekos/Indi system a lot more accommodating for my range of equipment. Atik, Canon, ZWO and QHY drivers on the mele.

The mele pc is great with linux as is not that power/resource hungry compared to Windows.

I noticed with windows the mele would get quite warm in operation.

However I do use a windows netbook with Kstars and/ or with xrdp to link into ekos on the mele while imaging remotely.

I just find windows clunky and not really stream lined for astronomy automation (my 2p's) worth.

Why do you think the ASIAIR works well, it has a linux OS underneath and user friendly. Very similar to how stellarmate works. Which ZWO's idea more then likely came from.

All credit goes to Jasem Mutlaq.

[mattadams]

9 hours ago, Skyline said:

I actually found the linux Ekos/Indi system a lot more accommodating for my range of equipment. Atik, Canon, ZWO and QHY drivers on the mele.

The mele pc is great with linux as is not that power/resource hungry compared to Windows.

I noticed with windows the mele would get quite warm in operation.

However I do use a windows netbook with Kstars and/ or with xrdp to link into ekos on the mele while imaging remotely.

I just find windows clunky and not really stream lined for astronomy automation (my 2p's) worth.

Why do you think the ASIAIR works well, it has a linux OS underneath and user friendly. Very similar to how stellarmate works. Which ZWO's idea more then likely came from.

All credit goes to Jasem Mutlaq.

Fair. I agree with the resource part but depends on your distro. Mine always runs warm and I always worry about condensation when bringing it in - never nice. For me, I prefer windows because it's hugely flexible in what it can do. You could absolutely do the same in linux but you'd have to be comfortable getting dirty with code a lot of the time - I just can't be bothered with that as much anymore 😅.

As for asiair using linux - I suspect it's down to cost more than anything. Plus it's effectively a raspberry pi and uses lower cost parts (e.g. arm cpu vs celeron N series cpu). Also means no need for a windows licence too (and as it stands windows for arm isn't readily available).  The asiair does one thing only (plus is locked to ZWO only with few exceptions) vs the mele pc which could in theory be a full desktop PC running anything you like. For me I'd rather use something I know and also save myself money getting the mele (think it's about £100-130 cheaper when on sale?) than be locked in to the ZWO ecosystem, but at the end of the day it's what works best for you.

[JonCarleton]

Another way that works -really- well with Linux and INDI drivers is to just run the drivers and equipment connections at the scope computer.  Then, run the imaging software from a second computer connected by networking (wifi or wired).   

There are two advantages:  1) The computer at the scope can be very minimal.  I use a Pi at the scope (Pi4, because it has 2 USB3 ports) and run the imaging software on a more "beefy" machine in the house, or RV if away from home.  2) Running just the drivers at the scope means the images end up on the computer running the imaging software and not on the computer at the scope.  No need to transfer files after imaging.

This can be done with KStars/EKOS or CCDciel...or other Linux-based imaging platforms.

 

[Skyline]

Stellarmate X OS is good as well.

It is Ubuntu based with Stellarmate running on the top which can be installed running a AMD/Intel mini pc.

I also have a RPi4 running Stellarmate  purely linking my gear together with an external wifi antenna and have a laptop indoors which is windows based to capture the data.

Usually the free stuff is the best.

[Robindonne]