Voltage outputs of ASIair.

[Ouroboros]

I have been putting my new ASIair Plus through its paces and have found an odd anomaly with the four voltage outputs. 

Firstly, the outputs are incredibly unwilling to be either switched on when off, or off when on.  For example when I slide each slider across from Off position it turns green, and then as soon as I take my finger off the iPad  screen it switches back to the Off position.  In the end I managed to turn them all On, but now they are similarly resistant to being turned off.

Secondly, I have noticed some odd things about the voltages measured.  There’s a small discrepancy between the voltage displayed on Outputs 1, 2 & 3 i.e. 11.8V displayed and 12.03V measured. OK. No huge problem there. But on Output 4 I see 0.4V displayed and 12.03V measured - as per screen shot below. 

Thirdly when  choosing Dew Heater I measure 12.03V at 100% output and 10.9V at 5% output, and values in between at intermediate outputs. 

I should  add that the ASIair does power my ASI2600 camera and two dew heaters alright. 

Is what I’m seeing here consistent with what others see with their ASIair Plus? 

 

 

 

[Adreneline]

Not noticed any stickiness with my power switches - other than when I am having finger trouble.

Here are my power settings:

I tried swapping items around and all Outputs record the voltage; for some reason dew heaters don't record the voltage.

HTH

[Stuart1971]

8 minutes ago, Adreneline said:

Not noticed any stickiness with my power switches - other than when I am having finger trouble.

Here are my power settings:

I tried swapping items around and all Outputs record the voltage; for some reason dew heaters don't record the voltage.

HTH

How do you manage to get a higher output, than the input….obviously the reading are skewed on the output side…🤔🤔

Edited August 3, 2023 by Stuart1971

[Adreneline]

7 minutes ago, Stuart1971 said:

How do you manage to get a higher output, than the input

No idea - you tell me!

The output from my MeanWell p.s.u. is set at 12.5 volts (more or less confirmed with an inline power analyser which shows 12.43 volts).

All I know is that it works.

[Stuart1971]

20 minutes ago, Adreneline said:

No idea - you tell me!

The output from my MeanWell p.s.u. is set at 12.5 volts (more or less confirmed with an inline power analyser which shows 12.43 volts).

All I know is that it works.

So you are losing 1v between your PSU and the ASIair, assuming the input display is correct…😮 how long is the cable between the two..?
I would guess that the displays are wrong, your input should be close to the 12.5v and show that, hence why the outputs are higher, but you shouldn’t really be losing 1v unless the cable between  the PSU and the ASIair is long…over 3m… 🤔

[Adreneline]

4 hours ago, Stuart1971 said:

I would guess that the displays are wrong,

So would I - everything is working just fine so it is best left alone and not worried about; I am confident I am feeding everything with 12.5 volts irrespective of what to ASIair says.

This thread is actually about helping @Ouroboros with his ASIair Plus problem.

 

[Stuart1971]

1 hour ago, Adreneline said:

So would I - everything is working just fine so it is best left alone and not worried about; I am confident I am feeding everything with 12.5 volts irrespective of what to ASIair says.

This thread is actually about helping @Ouroboros with his ASIair Plus problem.

 

Well it does, as it shows that the readouts from the ASIair are wrong, so to take no notice….👍🏻

[Ouroboros]

Thanks @Adreneline & @Stuart1971 😀.  I sent my concerns in an email to FLO and the reassuring reply suggested the sticky sliders might be down to an iPad screen sensitivity issue. This has been seen before apparently. Strange I hadn’t noticed it before with my other AAir.  The problem seems slightly less obvious on my iPhone, which rather confirms the diagnosis. Fortunately once it’s set, it’s set.  It might just take a few swipes to get there. 

As for voltages displayed they are best taken with a pinch of salt it seems. That 0.4V of yesterday on output four was displayed as 12V today.  I also measured the external voltage at the input of the ASIair as 12V whilst the display showed Tge input voltage as 11.8V.

I’m now really looking forward to getting to first light imaging with my new ASIair and new AM5 mount.  

[bosun21]

11 minutes ago, Ouroboros said:

Thanks @Adreneline & @Stuart1971 😀.  I sent my concerns in an email to FLO and the reassuring reply suggested the sticky sliders might be down to an iPad screen sensitivity issue. This has been seen before apparently. Strange I hadn’t noticed it before with my other AAir.  The problem seems slightly less obvious on my iPhone, which rather confirms the diagnosis. Fortunately once it’s set, it’s set.  It might just take a few swipes to get there. 

As for voltages displayed they are best taken with a pinch of salt it seems. That 0.4V of yesterday on output four was displayed as 12V today.  I also measured the external voltage at the input of the ASIair as 12V whilst the display showed Tge input voltage as 11.8V.

I’m now really looking forward to getting to first light imaging with my new ASIair and new AM5 mount.  

Good luck and happy imaging Andrew 👍.

[Ouroboros]

29 minutes ago, bosun21 said:

Good luck and happy imaging Andrew 👍.

Thanks, Ian. 

[symmetal]

15 hours ago, Adreneline said:

I tried swapping items around and all Outputs record the voltage; for some reason dew heaters don't record the voltage.

As the dew heaters are most likely PWM driven the voltage displayed would be continuously flickering between 0V and 12V depending on what phase of the PWM cycle they were sampled when being measured. Displaying the PWM mark to space ratio as a percentage is a better indication of the actual power being delivered to the dew heaters.

Alan

[skybadger]

5 hours ago, symmetal said:

As the dew heaters are most likely PWM driven the voltage displayed would be continuously flickering between 0V and 12V depending on what phase of the PWM cycle they were sampled when being measured. Displaying the PWM mark to space ratio as a percentage is a better indication of the actual power being delivered to the dew heaters.

Alan

I would expect the voltage of a pwm output to register a constant low voltage proportional to the average pwm % of max since you are measuring an AC voltage with a DC meter. The only Eason you see anything at all is due to internal capacitance smoothing some of the AC. 

[skybadger]

21 hours ago, Stuart1971 said:

So you are losing 1v between your PSU and the ASIair, assuming the input display is correct…😮 how long is the cable between the two..?
I would guess that the displays are wrong, your input should be close to the 12.5v and show that, hence why the outputs are higher, but you shouldn’t really be losing 1v unless the cable between  the PSU and the ASIair is long…over 3m… 🤔

Alternatively that you have a grounding problem withe grounds differing by 1 v

[The Admiral]

13 hours ago, Ouroboros said:

I’m now really looking forward to getting to first light imaging with my new ASIair and new AM5 mount.

So long as the ASIAir behaves, they work well together and will deliver. When the skies eventually clear you should get great results. Good luck!

Ian

[symmetal]

8 hours ago, skybadger said:

I would expect the voltage of a pwm output to register a constant low voltage proportional to the average pwm % of max since you are measuring an AC voltage with a DC meter. The only Eason you see anything at all is due to internal capacitance smoothing some of the AC. 

That's true for mechanical analogue meters, and digital meters if it's sampling at a frequency sufficiently greater than the ac frequency being measured and averaging many samples. I expect the ASIAir output voltage sampling frequency will be lower than the PWM frequency as it's only intended for DC measuring, so aliasing effects will make any displayed reading incorrect, even if it averages over several samples. Probably easier for the ASIAir not to display it. 🙂

Alan