ASIAir - Pro, Mini, Plus | Which is the Best Value?
Вставка
- Опубліковано 28 чер 2024
- This video was originally intended to be an ASIAir Mini review. However, @AstroBlender already has a wonderful video that will explain all the new features here:
• ZWO ASI Air Mini Review
I wanted to answer some common questions I've received regarding the older ASIAir Pro, and how to improve its WiFi capabilities. As we all know, the ASIAir Pro has pretty awful Wi-Fi range, and it can drop a signal within 10 feet. This can be very frustrating to deal with. (Thankfully the newer gens of the ASIAir include an antenna) There's really two options - an antenna modification, or a Wi-Fi booster. I'd probably go for the Antenna mod myself, or just buy a new Mini. You can find the Netgear Wi-Fi Extender here:
www.netgear.com/home/wifi/ran...
Next, we'll look at the differences between the ASIAir Mini and ASIAir Plus. As you'll see, they are very similar, minus a power switch and USB 3.0 ports. In terms of user experience, you won't really see any difference between the two models. They both run the same software, they both have 4 power outputs and 4 USB ports, and they both work well! I've been using the Mini since January and haven't really had any problems. Therefore, I think the Mini is the better choice, considering it costs $100 less than the Plus.
Finally, we'll compare the features and pricing of the Mini, Plus, and the new 256GB Plus model to find the best value. The main difference here is the internal storage. Both the Mini and Plus have 32GB of internal storage. This should be fine for most people. If you find yourself constantly low on space though, you can always add a flash drive to one of the USB ports on the ASIAir. I show how to do this in the video. Now, storage is no longer a concern! You can use the $200 Mini and still have plenty of room to store your high-res Lights, Flats, and Darks. With that said, the latest 256GB Plus does have a few hardware improvements, which could theoretically improve performance. I haven't used one yet though, so I can't say for sure.
As you've seen today, regardless of the ASIAir you choose, you may encounter software problems. I couldn't even use my ASIAir until I reinstalled the broken app on my phone. (This was likely due to the app transfer when upgrading from an old phone) You may encounter similar issues when you're out on-location. This is one of the realities of being an astrophotographer. You need to be a good troubleshooter, as there will always be new problems occurring with your gear. Even if the ASIAir is working flawlessly, perhaps your camera is acting up, or the mount is not performing the go-to correctly. Patience and persistence are key!
You can purchase the ASIAir Mini here:
agenaastro.com/zwo-asiair-min...
You can purchase the ASIAir Plus (32GB) here:
agenaastro.com/zwo-asiair-plu...
You can purchase the ASIAir Plus (256GB) here:
agenaastro.com/zwo-asiair-plu...
00:00 - Intro
01:33 - Increase ASIAir Pro WiFi Range
04:50 - Technical Difficulties Part 1
06:07 - ASIAir Mini vs ASIAir Plus
08:46 - Which ASIAir is the best value?
10:44 - Technical Difficulties Part 2
12:53 - Save Images to Flash Drive
14:35 - Which ASIAir Should I Get?
Hi Peter. Thanks for the informative video. With all that's available out there, it's nice to see a breakdown and help in the decision making process. Clear skies!
Download issue - check your phone settings to "allow" for wireless data via the phone. Sometimes this is set to "off" to minimize your wireless data usage. The reason it works at home is it bridges your home wifi to the ASIair. Hope this helps! Really like your tutorials and delivery style!
I still use the V-1, and it is amazing for running all-sky cameras esspecially with the new ASI studio Meteor Capture software just released.
Great video!
All Sky cameras, meteor capture SW? Please tell me more, or point me to resources! Thanks
Great information Peter! Thank you!
Did I miss something here? The ASIAir Plus do have a slot for inserting external eMMC/TF memory cards. No need to occupy an USB-port for this.
My 32 gig plus is getting delivered tomorrow 😂 i totally would have opted for the mini had I this video been out Friday. Great video, though! I actually still have the first gen ASIAIR that came in the white and red plastic case.
Great video. I always travel with a plastic tub of cables, tools, spare parts, hand control, DSLR. I take a pad but after using my phone with the ASIAir Pro, and ASIAir Plus, I usually just stick with the phone since I've become used to the shirt pocket convenience. ZWO seemed to produce app or ASIAir software updates almost monthly, but has slowed down a bit. Its a great idea to update both softwares before traveling. I use a $25 TP Link extender to boost the ASIAir Wifi (no ethernet cable needed) and use a power strip; so there is no issue with available outlets. I am looking at getting the mini for a third telescope to although quick change out of scopes without having to fiddle with too many cables. I am a bit spoiled with the ASIAirs and each scope set up completely. Waking up in bed, rolling over to check progress on your phone, rather than going outside is a treat.
Hi Peter: i use the Vonets VAP11G-300. Very easy to setup, inexpensive and it greatly improves wifi distance. Love your videos!!!
do you use that with your asiair?
Nice comparison Peter. I built my ZWO homage grab and go from TC40 PE160 AM3 FF80 2600duo & AAmini. Taking short exposures such as bias & flats and (say) Orion nebula core, are all mildly irritating to do with the mini as the transfer rates don't keep up and the APP is preoccupied until the transfers are finished, so you do have to wait... But as you say in a typical lights sequence (with say 120 sec subs) it can easily keep up and there are no issues at all. EAA with live stack is practically unaffected (there's a start lag of 60 seconds or so). I imagine that with full frame DSLR? or a 6200, as well as planetary, solar, lunar (video) the transfer rate of the mini could easily become bad to intolerable. You already touched on these points. I just wanted to elaborate some extra detail for viewers.
I ordered the Plus, expecting delivery today or tomorrow. I have been struggling with a laptop and my EQM35 for 4 years. No more!
Awesome thank you 🖖🏼
Good timing 👏 im just looking to buy one of these right now. Does an EAF just plug straight into the asiair and mount on the autofocus knob to work?
Hey Peter! Great video!
Do you have any videos talking about maintenance on a star tracker like my star adventurer? What type of grease and stuff to use to keep it running smooth?
Temperature range Specs for SW SA GTI, state 20 deg F and above. Here in Wisconsin winters, that's a warm winter evening. Any recommendations? I ran my first generation at 0 degrees. But if a grease change will improve, I'm all ears.
Hi, Peter. Long time since we’ve corresponded. I have both the mini and the plus. I use station mode to connect the devices to my home network; they are about 30 feet from a Mesh Wi-Fi transmitter. Control is excellent with an occasional reconnect. I transfer all my images wirelessly from the eMMC card to my MacBook. Transfer is slow but I just walk away for a while. If the eMMC starts getting full, I move files to the removable microSD card. Hard to go back to my laptop.
How do you transfer images wirelessly? Is it some trick re pointing your browser at some ip address?
Thanks for the upload Peter. The ZWO website itself is very confusing, and it is very hard to compare products on there.
Years ago I added a wifi extender to my tripod and plugged it in the ASIAIR Pro and can place it anywhere in my large yard and have it connected to my home network. I ran a long extension cord to the setup to power everything and control everything from anywhere in my house. I also mounted a 6 port USB hub to my scope and powered it through the ASIAIR Pro to add extra places to plug things into if needed (like dew heaters, USB flash drive, etc...) Never had an issue...
Hi Peter - great video as usual. I have just one question. Isn't the lack of USB 3.0 ports problematic for connecting dedicated astro cameras? I certainly like the cost and size difference between the mini and the plus, but I wouldn't want to have issues with image data transfer speed. I'm just asking - I'm certainly no expert.
got the plus 256gb...love it.
yes its 399 but it doesnt just have more memory storage.... its a faster processor..(also is a dedicated motherboard... not a pi).
Theyre all great though.
I use mine with an amazon fire tablet or a google pixel 4a, worked great so far
Interesting, do you notice any difference in performance?
Hey Peter
I'm driving up through Kanab this coming week, heading back to Seattle. Do you have a place to setup around Kanab that you can recommend? Cheers
I use the same Wi-Fi extender with my ASI air pro. I use an extension cord and it connects to ASI air via Wi-Fi so there are no cables. Works flawlessly. I can get a couple hundred feet with high download speeds.
thx for all this information, this is very well described! Question pls, can you run the ASIAir app on a laptop? All the best Peter!
Yes if you have a Mac running Apple silicon. No otherwise.
thx abu@@abulka
First off, thanks! I appreciate you stating the day to day stresses we all face, and then dealing with this beloved, but stressful hobby. Older I get more is difficult. Your own vulnerabilities are so typical for most of us. I bought your course for original SW SA, and gained alot. As was said, manufacturers instructions are usually useless. Trying to find stars in bortle 9, combined with frigid northern winters (Ohio for you 😢), means a long agonizing prep time. SW SA GTI, combined with asiair + , = a dream! Roll out the rig, and I can be imaging in 20 minutes. Then sit in comfort and watch the subs on my tablet. So impressed with asiair +, I decided to buy a mini, to build a second rig, based on Rokinon 135. Pull scope off mount, plop wide field setup on. No fusing with cables and switching gear. It's not that expensive for the convenience. Another thing. Gas prices factor in if driving to a darker place, and short summer nights make prep, and planning even more important. Oh, if you can afford it, by a tablet!
I've just received a SW GTi and ASIAIR+ as my first entry into astro-imaging and was surprised by the hard stops. I thought it was just a beefed up SA with a dec drive bolted on but it seems to be more like a baby GEM mount. Because of the stops at just over half a revolution in HA it has to do meridian flips but why have hard stops at all and why can't it at least do one revolution ? The only suggestion I've come across is internal cable management but that doesn't explain why it can only rotate half a full turn.
The SynScan app and mount firmware appear to be oblivious of the hard stops and slews/gotos will sometimes just slam into them which I'm told is not a problem for stepper motors but the GTi uses servo motors whichcan be damaged. More expensive GEM mounts have home and stop sensors plus stepper motors so this is not a problem.
Also early adopters of the GTi have suffered from the worm gear tension bolt becoming loose after a few months and have resorted to plumbers tape or loctite.
I don't like the lack of compression jaws for the dovetail saddle with its single point clamp that marrs the rail. The whole product just seems to cut too many corners and rushed to market.
Still there seem to be hobbysists who like the GTi but maybe it is not their main mount but for portable field trips which requires constant monitoring.
Do you spend a lot of time getting the 3 star alignment precise before imaging or just rely on plate solving ? Its not clear to me that errors in alignment affect whether the mount thinks it doesn't need to to a flip and that is causing it to slam into the hard stops.
@@tma2001 HaHa, this is where I was, am a month ago! For all the amazing youtubers, instructional GTI uses (thanks everyone!), no singe video answered all my confusion. Drove me nuts. I followed a few with faith, and finally after just trusting, let asiair GTI do there thing. WOW! It all just works, including auto Meridian flip. Forget Synscan app. I had asiair, but wanted to get imaging, figuring asiair would take too much initial effort, and overconfuse. Well, Synscan isn't that easy for me (just before I read this I was thinking of deleting it). Bortle 9, and limited objects, combined with polar alignment make it tougher Than easy. A reasonable PA with phone compas and (buy an electronic protractor off Amazon $20) setting your Dec 43 degrees for me. Do PA, when mount tilts weird, and says PA is good, TRUST IT! This freaked me out, and I didn't trust, and did whole thin again. Just use it, and if problems come up deal then. KEEP CLUTCHES LOOSE when moving mount. This is already way too long. I'll reply to this more once I read your entry again. Believe me, after 6 years of getting marginal results, I now am truly imaging. Like I said, 20 minutes from out the door to imaging! Editing successfully is next hurtle Good image to start should make this finally workout.
@@tma2001 Plate solving is AWSOME! I had no idea how precise, and easy the asiair makes it, no stinkin 3 star alignment. You do have to pay attention to stuff colliding, and cables snaging. After first couple runs, and periodic checks, or watching it work, you'll just wait for subs to roll in, and that faint object you never saw shows up on screen, you'll be happy as a clam.
@@mikehardy8247 thanks for the reply.
I agree one of the biggest obstacles is how poor the documentation is from these Chinese manufacturers. The manual for the SynScan app is too generic or the one that comes with the mount is little more than an assembly quick start guide that leaves more questions than answers.
Im curious what kinda rig do you have on the GTi ?
@@tma2001 Okay, deep breath. Was shooting with astromoded T7i and various lenses. I had an OTA, Radian Raptor 61. It was damaged as received, and OPT, didn't make good on fixing issue after a Year of promises $1200 mistake.
Highpoint Scientific had a sale b4 Xmas on Aperatura 60EDR with field flattener. One thing about ZWO is, all peripherals must be ZWO. I decided to buy an ASI533MC Pro Cooled camera. ZWO 30mm guide scope and ASI120MM Mini guide camera. Check out SVBONY for identical guide scope (slightly heavier), for $50. Power everything with Jackery power station. BLuetti is better for same money, just not aware at time. If you use a DSLR or mirrorless, only Canon, most Nikons, and some Sony are supported. Keep the 11 pouring max payload in mind. I'm also setting up a wide field rig. Going to use dual lenses as well. I actually started building mine last week before becoming aware of John's. Now rethinking my build. The real astro camera makes it also good, cooled camera - low noise all year round. Once used to this, I'll consider going back to DSLR, just to try it with asiair. Now this works great!
Would you recommend either the Mini or the Plus for EAA? I typically live stack 5 second to 15 second exposures, only save the screen capture.
If you use an extender on the ASIAIR pro use the vonets that ZWO recommended. It plugs into 12 volt (or USB) and you can plug it into a port on your air for power.
Great Overview! Just a comment on the difference between the mine and the other models that may be of interest. You cannot mount a guide scope on the mini as I'm doing on my Pro and you can do on the Plus. For me that is important as I have a unit with all the cables in a box and just can mount it on the telescope without worrying attaching two items somewhere.
Why can't you use an autoguider with the mini?
@@mikehardy8247 you can guide with the Mini. But it seems not to have mounting holes to attach a guide scope. So you would need one attachment point for the mini and one for the guide scope which I do not like.
@@stephanlinhart8305 NON-ISSUE
@@mikehardy8247 maybe not, but it may help with an am5
How do you personally polar align using the asiair ?
Hi, i think your issue is related to the fact that you are connected to a wifi that does not offer internet connection. Which prevent you to download that mandatory file from the internet. Just a guess😉
I use the ASIAIR connected to a hotspot on my phone and connect my tablet running the app to the hotspot as well. This way I also maintain an internet connection.
I came to the comments to share this same insight. You set your phone to refuse mobile data and connect to your "Extender" network, which has no internet. By the time you were at your car and reinstslling the app, you likely packed down your gear and were back on mobile data.
I’ve had my ASIAir Plus 256 with V2.1.1-10.74 for about a month. I’m trying to use it with my new C8 and AVX mount. I discovered several issues with the software.
First Issue.
When in PreView, Focus, or Video the mount slew controls don’t work properly with the AVX mount on my Gen 9 iPad. When I press down on one of the arrows to move the mount, the mount will move but when I lift my finger off the arrow the mount continues slewing for several more seconds. Trying to center a target even on slow settings is impossible. I have to use the AVX hand control.
Second issue
The ASIAir Home is not the same as the handset Home on the AVX mount. If the AvX mount is set on the index marks before the ASIAir is booted later when using the ASISir Go To home feature the mount will not return to the index marks. The Dec mark seems line up but the RA is off by an inch.
Third issue
When using an ASI585MC color camera in Video mode to capture video for a planetary target the ASIAir creates a AVI file. If the AVI is transferred to a PC to be process by a third party program like Siril or even use a video player the AVI is not in color. When you play the AVI in the ASIAir Plus it’s color. It appears the ASIAir is not encoding AVI file correctly for other programs and the programs only recognizes mono.
Fourth Issue
In the Live mode when creating a sequence of Lights Flats Darks and Bias when the sequence is set up you choose a time for how long the sequence should run. When you choose that parameter the header on the drop menu is “Exposure” which was used in the previous parameter Exposure. Sloppy
A general comment is when using my C8 in native focal length, 2032mm or F10 using my ASI585MC color camera the ASIAir cannot plate solve. Basically if it can’t plate solve it’s GO TO doesn’t work. It will never plate solve and center on an object. If I use a 6.3 focal reducer the ASIAirs
will plate solve. I’ve been successful find DSO and planets with the focal reducer. ASIAir seems better suited for refractor with F7 and below.
My pet peeve is the lack of documentation for ASIAir software. If it wasn’t for Peter and others UA-cam videos it would’ve been really hard to figure out this product.
What is the largest size flash drive you can use with the mini? Will it take 128MB ?? I noticed you were using a 64
What is that deep space object called at 12:24 time in the video
OK, I am old and a little out of the loop about cellphone coverage and Wi-Fi...if I take my gear including the ASIAir to an area with no cell phone coverage, will all of this fail if I am relying on using the ASIAir app on my phone? Thanks for your replies.
"will all of this fail if I am relying on using the ASIAir app on my phone?"
No. You do not need a cell signal or a wifi signal. The AA generates a wifi signal de nouveau that you can connect to from your phone under wifi.
Would you recommend USB-Flashdrive over a MicroSD???
would you agree Asi Air products work better on IOS devices vs android?
For me the mini is best option, because A I do not do planetary, which means USB3 is not a must, and B I am always at a dark site so I am close to my rig, and do not need a wifi extender, All my images are stored on a thumb drive, so memory is not a problem
USB3.0 + 5g ≈ Optimal Transmission to tablet.... right?
you can add a small USB hub
I have both I agree with you asiair mini is just enough and cheaper
it's not compatible with fujifilm...
A 1TB Samsung mini solid state drive will sort out any memory problems. They're credit card size and weigh next to nothing.
Once they add support for other brands like qhy I'll never buy one. I'm not willing to purchase all new cameras and filter wheels just to use the asi air. It's sad cause other than stellarmate ( which sucks and they keep screwing it up) there's really no reliable thing like asi air.
Asiair mini is the best value for money. Period.
More than likely why you won't download that 0% is cause you are no longer connected to the internet. You told it not to connect to any data or internet source
The Mini cost here 295€ 🤣
256gb plus model.... better chipset and not a raspberry pi
I don't know why people make this hobby too complicated and expensive. I have been photographing the night sky for over 10 years and have never needed an ASIAir. Clear skies!
Asiair doesn't make it complicated, it makes it easier.
NONE !!! 🚨‼️🚨👉🏻 Cuz they’re only working with Canon, Nikon ( who the heck still shooting Nikon ) and after 389293 light years - they just added Sony system!
OTHERWISE… you need to buy their own cameras as well ( ZWO CAMERAS .. yeah , right 🤔 )