#1  
Old 04-10-2018, 11:08 AM
Poli_74
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ZWO ASIair

Has anyone tried out this newly released stand alone auto guider. If so, is it worth buying? I previously bought a stand alone auto guider called the Smartguider from a company in Italy, it was a lemon. Could never get it to lock onto a star despite all me efforts. The company doesn't exist anymore. I wonder why? Lol.

I am using an offset autoguide attachment from Celestron for my 8inch Celestron CPC 8inch at f/6.3.

Any reviews or knowledge of this newly released Stand alone guider would be much appreciated.

Thank you.

Emanuel Polichronis.
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  #2  
Old 04-10-2018, 09:06 PM
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Terry B
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Interesting.
I hadn't seen it before and just googled it.
If you don't like having a computer at your scope then it might be quite useful. I'm happy having a little table and a computer rather than trying to use a phone.

someone needs to buy one and experiment.
Terry
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  #3  
Old 05-10-2018, 08:14 AM
Russj (Russ)
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ASIAir

Try this link
https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/6...-with-cem60ec/
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  #4  
Old 08-10-2018, 06:49 AM
tim.anderson (Tim Anderson)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Poli_74 View Post
Has anyone tried out this newly released stand alone auto guider. If so, is it worth buying? I previously bought a stand alone auto guider called the Smartguider from a company in Italy, it was a lemon. Could never get it to lock onto a star despite all me efforts. The company doesn't exist anymore. I wonder why? Lol.

I am using an offset autoguide attachment from Celestron for my 8inch Celestron CPC 8inch at f/6.3.

Any reviews or knowledge of this newly released Stand alone guider would be much appreciated.

Thank you.

Emanuel Polichronis.
ASIAir is not just an autoguider - it provides for control of guide cameras, mounts, imaging cameras and filter wheels. It also allows you to bridge to software like SkySafari for object selection and slewing.

I recently bought one, and most functions appear to work as advertised, though I haven't been able to get the mount control to connect yet, though I can get around that by using a separate wifi connection to the mount.

If testing pans out, it will be a fantastic tool for public outreach events.

The only three drawbacks that I can see are:

1. It only supports ZWO cameras and filter wheels (I suspect the company did this to minimise the product support load). Also it doesn't support all makes of mount.
2. Image data volume is limited to the capacity of the supplied SD card, which might be a problem with long runs on large sensors
3. The base hardware only provides USB2 connection even when you may be using USB3 cameras, so download speeds are slower. This shouldn't be a problem if your camera buffers the captured data before download.
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  #5  
Old 08-10-2018, 07:45 AM
glend (Glen)
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You can regard ASIAir in its current form as Version 1. What it represents is the future systems integration strategy for ZWO, and a much simpler imaging solution for beginners. Sure there are some aspects that need more work, but for the price the present capability is pretty impressive. I foresee bundling packages from ZWO which deliver a complete imaging system for the cost of just a competitors camera.
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Old 08-10-2018, 08:06 AM
kens (Ken)
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You may or may not realise that the ASIAir has two main software components. The bit that runs on the Raspberry Pi is the INDI server. INDI is the Linux equivalent of ASCOM but it is open source and designed to allow the drivers to run on any number of computers. It makes possible the bit that runs on IOS (the client application) which is the equivalent of SGP and other similar applications. http://indilib.org/
There are other client applications available that utilise INDI such as as KStars/EKOS and PHD2 amongst others.
The INDI server can run on other Linux devices. I run it on a x64 computer and also in a Linux VM. There is a also a device called StellarMate which is also a Raspberry Pi with INDI server installed. Unlike the ASIAir offering is is not locked down. This could be a plus or minus depending on whether you want to use non-ZWO cameras versus how comfortable you are maintaining a Linux system with updates and upgrades.

My view is that if you like the ASIAir client application it is a a good choice. If you want more freedom in your choice of devices and/or want to use other client applications you may be better off with StellarMate. If you are more bleeding edge then you can try one of the other bundled INDI offerings like Astroberry or even roll your own.
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  #7  
Old 09-12-2018, 01:33 PM
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Garnimoa (Gerald)
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Does anyone know if the ASi120MC USB3 model works with the ASIair? I've heard the USB2 model doesn't work
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