ASIAIR Pro with WiFi Antenna announced

heyjp

Just saw in the October Sky & Telescope New Product Showcase that ZWO has announced a new version of the ASIAIR Pro that includes an external WiFi antenna! $279USD compared to $249 for the prior Pro Version. Haven’t seen a mention on ZWO website yet.

Tech@ZWO

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Loupy

I assume ZWO will also be working on supplying an external antenna kit for those uses having wifi problems with the Pro,
Or At the very least offer the new "Plus" at half the cost of a new one. Which I think would be fair

evilc

Loupy

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1013982058/asiair-pro-external-wifi-antenna

$49 - this guy is good.

rlkzwo

Just had mine modified and this guy does great work. Very neat and careful. The antenna adds 20db of signal strength.

bobw55

While he may do a great job, "IF" in the USA, you have voided your warranty. You have voided the FCC type acceptance (Ok if you hold a HAM radio license.) You risk burning out the on board WiFi transmitter if there is a bad SWR mismatch.

w7ay

bobw55 You risk burning out the on board WiFi transmitter if there is a bad SWR mismatch.

The SWR problem is what concerns me most about all the amateur efforts. If the ASIAIR Plus uses microstrip line all the way from the WiFi transceiver to the SMA connector, then ZWO can get away with it, but I wouldn't trust any cable runs because of the solder connections at the two ends of the cable.

Additionally, it you ever want to stop using an antenna, you would need to terminate the SMA connector with a real 50 ohm load, and not leave it open, since that would cause infinite VSWR. Hopefully, ZWO includes a 50 ohm terminator with the new ASIAIR.

Chen

Loupy

bobw55 ,

That is Soo funny

evilc

w7ay I would agree with SWR being an issue in a more significant RF application, but not on a Raspberry Pi board with a 2.2dBi dipole antenna. Haven't heard of a person with the mod having a single issue.

That said, I think the USB extender option sucks. It's either ethernet or external antenna mod for me. The device is cheap enough where if it blows up, oh well I'll buy another 🙂 I think you guys are overthinking the nature of this application. It's low power with an extremely short run.

Just LOL at caring about the FCC here. The EIRP of this setup will not get anywhere near 36dBm.

w7ay

evilc It's low power with an extremely short run.

Its not the losses from cable runs (actually, the greater the loss, the less of an SWR problem). It is the soldered connections at the two ends of the cable. A poorly soldered blob will change the impedance of that joint. Any discontinuity changes the SWR. This is why a wave soldered SMD connector on a properly designed micro-strip line will have no problem (assuming ZWO knows what they are doing with the ASIAIR Plus -- something they completely mucked up with the ASIAIR Pro).

If you run macOS, you can try modeling what various deformations do around a connector using a program that I had written some years ago as a GUI wrapper and mathematical extensions to NEC-2 and NEC-4 here:

http://www.w7ay.net/site/Manuals/cocoaNEC/index.html

Chen

evilc

w7ay Will let you know how it goes.

Also - the antenna kit used is:

https://datasheets.raspberrypi.org/cm4/cm4-antenna-kit-product-brief.pdf

That's RPI's own kit for their own board....

I fully understand your concerns, I just don't think they are going to be an issue on this basic, cheap consumer electronics circuit. Were this a $50,000 military radio, I'd care more. Again, will report back.

Jay6879

I wonder if there will be a trade in program. I'm kicking myself now for buying a Pro a few months ago and not waiting!

Loupy

I am still waiting zwo to fix the problem with the pro, Not every one who has the pro, can afford to buy the new plus version, looks like zwo, are just looking for sales and NOT customer service

Maritime

Loupy I disagree.

Loupy

Maritime in what way