ASIAIR v2.0 has been released: Page 12

ASIAIR v2.0 has been released

franco

rodrigol although this is logical it is not the way the asiair should be behaving

Agreed but you can sort of understand why it does work like this, after all, it's just a mini computer. If your PC is on wifi and you plug in an Ethernet cable, the link will most likely switch to the cable with a different address. On a PC or laptop, this is exactly what you want it to do.

What is less easy to understand is how the app recognises the Air. If we knew that, perhaps we could suggest some fixes. I can reliably ssh to my Air from a PC using the 'asiair' hostname so not sure why it's such a problem for the app.

w7ay

franco What is less easy to understand is how the app recognises the Air.

Probably by using Zeroconf, Franco. (Or, when it was originally released in MacOS X, initially with the name Rendezvous, and currently using the name Bonjour). Bonjour was adopted as Zeroconf standard when Apple open sourced the method.

Bonjour is the way an Indigo client finds an Indigo or Indigo Sky server, for example; and I had been experimenting with it just a month or two ago.

https://github.com/indigo-astronomy/indigo/blob/master/indigo_docs/INDIGO_SERVER_AND_DRIVERS_GUIDE.md

where the documentation mentioned:

"INDIGO uses mDNS/Bonjour for service discovery. This will set the name of the service in the network, so that the clients can discover and automatically connect to the INDIGO server without providing host and port."

I had mentioned a potential problem in post #9 of this thread:

https://bbs.astronomy-imaging-camera.com/d/15759-can-not-connect-asiair-plus-to-iphone-14/9

Chen

franco

w7ay

In all my years in computing I've never bothered to find out how zeroconf/bonjour works!

On Linux it's avahi and I can see the info from the Air and you can see that it changes when the new IP address is assigned.

= eno2 IPv4 ASIAIR Microsoft Windows Network local
hostname = [asiair.local]
address = [192.168.1.229]
port = [445]
txt = []
= eno2 IPv4 ASIAIR Device Info local
hostname = [asiair.local]
address = [192.168.1.229]
port = [0]
txt = ["model=MacSamba"]

.... a few minutes later....

= eno2 IPv4 ASIAIR Microsoft Windows Network local
hostname = [asiair.local]
address = [192.168.1.230]
port = [445]
txt = []
= eno2 IPv4 ASIAIR Device Info local
hostname = [asiair.local]
address = [192.168.1.230]
port = [0]
txt = ["model=MacSamba"]

But it still doesn't connect unless I type in the IP address 192.168.1.230

w7ay

franco I can see the info from the Air and you can see that it changes when the new IP address is assigned.

I wonder if ZWO is just winging it and instead of using some known protocol, they are just manually scanning the network looking for something that looks like an asiair :-).

This is what I see when I do an IP scan of my local network:

Notice that one ASIAIR is visible. That is a first generation (Rpi3 based) ASIAIR connected as WiFi station mode.

The interesting thing is that I have two ASIAIRs turned on currently. The second one is a 4th generation (RockChip) on Ethernet, that I have fixed assigned IP to 192.168.7.107. See that host with no hostname, no DNS name?

Except... when I drill down and did a port scan, guess what appeared: the ASIAIR ports (see that panel on the right side) here:

Funny thing is that I can use its IP address to find its Samba server. Definitely something very wonky going on.

Chen

franco

w7ay

I figure they just look for asiair.local in the hostname of the item returned by zeroconf. They don't appear to be publishing any services - apart from the samba mount which probably does that itself. They can't rely on people having a dynamic dns.

[Edit]

Just noticed that the avahi-browse is now showing the Air on the wifi IP address.

= eno2 IPv4 ASIAIR Device Info local
hostname = [asiair.local]
address = [192.168.1.229]
port = [0]
txt = ["model=MacSamba"]

Maybe just potluck if it's showing the right IP address and why I only sometimes have connection issues.

w7ay

franco Maybe just potluck if it's showing the right IP address and why I only sometimes have connection issues.

Have you checked the DHCP lease time, and if your server is simply dropping the ASIAIR after the lease expires, and gave the ASIAIR a different address after that? It may not be caused by signal dropping, although that could certainly cause a reconnect to a different IP address.

What if you tell the server to reserve a fixed IP address to the MAC address of the ASIAIR? You should not be getting this IP address flying around, no?

Chen

franco

w7ay as far as I know the DNS entry doesn't change once the Air has brought up the Ethernet connection. I can connect from my machine using the 'asiair' hostname without any issues.

franco

w7ay

This is the IP address that avahi returns

= eno2 IPv4 ASIAIR Device Info local
hostname = [asiair.local]
address = [192.168.1.229]
port = [0]
txt = ["model=MacSamba"]

This is the DNS entry for asiair

$ host asiair
asiair.lan has address 192.168.1.230

This is how the Air is configured

eth0: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
inet 192.168.1.230 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.1.255

wlan0: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
inet 192.168.1.229 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.1.255

w7ay

Another thing Franco, are you using a mesh network, and if so is the ASIAIR being handed from one mesh node to another node? Who knows if the ASIAIR device is well behaved when the MAC address of the other end switches.

Chen

franco

w7ay are you using a mesh network

No.

w7ay

franco
eno2 IPv4 ASIAIR
hostname = [asiair.local]
address = [192.168.1.229]
This is the DNS entry for asiair
$ host asiair
asiair.lan has address 192.168.1.230

When I connect a Raspberry Pi 4 (my Indigo Sky) both through WiFi and through Ethernet, I also see indigosky appear on my router at two different IP addresses. (I.e., when I configured indigoksy to use Station Mode, and at the same time use hardwired Ethernet.)

I have been terminating the WiFi antenna port of two of my ASIAIR with 50 ohm terminators, and have not seen them appear on WiFi. On top of that, I also tell those two ASIAIR not to use station mode on WiFi.

My all-sky camera (first gen ASIAIR; but will be switching to INDIGO when I construct my next all-sky camera) is not connected through Ethernet, and only appears using WiFi Station mode.

So, all of my ASIAIR are currently exclusively using either WiFi-only, or LAN-only.

Is your ASIAIR by any chance connected using WiFi Station Mode and LAN at the same time? If so, I would tell ASIAIR not to use station mode, and see if your problem goes away.

Chen

franco

w7ay I have considered disabling wifi but really I really don't care that I have to occasionally use the IP address to connect. I quite like the option of being able to connect to the Air via my PC on either wifi or lan. I bring my mount - on which the Air is permanently attached - into my house each morning after a night's imaging and use rsync to copy files to my PC, without having to run the app on my phone - just annoying that the Pi doesn't have a real time clock, although I think the Rockchip based versions might.

But as rodrigol points out, my solution isn't a proper fix and maybe if we the great unwashed can understand the problem, it might prompt a solution from ZWO.

After your port scan comment it reminded me that the Air has the sun-answerbook port open when booted. I had to google to find out what this was but just maybe this is how the Air communicates the serial number to the mobile app. Strange that it doesn't use zeroconf to do this.

My ASIAir Pro is too slow to process planetary AVI files but there's no way I'm buying the Plus or the Mini. An ASIAir Max based on an 8 core Orange Pi with NVme ssd is what I'm hanging out for. I also think they should split it into 2 modules, the main unit attached to the mount and a (Pegasus like) power/USB unit connected to the scope. That way you could buy multiple power/USB modules but only one, powerful base unit.

w7ay

franco An ASIAir Max based on an 8 core Orange Pi with NVme ssd is what I'm hanging out for.

I am not waiting.

Some time ago, when the Mac Mini that has the Apple Silicon (M1) came out, I bought one to be able to experiment with the M1. (I am in my 70s, but I still play with algorithms for fun.) At the same time, I found that the Mini had enough processing power that I could replace my 2009 MacPro for most of my needs.

Fast forward to earlier last year -- Apple announced the Mac Studio. So I bought a 20 core version and stacked it with 128 GB of memory (no, not typo -- I could give AstroPixelProcessor 64 GB of RAM to use as buffer, for example :-). So, I could retire both the Mac Mini and the MacPro.

At that point, I ripped the AC power supply from the Mac Mini (which only need a single 12V source), and replaced it with a 12V buck/boost converter. Everything fits nicely into the original enclosure. The reason for the buck/boost is so that it can be powered by fluctuating battery power if needed.

So, I will be running Indigo on this Mini. It will have so much processing power that I won't need to upgrade my astronomy setup again. I had used a Mac laptop in the past, but never happy with leaving a display and keyboard out in freezing weather.

Plus, I can experiment with my own algorithms (actually currently working on simulating an algorithm which I recently came up with, that should work better guiding with strain wave geared mounts :-). This is also why I am eyeing the Pegasus mount as another test bed for the new algorithm, in addition to my RST-135. There is no way you can innovate when you are hobbled with an ASIAIR.

Chen

franco

w7ay I am not waiting.

To be honest, neither am I because I know it will not happen.

I'm no spring chicken myself but I still have to work to pay for my hobby (insert smiley faced emoji here because I can't bring myself to do it).

My first telescope was an ETX90 which I bought at the turn of the century. I only bought it because it had computerised goto. It was pretty crappy and put me off astronomy for 20 years. I did manage to capture some black and white moon images using a pinhole camera and a video capture card with a RF input but that was about as exciting as it got.

A few years ago we had the Christmas star thing going on with Jupier and Saturn and I suddenly remembered I had a telescope in a box somewhere. It was till as crappy as I remembered it but it did kindle something in me that got me to where I am today.

I like the idea of being outside looking at stars but in reality I like doing astronomy from my sofa more..

w7ay

franco My first telescope was an ETX90 which I bought at the turn of the century.

My first (in 1963-64 time frame) was a 5" Newtonian that I had ground the mirror myself. I was in high school then; couldn't afford any better :-).

I had "borrowed" my dad's Nikon S (a rangefinder camera that is an unabashed copycat of the Zeiss Ikon Contax). The Nikon S had a removable lens. So I hand held that lensless body, and placed it at the prime focus, and got some blurry photo of the Moon in Tri-X. That was my first introduction to "astrophotography."

(That is why today, my mind still translates "Nikon" to "Nippon Ikon" :-).

Chen

Astrop

When the asiair works its fantastic, when it doesn't it kind of destroys the joy. Sometimes I do visual but due to light pollution I'm kind of forced into the imaging side of things.

Obs30

w7ay

A little update on the ASIAIR Mini. I have used it now a couple of times in the field at freezing temperatures. It works actually pretty well. I had it installed outside and about 10 to 15 meters away from a warm and comfy room. The connection is very stable and the data transfer is good enough for me. I am using the ASI294MC Pro camera. The ASIAIR Mini also served as a hotspot for the Avalon StarGO2 Pro RPi4, whose wifi is not great.

The reason why I had low data rates before was that I did not enable the 5GHz WiFi. The default setting on start-up/out-of-the-box is the 2.4 GHz network. With the 5 GHz WiFi and not being too far away during setting-up the mount (less than 10m), focusing works well and downloading preview images is fully acceptable.

I ran 10s-subs live-stacking and the WiFi was fast enough for real time “live imaging”. For 5s-subs, there was some lag. For longer than 10s exposure subs, there is absolutely no issue in my case. This comet is way too fast for longer subs ;-). Unbelievable.

I agree, it is the low-cost entry version into the ZWO eco-system. For more advanced set-ups, obviously, the ASIAIR Plus is far superior, especially with the Ethernet and USB-3 connections.

BTW, the USB-C connector provides very fast data transfer after the AP session to another PC/Mac.

Technically, the ASIAIR Mini is a little bit of a mixed bag, but for the price it does a great and decent job.

Astrop

The mini does stutter slightly with a slight delay compared to my pro when plate solving for example.

I also had an issue one night when I deleted my previous nights images it stated "disk is full" whenever I tried to start a plan, autorun or preview. No method of resetting it worked, even power out, so the issue cancelled that nights session. Strangely enough it worked again the next day. You have more options with the older system removable micro SD card as you can keep a backup with you if anything goes wrong.

The micro SD card is also the fastest way of copying data to your computer if you use an internal SD card reader. So, utilisation of emmc in my experience was a backward step.

Obs30

Astrop
I have not used the planning mode yet. Autorun a couple of times only. Otherwise live imaging with setting the option „save all images“. Then I do the actual stacking afterwards in either APP or Affinity Photo 2. Thank you for the heads up on deleting previous sessions.

Yes, there is some minor stuttering in the data transfer sometimes, but not too bad in my case.

Usually, I connect a 1TB SSD („old“ Samsung T5) via USB to the ASIAIRs. The last time I forgot to take it along and saved onto the internal memory and transferred data later on via the USB-C. SD cart is a great option, too, but I have not used it on the mini yet. The external SSD is my preferred option. I attached velcro to the SSD and the ASIAIR for easy attachment.

w7ay

Astrop The micro SD card is also the fastest way of copying data to your computer if you use an internal SD card reader. So, utilisation of emmc in my experience was a backward step.

The eMMC should have better read/write speeds if you are doing "lucky imaging" for planetary.

To transfer the data to the computer, you can always use ASIAIR app's Image Management to copy it to some USB storage, like a memory stick. And then "sneaker net" the USB storage to your computer.

If WiFi connection is good, you can also use the Samba server in ASIAIR to transfer the files. Or, through a USB PC port -- I don't have a mini, so I don't know if such a port exists.

But, be sure to delete the files using Image Management instead of sending it the trash from the computer, otherwise you also need to expunge them from the eMMC -- if you don't expunge, it will keep eating into storage space even though it does not appear anymore in ASIAIR's Image Management :-). The fourth generation RockChip version of the ASIAIR "plus" still has a Samba server, so I am pretty sure it is on the ASIAIR mini also.

One of the most economical way to do astrophotography today is to use a raw Raspberry Pi 4, and load Indigo Sky (free) in it. And if you really don't want to spend any extra money (with the more user friendly macOS suites from Indigo), just control the Raspberry Pi with the http server (i.e., a web interface for Indigo) -- which even has a sky map in the mount interface. The web interface also has pretty much everything else such as dome control and camera rotators; but if you can afford a dome, you can also afford to spend more money on the software :-)

Chen

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