Can not connect Asiair Plus to iPhone 14

Oren

Hi all, been in this hobby for 30 years but new to imaging.

I bought an AAP a week ago from a local dealer. It runs fine one two iPads, latest firmware. I’ve been trying countless number of times without luck to connect to my iPhone 14 Pro Max iOS 16.3. I tried airplane mode, cellular data off, entering the IP address manually and any other suggestion I found on this forum. I can connect to the AAP Wi-Fi but when I open the app, no Asiair is detected.

I contacted customer support but no help from that direction. Went back to the dealer, tried another unit, same thing. Before I give up and take it back to he dealer, any suggestions?

Thank you in advance!

Oren

w7ay

Oren I can connect to the AAP Wi-Fi but when I open the app, no Asiair is detected.

Hi Oren,

On your iPhone, go to Settings (the same place you find WiFi settings and General Settings).

One the left side of the Settings window, scroll down, past Apple ID, Airplane Mode, WiFi, General, App Store, Passwords, etc until you reach the Apps Settings section.

There, among other Apps, you will find the ASIAIR app (alphabetically). Tap on the ASIAIR app icon.

ASIAIR App Setting will appear on the right side of the Settings window.

You will find a Local Network permissions toggle switch.

Toggle it on.

Also, you might as well also change Location permission to "While Using," otherwise you will not be able to sync the iPhone's Longitude to the ASIAIR.

Relaunch ASIAIR app, and you should be able to find the ASAIIR device, and connect to it.

Unless you are connected through the ASIAIR LAN (Ethernet RJ-45) port, you need to connect to the ASIAIR WiFi hotspot first (select the ASIAIR SSID in the iPhone's Wi-Fi settings). But you probably know this already since you had connected with your iPad.

From there, you can use the ASIAIR app to tell the ASIAIR device to change to Station Mode, etc. Again, my apologies if you already know this.

At any one time, the ASIAIR device will only allow up to two tablets/phones/computers to connect to it. If you already have two iPads connected to it, disconnect at least one of them first.

Chen

Oren

Thank you Chen for all the details. I did find the suggestions you brought up on other threads earlier this week and followed this steps. The iPads Wi-Fi is off on both, location is set to “while using”, local network is on, cellular data is off, network cable is disconnected, still nothing with the phone.

Thanks again!

Oren

w7ay

Oren still nothing with the phone.

That sucks.

I use many iPads and Macs (and the ASIAIR app on all of them connect to four different generations of ASIAIR). However, I only have a flip phone as my mobile. My spouse does use an iPhone, but a 12, and not a 14, so that may not help either even if I try it on her phone.

I know the newer iPhones support WiFi 6. Is there a way that you can turn it off? I know that I have to turn WiFi 6 on my eero mesh router off (what eero calls "Legacy WiFi"), otherwise it would cause some of my WiFi devices to go bonkers.

BTW, there is also a separate Local Network toggle under iOS Privacy & Security settings -> then tap on Local Network icon. See if ASIAIR is marked as having network access there. I have always thought that it is the same switch as the one in the ASIAIR app, but it might not. Perhaps worth checking.

Chen

Oren

That is true, and I just checked and it was turned on for the AAP.

Not aware of a Wi-Fi 6 switch, I’ll look into that. My Wi-Fi 6 at home is running but I tried it at the store as well with same results. Maybe is the latest iOS causing this, I’ll try to find an older iPhone around here and try that.

Thank you again!

w7ay

Oren

Oren,

Assuming this is at home, did you try connecting the ASIAIR device (in station mode) to your router by configuring using your iPad. Your phone (connected to your home network) should then be able to see the ASIAIR device.

The good part is that if the phone still does not see the device, you can use the iPad to find the IP address that the ASIAIR device is using (or you can go to your router's tables to find the ASIAIR device's IP address).

Armed with that IP address, you can then ask the ASIAIR app in the iPhone to "connect by using IP address" instead of picking from a list of names of ASIAIR devices that it found by itself.

Apple uses Bonjour (earlier called Rendezvous, but name changed because of Trademark dispute) to discover devices without using IP addresses. Bonjour was then released as Open Sourced code as "zeroconf" (zero-configuration) that is used pretty universally today by even non-Apple devices. Perhaps ZWO screwed up, and hacked something up in Zero-conf which worked with older OS but no longer with newer OS.

BTW, you can always connect the ASIAIR to the iPhone by using Ethernet (that RJ-45 connector on the ASIAIR device). You will need a Ethernet to Lightning at the iPhone end. Amazon has a couple of them that will handle 1 GB Ethernet, although most of them will only fo 10/100 Ethernet.

The most trouble-free way to connect to an ASIAIR is by using Ethernet to the router instead of using the poorly implemented WiFi on ASIAIR. Blazing speeds too when you use Ethernet (whether directly to the phone -- as long as you use a 1 Gbps dongle -- or to the router).

WiFi is not itself a problem. I have zero problem accessing an ASI178 camera on Indigo that runs on a Raspberry Pi 4 , and get great download speeds using WiFi with an ASI178 camera. It is just the ASIAIR WiFi implementation that is problematical.

Chen

Oren

Lots of valuable info Chen, I really appreciate it!
I did try at one point to use a cable connected directly to the router but my settings may have been wrong. I will try that again and report back.

Than you so much!

Oren

Thank you Chen for your wise input!

I can now connect my phone to the AAP when I’m home connected to my Wi-Fi in station mode entering the IP manually. Still a mystery why I can’t connect directly to the AAP but no big deal and it will probably change with the next update from Apple or ZWO.

Thank you again and take care!

w7ay

Oren I can now connect my phone to the AAP when I’m home connected to my Wi-Fi in station mode entering the IP manually.

Aha, good that you have a (albeit more time consuming) workaround, Oren.

The mystery part could have something to do with how ZWO implemented Bonjour (ZeroConf open source release by Apple for everyone else to use) in the ASIAIR. Bonjour lets one use a "service name" (ASIAIR uses "ASIAIR" as the service name, Indigo Sky uses "indigosky," for example.)

https://support.apple.com/guide/deployment/bonjour-discovery-depf138dd79c/web
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonjour_(software)

The strict Bonjour standard specifies that (again using indigosky as the example, because I have direct experience with it) the service is called "_ indigosky. _ tcp." (notice the dot at the end). udp service would have been "_ name. _ udp." etc.

But I have noticed on macOS Monterey, the Bonjour service had been relaxed to allow the improper "_ indigosky._ tcp" (without the dot at the end). Probably because the copy-and-paste programmers today often don't read documents.

It is possible that the iPhoneOS on your phone had finally clamped on on the rule breakers. Just a conjecture. If @ASIAIR@ZWO is specifying the ZeroConf service without the dot at the end, they need to add it to conform with the standards.

Chen

Oren

Thank you Chen for the education!

It’s pretty crazy that in 2023 when all electronics around us become more transparent and simless there are still some components that make you pull your hair out. I know I’m not the only one in this, I read a bunch of postings here of people that struggled with connection issues for days. This is all before they even start struggling with imaging, which is not always self explanatory.

Anyhow, with all my complaining, at the end of the day I’m happy with the AAP and it does make life easier.

Thank you again for all your help!!

w7ay

Oren at the end of the day I’m happy with the AAP and it does make life easier.

Don't be fooled, Oren.

ASIAIR is "easier to use" because many functionalities from the open sourced packages (PHD2, INDI library, etc) are deliberately left out. That makes a beginner think it is easier to use, but you will eventually be pulling your hair our when there is something you cannot adjust to match your system. Things like MinMove in PHD2, or camera offset and higher gain controls for the camera, etc.

A point-and-shoot camera is easier to use too, but real photography hobbyists will still use an DSLR or mirrorless camera instead. Many ASIAIR users don't even know that they can get better guiding by switching to the real PHD2 package, for example.

Chen

Relativist

I had a similar problem, I had to turn off cell phone access to ASIAIR to connect to it, and go back and forth to go through the registration process and firmware update. ZWO, you need to fix this to get any sort of recommendation from me in the future. Let me know when you do!

Video27

Simple fix. Go to ASIAIR application in settings and turn off cellular data. Bamm!