Hello,
I’ve been having trouble with getting my ASIAIR Plus system to work properly. I’ve uploaded logs and have reached out to the support email but so far no luck. The system frequently freezes up in the middle of an image download, and I often get an “Exposure Error” failure.
First, my set-up:
• Power from Jackery Explorer 880 (DC 12V up to 10 Amp) to AM5 mount.
• AM5 connected to ASIAIR Plus via USB 2 cable. ASIAIR Plus powered from AM5 mount.
o Note: Recently I’ve started powering the ASIAIR Plus from a separate DC source to see if it solves the issue - it doesn’t.
• ASIAIR Plus connected via USB 3 to ASI533MC main camera. Camera is powered from one of the four ASIAIR Plus power ports.
• ASI224 MC camera utilized as guide camera and is connected via USB 3 cable directly to the ASIAIR Plus via USB 2 slot. The ASI224MC takes a USB 3 cable but since I’m using it as a guide camera I have it plugged into the second ASIAIR Plus USB 2 slot.
o I’ve tried connecting the ASI224MC to the system indirectly via the USB2 slot in the ASI533MC to see if it solves the issue – it doesn’t.
• The ASIAIR Plus app is set up to recognize the ASI533MC as the main camera, and the ASI224MC as the guide camera.
The trouble starts when I run through the focusing routine. I’m focusing manually (no EAF yet) so I pull up the Focus function in the ASIAIR app and I start 1 or 2 second repeat exposures and manually adjust the focus as results are uploaded to my IPad, until I have focus. During the focus routine, the ASIAIR app would, seemingly at random, freeze in the middle of loading the image, i.e., the loading screen freezes, and the image is somehow lost. At that point the app will either not respond to any inputs, or will respond with significant lag. Sometimes the problem will clear when I reboot the system (turn the mount and ASIAIR off and on, close and re-open the app on my IPad). Sometimes it clears when I de-select the ASI533MC within the ASIAIR app as the main camera, designate the ASI224MC as the main camera, take a picture, and then re-designate the ASI533MC as the main camera. But only for a few moments until the next time it freezes up.
Similarly, when I try to polar align, ASIAIR is frequently and randomly unable to plate-solve during the polar-alignment process. Specifically, it will claim to capture only 10-20 stars when it should otherwise be capturing >100 given the dark skies at my location. I am forced to cancel and re-try the PA process after clearing the error as described above for the focusing routine.
Eventually, after a few re-starts I’ll complete the PA process, and slew to my target. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. When it doesn’t work, I’ll get an “Exposure Failure” error with “shooting failure, retry 5 times Shooting Failed”. I am again forced to cancel and re-try by disconnecting / reconnecting the main camera, and re-slewing to target.
Eventually the system will successfully plate-solve the target if I keep trying as per above. Next I run through the calibration process and start guiding (no issues with the calibration process). When guiding starts I then start live-stacking. It works for a few images but then, at random, would freeze once it got to loading the image, similar to what happened during the focus routine. At least once, the image returned appeared to have been from the guide camera. Sometimes I get an “Exposure Failure” error. Once again I am forced to try different solutions to clear the error including disconnecting / reconnecting the main camera. Sometimes it works, at least once though it refused to cooperate any further, giving me a choice of either shutting everything down and starting up again, or going home.
Thank you for reading this and I greatly appreciate any thoughts on how to resolve these issues.