Looking for Setup Tips: ASIAIR Plus with Smart Camera Integration

1ri18IX8

Hey everyone,

My name’s Benjamin Miller, and I’ve recently started using the ASIAIR Plus with a smart astrophotography camera setup. I’m still fine-tuning things and wanted to get some input from others who’ve worked with similar gear.

I’m especially curious about:

The best Wi-Fi configuration for a stable ASIAIR connection in the field

How well the built-in plate solving performs with smaller sensors

Recommended power management setups for long imaging sessions

If anyone has experience automating sequences or integrating live stacking directly with the ASIAIR app, I’d love to hear how you’ve optimized your workflow.

Thanks in advance for any insights or setup suggestions!

– Benjamin Miller

Moontanner

1ri18IX8
Hi Benjamin.

The best Wi-Fi configuration for a stable ASIAIR connection in the field
-My experience is that the onboard Wi-Fi is only really ok if you're fairly close to the unit. You can attach a 12v travel router if you want better, but my experience is that the travel routers aren't that amazing either.
I've never had a problem connecting my phone/tablet directly if I want to stay near the rig. If I want to run things wirelessly at home, I use a separate router that has direct line of sight to the ASIAIR with only a window blocking the signal. This works well and loads images quickly using the station mode setting on the ASIAIR.

Recommended power management setups for long imaging sessions
-Plus 1 for the big LiFePo battery. I currently run a 100Ah battery. I also have a spare 25Ah battery that runs flat if I try to run everything on it.
From memory I was burning through around 30Ah a night, but this is really variable depending on your equipment setup. Run an inline power meter if you want to really dial in your power usage.

If anyone has experience automating sequences or integrating live stacking directly with the ASIAIR app, I’d love to hear how you’ve optimized your workflow.
-Using the ASIAIR app for EAA (live stacking) works fine. It's not really my thing though and I've only ever used it on bright targets.
What sort of automated sequences are you talking about?

Regards.
Ross.

Luxo

The best Wi-Fi configuration for a stable ASIAIR connection in the field
A: dont use ASIAir WiFi. Connect it via ethernet cable to a better quality WiFi unit which can be powered from 12VDC, such as: GL.iNET GL200 base station, VONETS VBG1200, or TELTONIKA RUTX50 Of these the Teltonika is the best but also costs a lot more, and it supports 4G/5G mobile connections (add a SIM card),
How well the built-in plate solving performs with smaller sensors
A: It depends on the field of view, and how many starts are in the frame:
Under 0.5 degrees field and it will struggle to solve;
Fewer than 10 stars will struggle to solve
If you have a large nebula (M42) occupying most of the field, it may or may not solve;
Huge cluster (Omega Centauri) occupying much of the field, that will fail to solve;
Camera gain turned up too high causing a noisy image - the noise will be sensed as "stars" and that will fail to solve.
Recommended power management setups for long imaging sessions
A: A big deep-cycle LiFePo battery, these charge to about 14V and have a very long flat discharge curve, at 12V they are fully depleted. Best of all their life is typically 2,000-5,000 charging cycles which will probably outlast you. The downside is that you MUST buy the right charger to match, or risk causing a fire. The capacity (Amp-hours) depends on how much gear you have (especially heaters and cameras that draw several amps).

I use a 50Ah battery and it's sufficient for 4+ nights.

If anyone has experience automating sequences or integrating live stacking directly with the ASIAIR app, I’d love to hear how you’ve optimized your workflow.

A:ASIAir does live stacking but IMHO it's not particularly useful. It can be set to store the individual subs for later. Guiding is not 100% reliable and has to be watched - I watch the subs coming in to make sure it is still guiding properly - it has unpredictable behaviors like totally wonky guiding (stars like snakes), losing the guide star (mount drifts freely) while AA thinks its "guiding", or simply stops after a meridian flip and doesn't restart, and so-on.

Luxo

One aspect to note re the ASIair WiFi - it doesn’t go round corners well, especially large metallic objects (telescope tubes).

Piggy-backed on a small refractor is ok but on top of my 10” the wifi will drop as the mount rotates breaking the line of sight.