Скачать или смотреть ASIAIR Plus Overview

Introduction:
Back in 2013 when I started this hobby, I always thought a Raspberry Pi would be a worthy companion to a telescope setup. I bought a Pi 2 and a Pi 3 but they never were robust enough or had the best software to accomplish a task a laptop provided. I eventually went to a PC stick with a monitor but that proved to be almost as awkward as having a laptop by my scope. You needed a table.
Enter the ASIAIR. Great concept: small and more powerful after the 1st version that was based on a Pi 3 which I already had attempted to use. But it had the easy to use software which I craved since I was a basic telescope enthusiast.

The ASIAIR Pro was a major step up to a fantastic companion to your scope. It had power and many options to make it better than using a laptop. The Wi-Fi was not strong enough however and the ASIAIR Plus comes in now to address that shortcoming. It features the same Pi 4 processor as the Pro but inside the hood it is different and in a more complete package.

Now ZWO obviously has added the power ports etc. to make it a viable system. The system disk with 20GB of image space has moved to high speed eMMC storage on the RPi compute module. You no longer have to make a backup of a system disk. It sort of restores itself. I corrupted the Disk on the Pro 2x. It was necessary to make a backup if you did not shutdown properly. The eMMC memory has a self-healing feature. ZWO also saves a partition with a version of the OS which can be restored from an app menu item. It’s a factory version of the OS. It may be installed automatically or from an app menu. Added conveniences are added to the Plus.

Software:
I found the software for the Pro on a tablet much easier to use than any PC program I have used. The best thing is that they are all integrated together. This must save on resources as I used Sharpcap, Stellarium, and PHD2 at the same time on my mini-PC and it was quickly overwhelmed. I had power blackouts whenever I pushed the programs too far. With this integrated approach, the ASIAIR seems more efficient. I still like to use power conservatively. I use more than one power bank. With the new power consumption readouts on the Plus, I can be more confident in what draws the most power. I am looking forward to this new feature. All steps needed to make an image are here include polar alignment, focusing, filter wheels, camera control, mount control, previewing, plate solving, image annotation, live view stacking, and planetary video. Image annotation is most useful in seeing and finding what your target is. A Goto mount is ideal for finding a target quickly as the software will slew, take a photo, and plate solve the image. Then it continues to center the image. How easy is that.

Key Comparisons:
The eMMC system disk of the Plus is faster and more reliable than the NAND flash micro SD card used in the Pro. On the Plus this frees the micro SD slot for up to 1 TB of removable image storage. The Plus’s USB C port allows high speed transfer of image data to a PC with the Plus booted. The tablet is not needed with the image store automatically mounting in your PC's file browser with the ASIAIR on. Make sure you shutdown the ASIAIR however to be safe.
Both the Pro and the Plus are similar but not so much inside. The Compute Model 4 offers more versatility and has a built-in external antenna connector that offers more for your Wi-Fi coverage. I will put this to use in a future video.

My setup equipment will be as tested:
• Altair 60EDF telescope or Orion 80ED CF
• ZWO ASI533-Pro Camera or ZWO183MC Camera
• ZWO ASI120mini guide camera
• LPRO or L'enhance filters
• ZWO ASIAir Plus
• AZ-GTI mount in EQ mode or Skyguider Pro
• ZWO EAF auto-focuser


I am reviewing the ASIAIR Plus observations as part of the ASIAIR Experience Officer program. I received a discount on the purchase of this product in return for sharing my experiences with it. I have a few more experiences to go. I want them to be complete preparing for a better product in the future as I do like the approach to astrophotography ZWO has provided here.
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