astrophotographers have the image of our equipment consisting of mount, optical tube, guiding system, camera, etc., all perfectly connected through a tangle of cables that connect the devices to each other, as well as the cables for powering and communicating with our computer.
To sum up, our setup with connection and power cables would be as follows:
- Main camera to PC (or to HUB)
- Guide camera to PC (or to HUB)
- Power supply to the mount
- Cables from heating tapes to another source (usually 5v)
- Power supply for main camera
- Filter wheel and cable
- Cable from focuser to PC (or HUB)
- Focuser power supply
- Mount control cable
- Pole Master cable (if used for polar orientation)
- Laptop with power cable
If all our devices are from ZWO, the system is considerably simplified, because the cooled cameras have a HUB with two USB 2.0 ports, allowing us to connect the EAF focuser and the guiding camera to our EFW filter wheel.
Now for the interesting part: The ASI Air Plus objective
The ASIAir plus will simplify all this tangled mess. As astrophotographers we have always wanted as few cables as possible to ‘come down’ from the equipment and the rest of the cables to be tidy. That’s how ASI Air was born, as a device that ‘ties all the others together’.
Developed on the basis of Raspberry, the product has been improving over time and solving the problems inherent to the development of a new product, until reaching the 3rd Generation. This includes important improvements, one of the most outstanding (and visible by its antenna) is the improved wifi communication, a higher speed in the management and storage of data thanks to an internal memory of 32 Gb.
This device is a manager of all the accessories needed to succeed as an astrophotographer. If our accessories are of the ZWO brand, we can unify the connection of all the cameras, focuser, filter wheel and power supply heating tapes, in a single control centre that moves together with our tube. This avoids ‘snagging’ and pulling on the wiring. It communicates via Wifi with our Smart Phone or tablet through the product’s own App.
At this point it must be said that its operation via a mobile phone is a bit forced. Ideally, of course, a tablet should be used. This is one of the first things that is different about the ASI Air – everything is operated wirelessly from a mobile device and cannot be operated from a computer.
In the spirit of unifying the whole process, ZWO has developed its own app on which the software management is unified. It is no longer necessary to run several programs in parallel, Guidance, Capture, Planisphere… Everything is encompassed in a single application.
What can we connect to the ASI Air?
Si todos nuestros dispositivos son ZWO, digamos que podemos conectar Todo (sin duda esto es algo que el fabricante ha hecho muy intentionally and that forces brand loyalty). Additionally ASIAir Plus accepts a large number of Canon and Nikon cameras, if this is our case, we will have no problem.
- Almost all mounts on the market
- Main Camera (ZWO or DSLR)
- Guided Camera
- Focuser
- Filter wheel
- Heating tapes
- Field rotator
Let’s see the advantages of connecting these elements to the ASIAir Plus.
Mount
- Polar alignment management through the App.
- Planisphere and GoTo control.
- Together with the Plate Solver indicies included in the App, fast centering and framing of the photo.
Main camera and guide camera
- Control of all camera parameters (including sensor temperature)
- Shot scheduler for deep sky
- Guidance management through camera guide and camera mount
Focuser and filter wheel
- Auto-Focus function (no need to use Bahtinov masks).
- Focusing programming according to temperature changes.
- Programming of filters and shots, with auto-focus option when filters are exchanged.
Dew heaters and power supply to the mount
ASI Air has 4 12V DC output ports, which will be especially useful for powering several things, but in particular a couple of very important ones: the camera cooling system and the heating tapes and even the mount can be powered from here.
ZWO has introduced a very significant improvement in this new version of ASI Air Plus, the power management sent to these ports. That is, we can now regulate how much power we send to each heating tape independently. This is especially useful as it allows us to regulate the temperature of the lens in a very efficient way. Avoiding condensation or excess heat that would produce turbulence. In addition we can see at all times what is the voltage and consumption of each accessory connected, which is especially useful to avoid voltage drops if we feed through a battery.
Improvements of Asi Air Plus vs. Asi Air Pro
Externally there are several improvements that ZWO has introduced in its new device, it is now smaller and more compact and at sight jumps the installation of an antenna with which they intend to solve a problem that suffered the previous version, the Wifi signal cuts. The antenna has significantly improved the signal strength avoiding, as far as we have been able to verify, these recurrent cuts that had the previous version. With a dual band of 2.5 GHz and 5 GHz it reaches a distance of up to 20m according to the manufacturer. We have made some measurements on this aspect to verify this data. A priori a better signal quality can be appreciated in this new version.
In this graph we can see that the download rate of the ASIAir Plus is significantly higher than the previous model, 15.5 MB/s compared to 7.13 MB/s.
This is to be expected based on the improvements the manufacturer has made to the device’s communications. In our test with this unit we had no disconnection problems, although this would be an aspect to measure and validate.
The presence of a new USB port allows the transfer of stored files to a hard disk or laptop in a fast and direct way. Another aspect that is a clear improvement is the increased processing and storage capacity.
The trend towards larger and larger sensors with higher and higher resolution means that information management needs are multiplying.
The new ASI Air Plus version has replaced the firmware loading from an SSD card with an eMMC memory with a capacity of 32 GB and a free space of 20 GB for photos or videos. This has made it up to 2.5 times faster than its predecessor. This allows a much more stable and faster data management than in the previous version where the loading and storage was done on an SSD card.
Get the most out of your ZWO Asi Air
As you have seen, Asi Air is the device that is revolutionising the way astrophotography is done. However, the best use of its capabilities will be obtained by knowing in depth the operation of all its tools and settings. That is why Astroacademy reminds you that in our online academy you have at your disposal the complete ZWO Asi Air Plus course from 0 to 100, a course that will allow you to get the most out of your astrophotographic equipment.
