Review: ASIAIR Plus

Remote automation is just about the best upgrade an astroimager can invest in. Look, I even say so in this article about the Top 10 Upgrades! Astro-company ZWO have just released a new version of their very own remote automation solution, the ASIAIR Plus. But is it any good? And should you upgrade if you already own its predecessor, the ASIAIR Pro?

Step back in time…

That earlier version, the ASIAIR Pro, was central to me getting back into astroimaging. I’d previously had a Mono set-up, and controlled it via a laptop using Sequence Generator Pro (SGP). It all worked well, but was a little cumbersome and time-consuming to use. After selling all my kit and having a hiatus, I returned with a new mission: build an imaging rig that would make data acquisition as simple as possible. OSC camera (a valid option even in a city), short-tube refractor telescope, DIY pier… but was there a simpler, more streamlined method of remote automation control that would allow me to do away with the laptop and SGP? It turns out there was: ZWO’s ASIAIR Pro!

A little red box that fits into the palm of your hand, this new (at the time) gadget was precisely what I was after. Not only could it connect to my astro kit, allowing me to control everything from my phone, it was also a power hub, massively reducing the number of cables snaking around. So I pushed the button, and the ASIAIR Pro became the linchpin of my entire system. And it did everything promised, hooray!

But… it wasn’t perfect. The WiFi range in particular was rubbish, necessitating the need to buy an extender that plugged into the ASIAIR Pro’s ethernet port.

Fast-forward to August 2021, and ZWO announced an updated version: the ASIAIR Plus. Soon after they offered ASIAIR Pro users the chance to buy a Plus for a discounted rate in exchange for feedback and a public review. (That’s what you’re reading now, obvs). There was no requirement to give a positive review — but happily the ASIAIR Plus is ace so I’ve no qualms singing its praises.

Stop reminiscing and tell us about the Plus already

I ordered directly from ZWO and had the ASIAIR Plus in my eager hands just shy of two weeks later. It came with lots of useful cables, but like the Pro before it, no power cable. Most astroimagers will have something suitable lying around already. If not, I’ve found these Lynx Astro cables to be excellent. Also, the Pro came with a USB flash drive, but the Plus doesn’t, so you might need to fish one out or buy a new one if, like me, you find a USB drive to be the most convenient way of transferring images to a PC for processing.

Side-by-side, the Plus (left) and Pro are very similar in size. The Plus is a little flatter, slightly longer, and a bit lighter. There’s not much in it though.

It has USB connections for your accessories. Plugged into mine are the camera, guidecam, mount, and USB flash drive. You’re less likely to use the ethernet port with the Plus given that its antenna negates the need for an external WiFi adapter.

Along one side are ports to power your various accessories. In my case that’s a camera cooler, electronic autofocusser, and two heated dew bands. New to the Plus are LED lights letting you know the status of each power port.

On the opposite side is a TF port for microSD cards, along with a USB Type-C port, new for the Plus. That’ll be handy for people that want to transfer files via cable.

Then there’s the antenna, the big new attraction. No more need for a WiFi extender and associated cables.

There are lots of ways to actually attach the ASIAIR Plus to your system. I find it slots rather neatly onto my telescope’s dovetail.

Under the stars with an ASIAIR Plus

I’ve had a couple of clear-ish nights with the Plus, which has been enough time to give it a decent test. If you’ve used the Pro model then you’ll be able to dive straight in and will barely notice any differences — it’s essentially the same in use. If you’re new to these gadgets then there’s definitely a learning curve, but ZWO have done a good job of making the Plus as beginner-friendly as possible. ZWO’s user manuals have traditionally been a little on the weak side, but they’re getting a significant revamp to accompany the release of the Plus. Best of all, there’s a big user-base out there of people happy to answer any questions you may have. Shout-out to the ASIAIR Pro users’ group on Facebook. Ask a question there and two minutes later you’ll have three good answers.

The first difference I noticed using the Plus was that set-up is a little speedier without the need to plug in a WiFi extender. Also, now I only have two cables trailing down to the power supply: one for the mount, one for the Plus. I’m a fan of simplifying set-ups whenever possible, so this gets a big Urban Astrophotography thumbs-up 👍

The WiFi connected via station mode to my home network without issues, and let me control everything from the comfort of my living room sofa. Thanks, ASIAIR Plus! ZWO say that the wireless range is 20 metres. My ASIAIR Plus is 15 metres from my WiFi router, through two brick walls and one set of glass conservatory windows. The signal does get weak, but it’s held together so far.

On my last night with the previous Pro model I’d taken screenshots of every option where I’d changed something from the defaults. So, my next job was going through all those options on the Plus, getting everything back to how I like it. About ten minutes later I was good to go.

Running an autofocus routine, it was reassuring to see the graph’s pleasing smile-shape. The ASIAIR Plus plays very nicely with a ZWO EAF, taking the pain out of getting pin-sharp focus. So far, so good.

The star Mizar was in a patch of clear sky, so the next test was for the Plus to use its plate-solving function to centre the star in the camera’s field of view. This proved no challenge.

Next I took a look at real-time power monitoring. This is the one noticeable software feature not available to users of the Pro. It was neat to see the exact power draw from each of the attached gadgets. I use mains power so this function isn’t actually that useful for me personally, but if you’re using batteries it could be a real boon.

Then, as tradition dictates, clouds rolled in. The following evening I jumped right back in and attempted using Plan mode to image the Andromeda Galaxy. Plan mode is my go-to method, allowing you to plot out an entire imaging session in advance. It works really well, and for me is key to getting long integration times.

After automatically plate-solving to the target, the ASIAIR Plus took control of my guidecam to begin guiding.

And hey presto, it then started imaging using the settings I’d input.

Then I went to bed, but didn’t take any photos of that. The ASIAIR Plus controlled the system all night: tracking, guiding, autofocussing every hour, imaging, meridian flip… everything a-ok, no issues to report. I guess I’m repeating myself a bit here, but the ASIAIR Plus, like the Pro before it, just works really well.

So, should I buy one?

That’s the question, isn’t it? If you’re in the market for a gadget to control your kit and unlock remote automation, then the ASIAIR Plus is a solid choice. It’s simple to use, robust, and smooths out the steep difficulty curve inherent in astrophotography. Really, the only catch is that it locks you into the ecosystem of ZWO products (although it’s also compatible with loads of DLSR / mirrorless cameras). ZWO stuff is genuinely good though, so personally I’m ok with that. It’s also reasonably priced at $299 direct from ZWO / £289 from First Light Optics at the time of writing. I expect demand to be high, so my guess is that not many customers will receive them before 2022.

What if you’re one of the many people that already owns an ASIAIR Pro? Then it’s a tougher recommendation. Odds are you’ve bought a WiFi adapter, or have concocted another workaround to the Pro’s WiFi issues, in which case the Plus’ antenna is nice-to-have rather than a game-changer. That could sum up the Plus actually; evolution not revolution — no bad thing considering how good the Pro is already. Perhaps ZWO will release new software features in the future that make use of the Plus’ faster memory, and that would strengthen the case for an upgrade. As it stands, I think most Pro users won’t miss out by not upgrading.

Speaking of future software updates, ZWO are quite responsive to their customers, and issue regular updates that fix bugs and offer additional functionality. Let’s finish this review with four things I’d like to see.

Please ZWO, here are my feature requests

1. Option to activate camera cooling x minutes before imaging run

I use Plan mode as standard — it’s great to plot out an entire evening’s imaging run, including a start time, and then just set it to go. It’ll begin at whatever time I set, even many hours in the future. Except! Plan mode can’t activate my camera’s cooler, so I need to do this as an extra, manual step. Ok it’s not a huge issue, but this sometimes means I’m running the cooler for several hours before an imaging run begins. Please ZWO, can there be an option to set the cooler running automatically x minutes before an imaging run commences? 10 minutes would be perfect for me. Just saying.

2. Optimised image previews

New, faster hardware will always be welcome, but I find that the bottleneck is in the wireless connection twixt ASIAIR Plus and my phone. This is most evident when I’ve just taken a photo and want to quickly preview it. The image’s exposure time may have been short — just 10 seconds in the example above. But the time for the image preview to be sent so I can actually see it on the screen can be fast, or take minutes, depending on how your location is affecting WiFi connection / speed. Check the green progress bar at the bottom-right of the image above. When I took that screenshot, an image was transferring at 5KB/s. Slooooow. Often I’m just using the preview to check the positions of a few bright stars, so don’t actually need a full-resolution view. Please ZWO, would it be possible for the image to appear very pixelated to begin with, and then gradually improve in quality as more data trickles in? As opposed to the current approach where you see nothing until the entire file transfers.

3. Mount safety limits

I had a bad experience with my ASIAIR Pro a while back when it was imaging overnight, but for some reason (I think a software bug that’s now been fixed) it didn’t complete a meridian flip. I had a shock in the morning as the mount had contorted the telescope into an unnatural pose, and it was still trying to track despite colliding with my pier. Eeeeek! Thankfully no actual damage was done, and it’s never happened again, but that memory has been seared into my brain. Please ZWO, could there be a system whereby a user can manually slew their telescope around and tell the ASIAIR Plus when a collision is imminent? The ASIAIR Plus could then build a map of the “danger zones” into its memory, thereby avoiding any risk of a collision. I think that the handsets for some mounts have this ability, but that’s not helpful for those of us using EQDIR cables.

4. Import settings

Please ZWO, to help users going from ASIAIR Pro to Plus, could there be a way to ping all your settings over from your old to new magic red box? I thought ahead and took screenshots of all my Pro settings and then typed them in into my Plus manually, but wouldn’t it be neat to have a one-click solution?

Update

Here’s my first image produced with data gathered by the ASIAIR Plus over five nights. Processing used PixInsight, Photoshop, Topaz DeNoise AI, Lightroom. Click on the image for more details.

Photo gallery

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