Has anyone used any of the ASI Air models with a ASI294mm Pro on Bin 1? I want to pick one up some time soon since It will help a lot to get rid of the mess of wires I have going on. I only use my camera on bin 1, The resulting images are fairly large (90mb per file). Has anyone played around with this combo? Just wondering if the ASI Air will be showing previews at an extremely delayed speed or will the preview not be effected due to the ASI Air using some sort of thumbnails instead of full res images? Anything else I should consider with this camera when using an ASI Air?
Thanks ahead of time!
You didn't say whether you'll be located at or near the scope or inside your house. A rat's nest of wires can happen either way!
Close to the scope with a wireless connection between an ASIAir and an iPad or phone, I think you'll be able to see every exposure if your Bin1 exposures are 10s or greater. Following is why I think you'll be fine at 10s subs. My explanation may also give you some other ideas about how you might set up your system if your primary imaging site is near your house, without testing different gear and several configurations. However, you might still have to try things different ways to get the job dome to your satisfaction.
I use my ASI 294MC Pro for EAA and typically shoot Bin1 and 10s exposures. My scope is always set up about 15 ft from my house, so I first added an access point (AP, ethernet connection) connected to my network on a wall by a sliding glass door in my kitchen less than 20 ft from my scope. I tried with the ASIAir+ connecting (wireless, 2.4 GHz) to the AP, with about 10 other 2.4 GHz networks competing with the ASIAir+. It's not ideal and transfer speeds were no great. That configuration delivered about 1 out of 2 or 3 10s exposures to my iPad (wireless connection to my network) as I was live stacking. It worked adequately most of the time, but when I'd point in a direction that put the scope between the AP and the ASIAir+, I'd sometimes lose the connection.
Not satisfied with those results, I decided to mount an ethernet jack on the outside wall of my house in an all-weather box. I pulled another CAT 5e line from my router 45 ft away to the exterior kitchen wall near the scope. I now get 800+ mb/s transfers from the ASIAir+ to my router/home network. I relocated the AP from my kitchen to my living room area (which also has an ethernet drop for my AV gear) to improve the wireless speeds where I usually use my iPad to do my EAA observing. I routinely get wireless transfers to my iPad of about 40 mb/s, and I see every sub the camera shoots. I could shoot at about 5s and still see each sub in the stack.
If you need to have a wireless link between the ASIAir and your home network, a common solution is a CAT 5/6 cable to a range extender mounted on the tripod (so its signal doesn't get blocked by the scope) connected to your home network. But if your scope is situated where you can find a way to direct-connect your ASIAir to your network using CAT5/6, performance will be a lot better without disconnections.
I hope that answers your questions and gives you an idea what you can expect. Good luck!
Edited by reformedalpineskier, 04 December 2022 - 12:05 PM.
