7 replies to this topic

[rsmith6621a]

I own the Skywatcher 150P Virtuoso and the ZWO AsiAir Mini.

 

Is there anyone on this forum that also owns both of these products? I am looking for either text or a YouTube video on the process FLOW for setting these two items up to work together.

 

Thank you

[jamiepence]

I’m curious about this as well. 

[OneSky]

The LearnToStargaze channel recently did a video on the Virtuoso GTi 150p and about halfway into the video, he (John Reed) goes into using an ASIAir Mini and ASIAir camera (I think the camera happens to be 294MC Pro) for EAA:

https://www.youtube....h?v=fadrFvg1K_U

 

He also mentions learning from Tiago's Dobsonian Power channel (though I think Tiago is using Sharpcap and a PC to control things).

[emalafeew]

I bought an asiair mini to try with my virtuoso, and followed that video to pair them. The direct left/right/up/down controls work but I couldn't get it to goto any targets, and plate solving didn't add any calibration points to the sky model. Not surprising as those functions are performed by the synscan app not the virtuoso itself. I tried to get a two phone system working, with one phone connected to asiair wifi running asiair app, and other phone connected to skywatcher WiFi running synscan, and making the synscan phone the station mode target, but that didn't work with any of the three available synscan protocols with the UDP/TCP/ports advertised by the synscan connection settings. So far then I can only use the asiair to take pics while using a separate phone running synscan for tracking.

Edited by emalafeew, 05 November 2024 - 01:29 AM.

[emalafeew]

I have not yet tried station mode with them all connected to my home wifi or a mobile hotspot, so there's still hope before I need a buy a synscan hand controller.

[emalafeew]

I managed to get them all talking together over station mode on my home wifi using two phones!  That's not ideal in terms of numbers of networks and phones, but now things like goto and plate-solved sync points should be possible from the asiair app on top of live stacking, without the need for a laptop.

 

I say "possible" because the clouds came in right as I got them all working.  

 

The way I connected them was this:

 

1. Connect to Virtuoso from SynScan Pro app on Android Phone A, through home wifi after enabling station mode.  Perform initial alignment.

2. Connect to ASIAir app from Android Phone B, also through home wifi after enabling station mode.

3. Configure ASIAir to use "Skywatcher SynScan Beta" protocol with the IP of Phone A and TCP port 11882.

4. Use ASIAir as normal on Phone B.

 

I'll see how well the plate-solving from ASIAir helps drift and stack some shots the next clear night.  I'll also try connecting them all to a phone's hotspot instead of home wifi network. 

 

And I'll see if I can get things to work with a single phone, the latest SynScan Pro app manual claims it can run in the background on Android at least.

Edited by emalafeew, 11 November 2024 - 10:15 PM.

[emalafeew]

I was able to get it working on a single Android phone!

 

But I've not yet been able to get it working without my home wifi, which is the last step I hope to take.  Have tried connecting everything to the Virtuoso wifi, the ASIAir wifi, and phone's hotspot, but can't get ASIAir to see the SynScan Pro app in any of those cases.  

Edited by emalafeew, 11 November 2024 - 10:15 PM.

[emalafeew]

Sadly the one phone solution doesn't work for long. On my Pixel 8 the synscan app times out in the background, even though it's set to avoid battery optimization then.

It's been working fine with the two phone+hone wifi setup, with plate solved gotos and live stacking. It still suffers from drift with a couple tracking points however (I only see about half of the sky to calibrate), and asiair doesn't have continuous plate solving to address that.

Edited by emalafeew, 19 November 2024 - 01:13 AM.