Post by howie1 on Mar 16, 2020 8:06:00 GMT
Showing my age here (LOL) but in the words of Gomer Pyle ... Surprise, surprise, surprise!
Testing original pi3, usb2, non-PRO model ASIAIR yesterday and today with the new ASIAIR PRO app installed on my iPad. While that app is designed for the newer pi4, usb3, ASIAIR PRO it still loaded fine onto the iPad and copied the new OS across onto the old ASIAIR without reporting any errors. And the old non-PRO AIR started up and communicated fine with the App on the iPad.
Not good weather at the moment with cyclone Gretel having just wandered down the coast so I have not tested out in the dark yet. But........!!!!..... testing in the house today, I found some great things!
My Canon DSLR's connected fine and were selectable from the apps camera dropdown.
The live view image showed up perfectly.
The app controls ISO and exposure times.
But ...
I cannot find the darn stacking button anywhere in the App! However, no problem as while reading the manual I've figured out a way to let SharpCap do the stacking via a wifi connection. More on that down below.
BTW, the ASIAIR App interface is IMHO rather 'secretive'.
When trying to figure out how to get an ASI120 guidecam to loop etc for guiding calibrations, I finally by chance double tapped on the guide chart! That's what you have to do to initiate a sort of hidden guider menu! No stars of course in the daytime testing so had to muck around then tapping on this and that trying to figure out how to get OUT of that freaking menu!
So I then tried double tapping in various places, and tapped something as the Canon liveview then became full screen with zero other menu's visible. Again, all sorts of taps on the screen trying to bring back the menu's!
Then with the DSLR running, it was easy to see the "Preview" button and easy to figure out how to trip a shutter button and control ISO and exp time etc, but the Manual and Youtube videos all show another menu which displays a VCR style "Play" button! Youtube and the manual show that button is where you setup the image run and to navigate to images etc. But I could not find the magic "tap" on the screen to ever show that darned 'Play' button!
BTW, the plan for the old pi3, USB2, ASIAIR is allow me to run my whole rig on full wifi - zero cables to inside (when at home) or zero cables to inside the car (out at the bug ridden Wyaralong dam 1.5 hours away). Tests today showed it does indeed allow remote control of mount, cameras (both guider and main), and fully integrates with SkySafari Pro on the iPad for click n go target selection. Nighttime testing when the weather from cyclone Gretel clears up will allow me to test platesolving, platesolved accurate GoTo's, guiding, and ... tada ... the idea coming up next!
Which is .... Regarding the lack of stacking (well so far I just haven't been able to find it in the menu! ... The original AIR was built for AP rather than VA/EAA. The idea was it guides and captures all the images for doing long exp AP. All the images are stored on the SD card. So ZWO offer 3 ways to download those images from the SD card to your PC for post processing ie AP. But ZWO say the BEST way is to use WiFi from your PC to the AIR (which is a wifi hotspot after all!) and navigate to the images folder. So as luck would have it ... back in January this year I created a small batch file which continuously runs looking for CR2 format frames in any folder you name, and automatically converts them to TIFF format for the SharpCap Folder Monitor option. SharpCap then picks up any new frames as they are created in that folder and displays and stacks them ala AstroToaster!
So the plan is to connect my laptop inside home/car via wifi to the AIR's images folder as per ZWO's recommendation. Then my automated batch file will see new frames appearing in the IMAGES folder and transfer them to the SharpCap Folder Monitor ... tada ... SharpCap stacking wirelessly from the AIR.
Least that's the plan and I can't wait to actually try it out.
Testing original pi3, usb2, non-PRO model ASIAIR yesterday and today with the new ASIAIR PRO app installed on my iPad. While that app is designed for the newer pi4, usb3, ASIAIR PRO it still loaded fine onto the iPad and copied the new OS across onto the old ASIAIR without reporting any errors. And the old non-PRO AIR started up and communicated fine with the App on the iPad.
Not good weather at the moment with cyclone Gretel having just wandered down the coast so I have not tested out in the dark yet. But........!!!!..... testing in the house today, I found some great things!
My Canon DSLR's connected fine and were selectable from the apps camera dropdown.
The live view image showed up perfectly.
The app controls ISO and exposure times.
But ...
I cannot find the darn stacking button anywhere in the App! However, no problem as while reading the manual I've figured out a way to let SharpCap do the stacking via a wifi connection. More on that down below.
BTW, the ASIAIR App interface is IMHO rather 'secretive'.
When trying to figure out how to get an ASI120 guidecam to loop etc for guiding calibrations, I finally by chance double tapped on the guide chart! That's what you have to do to initiate a sort of hidden guider menu! No stars of course in the daytime testing so had to muck around then tapping on this and that trying to figure out how to get OUT of that freaking menu!
So I then tried double tapping in various places, and tapped something as the Canon liveview then became full screen with zero other menu's visible. Again, all sorts of taps on the screen trying to bring back the menu's!
Then with the DSLR running, it was easy to see the "Preview" button and easy to figure out how to trip a shutter button and control ISO and exp time etc, but the Manual and Youtube videos all show another menu which displays a VCR style "Play" button! Youtube and the manual show that button is where you setup the image run and to navigate to images etc. But I could not find the magic "tap" on the screen to ever show that darned 'Play' button!
BTW, the plan for the old pi3, USB2, ASIAIR is allow me to run my whole rig on full wifi - zero cables to inside (when at home) or zero cables to inside the car (out at the bug ridden Wyaralong dam 1.5 hours away). Tests today showed it does indeed allow remote control of mount, cameras (both guider and main), and fully integrates with SkySafari Pro on the iPad for click n go target selection. Nighttime testing when the weather from cyclone Gretel clears up will allow me to test platesolving, platesolved accurate GoTo's, guiding, and ... tada ... the idea coming up next!
Which is .... Regarding the lack of stacking (well so far I just haven't been able to find it in the menu! ... The original AIR was built for AP rather than VA/EAA. The idea was it guides and captures all the images for doing long exp AP. All the images are stored on the SD card. So ZWO offer 3 ways to download those images from the SD card to your PC for post processing ie AP. But ZWO say the BEST way is to use WiFi from your PC to the AIR (which is a wifi hotspot after all!) and navigate to the images folder. So as luck would have it ... back in January this year I created a small batch file which continuously runs looking for CR2 format frames in any folder you name, and automatically converts them to TIFF format for the SharpCap Folder Monitor option. SharpCap then picks up any new frames as they are created in that folder and displays and stacks them ala AstroToaster!
So the plan is to connect my laptop inside home/car via wifi to the AIR's images folder as per ZWO's recommendation. Then my automated batch file will see new frames appearing in the IMAGES folder and transfer them to the SharpCap Folder Monitor ... tada ... SharpCap stacking wirelessly from the AIR.
Least that's the plan and I can't wait to actually try it out.