ASIAIR PLUS Review by YUVNISH BHARDWAJ

ASIAIR PLUS

REVIEW AND COMPARISON TO THE OLDER VERSIONS

ASIAIR PLUS is the newest version of popular astronomy Wi-Fi controller and mini pc device from ZWO.
There have been 2 earlier versions one known as Version 1 and the other one is ASIAIR Pro.
I happened to own all three versions now thanks for ZWO to provide early bird copy to 100 astronomers around the world to test to give honest opinion before it hits the market.
Also there is new ZWO upgraded app for ASIAIR  which is also a big upgrade over the old one with more control over your devices and can do planetary work as well as deep sky with same device.
Here below I am going to go by point wise with some pictures to compare and discuss its main functionality.
Also I want to keep it user experience review so for ASIair Plus specs u can browse the site 
https://astronomy-imaging-camera.com/product/asiair-plus

PLATESOLVING

Plate-solving is feature or where your Go To polar aligned German Equatorial mount can point exactly at any given target up in the night sky.

It can be done by your hand controller too but with what I call poor to average standard more importantly time consuming  fashion or just by letting your camera take pictures of night sky and align to mount  using connection to a PC and ASCOM or astronomy software.

ASIAIR acts as a mini PC controller with Wi-Fi which can be streamed on your smart device with an ASIair app.

ASIair Version 1: Plate solving is adequate for deep sky imaging with 1 inch sensor and telescope focal length up to 2000mm but does 
not support video mode which is must for planetary imaging. You can use it for plate solving for visual purpose with OAG for astronomy
outreach but I don't recommend if you have planets in mind. 
I Still use it for my wide field set up with astro moded Canon T6 or ASI2600 MC because it can be run on hrs. on USB POWER and POWER is everything when you shoot outdoors.

ASIAIR PRO: Slight improvement in plate solving degree in my observation I will say you can use smallest ZWO sensor like in on ASI 224MC 
with telescope focal length up to 3000 mm and it supports video mode which is crucial for capturing that high frame rate video for planetary 
image processing.

CONS I found its Wi-Fi connectivity inadequate for outdoor dark skies due to repeated dysconnectivity at 5G OR even in 2 G MODE anything above 5 meters.
there is jack to use $50 WIFI booster which I had planned to buy until heard about newer version ASIair Plus.
Its a still great device for home/backyard astronomy because it can stream thru home Wi-Fi and do all u need to do in astrophotography if not best 
the better. 
It can heat up to 58-60 degrees while on the go for file transfers but never got hanged.
WIFI connectivity I found equivalent or not noticeable faster to version 1 but range little less because I guess metal body interferes with receptor which is inside it.
Antennae WIFI booster is inbuilt with Plus version.

ASIAIR PLUS(outdoor/traveller/NEW setup or darksky recommended): Well I will start with underlying shot of all 4 gas giants I Shot in one night within 4 hrs. of 
difference specially Jupiter and Saturn which I had 1 hr. to shoot because they set early and then Neptune and Uranus which are little hard to plate solve and resolve.
I never could have done if my mount could not plate solve using ASIAIR PLUS and get all 4 target almost dead center every time.
My focal length was 1200/f8 and camera ASI 224MC.I Tried plate solving/find Neptune with 2.5x powermate making fl 3000 and it got it most of times.
Well there is no difference in plate solving between PRO version and PLUS but the faster readout due extended Wi-Fi and ASIAir Plus onboard eMMC
rather than ASIAir Pro Micro SD Card makes 2 stop difference specially if you set up outdoors quite often or u starting New.
WIFI connectivity Range I tested outdoors and I parked my car 10-12 meters away at dark site 1000m above sea level for 5 hrs. was good.
15-20 meters it can disconnected if u r sitting inside a car.
only CON I can feel but not recorded is Plus which draws same or lil higher power but not heats that as much as pro.

MULTISTAR PHD 2 GUIDING and POLAR ALIGNMENT

Well as we know for best astro images we need signal to noise ratio which may get better with darker skies or filter or better sensors and processing but most important factor is total integration time  and to optimize it have pinpoint stars where you enter into guiding game and specially with longer focal length.
Guiding has been done with PC/LAPTOP when 1st version ASIair changed the game. There are Astroberries and Stellarmates but they are not as reliable as ASIair outdoors.
The best thing ZWO  worked on is the  ASIair app which is very easy to use once set up and recently updated to Multi-star guiding (PHD 2) instead of one star guiding which improves guiding accuracy
and less incidents where u lose guiding star due to clouds or flash lights Etc.
in my experience multi star guiding works well with newer PLUS due to its 
2.5 x faster Read/write speed and no system back up.
Polar Alignment using the ASIair app and plus is pretty good it takes on average  more time if you haven't done rough polar alignment manually with mount. My favorite is Qhyccd polemaster for polar align up till now but now I keep it home because it needs additional laptop to use it so now I use ASIair app.
Because PLUS version has faster read speed when u doing delicate polar alignment with faster camera read and refresh rate I have seen this difference with using canon t6 camera too.
Posting VEIL Nebula shot with ASIair plus 80 mm triplet refractor with multistar phd 2  guiding even on windy night with EQR 6 pro mount.

WIFI CONNECTIVETY AND RANGE

I tested the range and read out speed and it stands good till 10-12 meters  for PLUS  model after which there was fall of loading from mb to kbps speed as move more apart or sit in a car.
For ASIair pro model 5 meters is best sometimes fall below 2-3 while running all slots full and specially if u sit inside a car.
So its Wi-Fi upgrade was huge improvement for me.
Also to note version 1 when out of range stops working need to restart.
On contrast Pro and plus model never stop exposures or stop working  while out of WIFI range.