Questions For Anyone Running Two Rigs - Forums

Topic starter

Feb 6, 2025

I am going to be running two rigs using ASIAIRs, one will be my ASIAIR+ and the other will be a ASI2600 AIR. My question is this, can I run them both off of one iPad running the ASIAIR App? I know there is a switch device under the Wi-Fi menu will that allow me to switch from one telescope/mount to the other? If I am shooting a session on one and use the switch device to the other will the first instance keep on doing what it is supposed to?

For those who have done it help me avoid stupid mistakes. Is it better to run two IOS devices? Any insight appreciated.

Itto Ogami

Feb 6, 2025

I use 2 ipads for my 2 asiairs. Its not better to run on 2 devices, just nice to be able to see them both at the same time. That being said, if you switch back and forth via wifi between the two, it will not affect the session runnning on each air when you reconnect. You would be fine to switch back and forth on 1 ipad

Regards,
Itto (Jim)

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Razvy

Feb 6, 2025

I run two all the time, no issues off the same device. It does take a minute to switch between them so I will use my iPad on one, and phone on the other for convenience… but if there are no issues it’s not a big deal to wait while it swaps and reloads.

BattleOP

Feb 6, 2025

Just throwing this out there. If you have any kind of virtual machine environment running on your PC you can always spin up virtual Android devices and control your Airs in separate instances on the same box.

Roy Hagen

Feb 6, 2025

No problem running two rigs on the same Asiair, but you can always run on on you phone or on a Macbook..
I do the setup on one iPad switching between the two rigs.
When collecting photons I run on of them on my i Pad and on on my Macbook, and yes, the app works fine on the Macbook.

Heyward

Feb 6, 2025

I regularly run 2 rigs. I travel to a remote site, but while there I take one of my old outdated routers and set up a local WiFi (no internet). I then run LAN cable to each ASIAIR. I log my iPad onto the local network in the field and open the ASIAir app while connected to the local network. From there I can easily access either devices from one ipad and switch back and forth between the 2 rigs with the switch device option in the app. For me this connection is much more stable than logging off and on the wifi for each ASIAIR.

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Mike Wrobel

Feb 6, 2025

I am trying to run 2 ASIairs in station mode. It shows my EQ6 but not the AVX. I either have to turn off the EQ6 or switch to the SSID specific to the AVX. That defeats the use of Station Mode. Am I missing something?

GiffS

Topic starter

Feb 6, 2025

Mike Wrobel:
I am trying to run 2 ASIairs in station mode. It shows my EQ6 but not the AVX. I either have to turn off the EQ6 or switch to the SSID specific to the AVX. That defeats the use of Station Mode. Am I missing something?

I would like to be able to help you but I can't. I'll be interested in the replies you get as I intend to run in Station Mode as well but I will be using AM5 Mounts so hopefully that will help things to play nicely.

Klangwolke

Feb 6, 2025

I'm running three in station mode and the switch between them on my Mac or iOS is seamless. One thing I've learned is to switch before the interface enters a modal dialog like "find focus", because then you are stuck there until that operation is completed. Would be nice if there was a meta interface which just captured say the current status of all devices in a few lines. Wouldn't be difficult given the token-based protocol they use but as far as I know there is no official open source access to their protocol.

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GiffS

Topic starter

Feb 6, 2025

I was thinking it would be nice to be able to open a new “instance “ of App for each device running or simply have a tab structure at the top.

Mike Wrobel

Feb 7, 2025

I'm running three in station mode and the switch between them on my Mac or iOS is seamless. One thing I've learned is to switch before the interface enters a modal dialog like "find focus", because then you are stuck there until that operation is completed. Would be nice if there was a meta interface which just captured say the current status of all devices in a few lines. Wouldn't be difficult given the token-based protocol they use but as far as I know there is no official open source access to their protocol.

Can you explain the process of how you switch between them? I had both rigs in my house doing some testing (switching from target to target... with the lens caps on... and hitting stop as it tried to center). Maybe I am using the wrong procedure (hitting the wrong buttons)??

cougar1

Feb 10, 2025

great information. I actually run 2 rigs (ASIAIR)(AM5) one controlled by 1 iphone and one controlled by ipad ( turn off autoconnect on both or the iphone and ipad can connect to wrong device). I have gone down the road of keeping it simple (my brain gets all scrambled up once complication of running 2 systems on one device enters the scene along with 1 malt beverage)

Peter Curley

9 days ago

So if I’m reading this right… I have an ASI585MC Air which does almost everything I need. I am now in the process of getting a Wanderer flat panel which the 585 won’t handle, but I do have an ASIAir + not being used. Could I not attach it to the top of the scope and then only attach the flat panel to the + ? I could connect the + to my i-Phone using the + wifi and control the flat panel when needed. The 585 running station mode on my i-Pad could run all the rest of the show as long as I pause it between targets while I run flat wizard. Yes?? Am I on the right track?

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Tony Gondola

Frequent contributor

Exemplary contributor

8 days ago

IMO a better solution would be to start learning and using NINA. That will give you a much cleaner solution to issues like this.

Dave Rust

5 days ago

I eventually dropped NINA because I didn’t need the extra flexible scheduling and fewer bugs arise when running a distant location.

I use two iPads running the ASI app, one for each rig. Super convenient and simple. The app will also run on a Mac M-series desktop, laptop, and phone. Makes sessions a breeze when in the field or controlling remote sites.

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