ASI Air Mini just steers into the completely wrong direction - Forums

Topic starter

Sep 29, 2023

So I just recently got the ASI Air mini. my Gear: SA GTI, modified canon eos 600D, zenithstar 61, zwo mini guidescope and mini guide camera.

I wanted to photograph the soul nebula and told the asi air how to frame it with the sky atlas. at first it platesolved, went into the right direction and was pretty close, platesolved again to check if it's framed right, and then went into the complete wrong direction and slewed the whole telescope into the wrong part of the sky.
I have no idea why it would do that since the first try was super close.

I made sure that my location Coordinates were perfectly right, (even though I can't use my gps on my phone (Error 4) I have to search for it manually) and I set my phone to the right time without daylight savings.

The asi air had Platesolved wrongly once or twice and got confused where it was but I don't think that was the issue because the issue came up literally every time I tried aming the Telescope.

I can't currently find any other point of failure on the asi air. do you guys have any suggestions?

John Richards

Sep 29, 2023

Please look at this thread on the ZWO forum. It seems other folks have had this issue. You may need a firmware update on your mount.

https://bbs.astronomy-imaging-camera.com/d/15229-asiair-star-adventurer-gti-problems

Hope this helps

John

Supportive

Jens

Topic starter

Sep 29, 2023 · Edited: Sep 29, 2023

Awesome!! thank you so much for this link, that sounds exactly like my problem. I hope that will work for me

Sean Mc

Sep 29, 2023

If it happens after all the suggestions above, change out the USB cable.

Well Written

Sep 29, 2023

I found the problem to be camera orientation. On non-astrocams the mini thinks that the camera is upside down, so you have to orient the camera upside down for platesolve to work properly, otherwise it will slew upside down.

Helpful Concise

Jens

Topic starter

Sep 29, 2023

Do you think the mini uses the gyroscope to figure out orientation? Doesn't it just look at a single frame to determine it's orientation?

Sep 29, 2023

Jens:
Do you think the mini uses the gyroscope to figure out orientation? Doesn't it just look at a single frame to determine it's orientation?

No. The mini uses platesolving, but for some DSLR's and Mirrorless cameras (like my A7III) it vertically flips the image, which causes it to platesolve upside down. I suspect it associates that with the mount being upside down rather than the camera sensor.

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Mark Hindman

Sep 29, 2023

Well, I once installed my guide cam upside down… got some strange results. ;-)

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kurt ragsdale

Oct 1, 2023

I've tried twice with my new skywatcher 35 mount and it's gone in the wrong direction both times even though last night I polar aligned it and I think I have all my information in there right. It might take a few more attempts to get in the ball park but I don't know. It's also telling me Jupiter is below the horizon when it isn't.

Jens

Topic starter

Oct 2, 2023

So I tried pretty much everything you guys recommended.
I updated the mount and reinstalled the firmware on the asi air.
I turned the camera upside down since it's action does imply that this is the case but I took the guide cam as main camera as a test and the issue was still the same.

I changed the time of my phone to different times and nothing changed either.

I noticed that it seems like the Mount has different coordinates baked in. The mount seems to have different coordinates than the sky atlas of the Asi air.
whenever I want to point at, let's say andromeda, I frame it up in the sky atlas, it slews over and it just points right next to the andromeda Galaxy in it's first slew.
It platesolves to check if it's framed up correctly and then goes completely off the rails and goes into the complete Opposite direction than it is supposed to.

the Asi does work if I steer it manually. as soon as it's on the target it works. But that's not why I bought the asi air.

I'm really running out of ideas on what this could be.

Sean Mc

Oct 2, 2023

Try a different usb cable? I don’t seem to have a problem with mine but it seems to be a common complaint with the zwo supplied cables.

Jens

Topic starter

Oct 2, 2023

Good point, and maybe a different phone as well. I haven't changed any hardware so far.

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Philip F.

Oct 2, 2023

My setup is slightly different in that I use either my Sony a7s or a zwo camera on the little skywatcher star adventurer gti. Both work fine. What kind of cable are you using? An eqmod cable? Just a regular usb cable ? I use the eqmod cable as it also works with my larger skywatcher mount too.

Randy Roy

Oct 2, 2023

One thing to double check. When mounts slew to direct opposite parts of the sky, the problem is often the wrong longitude sign of +\- or E/W. Likewise with N/S latitude though this seems to occur less often. Check your acquisition app as well as your mount driver.

I doubt this is your issue, but sometimes the simple things cause the biggest problems.

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Jens

Topic starter

Oct 2, 2023

@Philip F. I only use an usb cable, I will definetly try a different one soon, since I don't own a EQ mod cable.
do you see a big difference with the EQ mod cable?

Philip F.

Oct 3, 2023

Jens:
@Philip F. I only use an usb cable, I will definetly try a different one soon, since I don't own a EQ mod cable.
do you see a big difference with the EQ mod cable?

When I was using my mounts with Nina, I often had issues until I switched to the eqmod cable. When I got the ASIAIR, it was plug and play with the eqmod cable. I have never tried to use a different cable.