Asiair Plus 256G Wireless Controller
Controller
A capable, genuinely all-in-one controller for the manual rig — captures, guides and plate-solves without needing a laptop out in the field. The app takes some getting used to though, and the polar alignment routine in particular is easy to misread at first.
Pros
- + Easy to setup and connect to the ZWO app
Cons
- − Wireless can be intermittent and the download speed/transfer to app can be quite slow
- − The app took a while to get comfortable with — the polar alignment routine in particular is misleading and easy to misread at first
The ASIAIR Plus is the brain of the manual rig — one box that handles capturing, guiding and plate-solving, so the whole session runs from my phone instead of hunching over a laptop in the cold. Connecting it to the ZWO app and getting the first exposure going was refreshingly simple.
Where it gets less intuitive is once you're past the basics. The app took a while to click, and the polar alignment routine in particular is misleading the first few times through it — the on-screen guidance doesn't always match what you'd expect to see, and it's easy to convince yourself you're aligned when you're not. It becomes second nature after a few sessions, but it's a rough on-ramp coming from a fully automated setup like the Seestar.
Wireless performance has also been a little inconsistent — image transfer to the app can lag or stall, particularly the further the phone or tablet is from the unit.