I got my hands on an ASIAIR Plus!!

I was selected as one of the ASIAIR Plus Experience Officers in September of 2021. To say I was excited and shocked is an understatment. While I did receive the Plus early and with a discount I did still have to purchase it with my own money. Once I finally received the Plus it was time to dig into it and see how it compared to the ASIAIR Pro that I’ve been using for the last year.

As you’ll see in the main picture this is everything you get when you order an ASIAIR Plus. The included hotshoe mount is not shown as it was still installed on the bottom of the Plus at the time the picture was taken. As I’m sure you’ve seen in other reviews, you get a USB 3.0 cable along with a selection of DC power cables for accessories. One of the first things I noticed about the Plus (aside from the new antenna) was that the anodizing was a different color red. To me this actually closer resembles the red from the William Optics equipment I have. The Plus is also lower in height, a little bit wider, and longer.

Initial setup went well. I had seen posts in the ASIAIR Plus Officers Group on Facebook highlighting some different issues that people had ran into, so I knew going in what I needed to do. I had tried to authenticate the Plus via my mobile network while connected to the Plus through WiFi. This refused to work (though it has worked for others, so is still something to try). Since this didn’t work I switched between the Plus’s WiFi and my home network. That worked immediately and I was off. The first handful of times I had tried to set my location in the app it didn’t want to work, and in order for me to quit the app I had to click through saying I had entered all the relevant information instead of being able to just quit the app on the main screen.

I had connected to the Plus with both my Android phone and 2021 iPad Pro. Eventually I was able to get the location information to sync with the app and everything else had worked as it did with the Pro. Then it was time to test the WiFi range as this was something I was most excited for. With clouds being constant, and me wanting to get a review done I decided to test the range in my house. I was able to go through a floor, a door, and a wall before the range ran out. The distance covered while going through the obstacles was close to 30 feet, which was about 3 times better than the range I’d get on my Pro.

You can put the Plus in Station Mode and connect it to your home WiFi. When you do it this way you’re able to control the Plus while still connected to your home WiFi which will further increase the range. Once I did the initial range test, I connected through station mode and was able to go throughout my entire house and never lose connection. As you can see in the image below, when you activate station mode you’ll have the WiFi network (blurred out in the image) and the letters STA next to it, confirming you’re in station mode. As you’ll also see in that image, the connected 12V accessories will show the power draw. I was able to turn the percentage down on the Dew Heaters, however when I did this, the Plus would have a constant alert until I got to about 10%. It would go off as soon as I went below 100%, even if I turned the sound off the Plus. Not sure the reasoning behind this, but it is something that I will be investigating further and hope to report back on. You’ll also see wattage, amperage voltage and CPU temp. Another bonus is the word for Shutdown and Restart instead of a tiny button to press.

The last of the initial testing I did was to see how the camera cooling reacted when I would turn it off and on. When I turned the cooling on, it worked just like it did in the Pro, achieving the desired temperature in a relatively short amount of time. I usually turn the cooling on right when I get everything turned on, so that while I’m going through balancing, focusing, and polar alignment it has time to reach the desired temperature. When I turned the cooler off I noticed something odd. The temperature would go up as expected, but the Cooler percentage would also go up. Usually when the camera is trying to cool, that’s when I’d noticed the percentage go up. The cooler was not running on the camera as confirmed by visual and audio inspection, but the app said it was running. Just a small bug that doesn’t affect how things actually work.

Overall I am quite pleased with the Plus so far and all of it’s added features. There are a few quirks as to be expected with any new product. While I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s worth upgrading from the Pro unless the WiFi range is your main concern, it is definitely something to consider purchasing to replace having to physically go to your mount. The Plus will replace the Pro in my setup, and the Pro will be placed in backup position.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask!