Hi Fred,
My mount controller and the ASIAIR are both based on RPi 4B’s. Just as you said, their WiFi connectivity is very unreliable if you are more than 3m/10ft away. My solution was then similar to yours: I have a WiFi-6 mesh at home and put one of the satellites next to the mount and connect both devices with ethernet cables to the mesh satellite. This is a super fast connection anywhere in the house
Thank you for the feedback on INDIGO! Peter is constantly improving it. I tried it for a while and Peter was extremely helpful in figuring out set-up issues. In the end it turned out, that the StarGO2 is not compatible with INDIGO. And it is not an INDIGO problem…
I do not use much of AP planning nor mosaicking just yet. I got into AP during the pandemic because of much less traveling. Never regretted it.
I found the KStars/EKOS planner far from being straight forward, while manageable. So I use the simple planner in the ASIAIR, which is good enough for me for now. I am beta tester for the ASIAIR version 2 app, which runs perfectly well on the M1 Macbook.
TheSky is very expensive… not sure if it is worth it. I haven’t used Starry Night in maybe 15 years, since I am super happy with SkySafari 6 and 7. The planner in SkySafari is not adapted to AP… So for now I am OK with the ASIAIR.
The only problem I have now is the limited compatibility between the ASIAIR and the StarGO2 Pro controller. Guiding is not supported in this interface, while GoTo and plate solving is. So I need to run either the PHD2 or the EKOS guider separately. For now I prefer PHD2… again, i found it more intuitiv than EKOS. Technically, I could do everything with the StarGO2 controller and EKOS on either the RPi or on my Mac… but I do not like the GUI and the ASIAIR is easier to use.
There are so many settings and options in EKOS, that I find it counter productive for just a simple AP session. I find myself trying out all the options and settings forever until it kind of works the way I want to. ASIAIR and PHD2 are much more intuitiv and straight forward. The PAA in EKOS, however, is constantly improving and a great help.
There are also a lot of people who love N.I.N.A., which is also freeware. NINA seems very good, but does not support INDI, as far as I know. ASCOM works, though. Matter of taste.
Yes, all these options and tools keep us busy. It‘s still a lot of fun and the images are great!
Willi