iOptron iPolar Mobile 4+

A good start but loses useful features of the desktop app

I’m reasonably pleased with this app which has now settled down after some initial problems getting ipolarserv on the IMate connecting to the ipolar cameras on my CEM70G and GEM45. It turned out that the cameras needed a firmware update to get ipolarserv to run stably or at all. Good secure USB cables and possibly a check on the internal camera connections can help if you have an internal ipolar cam. Once I sorted that out ipolarserv started up on the iMate and the ipolar app found it and worked on my phone.

On my iPhone (and presumably an iPad with cellular so it has the GPS chip) it has the nice feature of getting the location straight from the phone.

I’ve been holding off upgrading my iPad and iPhone till 2024 so ran into the issue that this release of the app needs iOS 13 or later. My ancient iPad fourth gen only goes to 10 so would not load the app at all (though it was happy connecting to the imate and running NoMachine). My iPhone 10R worked fine though and I did the position confirm, and then the PA in a few moments.

So provided you are not using very old gear and possibly done a camera firmware update it’s fine. Sort of. It’s lost the really useful feature of the desktop app that you can do and manually store an advanced precise camera calibration by manually entering the data for the camera, with such data having been derived from either an averaging of several position confirms or a drift alignment. So when you go out with a mount with the ipolar cam rigidly and permanently attached, you only have to do the PA itself and get a good result. You appear to have to do a single position confirm every time. That’s fine if you attach your camera every time externally or have it on an OTA but otherwise it’s both a waste of time and loses the potential for an improved calculation of the mount’s true axis. The app needs something like an advanced settings screen to put back the camera position management, and also a way of storing that data for different mounts.

I’m at about 52deg N so refraction corrections don’t matter, but I also wonder if folks living closer to the equator may miss the atmospheric parameter settings in the desktop app that have also been removed.

It’s also a little odd that this app has to go through a wireless connection via an imate. I’d be happy running a phone to usb cable to connect to the mount. But as it is I can set up a NoMachine link and run the IMate from inside then pop out to so the PA with the phone. Which is fine. Or when out in the field do the whole job from an iPad or phone. And with hardware from any maker!