ChristineZ However, over the weekend I decided to try my guiding camera (an ASI290MM mini) and just take along my M1 Macbook Pro...and direct connect a USB-C cable from the camera to the Mac.
The USB-C connector on the 290 Mini only supports the USB 2 serial protocol. The USB-C connector on the M1 MacBooks supports Thunderbolt, with no direct hardware support for serial protocol.
You cannot simply lash the two together with a direct USB-C -to- USB-C cable.
To use the ZWO mini cameras, you can use a USB-C to USB-A hub like this one for example:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08X4LHP1B
This hub supports serial, and also has a Power Delivery (PD) charging port to charge the PowerBook, so you won't waste a second USB-C port on the computer.
You then connect a USB-A port of the hub to the USB-C connector on the mini camera (USB-C to USB-A data cable). There are many USB-C hubs that support serial ports (some even come with Ethernet and HDMI connectors too), the above is just a cheap one that I use with my M1 MacBook Pro.
This is true not just for the ZWO mini cameras that use serial protocol, but the ZWO cameras that use the USB 3 Type B connectors on the cooled cameras (which also use serial protocol). It also includes mounts that use serial protocol.
Remember that USB-C (unlike USB 2.0, USB 3.0, USB 3.1 or USB 3.2) is just a physical connector specification. The electronics could implement USB 2 , USB 3, USB 4 or Thunderbolt 3 or 4, or DisplayPort even.
Beyond that, you do not need any special drivers to use ASIStudio on macOS. The serial port driver is already native on macOS.
Chen