pic: Our new 25 IPads
 

Re: pic: Our new 25 IPads
 

I have to ask why do you have 25 IPads and where did they come from?

My bet is scouting. Scouting apps are so much easier to use than traditional pen/paper.

Re: pic: Our new 25 IPads
 

Looks like a huge investment but considering such a high volume I'd assume they are using them for more than just scouting.

Re: pic: Our new 25 IPads
 

You can get "Classroom sets" From apple. They are used for educational purposes. I'm guessing thats what these are for. I'm also guessing that these are owned by the school or school board, not the team?

Re: pic: Our new 25 IPads
 

As cool as iPads are, our team:

• designs our robot in SolidWorks
• sets toolpaths for our CNC Router in VisualMill
• programs in NetBeans
• images the cRIO with the FRC Utilities
• drives our robot with the Driver Station
• monitors our live telemetry with the SmartDashboard
• compiles and analyzes our scouting data in Excel
• writes our Chairman's materials in Word
• produces our marketing materials in Photoshop and Illustrator

Unfortunately for us, the iPad runs a grand total of 0 of our critical applications.

Every year someone brings up the idea of getting a few, and every year I try and convince them the money is better spent on far less sexy laptops and workstations.

Of course, this will be the year where the robot is controlled by finishing progressively harder levels of Angry Birds...

Re: pic: Our new 25 IPads
 

Solution turn your classmate into a tablet.

Re: pic: Our new 25 IPads
 

No, not at all. The classmate does not run CAD, or word, or any other applications for the most part. Also, "turn"? We're engineers, not magicians. It's not like you can just chop off the keyboard and call it a tablet. Not to mention that most tablets, including iPads, don't have USB ports! Where will you plug in joysticks?

Re: pic: Our new 25 IPads
 

Obviously via wireless electricity.

Re: pic: Our new 25 IPads
 

You might be able to use the Microsoft Surface when it comes out.

Re: pic: Our new 25 IPads
 

Why wouldnt someone go with an android tablet that has easy access to a usb port? (and less expensive)

Re: pic: Our new 25 IPads
 

sigh http://www.popsci.com/diy/article/20...hscreen-tablet

Re: pic: Our new 25 IPads
 

I was going to post this , but I was too slow. I wanted to do this to my parent's old 17" Acer, but they don't sell overlays that large.

Re: pic: Our new 25 IPads
 

We received them as part of a large grant we got that included the IPads 25 new desktops and 6 laptops. We use them for scouting, making designs and just fun:)

Re: pic: Our new 25 IPads
 

Solidworks has an edrawings app, I could see how this would be super beneficial to the manufacturing side. They can pull up the bot on the ipad and be able to move it around to see areas that a drawing may conceal.

Re: pic: Our new 25 IPads
 

This is cool! Didn't even know that existed.

Why not? http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/41/wec.shtml

Re: pic: Our new 25 IPads
 

Now when you say "we" do you mean the team, the school, or something else cause if it is the team I would love to know what group was that generous

Re: pic: Our new 25 IPads
 

Also I have gotten our teams class mate to run open office. for the most part it can run programming software and you should think of the us be ports to be a benefit.

Re: pic: Our new 25 IPads
 

Ours crashes whenever we try to do stuff like that. Also, I can't even understand your last clause. I should think "us be" ports are a benefit? I'm assuming that's USB, and yes, that's what I said. Most tablets lack USB ports, rendering them useless with any joystick or gamepad using USB.

Re: pic: Our new 25 IPads
 

They where given to the robotics team and our project lead the way program.

Re: pic: Our new 25 IPads
 

This summer, I saw the SolidWorks edrawing app on an ipad incorporated into a college robot competition presentation board. The students cut out a hole in the back of the board. You could see the edrawings showing different parts of the assembly and cross sections. They used three ipads and positioned them at the top of the boards - so you could see in a crowd. Then one of the students talked to the judges one-on-one with an ipad in hand. It was a new form of communication - especially between the judges and the students. Marie

Re: pic: Our new 25 IPads
 

Now...if FIRST would just lighten up the restrictions on wifi so they could be useful for live scouting...

Sure, you could sync them up when you go home for the evening, but not having live data really hampers the point of scouting.

Re: pic: Our new 25 IPads
 

Whats the problem with bluetooth?

Re: pic: Our new 25 IPads
 

Not to hate on iPads...but we resorted to including a "no iPad" clause in our Handbook (which extends to no off-task use of computers or any electronic devices) at meetings because they don't really lend themselves well to any task that we need to accomplish (with the exception of scouting, which just happens twice a year). Our school has had a convertible tablet PC program for a while, but recently decided to switch to a hybrid laptop/iPad program which I believe to be a mistake.