Looking for Android based scouting, no wireless, little cellular

[fovea1959]

We've been using Wildrank for the last 3 years or so with good luck. The team purchased 7 Nexus tablets to use for it (they have bluetooth and 802.11b, no cell), and Wildrank transports the data around via a thumb drive passed from tablet to tablet. We use someone's phone to download the schedule from TBA when it comes available, load up the tablets, and we're good for the weekend. As I recall, data was in JSON format, which made writing our own rollup/analysis a cinch....

We've had good luck with it, and it seems customizable enough from season to season.

We're wanting something just as customizable as Wildrank that doesn't have the requirement to pass around the thumb drive. Since you can't count on having 802.11 at a venue, that means Bluetooth, cell (which our tablets don't have), or magic. Having to have a non-tablet server to consolidate data would be fine.

I've been looking for Android based scouting systems that can use Bluetooth to communicate. So far I've found Scoutr, Thunderscout, FRC Scouting Radar, and FRC 2729's system.

Any others out there that are available and meet the criteria (Android, open source, no cell necessary after start of competition, customizable from year to year)?

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by fovea1959

We've been using Wildrank for the last 3 years or so with good luck. The team purchased 7 Nexus tablets to use for it (they have bluetooth and 802.11b, no cell), and Wildrank transports the data around via a thumb drive passed from tablet to tablet. We use someone's phone to download the schedule from TBA when it comes available, load up the tablets, and we're good for the weekend. As I recall, data was in JSON format, which made writing our own rollup/analysis a cinch....

We've had good luck with it, and it seems customizable enough from season to season.

We're wanting something just as customizable as Wildrank that doesn't have the requirement to pass around the thumb drive. Since you can't count on having 802.11 at a venue, that means Bluetooth, cell (which our tablets don't have), or magic. Having to have a non-tablet server to consolidate data would be fine.

I've been looking for Android based scouting systems that can use Bluetooth to communicate. So far I've found Scoutr, Thunderscout, FRC Scouting Radar, and FRC 2729's system.

Any others out there that are available and meet the criteria (Android, open source, no cell necessary after start of competition, customizable from year to year)?

4901 used 2729's system last year on several potato phones (purchased for about $15 each at Best Buy). Worked great for us. The ability to pass information by QR code is a great method for avoiding data needs in the stands.

[Ben Martin]

Originally Posted by fovea1959

We've been using Wildrank for the last 3 years or so with good luck. The team purchased 7 Nexus tablets to use for it (they have bluetooth and 802.11b, no cell), and Wildrank transports the data around via a thumb drive passed from tablet to tablet. We use someone's phone to download the schedule from TBA when it comes available, load up the tablets, and we're good for the weekend. As I recall, data was in JSON format, which made writing our own rollup/analysis a cinch....

We've had good luck with it, and it seems customizable enough from season to season.

We're wanting something just as customizable as Wildrank that doesn't have the requirement to pass around the thumb drive. Since you can't count on having 802.11 at a venue, that means Bluetooth, cell (which our tablets don't have), or magic. Having to have a non-tablet server to consolidate data would be fine.

I've been looking for Android based scouting systems that can use Bluetooth to communicate. So far I've found Scoutr, Thunderscout, FRC Scouting Radar, and FRC 2729's system.

Any others out there that are available and meet the criteria (Android, open source, no cell necessary after start of competition, customizable from year to year)?

We have a system that does what you're describing (very customizable, bluetooth connections between tablets). The data posts to a website -- most events are hidden behind an authorization key, but we made the 2016 IRI public since we co-scouted with other teams for that event. 6+ tablets bluetooth to a cell phone with an app, which posts the data to the website after each match.

If you're interested in learning more about how it is structured, PM Andrew Lobos on FRC 225.

[fovea1959]

Ben, can I run the server component on my own server at the event? Not having cell service to get to your server is part of my constraints....

[Ben Martin]

Originally Posted by fovea1959

Ben, can I run the server component on my own server at the event? Not having cell service to get to your server is part of my constraints....

Is it just in the building, or can you walk outside to get cell service? Ours isn't an instant push--it queues up on the device, then you can walk outside during a break and push the data if the service is spotty inside the event. Theoretically you could, I guess, but it's more work to get the data to your drive team quickly (than just look it up on your phone).

[fovea1959]

sounds interesting... all the devices that collect data need to have cell, then?

[Andrew Lobos]

Originally Posted by fovea1959

sounds interesting... all the devices that collect data need to have cell, then?

Only one device needs cell service (we used a phone). The scouting devices (tablets) can push either directly if they have WiFi or send their data over bluetooth to the device with internet.

If the phone doesn't have internet it will queue the scouting reports and let you push them later. The tablets also keep every scouting report in a local DB, so you could also push from each tablet later.

EDIT:

Forgot to mention that there's also a Andriod/iOS viewing app that caches the data locally, so you don't need a constant internet connection to view the data

[fovea1959]

probably meant "only one device needs cell"?

we are constrained to whatever team 225 thinks is the appropriate metrics for a given year, or can we customize that?

[Andrew Lobos]

Originally Posted by fovea1959

probably meant "only one device needs cell"

Yep, sorry about that.


The fields, stats, and graphs are customizable through a javascript API

[fovea1959]

willing to take it out for a spin. how do I start?

[topgun]

Try FRC Krawler:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...ckrawler&hl=en

[Ben Martin]

Originally Posted by fovea1959

willing to take it out for a spin. how do I start?

Sorry about the confusion on current availability

We've talked about making a public release if there is sufficient interest. We're not really at the stage where it is built to scale beyond our team yet, but my intent was to make you aware that a system like what you described exists.

In the mean time, we'd be happy to talk to you about how we pulled it off, lessons learned, etc if you were working on development yourself. If we get it to a point where it is developed to scale, we'll definitely let you know.

[19lmyers]

I've been developing a scouting app for my team that might be of some help. I posted a preview on this forum, GitHub, and the Play Store that you can view here: https://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/s...67#post1612467

It might not be what you're looking for, but if I can be of some help I'm happy to provide.

[JamesD]

Originally Posted by fovea1959

Any others out there that are available and meet the criteria (Android, open source, no cell necessary after start of competition, customizable from year to year)?

See this link for other scouting apps:
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=130174

Team 330 has worked with a Scouting App developed by Team 1073 for the last 3 years that transferred files from Android tablets to a scouting computer via Bluetooth. There is a Python based webservice that runs on one laptop to collect the data from the tablets. The App is written in Java and built to compile for Android devices - not IOS. It's much easier to side-load apps on Android. There is a bit of setup required on the central scouting computer.

Students can easily edit a spreadsheet of data elements they desire to collect for scouting that is then imported and used to automatically build the app. No coding required unless you want to modify the default App. Results can be viewed in a webrowser on the main computer or uploaded to a hosted website (via tethered cell phone, etc.) and made available to anyone with Internet access (i.e. cell phones in the pits, etc.).

Ken St.Hilaire (a.k.a RoboScout) with Team 1073 maintains the code and was a great help in getting this working for us.

[RoboScout]

Thank you for the plug, James, and hello to everyone at FRC 330.

FRC 1073 developed its Android tablet based scouting system about 5 years ago and we've been incrementally improving it over the years. As James mentioned, there is an Android table application (actually two of them, one for Pit scouting and one for Match scouting). The scouting data is captured on the tablets and saved locally in a series of text files. The scouting data files are sync'ed to a central laptop application using bluetooth or WIFI and the scouting data itself is processed on the central application. That central application is a python-based web server that parses the data, stores the information into a SQL database and serves up a bunch of different reports that are used by the scouting team for analysis. The scouting data can also be easily exported as a CSV file for use by other reporting applications.

The Android application is based on a common base and generated from an input file (spreadsheet), allowing the non-programmer students to define the scouting 'sheet' based on what they want to collect for each year.

All of the code is open sourced up on GitHub at: https://github.com/FRCTeam1073-TheFo...tingAppCentral

We also have the central application running up in the Amazon Web Services cloud, too, under an education grant from Amazon. Feel free to check out the site at http://54.235.71.118:8080/home. You can log into a guest account as 'dean_kamen', password 'woodie'. The site needs a little TLC at the moment, with some broken links (we use the TheBlueAlliance for comp information and our use of those APIs needs a little cleanup on our side), but you should can get a sense of the site. This is the same application that we run on a laptop at competition.

As James mentioned, we have had several teams use the system through the years, with many of these teams adapting the base system for their own use. Some use just parts of the application, tying the Android apps into their own back end processing. We here at FRC 1073 are always happy to work with other teams to help them get started with the application. Please send along a PM if you want further info.

Yours in scouting,

Ken St