Scouting using tablets

[Mr. Mike]

Our team went paperless last year. It is defiantly the way to go. The biggest challenge is power for your devices. Each venue is different. A mentor and student leader must approach the proper venue staff and the FTA to make sure everyone is ok with the setup.

Dale,

How did the batteries in the IPads hold up. We were using laptops last year.

[dcarr]

Originally Posted by Mr. Mike

Our team went paperless last year. It is defiantly the way to go. The biggest challenge is power for your devices. Each venue is different. A mentor and student leader must approach the proper venue staff and the FTA to make sure everyone is ok with the setup.

Dale,

How did the batteries in the IPads hold up. We were using laptops last year.

If your rely on nothing other than 3G/4G connections, why would the FTA need to be asked? If the system uses any WiFi access point, I think we already know that's prohibited.

I'm hoping that with 9 hour+ battery life, tablets would be able to do the job (perhaps with a top-off over lunch).

[jlmcmchl]

Originally Posted by Mr. Mike

Our team went paperless last year. It is defiantly the way to go. The biggest challenge is power for your devices. Each venue is different. A mentor and student leader must approach the proper venue staff and the FTA to make sure everyone is ok with the setup.

Dale,

How did the batteries in the IPads hold up. We were using laptops last year.

Last year, Team RUSH used iPads for scouting, and their batteries held up very well, we never had to charge them at the venue. Of course, we charged them overnight at the hotel.

[Dale]

Yep, our batteries on the iPads were generally about 20% at the end of the day. We turn the brightness down, turn off Bluetooth and WiFi, and put them to sleep when there are long breaks in the matches. We also lock them down and hide apps and browsers so our scouts are not tempted to play games between matches (using up battery power and bandwidth.)

We never asked the FTA about using 3G, that's not anywhere close to the spectrum FIRST uses and its use is rampant in the stands anyway.

[Ed Law]

Originally Posted by dellagd

Our team is currently working to port our completely live laptop based scouting system to tablets, mostly for increasing the portability overall by getting rid of wired connections and just by using tablets.

If going tablets though, I agree, do not rely on the internet, so you would probably have to implement a bluetooth network of some sort.

Yes we use bluetooth. The tablets do not need to be all on a network. We have a master tablet and all other tablets transmit data to the master tablet through bluetooth after each match one at a time. The other tablets do not "talk" to each other. The master tablet then transmit data to a laptop whenever it is close by. The data is used in an Excel spreadsheet by coach and drive coach. The Android app is currently being developed by a student on the team.

We like tablets over laptops because tablets can last a whole day without charging but laptops need to be plugged in.

We do not want to rely on the internet because some venues do not get 3G connections.

We considered using Android phone but the screen is too small. You can make it work but it will limit how you scout.

[karomata]

FRC 1511 has been considering using tablets for a scouting system this year, in previous years we used 2 car batteries to power laptops for the entire competition. The largest difficutly we are facing with tablets in the price, power usage without large power source, and how it networks. But another gain to scouting using tablets is that it is easier for the scouters to move around and get better views if nessesary, though a new Ipad mini can go for $300, which not many teams can afford to buy 6 or 7 of.

[F22Rapture]

Originally Posted by karomata

FRC 1511 has been considering using tablets for a scouting system this year, in previous years we used 2 car batteries to power laptops for the entire competition. The largest difficutly we are facing with tablets in the price, power usage without large power source, and how it networks. But another gain to scouting using tablets is that it is easier for the scouters to move around and get better views if nessesary, though a new Ipad mini can go for $300, which not many teams can afford to buy 6 or 7 of.

I would recommend the Nexus 7 over the iPad mini for this situation. It's $100 cheaper, doesn't require a mac to develop apps for, uses cheap generic USB chargers and has multi-user support, which are all (especially the price) desirable features when it comes to FIRST teams.

[dcarr]

Originally Posted by F22Rapture

I would recommend the Nexus 7 over the iPad mini for this situation. It's $100 cheaper, doesn't require a mac to develop apps for, uses cheap generic USB chargers and has multi-user support, which are all (especially the price) desirable features when it comes to FIRST teams.

Absolutely true. I love my Nexus 7, for the price it can't be beat. If you are looking at these as team purchases rather than having students bring their own tablets (as some of our members do), the Nexus 7 takes the cake in terms of bang for the buck.

[JohnChristensen]

Ed,

What tablets did your team decide to use for your scouting system?

[Mr. Mike]

Last year we where using laptops. We showed the FTA that we where using 3G and all power cords were not a tripping hazard. At other events we had seen FTAs unplug cords if they where a tripping hazard.

Its good to hear that the tablets can run a full day of scouting.

[Dale]

Some venues don't even allow power cords in the stands except in certain areas. At the Autodesk Oregon Regional, for example, there's no AC except in one tiny area with one seat reserved for each team. Not realistic for normal scouting. We use inverters driven by FRC-class batteries to run our admin's laptops and, of course, iPads.

[Nemo]

We used 7 laptops last year (thanks to 2410 for helping us scout in KC). Six for scouting robots and one for collecting the data. To keep them powered up, we were using a power inverter and robot batteries, and we kept swapping batteries back to the pit to be charged. It was a bit of a hassle, but laptops can be used for more robotics functions than tablets can.

I think it's a lot easier to develop the application on laptops. Last year we used Excel. This year for FTC we have a system that a student wrote using C. We were using USB drives to swap data around last year (a hassle), but this year we're going to try to use a simple 8 port network switch in the stands to streamline that process. I think it will be nice if we get the details right.

Tablets admittedly seem really nice for scouting, because a touch interface seems right for this application, and tablets are nice and compact for use in the seats.

[Steven Donow]

We plan on scouting with tablets this year, probably either Nexus 7's(I have my personal one and absolutely love it...my mom just got a Nexus 10 as well and it's awesome) or Galaxy Tab 2 7's(which I'd probably root and put a ROM closer to stock Android on...but I digress). Whichever's cheaper at the time of purchase. The current plan is to use this app: and then export as CSV files to be put into an Excel or Access database. Moving the file from the tablet to computer is done with the archaic method of manually using Windows File Explorer to pull the CSV's off the tablet. The only flaw is sometimes(and only on 2 Nexus 7's tried so far, not on my phone running CyanogenMod 9...) the folder just plain doesn't show up or get updated, in which case this app has to run to get it to work.

[Ed Law]

Originally Posted by JohnChristensen

Ed,

What tablets did your team decide to use for your scouting system?

We decided on 10" screens only so we can have all the fields we need to scout on one screen without each buttons being too small.

We have 2 ASUS Transformer TF300T. I bought them because they were the best on the market at the time in terms of performance with the Tegra 3 quad core processor and the 1080p HD video recording. One of them is for videotaping matches so I can review them with the drive team after each match. It also acts as a backup in case one of the other six tablets does not work.

I was going to get 7 ASUS Transformer but settled on 5 Motorola Xoom because I got a special deal for open box and demo units to save money. The Motorola Xoom is more than adequate for our purpose.

[dcarr]

Originally Posted by Ed Law

We decided on 10" screens only so we can have all the fields we need to scout on one screen without each buttons being too small.

We have 2 ASUS Transformer TF300T. I bought them because they were the best on the market at the time in terms of performance with the Tegra 3 quad core processor and the 1080p HD video recording. One of them is for videotaping matches so I can review them with the drive team after each match. It also acts as a backup in case one of the other six tablets does not work.

I was going to get 7 ASUS Transformer but settled on 5 Motorola Xoom because I got a special deal for open box and demo units to save money. The Motorola Xoom is more than adequate for our purpose.

The Xoom is a good choice since its essentially a "Nexus" device and still receiving new updates straight from Google (through 4.1.2 at least).

Starting this year all students at one of the three schools that make up our team are required to have iPads. So our tablet makeup will consist of those, personally owned iPads, and personally owned Android tablets. As such we are testing a Google Docs based system because it is simple and cross platform. Still evaluating the apps that have been released by other teams for both platforms.