Android Tablets

[donald_pinckney]

OP: For ideas for implementing your scouting system, you might want to checkout the post and whitepaper Team 1678 has on this thread:
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=118980

We used 8 Trio Stealth Pro 7' tablets for our system and they worked kind-of ok. They functioned mostly as we expected, but you get what you pay for with Android tablets under $100. They did not support Bluetooth, which was a disappointment, but they DID support USB ethernet, which we used at the Sacramento regional. I would not recommend using USB ethernet though: it seemed somewhat unreliable and a real mess with cords. At this point in time, I would recommend increasing budget a bit to $150 per tablet, and purchasing ASUS MeMOPad HD 7s
They are pretty much just marked down previous-gen Nexus 7s, and from what I can tell the gain in quality from cheap less than $100 to $150 makes a world of difference.

At least that was my / our teams experience, maybe it will be different for you.

Good luck!

[protoserge]

I might as well plug our Android app. It is available on Google Play here. Check it out and see if it is a useful tool for you. We welcome any feedback!

We will be instituting a new app for next year's game. We will be releasing a video/series that describes the features of next year's app.

[solopilot]

Originally Posted by jgustafson6156

Bluetooth isn't allowed at competitions ether.

Oh come on.... Pls provide some corroboration

[Citrus Dad]

Originally Posted by jgustafson6156

Bluetooth isn't allowed at competitions ether.

Can you let me know where that is in the rules? We're planning on using Bluetooth too.

[Citrus Dad]

Team 1678 has posted a whitepaper on how we built a tablet based system using USB connections to a battery and a Raspberry Pi and readout to an iPhone. We're planning on an upgrade that we'll share later in the build season. We bought tablets that worked adequately for $80 each. You'll need 2 Raspberry Pis because of the limitation on USB ports.

[yash101]

Pretty Cool! How did this work out? By how you say there wouldn't be enough USB ports, did you have wires all over the place? That can get pretty annoying, especially on the last day when there is a large crowd and you are scrunched in

[npetrie3]

The HP Slate could be a nice choice. Also the Nook would work as it has the Google Play Store and is cheap. The HP Slate, however, runs stock Android, which is nicer. I would suggest using Google Drive/Docs to share stuff. Overall, the Nexus 7 (older model is cheaper) would be the best Android tablet, but not in your price point.

[Michael Hill]

Something important to consider is to make sure you can charge them and run off Ethernet at the same time. They will not last a whole day in competition without being charged (we've tried). If not, you're stuck using 3G/4G (which gets very expensive)

[protoserge]

Try DealeXtreme at www.dx.com. They have a plethora of cheap tablets. Just expect 2 weeks for delivery from Hong Kong to the US. Newegg posted an ASUS tablet today for $150 on sale.

[karomata]

Our team actually had our main sponsor, Harris Communications, donate prototype military grade tablets for our usage during the competition season. They were relatively simple to program (according to our programmers), and they ran off the andriod operating system. We could also connect them using ethernet cable and download all the information from the scouting tablets to a host tablet and also a coach tablet used by our drive team coach.

Additionally, because they were military grade, they were very durable. They were lightwieght, yet if a student dropped it on the cement floor, it would be fine.

I don't think these have hit the markets yet, since ours were prototypes and it will take a while even after its being used by the military, however we should definantly keep our eyes out for adriod tablets like those. They were great to use!