Good Scouting Tablets That Run Tableau

[bobl]

In the past Team 58, The Riot Crew, used laptops with a custom MS Access program. The data was collected on Dell Axim PDAs running Windows CE and was synced to the laptops on a regular basis.

This worked very well but had its limitations, small screens for data collection, no keyboard for typing, no camera for pit scouting, AND battery life.

This year we purchased 6 HP Stream 8s running Windows 8.1. We then created a custom C# application using MS Visual Studio Community Edition and saved its data to a MS SQL Express database. The Scouting teams were able to use these much easier then the PDAs. They have nice cameras for pit scouting and an on screen keyboard. (We did purchase some bluetooth keyboards as well) The tablets sync to a laptop that is powerful enough to ran Tableau.

The great thing about this approach is that the development software was free and easy to move from one system to another.

[logank013]

Originally Posted by bobl

In the past Team 58, The Riot Crew, used laptops with a custom MS Access program. The data was collected on Dell Axim PDAs running Windows CE and was synced to the laptops on a regular basis.

This worked very well but had its limitations, small screens for data collection, no keyboard for typing, no camera for pit scouting, AND battery life.

This year we purchased 6 HP Stream 8s running Windows 8.1. We then created a custom C# application using MS Visual Studio Community Edition and saved its data to a MS SQL Express database. The Scouting teams were able to use these much easier then the PDAs. They have nice cameras for pit scouting and an on screen keyboard. (We did purchase some bluetooth keyboards as well) The tablets sync to a laptop that is powerful enough to ran Tableau.

The great thing about this approach is that the development software was free and easy to move from one system to another.

Cameras would be nice for pit scouting. Does anyone have any ideas for what tablet friendly program to use to collect the data? we have used excel in the past. Would that be good to use and then transfer it into tableau on the laptop?

[MikLast]

Originally Posted by logank013

Cameras would be nice for pit scouting. Does anyone have any ideas for what tablet friendly program to use to collect the data? we have used excel in the past. Would that be good to use and then transfer it into tableau on the laptop?

Honestly Excel seems like the easiest way, its on almost any computer (or a knockoff version of it) and its pretty simple for anyone to get started on.

[alextried]

I feel like I'm reading my own suggestion to our scout mentor! 3525 is also hoping to upgrade to a cheap-ish tablet that is Tableau compatible (more specifically, that can run programs like Excel that are Tableau compatible). The Toshiba Encore 7" is what I've got my eye on right now ($69-99). We are also planning on buying 7 or 8 if I can successfully develop a program with a teammate and convince my mentor.

As others have said, having a laptop is definitely a good idea. It's good to have a central hub of information, maybe even two. I haven't gotten the chance to test Tableau on these specific tablets, but it would be nice if it did (easy for drive team). I'm unsure if it has the processing power for that.

Also, if you do decide to upgrade, I highly suggest only buying one of the tablet you're interested in, or borrowing/renting it. Make sure you know what programs you're going to be using for scouting, and see how they run on the tablet of your choice.

PM me if you have any questions about scouting! C: