mebgardner
Active Member
I started a thread a couple months ago, asking for other opinions and experiences with this idea, with me thinking about doing it.
I desired a tablet that would dispense with my having a dedicated GPS device (Garmin et al), and have a screen large enough and bright enough to see from the saddle with my tired old eyes, sans glasses.
Well, grab a cup and have a seat and I'll relate my experience now.
You can see I decided to go ahead with the idea. Let me say upfront, for those who want the bottomline at the top, that tablets and their related SW, are not ready for this task. Not ready across a number of different points.
OK, here we go, now to the details of why I believe that.
Here's a list of the HW and SW that I mounted up:
HW:
Samsung Tab S2, 8 inch Super AMOLED display, 4000mA Hr battery, 32 GB Internal Flash, 3 GB Internal RAM, Model SM-T713NZKEXAR with
Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) auto-upgraded to 7.1.2 (Nougat). (BestBuy).
Supcase Unicorn Beetle Pro Heavy Duty case. (Amazon)
Supershieldz tempered glass screen protector (Amazon)
RAM Mount RAP-B-347U 2.0 x 1.7" base with 1" Ball. (Amazon)
RAM Mount RAM-B-408-37-62U 3/8" to 5/8" Mini Rail Base. (Amazon)
Hondo Garage Big Squeeze Tablet Mount. (Hondo Garage).
YonHan SAE to Dual USB, 2.1A & 2.1 A, with Voltmeter, and Fused. (Amazon)
Nav SW:
BackCountry Navigator for Android.
Rever for Android.
HERE WeGo for Android.
Misc SW:
Screen Always On.
I adopted an 8 inch screen device. I considered a 10 inch screen, and decided it took up too much real estate above the cycle instruments. It would not have helped the outcome.
I also decided on a "non-tower" approach. That was apossibility too, but they are very expensive to build, and I am not that interested in Rally with this cycle. So, something simpler than a Rally Tower.
I wanted the device to be capable enough for use off the cycle, not a dedicated GPS nav device. I also wanted the best / brightest and fastest screen update possible, within budget (about $600.00 total for everything).
I was wary of the "ultra thin" Samsung devices, from reading about ease of flexing breakage. There were other cheaper devices in the same size, but when digging in, I found most had reported hardware failures of the SD Card slot, or the power jack (USB-C), or something. It was always something. I really wanted the bright display of the Samsung units, and so I closed the deal on one of those, and bought the insurance for a year.
I looked at the Tab E, the Tab A, and the Tab S2 models. The "E" model was not fast enough (low end), The "A" model did not have the AMOLED screen , and less memory (16 GB .vs 32 GB).
I selected the S2 for the display, the battery life, the memory amounts, and the clocking speed.
I spent time with it in my hands at the store. I had serious doubts about the display glass when I discovered it is polarized. I routinely wear polarized sunglasses while riding, and they could make the S2 screen almost black in some orientations. I said, F It, and bought it anyway. It was a serious mistake come later, but not the only one.
The Hondo Garage mounting cradle hardware is a finely crafted bit. I was warned off several times from the RAM X-Grip. Friends have had their phones lost and / or mangled even with the tether. There's some wrtiteups about this X-Grip as well, they basically all say the same thing.
The Big Squeeze cradle, though, I would take that into *any* off-road situation and trust it would keep my tablet secure. The RAM ball-and-arm is also up to the task. No serious vibration problems.
I'll talk about the use during riding now.
I am disappointed on a few fronts, and I'll describe each:
Screen brightness.
Displayed Nav Stability.
Battery Life.
Software Capability.
Screen Brightness:
Nothing can match a dedicated GPS yet for brightness. Even the best tablet device looks unreadable in even indirect sunlight. I had the device set to "full time uber-bright", and I could see the display only when passing under shade (a tree, a sign, some form of shade onto the screen), or sometimes when the angle of sunlight was "just right" and off the screen face. The rest of the time, I could not see the displayed map. Part of this is related to my use of polarizing sunglasses, and also helmet face shield. Part of it is, the display in direct sunlight is just not that bright.
Possible solutions: Ditch sunglasses. Ditch face shield.
Displayed Nav Stability:
Worded strangely, huh? Small backstory: The tablet is WiFi Only, no telecom streaming. Also, one of my requirements for this system is "Unaided GPS Nav Only". That is, no internet for position or guidance: satellite nav only. So, my use case is: Download maps, then turn off WiFi, then begin ride and nav. Well, the device displays the map in a wildly swinging arc about a quarter of the time. That is, The compass (direction) bearing, and the map, being shown will swing through up to 90 degrees, back and forth, while the nav algorithm tries to arrive at the bearing solution. Sometimes it's stable and not swinging. In those cases, the compass direction bearing is generally accurate. Otherwise, it's impossible to figure out what direction I was headed. The position point info was always good though. That placed me on the correct road, at the correct position on the road. Remember, this is only when I can actually *see* the display.
Possible solutions: Change device / cradle position orientation to be "more horizontal", less vertical (would have screen pointing more "up").
Battery Life:
From testing around the house, I was estimating 10-12 hrs. of "GPS Only" navigation time per charge. Nope! I got 3 hrs, then the device quit mid-ride. Would not reboot (uh-oh!). Battery died. Apparently, I did not invoke GPS system heavily enough walking around the house.
Possible solutions: Connect to cycle power (in work, maybe issues related to vibration on the power connector later).
Software Capability:
I had to go looking for a SW application that would allow me to:
Download maps for offline use,
Accept (Download) a Track from a GPX file type, and display it for Track Nav during Use,
Provide GPS Like Navigation when using the App,
Not Charge an Arm / Leg for the App.
Apparently, I was asking a lot. I looked at numerous SW apps for Android. Most wanted on-line access to network during use. Some would do off-line, but charged monthly fees for the privilege (cough, Rever, cough). Here's the kicker: None of them will use the other's mapping files. They each want their unique map files, in their unique formats. These files are huge, *enormous*. If you choose more than one app, which I had to do because no one package would do all that I wanted, then for off-line use, it means doubling / tripling up on the map data files. All that GB of device memory? Poof! Consumed!
OK, well, that's the long of it.
The short of it? I'm discouraged. I've sunk a bundle into sorting through all the issues: Selection, mounting, power, apps, etc ad nauseum.
I'm not much closer to having something usable, from the saddle, off-line, out in the boonies mode.
My .02?
For Now, Get a dedicated GPS, don't look back.
I desired a tablet that would dispense with my having a dedicated GPS device (Garmin et al), and have a screen large enough and bright enough to see from the saddle with my tired old eyes, sans glasses.
Well, grab a cup and have a seat and I'll relate my experience now.
You can see I decided to go ahead with the idea. Let me say upfront, for those who want the bottomline at the top, that tablets and their related SW, are not ready for this task. Not ready across a number of different points.
OK, here we go, now to the details of why I believe that.
Here's a list of the HW and SW that I mounted up:
HW:
Samsung Tab S2, 8 inch Super AMOLED display, 4000mA Hr battery, 32 GB Internal Flash, 3 GB Internal RAM, Model SM-T713NZKEXAR with
Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) auto-upgraded to 7.1.2 (Nougat). (BestBuy).
Supcase Unicorn Beetle Pro Heavy Duty case. (Amazon)
Supershieldz tempered glass screen protector (Amazon)
RAM Mount RAP-B-347U 2.0 x 1.7" base with 1" Ball. (Amazon)
RAM Mount RAM-B-408-37-62U 3/8" to 5/8" Mini Rail Base. (Amazon)
Hondo Garage Big Squeeze Tablet Mount. (Hondo Garage).
YonHan SAE to Dual USB, 2.1A & 2.1 A, with Voltmeter, and Fused. (Amazon)
Nav SW:
BackCountry Navigator for Android.
Rever for Android.
HERE WeGo for Android.
Misc SW:
Screen Always On.
I adopted an 8 inch screen device. I considered a 10 inch screen, and decided it took up too much real estate above the cycle instruments. It would not have helped the outcome.
I also decided on a "non-tower" approach. That was apossibility too, but they are very expensive to build, and I am not that interested in Rally with this cycle. So, something simpler than a Rally Tower.
I wanted the device to be capable enough for use off the cycle, not a dedicated GPS nav device. I also wanted the best / brightest and fastest screen update possible, within budget (about $600.00 total for everything).
I was wary of the "ultra thin" Samsung devices, from reading about ease of flexing breakage. There were other cheaper devices in the same size, but when digging in, I found most had reported hardware failures of the SD Card slot, or the power jack (USB-C), or something. It was always something. I really wanted the bright display of the Samsung units, and so I closed the deal on one of those, and bought the insurance for a year.
I looked at the Tab E, the Tab A, and the Tab S2 models. The "E" model was not fast enough (low end), The "A" model did not have the AMOLED screen , and less memory (16 GB .vs 32 GB).
I selected the S2 for the display, the battery life, the memory amounts, and the clocking speed.
I spent time with it in my hands at the store. I had serious doubts about the display glass when I discovered it is polarized. I routinely wear polarized sunglasses while riding, and they could make the S2 screen almost black in some orientations. I said, F It, and bought it anyway. It was a serious mistake come later, but not the only one.
The Hondo Garage mounting cradle hardware is a finely crafted bit. I was warned off several times from the RAM X-Grip. Friends have had their phones lost and / or mangled even with the tether. There's some wrtiteups about this X-Grip as well, they basically all say the same thing.
The Big Squeeze cradle, though, I would take that into *any* off-road situation and trust it would keep my tablet secure. The RAM ball-and-arm is also up to the task. No serious vibration problems.
I'll talk about the use during riding now.
I am disappointed on a few fronts, and I'll describe each:
Screen brightness.
Displayed Nav Stability.
Battery Life.
Software Capability.
Screen Brightness:
Nothing can match a dedicated GPS yet for brightness. Even the best tablet device looks unreadable in even indirect sunlight. I had the device set to "full time uber-bright", and I could see the display only when passing under shade (a tree, a sign, some form of shade onto the screen), or sometimes when the angle of sunlight was "just right" and off the screen face. The rest of the time, I could not see the displayed map. Part of this is related to my use of polarizing sunglasses, and also helmet face shield. Part of it is, the display in direct sunlight is just not that bright.
Possible solutions: Ditch sunglasses. Ditch face shield.
Displayed Nav Stability:
Worded strangely, huh? Small backstory: The tablet is WiFi Only, no telecom streaming. Also, one of my requirements for this system is "Unaided GPS Nav Only". That is, no internet for position or guidance: satellite nav only. So, my use case is: Download maps, then turn off WiFi, then begin ride and nav. Well, the device displays the map in a wildly swinging arc about a quarter of the time. That is, The compass (direction) bearing, and the map, being shown will swing through up to 90 degrees, back and forth, while the nav algorithm tries to arrive at the bearing solution. Sometimes it's stable and not swinging. In those cases, the compass direction bearing is generally accurate. Otherwise, it's impossible to figure out what direction I was headed. The position point info was always good though. That placed me on the correct road, at the correct position on the road. Remember, this is only when I can actually *see* the display.
Possible solutions: Change device / cradle position orientation to be "more horizontal", less vertical (would have screen pointing more "up").
Battery Life:
From testing around the house, I was estimating 10-12 hrs. of "GPS Only" navigation time per charge. Nope! I got 3 hrs, then the device quit mid-ride. Would not reboot (uh-oh!). Battery died. Apparently, I did not invoke GPS system heavily enough walking around the house.
Possible solutions: Connect to cycle power (in work, maybe issues related to vibration on the power connector later).
Software Capability:
I had to go looking for a SW application that would allow me to:
Download maps for offline use,
Accept (Download) a Track from a GPX file type, and display it for Track Nav during Use,
Provide GPS Like Navigation when using the App,
Not Charge an Arm / Leg for the App.
Apparently, I was asking a lot. I looked at numerous SW apps for Android. Most wanted on-line access to network during use. Some would do off-line, but charged monthly fees for the privilege (cough, Rever, cough). Here's the kicker: None of them will use the other's mapping files. They each want their unique map files, in their unique formats. These files are huge, *enormous*. If you choose more than one app, which I had to do because no one package would do all that I wanted, then for off-line use, it means doubling / tripling up on the map data files. All that GB of device memory? Poof! Consumed!
OK, well, that's the long of it.
The short of it? I'm discouraged. I've sunk a bundle into sorting through all the issues: Selection, mounting, power, apps, etc ad nauseum.
I'm not much closer to having something usable, from the saddle, off-line, out in the boonies mode.
My .02?
For Now, Get a dedicated GPS, don't look back.
