Using an old phone (or tablet) for Tower

Posted by Ray on August 28, 2015 at 4:31am

Just wondering if anyone is using an inactivated Android phone for Tower mission planning.  If the phone no longer has a data connection to update the maps is there a way to simply download that stuff on wifi or USB for use in the field?

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  • Joseph August 30, 2015 at 1:09pm

    I prefer to use the mission planner until I get into the field, then I let tower be my status monitor. I had a galaxy 4 tab and the micro usb port crapped out. please recommend an inexpensive unit to control tower.

  • Michael Burmeister August 28, 2015 at 4:52am

    I plan my missions ahead of time and that loads the maps into cache so when I get to where I'm flying the maps are there.  You may want to pan around and go to different heights to make sure you have all the area in question cached though.

    • Dale Greer > Michael Burmeister August 29, 2015 at 11:42pm

      Yeah this is what I do. Or, in Tower Settings there's a setting to use map files from a location on your device, and in Mission Planner or APM you can select an area and then preload it. Once preloaded, you can transfer the map tiles from your computer to your tablet.

      But just using the cache works fairly well, and is less work.

      Here's a link to a Cloud Surfer article about that.

      Cloud-Surfer
    • Ray > Dale Greer August 30, 2015 at 4:23am

      Good info Dale.  Thanks.

  • DavidFolts August 28, 2015 at 4:42am

    I use a Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 with my WinPhone  providing an Internet Hotspot via its 4g/LTE data connection.

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