I just ran across this this morning on Engadget, Wired online. It immediately struck me as almost a "holy grail" of tablets to use for a ground control station. It has plenty of buttons, and 2 joysticks. We already have the excellent Andropilot app. Now we have built in controls... Maybe we should pool some money to send one of these to Kevin Hester.
The only problem is the specs are a little lightweight:
- 7" 1024x600 display, no mention of brightness
- Android 4.1 Jellybean
- Arm Coretex A9 dual-core 1.6 GHz
- 8GB Flash, 1GB Ram, with a microSD card slot
The really good news is it's only $170. It's definitely worth experimenting with.
I'd kick in $20 to send one to Kevin Hester if he's interested in developing it for AndroPilot use. Anybody else?
Comments
Sent my $20.
I figure, even if it sucks a little bit, but is useable, for $170... That's still a good deal on a controller and tablet.
Again, the intent is 100% FBW.
I wonder if an anti-glare film would help? Anybody used this?
http://www.nushield.com/
I took some pics, it's late afternoon and overcast but I put it down with the screen facing upwards and tried to get the glare on camera, which didn't work so well as the glare was quite faint, but as you can see below the screen is quite bright.
I think in direct sunlight without any shade it will be hard to see but that's about the same with every other LCD. With some kind of flip up screen shade it would work always I suppose.
I think the biggest 'downer' is the joysticks themselves, they are a bit too stiff and have short throw(~3mm center -> all the way out). But I think the ideas by others here regarding how to make it react with low max speed to inputs is probably going to make it quite useable.
Hmm doing some more general stuff on it now and to me it seems quite slowish and not very responsive, but I am an iPad user so I only have that to compare to.
Outdoor visibility is pretty good at least when it is overcast, the contrast is very high which seems to help. The screen is extremely glossy though so you have to angle it correctly. Will see if I can take some pics to show it outdoors.
Kevin, I have just sent you contribution money from my side, Pls acknowledge.
OK, so if anyone has any questions regarding this thing ask away, like I said I have one right here so any testing/pics/impressions wanted?
Overall the unit feels quite solid and has some weight to it.
I am a bit surprised by how the placing of the controls work with holding it, my thumbs land automatically on the top D pad/XYAB controls, so to reach the sticks I have to hold it a bit awkwardly.
Doug, my big GCS has a sprung-center throttle stick, and it's fine if you're flying FBW. In Alt_Hold, or Loiter, I actually prefer it over a ratcheting throttle in fact. And that's sort of the point of this thing. I know the sticks are crappy, and it will never have the right "feel" for sport flying. Not to mention the lag across the telemetry link. But for flying around in Loiter at <5m/s, and 1m/s vertical control, I would think it will be fine.
Kevin, since Noth already had his hands on one, let's let him test it outdoors before you bother to get one. If the screen is totally hopeless in daylight, then that would be unfortunate. Because otherwise, for $170, it's pretty cool.
Does anybody sell or make any kind of way to get joystick controls into an Android tablet? My Transformer Prime tab has a super bright screen. It's awesome. But no joystick controls. If there was a way to get that into, and then 3-print a case to incorporate the controls, that would be cool.
Ok, have one in my hand right now, the panel is TN, but it is better than most, sideways viewing is surprisingly good, and it only washes out if you angle it away from you, towards you seems no problem.
The sticks feel cheap and have very little analog throw to them, the unit itself is the size you can expect, a 7" tab with the added "ears" of the controllerbuttons etc.
I am taking this one home for the weekend so I can check how the screen is in daylight conditions, I must say the glare even in a window is pretty harsh though.
Viewing angle doesn't seem like too big a problem but at 222 cd/m2 brightness, this is going to be pretty disappointing outside. Too bad, as the form factor is great.
Kevin - If you proceed with this here is a big hint/request. The sticks will both center, and getting the left stick to not center in the throttle/vertical direction will be a hassle to not possible. So, the best thing is for the GCS to treat the throttle stick input as an increment/decrement. I.E. every time you bump the joystick up/down the current throttle setting increments/decrements some amount like 5%. I've used gamepad controllers as a joystick with Planner, and the biggest hassle is that the throttle input is always at midrange unless you are holding the joystick in some other position as the joystick always centers. That is a big hassle which an appropriate software design can eliminate.
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