Android Tablet for in-car use

[JoshF Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close JoshF]

I have been looking at this recently as I want a single use device for both home and outdoors use.

My criteria is

usable size for day to day use in using Kindle, Zinio and other book and magazine providers to replace the paper stuff

email access, browser access

This means for me WiFi at home, hotspots or via my mobile phone (android)

Must have onboard GPS therefore I can run the new Oziexplorer that I am used to with all the maps I already have for offroad use and also a turn by turn igo or tom tom like experience ie Sygic

This mean onboard agps or gps

Must have bluetooth connectivity so I can connect to a bluetooth dongle on the ODB-II ort in the car for using an application like Torque

Run the usual episides of the simsons and mythbusters for the kids

Must have support for additional storage for all those maps and books and episodes

Therefore based on all these specs something like a 7" android tablet probably from Samsung is the erfect choice that meets my specifications.

a 7" screen has support via the RAM mounts so can hang off the windscreen or possibly mounted in the car. problem with seat based mounting kits is the seats slide forward often versus those with back doors (SWB thing)

If it happens to have a SIM socket that is fine but not a requirement as bluetooth linking can solve this and I have a Blue Tick handset and external antenna for that purpose.

Summary of where I am at right now, and I know a Series 1 or 2 Samsung tablet will meet my needs in this space.

[JoshF Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close JoshF]

What I have discovered

From what I can see on the Android platform, You can install and pay a small fee for Oziexplorer and comsume all the maps you have used on other Ozi platforms without issue ie Hema maps and many others. To get Ozi installed you need to drag and drop the installation package onto your device and run it. It may ask you to mod the security setting to enable non-store bought apps (you can change the setting back once complete). App is available from http://www.oziexplorer3.com/android/...r_android.html Once complete you just drag over all your maps to point Ozi at them to index and your off and running


You can also install Memory-Maps which gives you an Australia base map, it then allows you to buy Hema maps for different segments of Australia so making it cheap to acquire portions rather than all of them depending on needs. It is the same as Ozi at the moment regarding install process

http://memory-map.com.au/mapping-sof...ne-charts.html has a link to the install package. Once it is installed with the base map you can then purchase additional maps from within their application @ Digital Map Shop

Memory Map website tells me they aren't cross application compatible maps between Ozi and memory-map unless you buy their conversion tool for $50.

[JoshF Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close JoshF]

A bit More POC work

I purchased a Samsung Tab 2 7" beastie with GPS, Bluetooth and WiFi for $248 from JB HiFi on a recent special they had running. I already has a 32GB microSD.

What I know now

All of the following works without issue

usable size for day to day use in using Kindle, Zinio and other book and magazine providers to replace the paper stuff
email access, browser access
This means for me WiFi at home, hotspots or via my mobile phone (android)

Via my handset - Tethering via Bluetooth is slow, tethering over Wifi is as quick as off the phone so internet connections are fine

I have been running both Oziexplorer and Torque together without issue and use the task manager to switch between them

Must have onboard GPS therefore I can run the new Oziexplorer that I am used to with all the maps I already have for offroad use and also a turn by turn igo or tom tom like experience ie Sygic

Works without issue

run the usual episides of the simsons and mythbusters for the kids

Confirmed

a 7" screen has support via the RAM mounts so can hang off the windscreen or possibly mounted in the car

Things I have discovered

Torque also has widgets for $2 extra so will fire up the application in the background and present information to the standard home screens. It includes a widget to turn this on and off.

Sygic took a bit of playing as it kept losing the GPS and going quiet when moved to the background (android only has one app in the foreground). I played with the configuration and found two settings that solved the problem...One is to change the battery management setting for the GPS to turn off immediately when in background to never turn off (can be time based also) and the advanced settings for the voice to always on even when in background.

therefore around town turn by turn navigation by voice with torque in the foreground is also working fine and torue will upload the trip log and monitored setting to the internet when closed down

[Chris220220 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Chris220220]

Hi JoshF
I have an acer A500 10" tablet. works well in the car.
GPS is not much chop and once under trees and clouds you end up with it on the dash to try keep signal. I bought a small bluetooth gps and that is great. Leave it down the front of the windscreen and can move the tablet anywhere in the cabin.

Memory maps only recently went Android. I have had a few glitches with it but generally works well. tracking logging and swapping up and down scaled maps. Nice one is you can trail a map for 2 weeks. If it's a short one off trip your laughing. The 1:25k Topo maps are very detailed and Hema maps complimant them well.

Hope that is of some help

[Stoney Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Stoney]

Hi all,

I have mapping setup on my 10" asus tablet but i cannot work out how to mount it in my 120 series, how is everyone doing it.

Carl

[AJ120 Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close AJ120]

Hi all,

I have mapping setup on my 10" asus tablet but i cannot work out how to mount it in my 120 series, how is everyone doing it.

Carl

Lots of different ways people have done this in the 120, click on the link in my signature below and check post #214 in my rig build for how I tackled it with the Ipad.

Cheers Andrew

[JoshF Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close JoshF]

I have used the following configuration of RAM mounts. I already owned the long arm and the "B" suction cup and added the X-Grip II Tablet Holder. The long arm brings the tablet to just in front of the dashboard therefor it can sit a bit lower and block less forward view. I have been told QLD D of Trans has been checking forward view alot more when doing roadside checks of 4WDs

X-Grip II

http://www.rammount.com/CatalogResul...5/Default.aspx

Arm

http://www.rammount.com/CatalogResul...7/Default.aspx


I have a similar configuration with the smaller X-Grip for my Nexus mobile phone but with the short arm.

[JoshF Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close JoshF]

Hi JoshF
I have an acer A500 10" tablet. works well in the car.
GPS is not much chop and once under trees and clouds you end up with it on the dash to try keep signal. I bought a small bluetooth gps and that is great. Leave it down the front of the windscreen and can move the tablet anywhere in the cabin.

Memory maps only recently went Android. I have had a few glitches with it but generally works well. tracking logging and swapping up and down scaled maps. Nice one is you can trail a map for 2 weeks. If it's a short one off trip your laughing. The 1:25k Topo maps are very detailed and Hema maps complimant them well.

Hope that is of some help

I will probably go the Oziexplorer path as I already use it on my laptop and and old WinCe 6" navi in the car, therefore I already own all the Hema maps and others in the right format, rather than re-purchase

[KH Lee Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close KH Lee]

What is the advantage of using Oziexplorer (or any other maps) over Samsung's Navigon or Google Map? The Samsung's & Google's are free.

[Guest Close Guest]

When you have no data connection, Ozi works as long as you have the maps for it. I use Google Maps now for metro areas and it works really well. Some routes will be the looong way but otherwise, fairly accurate in terms of the destination point.

[JoshF Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close JoshF]

What is the advantage of using Oziexplorer (or any other maps) over Samsung's Navigon or Google Map? The Samsung's & Google's are free.

My tablet doesn't have 3G built in so I need an offline solution (or run my handset tethered all the time) therefore Google maps isn't sufficient. I have tried Sygic which provides an offline Tom Tom like solution without being internet connected and gives me turn by turn black top type navigation.

Oziexplorer and Memory-Map are where you step off the black top and head off road etc so both have a place on my tablet for similar but different purposes.

Will try the samsung product to compare.

If you came from a Garmin background and have an unlocked IMG file say Shonky Maps you can use Oruxmaps to continue using them for possibly on road and off depending on what is in the file

[marshallarts Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close marshallarts]

I went through this same decision process a while back, and ended up with a Samsung Galaxy Note phone/tablet. I wanted something that was still small enough to be usable as a phone but also be able to run OziExplorer etc etc, and the Note has been fantastic. Screen size is about 5.5" - not as big as most devices mentioned here, but plenty big enough for me. For trips using OziExplorer it talks to a Qstarz bluetooth GPS receiver stuck on one of the back side windows with velcro - and for that you also need a bluetooth GPS utility which fakes the internal GPS - plenty available free.

The Note's screen resolution is 1280x800, and the colour and clarity are beautiful. I run NavFree World for street navigation if I need it - you can download maps for this so you are not using mobile data all the time. And the device fits fine into a cradle I already had for a previous PDA. I'd recommend the Galaxy Note to anyone - it also comes with a raft of very good apps (mine did anyway), including Polaris Office, a sort of Microsoft Office lookalike. And it's my phone too! Very happy with this purchase. It has come to be called the Minister for Everything - because on the road it looks after navigation, music (plugs into the AUX input on the Prado stereo), spreadsheets for fuel planning/recording, email, Internet, occasionally takes pictures, etc etc. I have installed the Kindle book-reader app, so it can be the library as well.

[JoshF Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close JoshF]

I use fuellog on my Droid for maintaining a car expenditure log for long trips which can include all car costs including fuel