Amazing $100 Windows 10 Laptop/Tablet at Walmart.com

[ksaves2]

Yeah. Good stuff. Meanwhile loving my cheap windows tablet.

I like the three I got dirt cheap. Still under the cost of a single I-Phone. Mine was responsible for the recovery I made reference to in #27 above. I am an ardent proponent of NMEA/GPS tracking with a tablet now. Easier than a laptop.
The thing I am salivating over is YAAC: https://www.ka2ddo.org/ka2ddo/YAAC.html

Once the author gets it to work with Bluetooth devices in Windows it will be the easiest mapping program one could setup to have a map in hand. If one has a tablet along with their NMEA/GPS tracker, they will have a free tracking program
with portable maps they can take in the field to track their rockets. No internet required in the field. Way so much easier to setup than APRSIS/32 with the photomap solution I show in the link above.
The maps are Open Source (again spell them free) that will give roads and major geographical items of interest.

The procedure is load Java on one's tablet. Install YAAC and I'd recommend putting it on a large micro SD card and manually going into the YAAC setup and changing the map directories to the "D:" drive. Can download the needed maptiles and be ready to go quickly. Kurt

 

[terryg]

Price went up to $148 just as I was considering one for a Mothers Day gift. Guess I will hold off on it for the moment.

 

[soopirV]

I mentioned this to my wife, who got it for me for Father's day. Playing around with it, and I get an error when I try to activate the front-facing camera, anyone else have this issue? I googled it, and it others have had the same error, but none of the fixes proposed helped me. I opened a ticket with Nextbook, but thought I'd check here too!

 

[Marc_G]

Sorry to hear you have a problem. My front and rear facing cameras work with no special effort using the built in camera app. I'm guessing it is quality control problem.

 

[ksaves2]

Sorry to hear you have a problem. My front and rear facing cameras work with no special effort using the built in camera app. I'm guessing it is quality control problem.

At least it wasn't bought in China. You can take it back to the local concern. I have a nice dual boot tablet that had a bad camera and cost $50.00 to send back to China!. In the end total cost to me was $200.00. I did get a dual boot Android/Windows tablet that has a built-in GPS chipset accessible from Android and with some work, the Windows side.https://www.tinydeal.com/108-hd-screen-win-10-dual-os-z3735f-2gb-64gb-3g-tablet-pc-p-156019.html
The cellphone chipset doesn't work with the AT&T subscription phone I have.
Funny, I got a cheap Quad Band wrist cellphone that works with a GoPhone subscription. (Wrist cellphones stink unless you use a headset. Can't hear the tinny speaker!)

Oh, to get Windows to use the built-in GPS I had to download and set up com0com: https://sourceforge.net/projects/com0com/files/com0com/2.2.2.0/ (I think this is the one) and GNSS datainterface: https://support.black-it.eu/en/products/gnss data interface/download.htm Fortunately, both these programs are free and allows one to send the NMEA strings to a defined port so your applications can use them. Otherwise WinBlows will
see the GPS chipset in the device manager and won't be able to do anything with it.

I have a Cube i6 dual boot tablet with a built-in GPS and I had to do the same thing with it. The Cube i6 with the built-in GPS is out of production.

The Android sides of both these tablets recognize the GPS inherently with no trouble.

It would be really nice if the Chinese could stick a Quad Band cellphone in a dual boot Android/Windows tablet for field use. Think of it, could use Altos Droid or GPS Rockets Locator on the Android side, have a cellphone inside which is usually only accessible from the Android side, could boot to all your Windows Rocketry apps, Burnsim, Rocksim, Open Rocket, RAS Aero and all your APRS tracking software and setup software for all of your trackers and altimeters! All in a portable package. To bad the domestic providers don't believe in dual boot devices. Kurt

 

[soopirV]

I mentioned this to my wife, who got it for me for Father's day. Playing around with it, and I get an error when I try to activate the front-facing camera, anyone else have this issue? I googled it, and it others have had the same error, but none of the fixes proposed helped me. I opened a ticket with Nextbook, but thought I'd check here too!

just an update to close the loop- I contacted Nextbook, got a quick reply from their help desk (no more than a day or two), and tried what they suggested (factory reset). It didn't work, so they issued an RMA. I was preparing to ship the unit (at my own expense, insured and tracked, which is my only complaint), and did the factory reset once more just to make sure any identifying info was wiped out. On a lark I tried the camera again after, and lo and behold, it now works! I let Nextbook know that the RMA wasn't needed any more, and they courteously said that if the issue should reoccur, to let them know and they'll reopen the ticket. Much better service than I was expecting for a $100 device purchased from Wally...now to figure out what apps I should put on here!
OpenRocket
wRASP (old but still fun to play with)
putty (for my eggtimers)
MapSphere (for Eggfinders)

What else is a must-have for field and shop?

 

[ksaves2]

Any altimeter setup programs you would want to be able to use. MapSphere is dicey unless you have a USB EggFinder receiver. Only shows you where the rocket is at and has no tracking capability whatsoever. What I mean by that is it doesn't show where you are in reference to the tracked rocket. Forget the photo map option as the MapQuest photo map is going away July 11th. You have to save the positions to a logfile, open the logfile and then extract the lat/long so you can put it into a mapping GPS or your phone utility. You are better off simply taking the last received lat/long from the
EggFinder LCD and transfer it to a device to take you to the last known position. MapSphere has little bluetooth connectivity plus the program is no longer supported by the author.

You would be better off switching to an Android device and using GPS Rocket Locator. The author is trying to get an off line map solution working and is actively pursuing the program. Even without internet access, it will still show you two points and a datum line to follow.

One other dictum is a tablet/laptop screen is very hard to read out in the field. A matted screen protector helps with glare and with the case of a tablet, a cardboard box the inside of which is painted flat black to act as a shade helps immensely.
Still I get some funny looks from people with my head stuffed into a box while my rocket is in flight. Cripes, once the rocket goes out of sight, might as well focus on the telemetered track and poke my head out in the direction where
the main is expected to deploy. Kurt

 

[soopirV]

Any altimeter setup programs you would want to be able to use. MapSphere is dicey unless you have a USB EggFinder receiver. Only shows you where the rocket is at and has no tracking capability whatsoever. What I mean by that is it doesn't show where you are in reference to the tracked rocket. Forget the photo map option as the MapQuest photo map is going away July 11th. You have to save the positions to a logfile, open the logfile and then extract the lat/long so you can put it into a mapping GPS or your phone utility. You are better off simply taking the last received lat/long from the
EggFinder LCD and transfer it to a device to take you to the last known position. MapSphere has little bluetooth connectivity plus the program is no longer supported by the author.

You would be better off switching to an Android device and using GPS Rocket Locator. The author is trying to get an off line map solution working and is actively pursuing the program. Even without internet access, it will still show you two points and a datum line to follow.

One other dictum is a tablet/laptop screen is very hard to read out in the field. A matted screen protector helps with glare and with the case of a tablet, a cardboard box the inside of which is painted flat black to act as a shade helps immensely.
Still I get some funny looks from people with my head stuffed into a box while my rocket is in flight. Cripes, once the rocket goes out of sight, might as well focus on the telemetered track and poke my head out in the direction where
the main is expected to deploy. Kurt

Thanks Kurt- I've been keeping an eye on your threads about offline locator maps, but honestly it spins my head around. I do recall now that you mention it again that MapSphere was dying...that's sad! I have used it exactly as you've described, to interface with my USB Eggfinder Rx- It's just eye candy, but I have the flight maps printed of each of my cert flights. For tracking, I shut it down and manually key in the lat lon into MotionX; cumbersome, but I don't have any android tech, only iPhone and now this win tablet.

 

[ksaves2]

Trying to get APRSISCE/32 to work with the EggFinder made my head spin! I'm frustrated that it would take a multi-page instruction to pull it off. Mapsphere hasn't been supported for several years and was actually designed for the Geocaching hobby.
Also it was sort of like an online Geocaching social media application that I think didn't catch on. Could show "people" where you've been.

I tried the off line option for GPS Rocket Locator on two different Android devices last night and the program wouldn't pull up the map from cache while off line. I sent Francois (the author) an email to see what's up or if I'm doing something incorrectly.
Aside from AltosDroid for the Altus Metrum products, GPS Rocket Locator would be the simplest mapping app for EggFinders if there were an off line option for it.

MapQuest is changing their format and I suspect there are a few apps out there that will no longer be able to use their photo mapset. Kurt

 

[soopirV]

Trying to get APRSISCE/32 to work with the EggFinder made my head spin! I'm frustrated that it would take a multi-page instruction to pull it off. Mapsphere hasn't been supported for several years and was actually designed for the Geocaching hobby.
Also it was sort of like an online Geocaching social media application that I think didn't catch on. Could show "people" where you've been.

I tried the off line option for GPS Rocket Locator on two different Android devices last night and the program wouldn't pull up the map from cache while off line. I sent Francois (the author) an email to see what's up or if I'm doing something incorrectly.
Aside from AltosDroid for the Altus Metrum products, GPS Rocket Locator would be the simplest mapping app for EggFinders if there were an off line option for it.

MapQuest is changing their format and I suspect there are a few apps out there that will no longer be able to use their photo mapset. Kurt

I thought Geocaching was still a relatively active hobby, I'm surprised there aren't apps similar to MapSphere that are still supported? Granted, I haven't searched, but you seem to have your finger on the pulse of this whole industry, so I trust you!

 

[ksaves2]

I just want something simple and cheap for fliers to use to find their projects. I think that will happen pretty soon. Kurt