NMEA Output..

smoke said:
As far as which tablet, I really don't know much about android systems. But after a little research, it appears that every major airline, every charter operator and the US Airforce all use the IPAD for their EFB equipment. Is there a reason for this? Something to ponder.
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Hard to determine if your question is rhetorical, but... it definitely isn't for operational stability in direct sunlight. :) More seriously, it probably has to do with a consistent platform architecture due to its proprietary/closed architecture model. However, it's more likely to do with platform compatibility of each organization's chosen EFB application.
 
smoke said:
As far as which tablet, I really don't know much about android systems. But after a little research, it appears that every major airline, every charter operator and the US Airforce all use the IPAD for their EFB equipment. Is there a reason for this? Something to ponder.
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Well, they're not using the device to drive their autopilots.....
 
smoke said:
As far as which tablet, I really don't know much about android systems. But after a little research, it appears that every major airline, every charter operator and the US Airforce all use the IPAD for their EFB equipment. Is there a reason for this? Something to ponder.
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ForeFlight only runs on iOS
 
Is there a reason that ForeFlight does not support Android?
 
smoke said:
Is there a reason that ForeFlight does not support Android?
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Yes: They don't want to.

That's not a flippant answer. The company started before Android was a thing, and by the time Android became established, they were already big enough that they decided it wasn't necessary for them to support it, so they simply chose not to.

There is no technical showstopper rationale for their choice like "iOS is better for this reason" or "Android isn't capable of {X}". If there's any real rationale, it's that iOS is a more controlled environment with less variety in the devices and OS versions they need to support.

As iFly has demonstrated for over a decade now, it's certainly possible to support multiple OS's and a universe of devices. However, that did come with a cost, as we all know. (I'm primarily talking about the constraints of supporting the WinCE platform of the original 700 device and its successors for so long, which limited what could be done on the other OS platforms.)
 
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Cobra said:
Yes: They don't want to.

(That's not a flippant answer. The company started before Android was a thing, and by the time Android became established, they were already big enough that they decided it wasn't necessary for them to support it, so they simply chose not to. There is no technical rationale for their choice like "iOS is better for this reason" or "Android isn't capable of {X}".)
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Thanks
 
Brian said:
POLL: iOS vs. Android. If we only did one (or did one first) -- which is more important?

Since the work to be done here is mostly about "plumbing" (enabling our software to transmit via the USB port) - for something like this, the code for Android is completely separate (and often very different) from that of iOS. So for just over half-the-work, we could do just one. The other would be almost the same amount of work, again.
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I am using Android.
 
I will add to the dogpile here saying I use my 740 to drive my Dynon autopilot - it has worked great for years and I'm not sure what I would do when the 740 eventually dies or becomes unsupported. Spending more money on redundant 3rd party hardware is, however, an unlikely option.
Maybe you can divide the problem of this feature into a couple of parts. First, just get the data out of the tablet via an existing mechanism, be that a network socket on WiFi or BT or something. It sounds like you are already doing this to some extent with the Levil WiFi interface. Just create a public API that those of us with software engineering backgrounds can utilize... essentially provide the software equivalent of the USB-serial solution that was on the 7xx portables. What we end up doing with the data becomes our problem.
The second part sounds like it is harder for you guys, which would be supporting a vast array of dis-similar hardware interfaces on a vast array of tablet devices. I can see that becoming a support nightmare that will take years to resolve, and will be a constantly moving target since tablet hardware usually becomes obsolete as soon as you buy it.
Maybe if the first part is done, the 20 or so of us that really need this feature can come up with an interim solution that costs less than $800 :)
 
After seeing the annoucement at OSH i've decided to come back and take a peek at the website to see that my original post
got quite a few post. Seeing that NMEA is now back in the possibilities to come back in their new Android, it will definitely keep me interested again. ANDROID would be my choice as well but not sure at this point between the AP or Tripletek that has more NITS.
 
RogerE said:
Just received the new Tripltek 9, which is Android, so that's my vote.
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RogerE.
Have you uploaded the new EFB to it??? What are your impression on it so far????
 
Royerm said:
ANDROID would be my choice as well but not sure at this point between the AP or Tripletek that has more NITS.
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But here's the thing: if AP has their own all-in-one tablet solution, why would they support some other USB-to-serial hardware interface that you would need for your Tripletek?
 
Royerm said:
RogerE.
Have you uploaded the new EFB to it??? What are your impression on it so far????
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Loaded EFB, but won't be home to fly with it until late August. At least one other person has, and reported favorably (on the old forum).
 
Hook said:
But here's the thing: if AP has their own all-in-one tablet solution, why would they support some other USB-to-serial hardware interface that you would need for your Tripletek?
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I see your concerns, in my point of view if the code is made to send NMEA via the USB port on Android it should work, but I'll be looking very carefully before making my move.... :unsure: :unsure:
 
Royerm said:
I see your concerns, in my point of view if the code is made to send NMEA via the USB port on Android it should work, but I'll be looking very carefully before making my move.... :unsure: :unsure:
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Things are still fuzzy with this new device so I may be completely wrong, but I think one of the reasons AP chose it is because it (or its "frame"?) includes a DB9 serial output port.

I don't know that we can say just yet whether the autopilot output function will be unique to this device, or whether it will be common across Android devices in general.
 
Cobra said:
Things are still fuzzy with this new device so I may be completely wrong, but I think one of the reasons AP chose it is because it (or its "frame"?) includes a DB9 serial output port.

I don't know that we can say just yet whether the autopilot output function will be unique to this device, or whether it will be common across Android devices in general.
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Good point..... Let's wait and see
 
Would love to see NMEA output from my current Android Galaxy S6 Tablet/IFY EFB app to drive the Trio ProPilot autopilot I want to buy.

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