Android and astronomy??

[simonmc]

I have just recieved 3 tablets from china for me and my family. These were ainol novo7 crystals and cost me a bit more than £60 each inc postage and an 8Gb sc card off aliexpress. Now i was not expecting much from these cheap tablets but i have to say these are really impressive, dual core processor, reasonable memory, wifi, a good touch screen and able to control a dslr with free software from google play. It also has usb host mode enabled in the kernel which means it should be able to control things that are added by us. The only thing this tablet does not have is bluetooth but according to various forums, the usb bluetooth adapters work with them. I think these devices really have a future in this hobby as where eles could you get a HD display with touch screen in a small package that has this sort of processing power at this price??

I also saw in maplin the other day an android ardiuno sdk kit. I really will be looking into this.

Simon

[JAS]

Do you have a link for them Simon?

I would be interested in one for that price.

There could be a lot of potential with the Arduino. I look forward to seeing what you come up with.

Jason.

Sent from my LT15i using Tapatalk 2

[Paul M]

I bought a 10in Chinese Android tablet last year. It cost about £120. http://www.zenithink.com/Eproducts_C91_2.php

It was a present or the wife, I thought it would be nice for her to do Facebook on rather than mess with my lappy.

Anyway, she hated it and just refused to even try and get on with it. So it's become mine. And I love it.

I have lots of apps on it. Some of my favourites are astronomy packages such as SkySafari Plus. Quite powerful and apparently has telescope control ability Though I understand that some of the cheap tablets have reduced USB functionality. Some external storage devices don't get on with it.

My own has very good WiFi and I use a USB 3g dongle for data on the go. Again, only some 3g dongles will work with it.

It appears to have built in GPS but in fact requires a dongle. Choose carefully!

I like SkySafari so much I actually paid for the "pro" version at about £25

And with Tapatalk HD for Tablets it's great for keeping an eye on the forums.

[simonmc]

This was the one i got. Like i said i bought 3, and also got some 8gb cards as well.

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/7-Ainol-Crystal-NOVO-7-Crystal-Dual-Core-Android-4-1-Jelly-Bean-Multi-Touch-Screen/738233999.html

Simon

[Paul M]

This was the one i got. Like i said i bought 3, and also got some 8gb cards as well.

http://www.aliexpres.../738233999.html

Simon

Certainly look good!

How do they do it for the price?

It's got the same screen res as my 10" so I guess it'll look super sharp.

I'm glad your family like them too.

I got no thanks but came out on top

[simonmc]

They really do seem good. As you say a very sharp picture, and a good touch screen. Some of the really cheap ones apparently fall down badly here, but these dont. There seems to be a couple of forums for these on the net where they do allsorts of rooting and firmware flashing. However i dont really think this is needed, at least not for every day 'normal' use.

Simon

[simonmc]

Well, they still all seem to work well and proving very useful. My wife downloaded a sniping program and has so far won some limestone flooring tiles for her utility room and a eq5 mount for me Hope nobody else on here was bidding on the mount, if so sorry.

Simon