Tablets: a new era in chasing?

[Matt Tottle]

Just a quick note for anyone considering a Surface.. There are two different flavors, the PRO and the RT.. While the price of the RT looks very attractive compared to the PRO/PRO2 ($250, vs $500 and $900), the RT is pretty much useless for chasing, because it can not run standard programs due to having an ARM processor (the kind found in Android tablets and phones). It is also locked down to a point where it can only install "approved" apps from the Microsoft store. The PRO/PRO2 runs on a real deal Intel i5 processor, and so can run any program that is compatible with Windows 8.

 

[Jon Strebler]

To add to your point Matt, the Microsoft store is very limited on apps so people need to be aware of that. From the standpoint of using something simple for chasing I think the Android platform is the way to go. I do a lot of a solo chasing so the touch screen on a tablet is ideal for me. Trying to use something like GRL3 on a tablet isn't practical for me.

 

[chrisbray]

Hello all,

This year when I am doing local chases solo, looks like I will be using just my new iphone 5 and an original Ipad. I was wondering, is Radarscope pretty much just the app to use? Also, since my original ipad doesn't have mobile data and can only hook up to wireless networks it finds, is there an app or another way to sync my Iphone5 with the ipad, in the sense of receiving mobile data on my iphone and using it for radarscope, but showing the display on the ipad so I have a larger screen to look at? i doubt there is a way to really make this work since you have no way to physically connect the two devices and the ipad doesn't have it's own mobile data (verizon is my carrier for the iphone)

Any thoughts or tips would be appreciated!

 

[Jon Strebler]

Can't you just turn on the Personal Hotspot option on your iphone and tether your ipad in with it?

 

[chrisbray]

Can't you just turn on the Personal Hotspot option on your iphone and tether your ipad in with it?

Unfortunately, that costs money and probably won't be in the budget

 

[rdale]

Are you sure? It's no cost for me on Verizon. Are you using the newer data plans?

 

[chrisbray]

I'll have to check. If so, That solves it. But I'm pretty sure with our basic data plan it costs extra

 

[rdale]

I think all the new Edge plans, even the cheap, include hot spot.

 

[Marcus Diaz]

If that's true, then that helps me. Although Ive been grandfathered in with Verizon since they bought out Alltel. The great part about that is the unlimited data. But my plan may considered too old to take advantage of free wifi hotspot.

 

[rdale]

Grandfathered plans rarely add features.

 

[Marcus Diaz]

That's what I figured. I ended up getting a Galaxy Tab 2 with AT&T data alongside my phone with Verizon unlimited. I'm hoping with this combo I won't have to worry as much about getting radar updates.

 

[Brandon Jenkins]

Still using a tablet setup here. 2013 made for my third chase season with an android tablet running pykl3/radarscope/gmaps. This was a much smoother year, I invested in a windshield mount that allows the tablet to rest just in front of the dash/radio controls and I had almost no connectivity issues with the bluetooth gps puck (after some software updates) as I had in prior years. I don't think I could ever go back to the laptop setup at this point but I have considered a surface pro. Right now everything is just running so well with the android tablet that I don't see the need to make the jump and pykl3 has seen some great improvements over the last year as far as features go that will probably keep me from making that leap.

 

[BBauer]

Has anyone found an offline mapping app for Android that they find good enough for chasing without DeLorme or Streets and Trips? I'm willing to pay up if it's good enough, but so far the paid "pro" versions I've seen haven't looked enticing enough for me to chance. Two of the biggest things missing in all the options so far:

- Labeled exit numbers in interstates
- Ability to customize the zoom level at which certain layers appear (default level for the dirt grid is too zoomed in for my tastes usually)

I have not messed around with it much yet but this allows you to cache the whole U.S. etc for offline use...

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.skobbler.forevermapng&hl=en

 

[chrisbray]

Rdale, we had a very minimal data package that is now outdated and were just forced to upgrade, which is a good thing actually because we now have 1 gig data per line instead of the 200mb we had before, and it comes with mobile hotspot free, and it actually is costing us LESS now. So, I am a go for that!

Any other useful apps for the iphone/pad while chasing, besides radarscope?

 

[Tony Gilbert]

Almost convinced in getting a 10 inch android tablet GPS enabled though my main concern is regarding the quality of PYKL3 radar? I am a great fan of GRLevel3 and prefer smooth mode when on Base Reflectivity. Now my chase partner last year had PYKL3 on a small android device and I just could not see any great detail in it? In fact couldn't see any smooth mode on BR and when zoomed in lost most of the resolution and looked really pixelated!

Now maybe the resolution is only as good as the device you are reading it on? What do you guys think....GRL3 on a Windows Tablet (more expensive) or PYKL3 on a cheaper 10 inch android tablet?

PS. Just to mention; Now whilst the 'Storm Chaser Handbook' (metaphor) says you lose detail in smoothed mode. Despite this when I peer in the window of fellow chasers cars their GRL3 is invariably if not always on smoothed mode. Pretty much a user friendly way of seeing storm evolution on radar if we can admit to this.

 

[Brandon Jenkins]

Almost convinced in getting a 10 inch android tablet GPS enabled though my main concern is regarding the quality of PYKL3 radar? I am a great fan of GRLevel3 and prefer smooth mode when on Base Reflectivity. Now my chase partner last year had PYKL3 on a small android device and I just could not see any great detail in it? In fact couldn't see any smooth mode on BR and when zoomed in lost most of the resolution and looked really pixelated!

Now maybe the resolution is only as good as the device you are reading it on? What do you guys think....GRL3 on a Windows Tablet (more expensive) or PYKL3 on a cheaper 10 inch android tablet?

PS. Just to mention; Now whilst the 'Storm Chaser Handbook' (metaphor) says you lose detail in smoothed mode. Despite this when I peer in the window of fellow chasers cars their GRL3 is invariably if not always on smoothed mode. Pretty much a user friendly way of seeing storm evolution on radar if we can admit to this.

I chase with an android tablet paired to a bluetooth gps puck and tethered to a Verizon Mifi and have less issues than I did with my laptop. Pykl3 is a great app and has many of the features that make GR so desirable, however, smoothing is not one of them. Both pykl3 and radarscope have a more raw presentation, pykl3 offers smoothing but you'd be better of staying away from it as it tends to degrade the presentation of data imo. Radarscope tends to be slightly smoother and Pykl3 is more customizable for those of us who want to have more data readily available. But honestly, if you want the smoothing found in GR, stick with GR.

 

[Tony Gilbert]

I chase with an android tablet paired to a bluetooth gps puck and tethered to a Verizon Mifi and have less issues than I did with my laptop. Pykl3 is a great app and has many of the features that make GR so desirable, however, smoothing is not one of them. Both pykl3 and radarscope have a more raw presentation, pykl3 offers smoothing but you'd be better of staying away from it as it tends to degrade the presentation of data imo. Radarscope tends to be slightly smoother and Pykl3 is more customizable for those of us who want to have more data readily available. But honestly, if you want the smoothing found in GR, stick with GR.

Thanks for the advice. I've gone and taken the jump and ordered a basic GPS enabled android tablet via AMAZON. Now if I am not happy with the results then I suppose this can just remain back up. If I like it then I may purchase another as a Sat Nav . I hate switching between the two programs on one device whilst in the middle of a chase.
PS. Noticed a couple of high spec Netbooks now on the market with dedicated graphics cards built in. Though the prices ATM are through the roof and most have sold out!

 

[BBauer]

Big fan of Pykl3, I like Radarscope as well. I love the radar mosaic when you zoom out in Pykl3. It let's you find individual storms in the larger system a lot easier than randomly picking a radar. Also is nice to just be able to pull things back to see the bigger picture. The color table customization is awesome too.

You don't lose any data even if the image is not smoothed. In fact I think someone mentioned that you actually lose information with smoothing features. Raw data is good. Anyway, Radarscope does have superres when you choose WDT as the data source. However, the base velocity in Pykl3 is superres as well. Anyway, here is an example of a custom color table from TX tonight. I don't care much for the default color table.

 

[Brett Roberts]

Really considering something like the Surface Pro 2, or perhaps a cheaper but reasonably powerful Windows 8.1 tablet, for this season. It would be nice to finally ditch the laptop setup for good. It seems as though there are at least a handful of chasers who have done this already.

A few questions for those who have gone the Windows 8 tablet route:

- What is the most touch-friendly mapping software?

- Is GRLevelX truly usable with a touchscreen? The small icons concern me, particularly on high-PPI displays (e.g., 1080p at ~10"). I can envision fumbling for the play/pause or forward/backward buttons on a minimum-maintenance road getting frustrating quickly.

One thing is for sure: the state of tablets 2.5 years after starting this thread isn't where I'd hoped. Android and iOS offer much better app ecosystems for content consumption, but simply aren't proficient enough at heavy-duty multitasking for me to feel comfortable leaving my laptop at home. Windows 8.1 is wonderful in concept, but touch-friendly apps are still sorely lacking even after several years -- and even for fairly basic applications, in some cases.

 

[Justin Wilcox]

Im on the same page. Ive been mulling over a new laptop or tablet for the past couple weeks. Last season I used my laptop, but added a cheap tablet on the dash for nav and useful travel apps. I loved having it. I rarely looked at my laptop. The problem was with the mount and how it sets. Its an Arkon window mount with an extended arm. It rests on the dash and every bump added to its demise. Ill be keeping an eye on this thread.

 

[James Langford]

I use a Samsung ATIV 700t that I bought last year for $400 or so. Honestly, I think the first gen models are plenty powerful and can be had for a great price if you check sites like http://www.slickdeals.net. The ATIV comes with a keyboard, pen and an onboard GPS, although it is a bit finicky to get it working. It's plenty fast to do everything, including even gaming. I have CS6 and Sony Vegas installed for basic photo / video editing.

I find the screen and touch pad to be excellent for it's size. The Ativ is a 10.1 inch screen. I don't have any issues with GR or MS Streets and tips at 1080P. Photoshop does not scale very well on the menus, so I often use the pen for the more precise movements. The digitizer on the first gen tablets is Wacom, which is very high quality and sensitive. If you wanted to run the tablet in a different resolution you could do that as well.

The ativ I have is 128 Gb, which has been fine so far. I have a 64 Gb card in it as well that I use to store my music, etc. If you use the keyboard, you have access to 3 USB 3.0 ports. I plug my card read into one and my portable drive into the other to dump photos after a chase.

 

[Nick Nolte]

I've chased the last two seasons exclusively with a 128GB flavor of the original Surface Pro and I love it.

I have it held in a RAM mount with the X-Grip III and it's very sturdy and robust. I use the TomTom GPS MkII which is a bluetooth GPS. I keep this underneath my armrest plugged into the accessory power there and it has no problem obtaining signal. I opted for bluetooth GPS over the BU-353 puck because the Surface only has a single USB port and I'd rather keep that open for other things like downloading photos/video. I know Globalsat (the BU-353 guys) also have bluetooth receivers, but I haven't tried one.

For mapping I use the Microsoft Maps app. I can't remember if it's a default program or if you have to grab it from the Windows Store, but either way I prefer it over other mapping software because it's very touch friendly. It requires connectivity to use it, of course, so I have Streets and Trips on the desktop to fall back on if I lose signal.

There is a caveat to using GPS devices with Windows Apps (read: non-desktop applications) in that it uses Windows Location Services. This does not normally interact with serial devices. The Surface tablets do not have a GPS receiver built in, this is a bummer. To get around this problem you will need a NMEA/COM to Location Services middleman software which you can find here: http://www.turboirc.com/gps7/ I actually need to look at that myself since it's been updated, but the GPS Direct application is what you'll need. This will allow your Windows Store Apps to use your COM port GPS either directly or via GPS Gate. I have a whole writeup on this I did on my blog a couple years ago here: http://www.nicknoltewx.com/blog/2013/03/15/gps-devices-in-windows-8-apps/ How I have it setup is GPSGate grabs the Bluetooth signal splits it out to 4 virtual COM ports, one of which I use as the input to the GPS Direct (GPS Sensor 7 software), then that forwards it to Windows Location Service automatically which allows for GPS stream use in apps. Desktop software like GR or Streets and Trips use one of the Virtual COM ports like usual.

GRLevel3 is definitely usable with the touchscreen. It takes some getting used to if you need to tap some of the toolbar icons, but it's not a problem for me. Pinch to zoom and swipe to pan works as expected, double tapping on a radar site switches and things like that. But, as you describe, you may have trouble tapping play/pause in GR if you're driving down a washboard road.

I don't find the poor organization or lack of apps in the Windows Store to be a big problem. There are solutions to most problems, otherwise you can always use the desktop. I can understand how this might be a dealbreaker for some, but it's a non-issue for me.

As far as computing power goes, I have no problems downloading video to the Surface, tossing it into Sony Movie Studio Platinum, doing some edits, rendering and uploading via FTP. Lightroom works great on the surface, although the screen space is a little cramped since it has all kinds of panels everywhere, but you can adjust that to work best for you. The power is there, it's not a problem.

I'm happy to see more and more people picking up tablets for chasing. I think it is an obvious solution as it eliminates some cabin clutter as well as a physical keyboard in favor of a more compact and lightweight footprint with a very high quality touchscreen. I think people who have talked to me know I'm pretty much a Surface Pro fanboy, but it gets the job done for my needs better than anything else I've used, and I've chased with a Dell Mini 9, a regular Toshiba Laptop and an iPad over the last 5 years. But, each person has their own needs and preferences. I'm thinking about upgrading to a Pro 3 for this season, but I haven't pulled the trigger yet

 

[Todd Rector]

I am currently chasing with a Surface Pro and a Samsung Galaxy 10.1.
I use GRLevelX on the Surface Pro with good results. Sometimes I have issues with menu dropdowns and fat fingers, but generally it's not too bad. I keep the stylus velcroed nearby in case I need it. The Surface Pro is considerably more heavy than an iPad or the Galaxy, which ended up being a bit of a mounting challenge. I started out using a The Joy Factory mount, but the "fingers" aren't big enough to hold the Surface Pro with an Incipio case.

The biggest issue I have encountered so far has been touch-screen related. I had my door and back hatch open, and got nailed by a 60mpg wet gust, which got rain on both screens. Both tablets promptly freaked out at a time when I would have *really* liked to have been looking at current radar. I ended up shutting them both down, wiping them off thoroughly, then booting them back up. It fixed the problem, but cost me time. I keep a towel in my camera bag now for just this occurrence.

I also use the Arkon extendable-arm suction-cup windshield mount for my Galaxy 10.1, and as others have noted, bumps do tend to shake the mount around. I put a ribbed silicon hotpad on my dash with a wash cloth on top so the arm can rest on that to dampen the bouncing. Probably not the best solution, but it makes a noticeable difference. A beanbag would probably work better.

 

[Marc R. O'Leary]

I've only chased with a tablet. Started a few years ago with my first gen iPad using radarscope. Use an Arkon seat bolt tablet mount, and aside from a little jitteryness when on dirt roads, it's pretty stable. Plan this year is to actually run two tablets...iPad running radarscope, and gPad running maps/music/web. All via my G3 hotspot sitting in a Wilson Sleek cradle.

I've rarely had any connectivity issues, and never once have I thought "I should have a laptop for this or that."

 

[ngjere]

I recently began setting up a Toshiba Encore tablet (Win 8.1) for the express purpose of replacing my notebook computer and mount yet, keeping the overall functionality. I've loaded the typical apps (GRL3, GPSGate, Spotter Network, etc.) Which all seem to operate well in desktop mode. The problem I'm now running into is Incorporating "Metro" applications into the mix. Primarily mapping programs which require "Windows Location Services"

I've followed the advice and instruction of Nick Nolte's installation of "GPS Direct" and have not had any success in getting that particular app to function as it should. I can direct known good COM ports with good GPS data to this application and it basically does nothing. I can't find any recent updates to this app since others have pointed out that this app seemed to break when a recent update was applied. My question is if anyone has had recent success installing this in an 8.1 tablet or if they are seeing the same issue as I? I don't want to spend any further time on this if it is irreparably broken or if support has gone away. But it seems to be the only option when incorporating an external GPS into 8.1 Metro applications.