Please recommend an Android Tablet for controls Thanx.

[Ramstein]

Anyone recommend a good brand, cheaper but not junk Tablet (android) I should get to put the code in for UFC controls for different aircraft ??? probably F-16 and F-18. Probably 10" or larger (would 8 inch be enough?). Verson of Android at minimum? (example: v12 is latest) Thanx.

 

Edited December 18, 2023 by Ramstein

[Scott-S6]

Why an android tablet when you could just get a small monitor?

[bfr]

12 hours ago, Scott-S6 said:

Why an android tablet when you could just get a small monitor?

There are apps for Android that'll provide the UFC interface that you can fully interact with. It also means your graphics card isn't having to drive another display.

[Scott-S6]

10 hours ago, bfr said:

There are apps for Android that'll provide the UFC interface that you can fully interact with. It also means your graphics card isn't having to drive another display.

You can have a UFC that you interact with on an additional monitor and an additional monitor that does not expand the rendered game area imposes very little GPU load. It doesn't even need to be driven from your GPU.

A good android tablet (which definitely isn't the majority of them) is a lot more expensive than a small touchscreen display.

Edited December 19, 2023 by Scott-S6

[bfr]

25 minutes ago, Scott-S6 said:

You can have a UFC that you interact with on an additional monitor and an additional monitor that does not expand the rendered game area imposes very little GPU load. It doesn't even need to be driven from your GPU.

A good android tablet (which definitely isn't the majority of them) is a lot more expensive than a small touchscreen display.

 

You don't really need anything remotely special for the job in hand though as the apps aren't doing anything that demanding. If its for dedicated use with DCS then pick one up second hand or get something like an Amazon FIre in the sales for next to nothing (last I checked you can still load Google Store onto them).  If you're going to use it for other stuff then the value case changes again versus adding a mini-monitor.

I tend to end up just using my regular day to day tablet (which is quite recent, but I know it'll be charged when I want it) but i've had the DCS UFC app running before now on an old Samsung tablet that is about 10 years old and came with something like Android 4.4 on it.

The only real negative with DCS UFC is it doesn't support the Strike Eagle yet, but does fine for most other jets.  The only connectivity issues i've had with it was when I rebuilt my PC and the firewall was blocking the port initially.  Being able to swipe to bring up other control panels can be a big plus.

Out of interest, what are you using for UFC on your additional monitor setup? Last time I looked into that then the only option that let you actually interact with what you sent to a secondary Windows display was Helios (I do viewports of the MFDs via DCS to a second monitor but obviously you can't actually click anything on them).

[Scott-S6]

20 hours ago, bfr said:

You don't really need anything remotely special for the job in hand though as the apps aren't doing anything that demanding. If its for dedicated use with DCS then pick one up second hand or get something like an Amazon FIre in the sales for next to nothing (last I checked you can still load Google Store onto them).  If you're going to use it for other stuff then the value case changes again versus adding a mini-monitor.

I tend to end up just using my regular day to day tablet (which is quite recent, but I know it'll be charged when I want it) but i've had the DCS UFC app running before now on an old Samsung tablet that is about 10 years old and came with something like Android 4.4 on it.

The only real negative with DCS UFC is it doesn't support the Strike Eagle yet, but does fine for most other jets.  The only connectivity issues i've had with it was when I rebuilt my PC and the firewall was blocking the port initially.  Being able to swipe to bring up other control panels can be a big plus.

Out of interest, what are you using for UFC on your additional monitor setup? Last time I looked into that then the only option that let you actually interact with what you sent to a secondary Windows display was Helios (I do viewports of the MFDs via DCS to a second monitor but obviously you can't actually click anything on them).

I've yet to see a lower-end android device that wasn't awful. Especially Samsungs. But I've always had flagship devices ever since Android launched so my expectations are rather colored by that.

I'm not a big fan of Helios and for a UFC its two-way communication with DCS isn't needed. I used to use macropad but have since abandoned touchscreens in the cockpit using physical controls for everything - a trio of streamdeck XLs is the core of that with one of them as UFC.

Edited December 20, 2023 by Scott-S6

[bfr]

2 hours ago, Scott-S6 said:

I've yet to see a lower-end android device that wasn't awful. Especially Samsungs. But I've always had flagship devices ever since Android launched so my expectations are rather colored by that.

I'm not a big fan of Helios and for a UFC its two-way communication with DCS isn't needed. I used to use macropad but have since abandoned touchscreens in the cockpit using physical controls for everything - a trio of streamdeck XLs is the core of that with one of them as UFC.

 

I'd agree for day-to-day use then some of the cheap ones are awful. As I said though, if you're only buying one for a virtual cockpit then anything with a well-behaved screen should do just fine.

I have considered going the Streamdeck XL route and will see what discounts the post-Xmas sales throw up for them.  Especially as I think it'd have a non-gaming use case for me.  I don't think i'll be springing for 3 of them though   I agree that physical buttons are better when you're reaching and trying to do something in a hurry with half an eye on something else.

[Ramstein]

so android 4.4 is the lowest version worth messing with for UFC? I keep seeing the Foreign junk tablets.. not sure if someone will get upset if I use the word describing from which country that makes junk... wondering what size people use? is 10 " doable? I think 8" would be too small... I owned ne many years ago... not worried about the programming script... and ports...

[bfr]

On 12/22/2023 at 10:10 AM, Ramstein said:

so android 4.4 is the lowest version worth messing with for UFC? I keep seeing the Foreign junk tablets.. not sure if someone will get upset if I use the word describing from which country that makes junk... wondering what size people use? is 10 " doable? I think 8" would be too small... I owned ne many years ago... not worried about the programming script... and ports...

If I remember i'll try and fire up a really old one later to confirm, but I definitely had it running on a tablet with a very old version of Android at one point in the past.

As for size, I was fine using one that was about 8" but it boils down to personal preference in the end which is acceptable/not.

[Ramstein]

17 hours ago, bfr said:

If I remember i'll try and fire up a really old one later to confirm, but I definitely had it running on a tablet with a very old version of Android at one point in the past.

As for size, I was fine using one that was about 8" but it boils down to personal preference in the end which is acceptable/not.

thanx.

[bfr]

7 hours ago, Ramstein said:

thanx.

Only one I had to hand with any juice in it was one i'd flashed to an open source build based on Android 6. Worked fine though.

[vvm13]

I would like to draw your attention to the existence of an alternative to Android tablets. There is Lenovo Yoga (I bought one for myself) and cheaper Chinese analogues (I recently came across this one on the Internet: https://ru.ninkear.com/products/ninkear-n14-notebook-14-inch-4k-touchscreen-laptop-12th-generation-intel-n95-processor-12gb-ddr5-1tb-ssd-windows-11-ultrabook  . It's in Russian, but look at the pictures. You can probably find something similar in your country.).