Hmm thats a good question Santa, I'm honestly not sure to be fair!
DriveModeDashboard with Samsung Galaxy Tab Active3
- Thread starter peej1977
- Start date
Managed to get out on the bike for an hour today, not really long enough in an ideal world but it was a VERY bright sunny day here, at least when I was out anyway.
So, for the out leg of my journey I used the DMD2 app itself to search for a location and navigate me, I had the tablet set on "Adaptive Brightness". I left the house with 99% battery and arrived half an hour later with 100% battery.
For the return leg I used MyRouteApp to navigate me home but this time I had the device set manually at 100% brightness. I set off with 99% battery and arrived home at 100%.
First things first, the mounting solution, overall brilliant. It's perfectly placed to read it and only just about makes the top line of the TFT hard to read, but no hardhip. Vibration was minimal, but there was some. I think this is mainly due to the slightly convoluted way the SW Motech mount sits and had rubber dampers on it. Plus the RAM mount cradle has some flex. If I had bolted straight to the OEM nav bar I think it would have sit too far back and would have hit the screen. The movement was minimal though, and didn't distract me at all. It was more than the Zumo but certainly not enough to make the text or map unreadable.
The device itself. Adaptive Brightness is frankly hit and miss, trees and cover make it dim too aggressively and return to full brightness too slow which is a shame, but in max brightness it's perfectly readable, even with the sun behind me and even with the internal sun visor down on my lid. The only time I had any issues seeing it was when there was a reflection on it but I get that with the Zumo anyway. As for battery, I don't see any reason why on a longer run the battery wouldn't have stayed at 100% but I guess it was a fairly cold 12degress today so time will tell. Device wasn't warm at all, but again that could have been due to the ambient temperature.
GPS accuracy and lock was pretty stable and consistent althoiugh I would say DMD2 suffered a little more with putting me on the right road correctly but I have spoken to the lead developer and as he rightly points out there is some known GPS fix/lag issues on alot of Android devices, Samsung being some of the worst. Plus their app doesn't use the same "snap to road" logic that other apps like Google Maps.MRA etc do as this would be a negative for offroad riders who want their literal position. He was keen to point our their own in house certified tablet was specifically built to have GPS accuracy in mind so I suspect you'd get a better outcome with their tablet, although it wasn't awful and I could always see what road I was on, albeit just a little off to the side than MRA was. Both apps for navigation worked pretty much flawless with minimal if any lag so I'd say it was 80% comparable to my iPhone although I do think the phone GPS chipsets are probably a bit more snappy and accurate.
Obviously I haven't test in rain or extreme heat yet so I will see how it pans out but for now I'm not regretting at all switching out the Zumo for this solution.
Also for context I had my Cardo PackTalk Bold paired to both my iPhone for calls and the Samung Tablet for nav/music and was happily listening to the radio the whole time.
So, for the out leg of my journey I used the DMD2 app itself to search for a location and navigate me, I had the tablet set on "Adaptive Brightness". I left the house with 99% battery and arrived half an hour later with 100% battery.
For the return leg I used MyRouteApp to navigate me home but this time I had the device set manually at 100% brightness. I set off with 99% battery and arrived home at 100%.
First things first, the mounting solution, overall brilliant. It's perfectly placed to read it and only just about makes the top line of the TFT hard to read, but no hardhip. Vibration was minimal, but there was some. I think this is mainly due to the slightly convoluted way the SW Motech mount sits and had rubber dampers on it. Plus the RAM mount cradle has some flex. If I had bolted straight to the OEM nav bar I think it would have sit too far back and would have hit the screen. The movement was minimal though, and didn't distract me at all. It was more than the Zumo but certainly not enough to make the text or map unreadable.
The device itself. Adaptive Brightness is frankly hit and miss, trees and cover make it dim too aggressively and return to full brightness too slow which is a shame, but in max brightness it's perfectly readable, even with the sun behind me and even with the internal sun visor down on my lid. The only time I had any issues seeing it was when there was a reflection on it but I get that with the Zumo anyway. As for battery, I don't see any reason why on a longer run the battery wouldn't have stayed at 100% but I guess it was a fairly cold 12degress today so time will tell. Device wasn't warm at all, but again that could have been due to the ambient temperature.
GPS accuracy and lock was pretty stable and consistent althoiugh I would say DMD2 suffered a little more with putting me on the right road correctly but I have spoken to the lead developer and as he rightly points out there is some known GPS fix/lag issues on alot of Android devices, Samsung being some of the worst. Plus their app doesn't use the same "snap to road" logic that other apps like Google Maps.MRA etc do as this would be a negative for offroad riders who want their literal position. He was keen to point our their own in house certified tablet was specifically built to have GPS accuracy in mind so I suspect you'd get a better outcome with their tablet, although it wasn't awful and I could always see what road I was on, albeit just a little off to the side than MRA was. Both apps for navigation worked pretty much flawless with minimal if any lag so I'd say it was 80% comparable to my iPhone although I do think the phone GPS chipsets are probably a bit more snappy and accurate.
Obviously I haven't test in rain or extreme heat yet so I will see how it pans out but for now I'm not regretting at all switching out the Zumo for this solution.
Also for context I had my Cardo PackTalk Bold paired to both my iPhone for calls and the Samung Tablet for nav/music and was happily listening to the radio the whole time.
So made a modification today to try and remove a little bit of the vibration, not that it’s excess anyway. The SW Motech mount has some rubber mounting points which seem to have a fair amount of give in them so as a test I’ve replaced these with washers for now to see what happens. It’s definitely helped reduce the flex in the cradle but we will see how it pans out. If it works I’ll try and get some proper spacers made up.
Also the plastic bit of the SW Motech mount seemed to be loose so I’ve tightened the screws as much as I dare and also added some blue thread lock to the actual clamp bolts.
Happy with it for now but will keep playing around as I go.
Also the plastic bit of the SW Motech mount seemed to be loose so I’ve tightened the screws as much as I dare and also added some blue thread lock to the actual clamp bolts.
Happy with it for now but will keep playing around as I go.
So i carried on playing today -
another 2 forward and 1 back -
So mounted the Tab straight to the block, and found it sits way to low, so i moved it up using the lower two holes on the brodit mount to the upper on the Nav block
(it would need additional bracketry to support the upper section .
Next the BMW nav mount - well thats dead in the water ish
The lockable mount wont fit in the space available - possibly with another Nav block it may work but not sure how the Tab would fit over it
So i tried a rough proof of concept , reverting back to the non lockable mount, - that would work, but would needs some additional parts (what a surprise )
The biggest problem was the Nav hoop, its just over 12mm in Dia, so the screws that clamp it scrape the paint of it, I added electrical tape bit that screws up the alignment
Ive taken it off for now and reverted back to the original setup until i can think of any alternates - the Ram setup works so whilst its not pretty ...
Some piccys below
Oh and you can see the need for a sunshade
I just run mine at 100% brightness - no problem on the run down to Sids
another 2 forward and 1 back -
So mounted the Tab straight to the block, and found it sits way to low, so i moved it up using the lower two holes on the brodit mount to the upper on the Nav block
(it would need additional bracketry to support the upper section .
Next the BMW nav mount - well thats dead in the water ish
The lockable mount wont fit in the space available - possibly with another Nav block it may work but not sure how the Tab would fit over it
So i tried a rough proof of concept , reverting back to the non lockable mount, - that would work, but would needs some additional parts (what a surprise )
The biggest problem was the Nav hoop, its just over 12mm in Dia, so the screws that clamp it scrape the paint of it, I added electrical tape bit that screws up the alignment
Ive taken it off for now and reverted back to the original setup until i can think of any alternates - the Ram setup works so whilst its not pretty ...
Some piccys below
Oh and you can see the need for a sunshade
I just run mine at 100% brightness - no problem on the run down to Sids
Sound like you have some challenges ahead Santa!
Small update from me, I had to go do my marked bike assessment so I can ride the marked blood bikes so naturally I took the bike to get to the chaps house. 22 mile round trip so again not long, 100% brightness on the way there as it was still light and lowered it on the way home as it was pitch black. Again worked flawlessly, battery was at 57% when I left, used Waze all the way there and back, was at 72% when I got home.
Removing the rubber bits has removed some of the flex but it seems to have added some vibes, not mega but I might go back to the original setup, SW Motech know more than some idiot from Cheshire, go figure
Small update from me, I had to go do my marked bike assessment so I can ride the marked blood bikes so naturally I took the bike to get to the chaps house. 22 mile round trip so again not long, 100% brightness on the way there as it was still light and lowered it on the way home as it was pitch black. Again worked flawlessly, battery was at 57% when I left, used Waze all the way there and back, was at 72% when I got home.
Removing the rubber bits has removed some of the flex but it seems to have added some vibes, not mega but I might go back to the original setup, SW Motech know more than some idiot from Cheshire, go figure
You are all way ahead of me, but an inspiration none the less. I have my Active Tab 3 all set-up, wired the power connection in ready but to fit to my EXC I really need the AdventureSpec Mini fairing which is out of stock for my fat bar size I need... so I'm sat waiting.
Nothing when compared to Peejays setup, but my pikey setup of S20Ultra and Quadlock anti vibe mount, mated to wireless charging head along with DMD2 is working well for me so far, on both bikes. Here it is on the V7, so far I’m using MRA for planning, and navigation when doing my own routes, straight A to B via TomTom go app as I have a subscription for that. Spotify is handling tunes, along with audible as I enjoy listening to an audiobook on the odd mundane ride.
Really enjoying this thread and it’s giving me more and more to think about. I want to do some more testing on some longer trips to see how this maintains charge (this is not my main phone, that’s an iPhone in the tankbag) and to make sure there are no overheating issues with the phone whilst it’s running screen on permanently, high brightness, gps, data and Bluetooth.
Really enjoying this thread and it’s giving me more and more to think about. I want to do some more testing on some longer trips to see how this maintains charge (this is not my main phone, that’s an iPhone in the tankbag) and to make sure there are no overheating issues with the phone whilst it’s running screen on permanently, high brightness, gps, data and Bluetooth.
I can't speak for a Samsung Galaxy device but I've been running an iPhone in a similar fashion to you (QuadLock/wireless charging head etc) for several years and never had an issue with overheating etc. Well, I think once I was in Italy and it was 38degrees and the phone screen dimmed slightly for a while to cool down but it was never actually to the point of causing me to be unable to use it.
A good thread, this. Thank you to everyone who has participated.
On thing strikes me though. With the challenges of setting up the mounts etc, it does show how well designed (and pretty much reliable) TomTom and Garmin GPS devices probably are.
On thing strikes me though. With the challenges of setting up the mounts etc, it does show how well designed (and pretty much reliable) TomTom and Garmin GPS devices probably are.
You're right Richard, despite their lack of "flexibility" in some cases, ease of mounting and just "going" shows hew well designed they really are in reality. I've got the chance to now use the marked Blood Bikes for my local group and they all have rather old TomTom Rider 400's that were donated and despite my feelings on the TomTom mapping service in general, it actually worked quite well.
Noone asked for it, but I've done a longer video of the way I've mounted this all up (including a blooper, me being stupid):
Small update from me on this, used it again (albeit briefly) on Saturday and someone on Facebook asked me to see what the battery drain was like when not plugged into a charger as they had been experiencing what looked like excessive drain when running DMD2.
I did a circa 30min ride, brightness almost maximum and used DMD2 to navigate and the battery dropped by around 20%, on the way home, same journey, duration etc but I used Waze and the battery drain was almost exactly half.
DMD2 does seem to be more battery hungry, whether this is due to it sampling the GPS position more frequently I'm not sure but thought I'd mention.
I did a circa 30min ride, brightness almost maximum and used DMD2 to navigate and the battery dropped by around 20%, on the way home, same journey, duration etc but I used Waze and the battery drain was almost exactly half.
DMD2 does seem to be more battery hungry, whether this is due to it sampling the GPS position more frequently I'm not sure but thought I'd mention.
On a couple of longer trips from home in Warrington down to visit relatives, I have noticed that on the S20Ultra the quadlock wireless charging head can't quite keep pace with the draw when using DMD2 and running full brightness and supplying voice / music to my Sena. I ran back home afterwards just using the MRA app and the phone dropped to the low 80's but just hovered there and didn't deplete the battery further. I've got all the Android smart battery management / smart charging stuff disabled now as potentially that could have been part of the problem.
I may well be moving away from DMD2 now on my pikey project as my Carpe Iter controller is arriving tomorrow, so looking forward to getting that onto Nelson's bars and seeing if it lives up to the hype.
PS, Nelson, is my V100, V100 Mandello, Mandello, Mandela, hence Nelson.....but I'm weird, and have had a brain injury
Yeah DMD2 does seem to hog the battery, much worse than other apps.On a couple of longer trips from home in Warrington down to visit relatives, I have noticed that on the S20Ultra the quadlock wireless charging head can't quite keep pace with the draw when using DMD2 and running full brightness and supplying voice / music to my Sena. I ran back home afterwards just using the MRA app and the phone dropped to the low 80's but just hovered there and didn't deplete the battery further. I've got all the Android smart battery management / smart charging stuff disabled now as potentially that could have been part of the problem.
I may well be moving away from DMD2 now on my pikey project as my Carpe Iter controller is arriving tomorrow, so looking forward to getting that onto Nelson's bars and seeing if it lives up to the hype.
PS, Nelson, is my V100, V100 Mandello, Mandello, Mandela, hence Nelson.....but I'm weird, and have had a brain injury
MRA was doing this on my iPhone back in July but putting the phone into Battery Saver mode worked, not sure if they've fixed it yet though!
Also, didn't realise you were also in Warrington fella!
Correct, I'm near Birchwood mate!I'm in Great Sankey mate, so we are probably not a million miles from one another
The Carpe is just a controller ??On a couple of longer trips from home in Warrington down to visit relatives, I have noticed that on the S20Ultra the quadlock wireless charging head can't quite keep pace with the draw when using DMD2 and running full brightness and supplying voice / music to my Sena. I ran back home afterwards just using the MRA app and the phone dropped to the low 80's but just hovered there and didn't deplete the battery further. I've got all the Android smart battery management / smart charging stuff disabled now as potentially that could have been part of the problem.
I may well be moving away from DMD2 now on my pikey project as my Carpe Iter controller is arriving tomorrow, so looking forward to getting that onto Nelson's bars and seeing if it lives up to the hype.
PS, Nelson, is my V100, V100 Mandello, Mandello, Mandela, hence Nelson.....but I'm weird, and have had a brain injury
what software / front end are you going to use ?
Carpe do both a tablet and also separate controllers which I believe can bluetooth to pretty much any Android phone and control the majority of nav apps.
Thork also do a competing one but it’s a bit eye watering in terms of price, good looking bit of kit though.
I just run my Tab, from the Din Socket on the Beak,On a couple of longer trips from home in Warrington down to visit relatives, I have noticed that on the S20Ultra the quadlock wireless charging head can't quite keep pace with the draw when using DMD2 and running full brightness and supplying voice / music to my Sena. I ran back home afterwards just using the MRA app and the phone dropped to the low 80's but just hovered there and didn't deplete the battery further. I've got all the Android smart battery management / smart charging stuff disabled now as potentially that could have been part of the problem.
I may well be moving away from DMD2 now on my pikey project as my Carpe Iter controller is arriving tomorrow, so looking forward to getting that onto Nelson's bars and seeing if it lives up to the hype.
PS, Nelson, is my V100, V100 Mandello, Mandello, Mandela, hence Nelson.....but I'm weird, and have had a brain injury
Never missed a beat, and when it did flash up a low battery, it was because i'd for got to plug the USB cable back in.
I plugged it back in and it ran and charged all the way down to Sids
I run Tab 100% brightness always on , & Co pilot with full data traffic and GPS access
You can buy a power draw dongle from amazon, lets you see what your gadgets are drawing when in use
So the tablet has dedicated frontend / nav software ?
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