Android Tablet and Google apps for all camera interaction?

Lola

Lola

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Dash Cam
Mobius, A119
Mobius Action Camera and probably a Asus Zenpad S8 Tablet.

Quite a few people seem to be having trouble with software these days on the Mobius and other Cameras relative to formatting SD cards in fat32, configuring, and storing/editing camera output. I would like to NOT have these problems.
First off my home computer runs Linux Ubuntu, I love it, but it will not run the Msetup app or any of the apps from Google Play. It was suggested (DashMellow) that an Android Tablet would probably be the best way to go and I agree because of some of the virtues of Android tablets.

So this is just a request for information about them (Android tablet) before I plop down 2 or 3 hundred dollars on one. Are all the Apps necessary to interact with Mobius and other cameras available for the Android system?

I know I can run Msetup on Android and another program"Mobius Action Cams" on both the Mobius 1, and M2 cameras by Thomas Chladek. So, does anyone see any problems associated with what I've said or want to do ?

The latter app by T. Chladek sounds like a heck of a good app that covers about everything.

By the way the tablet computer will be used for more things then just the cameras.
 
No idea on any of the Mobius specific stuff, however, on tablets, I will say you are best sticking to something popular as app developers are more likely to fix bugs in their apps that affect popular devices, vs a bug which only affects a small number of niche or unpopular devices. That said, you need a tablet that will work with your chosen cameras apps, so, best to research what does and doesn't work and keep note.

I can recommend Nexus devices as they are developed by a hardware manufacturer AND Google, the creators of Android. A Nexus device will have pure unaltered Android at its core, wheras other tablets may have a tweaked version of Android to suit what that manufacturer wants Android to be. Samsung is a good example of this, however, they also fall into the popular category so are probably a safe bet due to that. Other than those words of advice, I can't recommend any specific device, you'll need to do some more research yourself or maybe others here follow the tablet world more than I do.

Personally, I'm a Nexus fan due to the ease of software modding, you get a pure Android OS and they are also fairly popular so generally most stuff just works. You also get Android updates first before everybody else. I have a Nexus 5 phone that I've owned from only a couple of months after it was released and my wife has a Nexus 7 (2013) tablet. Both are discontinued products now and around 3 years old but they are still as quick, powerful and nice to use as they were when new.
 
Kip said:
No idea on any of the Mobius specific stuff, however, on tablets, I will say you are best sticking to something popular as app developers are more likely to fix bugs in their apps that affect popular devices, vs a bug which only affects a small number of niche or unpopular devices. That said, you need a tablet that will work with your chosen cameras apps, so, best to research what does and doesn't work and keep note.

I can recommend Nexus devices as they are developed by a hardware manufacturer AND Google, the creators of Android. A Nexus device will have pure unaltered Android at its core, wheras other tablets may have a tweaked version of Android to suit what that manufacturer wants Android to be. Samsung is a good example of this, however, they also fall into the popular category so are probably a safe bet due to that. Other than those words of advice, I can't recommend any specific device, you'll need to do some more research yourself or maybe others here follow the tablet world more than I do.

Personally, I'm a Nexus fan due to the ease of software modding, you get a pure Android OS and they are also fairly popular so generally most stuff just works. You also get Android updates first before everybody else. I have a Nexus 5 phone that I've owned from only a couple of months after it was released and my wife has a Nexus 7 (2013) tablet. Both are discontinued products now and around 3 years old but they are still as quick, powerful and nice to use as they were when new.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the reply Kip, I wanted something with USB sockets, WiFI, and a good reputation for reliability the Asus has those things (not sure about WiFi).
I also checked out the Nexus 9, but it is over $100.00 more then the Asus, it does get great reviews. I'll have to go back and check it out again.

Like I said in the beginning I would like to keep the price around $200, but not sure I will be able to.
 
No problem. Keep an eye out for anything with an external MicroSD card slot too. Neither my Nexus 5 or my wifes Nexus 7 has one so I have to use a rooted app (Chainfire's StickMount, there might be non-root apps available though) and a USB OTG (On-The-Go) cable with a USB memory card reader to view footage directly off the card. I don't mind my setup as it works well, all the bits are small enough to store in my glovebox, but an actual card slot would be nice. Ideally, you shouldn't need to dismantle it to get access to it either. Some devices have the card slot hidden away underneath the battery for some strange reason, just something else to watch out for. Some built-in card slots will only support up to a certain size, eg 32GB, a bit like some dashcams in a way so that'd be another thing to check if you decided you wanted a card slot.

I would say WiFi is a must, you'll need it for app updates and so on. Also, some dashcams have WiFi features which obviously you can't use if you have no WiFi chip.
 
Kip said:
No problem. Keep an eye out for anything with an external MicroSD card slot too. Neither my Nexus 5 or my wifes Nexus 7 has one so I have to use a rooted app (Chainfire's StickMount, there might be non-root apps available though) and a USB OTG (On-The-Go) cable with a USB memory card reader to view footage directly off the card. I don't mind my setup as it works well, all the bits are small enough to store in my glovebox, but an actual card slot would be nice. Ideally, you shouldn't need to dismantle it to get access to it either. Some devices have the card slot hidden away underneath the battery for some strange reason, just something else to watch out for. Some built-in card slots will only support up to a certain size, eg 32GB, a bit like some dashcams in a way so that'd be another thing to check if you decided you wanted a card slot.

I would say WiFi is a must, you'll need it for app updates and so on. Also, some dashcams have WiFi features which obviously you can't use if you have no WiFi chip.
Click to expand...
That Nexus 7 your wife has is still getting better reviews then the rest of them, so good in fact they are thinking about coming out with a new one. I was already to get (like she has) one till they said it didn't have any USB ports:(.
Most of the manufacturers have found out in the last year just how important an SD port is to customers, no port, no sell, LOL.:D

I don't know what a rooted app is or means:eek:
 
jokiin said:
I use a Lenovo Tab7 which was about $80, cheap as chips and works quite well
Click to expand...
I'm not familiar with Lenovo other then they are the company that bought Motorola, but I'll check them out.
 
Like my phone, her Nexus 7 just has a single MicroUSB port at the bottom, designed mostly for charging and data transfer to a computer. But yeah, no SD card slot of any kind which is a shame.

Android is a bit like Ubuntu, all it really is, is another Linux distrobution. Just about every major Linux distro will have the root binary installed by default but Android does not. Root is equivilent to an adminstrator account in Windows OS's, it has the ability to do pretty much anything. Your average user will rarely need root/admin rights on a computer but it is always there as an essential part of the OS. It's not active all the time as that would be a security risk. Usually, when you need root/admin rights, Windows will prompt you and Linux will probably just say 'access denied'. If you open a terminal on your Ubuntu machine and type just "su" (without the quotes) and hit enter, it will prompt you for the root password. It's very easy to break stuff once you have full system wide control, hence why you only use it when it's really needed. Google and other big companies generally don't trust rooted devices, yet almost every PC around the world has the same capabilities pre-installed.

On my phone, rooting gives me privacy benefits, Pie controls (so much better than soft keys!), a firewall that can allow/deny apps access to WiFi and/or mobile data, a custom kernel that gives me the ability to double-tap my screen to wake it up from sleep, a headset mod that compensates for my slightly bad right ear, undervolting which increases battery life and a whole load of other stuff I couldn't live without. Oh, but I can't use Android Pay or even play Pokemon Go because Google says root is a security problem, so there are trade off's, unfortunately.

A couple of my family members have Lenovo tablets. I don't know anything about them but on the one occasion I had a go, they seemed to be pretty good and the whole experience looked like stock unaltered Android.
 
Kip said:
Like my phone, her Nexus 7 just has a single MicroUSB port at the bottom, designed mostly for charging and data transfer to a computer. But yeah, no SD card slot of any kind which is a shame.

Android is a bit like Ubuntu, all it really is, is another Linux distrobution. Just about every major Linux distro will have the root binary installed by default but Android does not. Root is equivilent to an adminstrator account in Windows OS's, it has the ability to do pretty much anything. Your average user will rarely need root/admin rights on a computer but it is always there as an essential part of the OS. It's not active all the time as that would be a security risk. Usually, when you need root/admin rights, Windows will prompt you and Linux will probably just say 'access denied'. If you open a terminal on your Ubuntu machine and type just "su" (without the quotes) and hit enter, it will prompt you for the root password. It's very easy to break stuff once you have full system wide control, hence why you only use it when it's really needed. Google and other big companies generally don't trust rooted devices, yet almost every PC around the world has the same capabilities pre-installed.

On my phone, rooting gives me privacy benefits, Pie controls (so much better than soft keys!), a firewall that can allow/deny apps access to WiFi and/or mobile data, a custom kernel that gives me the ability to double-tap my screen to wake it up from sleep, a headset mod that compensates for my slightly bad right ear, undervolting which increases battery life and a whole load of other stuff I couldn't live without. Oh, but I can't use Android Pay or even play Pokemon Go because Google says root is a security problem, so there are trade off's, unfortunately.

A couple of my family members have Lenovo tablets. I don't know anything about them but on the one occasion I had a go, they seemed to be pretty good and the whole experience looked like stock unaltered Android.
Click to expand...

Hi Kip. Your wife's Nexus 7 and the Micro USB port. Can you upload information to a Mobius camera (or any other camera) with it by using the google play app "Mobius Action Cams" by Thomas Chladek" or run the Mobius cam app called "Msetup"

I found out one thing about the Asus S 8, there are 3 models 16/32/64 MB of ram. The 64MB version has a the new "C-USB port, the 32 model (one I was thinking of getting) is basically unknown, everyone says something different. some say it's a Micro port, others say it's a Micro expansion SD port. So I'm still trying to figure that out! I've been looking at the Nvidia Shield K1, and Nvidia Shield K9. But still don't know what I'm getting. Every one (reviews) has something different to say about everything.
 
Lola said:
Can you then work with the apps Msetup and Midas action Cams by Thomas Chladek ?
Click to expand...

Msetup is a Windows program, for the Android app you would want an OTG cable so that you can connect the camera to the Android Phone/Tablet, with an OTG card reader you just access the memory card rather than the camera but even with that you can still change settings using a txt file

If buying a tablet just get yourself an OTG cable to be able to use the app, they only cost a few dollars
 
jokiin said:
Msetup is a Windows program, for the Android app you would want an OTG cable so that you can connect the camera to the Android Phone/Tablet, with an OTG card reader you just access the memory card rather than the camera but even with that you can still change settings using a txt file

If buying a tablet just get yourself an OTG cable to be able to use the app, they only cost a few dollars
Click to expand...

The OTG cable, that's the cable with a Mini 5 pin male on one end and whatever the Tablet/computer has on the other end , Right?
Is there any benefit to getting a OTG card reader ?
 
jokiin said:
OTG cable for a tablet would be something like this https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/291648790023 and you just plug your regular USB cable into it to access the camera
Click to expand...

Sorry to be so dense jokiin, but I'm confused.
The tablets I've been looking at have 1 micro port, the camera has 1 Mini 5pin port (Mobius) does this mean I need a cable that converts the signal from the camera to the tablet? Is this what the OTG cable does?

Everything will be done from the Tablet to the Mobius. I won't have a regular USB port ( "A" port).
 
the OTG Micro to female USB cable I linked to is an adaptor, you plug the USB cable that comes with the Mobius into that to access the camera from the tablet
 
This is the OTG cable I have:
61IRph9lQbL._SL1500_.jpg

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0...i=AC_SX280_SY350_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=usb+otg

The small end is a male MicroUSB plug and goes into your tablet, phone, etc. The other larger end is a female USB 'A' socket, the same as you would find on a laptop, desktop, etc. It converts the tiny MicroUSB socket your phone or tablet has into a full size USB socket that nearly every computer has as standard.

A MicroSD slot is totally different, that is for inserting your camera's memory card directly. Not all devices will have this.

Using the OTG cable above, you can connect a phone or tablet a regular USB card reader, like this one that I have:
41tyB3aHdnL._SL1500_.jpg

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0...50_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=anker+usb+card+reader
 
Btw not all devices can be powered through a tablet/phone's micro USB port. Its got limited current.

I just plug the SG card reader straight in:

IMG_20161101_201521.jpg
 
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