Cheap Windows Tablet For ESC Programming

[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by WHITE-TRASH

I haven't been home long enough to update an X and try it on my phone yet. When I hook up an X my phone screen glitched and a "can't communicate" message pops up. Now that I think about it I wonder if the phone just doesn't put out enough juice to power up the esc's brain. I should be home early enough tonight to try hooking a battery up while its plugged in.

Thank!

[Thomas Porfert]

If you can find one, the WinBook is a fantastic choice; it was a Micro Center exclusive item. Full Windows tablet with USB support. A couple of our engineers used them for their multirotor builds as they support the Flight Control software and Castle Link. They were selling for under $60about a year ago; but I believe they have been discontinued. :( But I'm sure you could find one on eBay.

Edit: Looks like the $60 model (TW700, 7" display) is not available, but the newer TW102 (10" display) is available; but it appears to be in-store purchase only and up to $80 now.

[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by Thomas Porfert

If you can find one, the WinBook is a fantastic choice; it was a Micro Center exclusive item. Full Windows tablet with USB support. A couple of our engineers used them for their multirotor builds as they support the Flight Control software and Castle Link. They were selling for under $60about a year ago; but I believe they have been discontinued. :( But I'm sure you could find one on eBay.

Edit: Looks like the $60 model (TW700, 7" display) is not available, but the newer TW102 (10" display) is available; but it appears to be in-store purchase only and up to $80 now.

Thank you! I just checked it out. The $80 version only has 2GB of RAM. That scares me. Is it painfully slow?

The closest MicroCenter to me is an hour away.

[robert@castle]

Originally Posted by JatoTheRipper

Thank you! I just checked it out. The $80 version only has 2GB of RAM. That scares me. Is it painfully slow?

The closest MicroCenter to me is an hour away.

They really arn't as bad as you might imagine, for the price they give excellent performance. They work well for light weight applications such as castle link and work quite well for light web surfing. Don't expect to have a lot of tabs open, but the ssd in them is fairly quick so you don't really notice when you run out of ram and it uses the page file.

[Thomas Porfert]

It's terrible at multitasking and okay at web browsing (just don't open a ton of windows or tabs). But the Castle Link program requires very little resources and 2 gigs of RAM is more than enough.

[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by robert@castle

They really arn't as bad as you might imagine, for the price they give excellent performance. They work well for light weight applications such as castle link and work quite well for light web surfing. Don't expect to have a lot of tabs open, but the ssd in them is fairly quick so you don't really notice when you run out of ram and it uses the page file.

Originally Posted by Thomas Porfert

It's terrible at multitasking and okay at web browsing (just don't open a ton of windows or tabs). But the Castle Link program requires very little resources and 2 gigs of RAM is more than enough.

Great info, guys! Thank you both.

I may run down to MicroCenter this weekend to check it out and pick up one of the WinBook TW102s. I think I may order it online for in-store pickup so I'm forced to run down there.

[WHITE-TRASH]

I remembered as I was walking out the door this am to try the app again. It didn't glitch with an X hooked up with or without a battery. I'll try to remember to try a few more things tonight.

[Hydrocarbon92]

Consider a used Lenovo X220 "tablet". It's really just a super-compacted 12" laptop, one has a folding screen and the other has a swiveling touch screen. They're usually Intel I5's with Win7 Pro licenses (locked to that motherboard), magnesium frame & carbon-fiber reinforced plastics. Depending on condition they're $60-120 on ebay. New batts are under $20.

I have a small army of it's newer bothers, the T430 and T530, and they're fantastic. Not having to deal with Win10 or Win8 crap is the best. Old i5 Lenovos power all my HTPC's.

[JatoTheRipper]

I went to pick up a Winbook, but looked online before I left. It turns out the Winbook is dead.

I now also want to be able to run Dynojet Power Core Software Suite to tune fuel injection on my Honda Grom.

Any new options out there?

[Browneye]

Surface pro

[robert@castle]

I have not used one of these so I can't speak to it's quality, but it is very similarly spec'd to the Winbook and has more features. Seems like it would fit the bill perfectly.
https://www.amazon.com/RCA-Notebook-...ateway&sr=8-13

[Natedog]

Originally Posted by Thomas Porfert

If you can find one, the WinBook is a fantastic choice; it was a Micro Center exclusive item. Full Windows tablet with USB support. A couple of our engineers used them for their multirotor builds as they support the Flight Control software and Castle Link. They were selling for under $60about a year ago; but I believe they have been discontinued. :( But I'm sure you could find one on eBay.

Edit: Looks like the $60 model (TW700, 7" display) is not available, but the newer TW102 (10" display) is available; but it appears to be in-store purchase only and up to $80 now.

Looks decent and price is right.

Originally Posted by Hydrocarbon92

Consider a used Lenovo X220 "tablet". It's really just a super-compacted 12" laptop, one has a folding screen and the other has a swiveling touch screen. They're usually Intel I5's with Win7 Pro licenses (locked to that motherboard), magnesium frame & carbon-fiber reinforced plastics. Depending on condition they're $60-120 on ebay. New batts are under $20.



I have a small army of it's newer bothers, the T430 and T530, and they're fantastic. Not having to deal with Win10 or Win8 crap is the best. Old i5 Lenovos power all my HTPC's.

Yep. Windows 8 and 10 both suck, invasive, over bloated crap that often breaks one thing with an update that fixes something else.

Originally Posted by Browneye

Surface pro

Oh hell no, we've had more problems and still do with MS Surface junk lol. Over priced too and although small and lightweight, when you add in all the power supply, dock station etc, they become heavy, bulky and even more over priced. Nowhere to internally store the stylus, that costs another $99 give or take the color etc that you buy. Oh and their support is a joke. Did I mention how hot they tend to run?

Originally Posted by robert@castle

I have not used one of these so I can't speak to it's quality, but it is very similarly spec'd to the Winbook and has more features. Seems like it would fit the bill perfectly.
https://www.amazon.com/RCA-Notebook-...ateway&sr=8-13

Looks decent for web surfing, Castle Link etc. Old laptop with Linux runs super fast, generally less virus/malware prone, less hardware hungry to work properly.

Will the Castle software run on Linux?

[Browneye]

Originally Posted by Natedog

Oh hell no, we've had more problems and still do with MS Surface junk lol. Over priced too and although small and lightweight, when you add in all the power supply, dock station etc, they become heavy, bulky and even more over priced. Nowhere to internally store the stylus, that costs another $99 give or take the color etc that you buy. Oh and their support is a joke. Did I mention how hot they tend to run?

Mine was free. Works perfectly, Win10 loaded.

[Natedog]

We pay for ours, one of the most problematic devices we've bought, priced up in Applefanboi lalaland too lol. Count yourself lucky and buy a lottery ticket.

[robert@castle]

Originally Posted by Natedog

Looks decent for web surfing, Castle Link etc. Old laptop with Linux runs super fast, generally less virus/malware prone, less hardware hungry to work properly.

Will the Castle software run on Linux?

Not natively. It might work with Wine, but I'm not sure. It's written in C# and requires .Net 2.0. I'm not overly familiar with Linux to know if it would work with USB and the database file.

[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by Browneye

Surface pro

Expensive and overkill for what I need.

Originally Posted by robert@castle

I have not used one of these so I can't speak to it's quality, but it is very similarly spec'd to the Winbook and has more features. Seems like it would fit the bill perfectly.
https://www.amazon.com/RCA-Notebook-...ateway&sr=8-13

There are tons of Chinese Windows books and tablets, but most, like this one, seem to get average reviews at best. I'm hoping somebody on here has personal experience, but probably not.

Thanks for linking that one! It's a cheap gamble.

Originally Posted by Natedog

Yep. Windows 8 and 10 both suck, invasive, over bloated crap that often breaks one thing with an update that fixes something else.

I love Windows 10! Fastest and most efficient OS I've ever used. It uses the Google's "We'll spy on your every move" model, but that seems to be the way of the new world.

Originally Posted by Natedog

Oh hell no, we've had more problems and still do with MS Surface junk lol. Over priced too and although small and lightweight, when you add in all the power supply, dock station etc, they become heavy, bulky and even more over priced. Nowhere to internally store the stylus, that costs another $99 give or take the color etc that you buy. Oh and their support is a joke. Did I mention how hot they tend to run?

Odd. Everybody I know with a Surface loves them and suggests them highly!

Originally Posted by Natedog

Looks decent for web surfing, Castle Link etc. Old laptop with Linux runs super fast, generally less virus/malware prone, less hardware hungry to work properly.

Will the Castle software run on Linux?

Linux? Which distro/brand/flavor/etc are you using? I've used Ubuntu and it's OK, but it still feels unpolished and lacking compared to Windows. Elementary OS is beautiful, fairly polished, and fun to play with, but it's still lacking too much for my liking.

[mass-hole]

I have a Lenovo thinkpad x1 yoga which is a 14” screen. Its one of the convertible laptop tablets where the keyboard flips behind the screen.

Literally, the only time i use the tablet form, or the touch screen in general, is on flights(which is basically weekly at this point) watching Netflix so they don’t yell at me for having my “laptop” out during takeoff.

The touch screen is useless for any serious pc work. That said the trackpad is pretty useless too and i carry a logitech mouse everywhere. I imagine the Surface is similar, but even smaller.

[Browneye]

I sit behind two 24" monitors for work, run an entire network, 18 servers, 40 workstations, two ecommerce sites, an enterprise system, sql, exchange, 50-node VOIP phone system with a desktop-client interface. All DELL hardware.

At home a Dell Desktop, iPad mini, iPhone6plus, a 17" dell inspiron, and the Surface, on a wireless LAN. The Surface gets used the most while at home unless some serious computing is required, but for surfing the web and email the Surface takes it. iPad-mini for mostly laying in bed, netflix or surfing, weather.

The Surface works like a mini-computer, has a fold-out keyboard and touchscreen. It is by far the most convenient 'computer' I own. A friend that repairs hardware got it, put a new screen on it, loaded Win10, and gave it to me. Love love love it. On the rare occasion I would have to travel it goes as it works like a full-size PC for accessing my network through an SSL-VPN tunnel and remote desktop. The combination touchscreen and mousepad just works really well, very easy navigating.

TeamViewer is our web-based support interface throughout and employs ITBrain anti-malware throughout, and a Barracuda spam firewall for emails. We process about 30K emails per day.

That's all I know.

[Natedog]

Originally Posted by robert@castle

Not natively. It might work with Wine, but I'm not sure. It's written in C# and requires .Net 2.0. I'm not overly familiar with Linux to know if it would work with USB and the database file.

Thanks.

Originally Posted by mass-hole

I have a Lenovo thinkpad x1 yoga which is a 14” screen. Its one of the convertible laptop tablets where the keyboard flips behind the screen.

I've used a couple of the Lenovo Yogas and liked them, decent price too.

Originally Posted by Browneye

TeamViewer is our web-based support interface throughout...

Ya Teamviewer is usually pretty good here too.