DriveModeDashboard with Samsung Galaxy Tab Active3

[Wapping]

As the gel is so easy, I think it would be a good move. If it does no good, it will do nor harm. A bit of mastic or similar around the lip of the box, would be useful too, as the bod suggested.

The pins are a different matter, of course.

 

[TheStammeringBiker]

As the gel is so easy, I think it would be a good move. If it does no good, it will do nor harm. A bit of mastic or similar around the lip of the box, would be useful too, as the bod suggested.

The pins are a different matter, of course.

Yep I completely agree, I've popping down to Toolstation at lunch to grab some of the gel, it's £15.99 for 300ml of it which is more than I need.

Looking at the bottom of the tablet, with the case on, the pogo contacts are quite recessed so I think the likelhood of that much water getting in there and sitting for periods of time is unlikely, but just in case I've treated it with some ACF50 and will monitor it. I don't plan on leaving the tablet in place permanently especially after a wet ride. They have also suggested inverting the cradle so it's upside down so that any moisture drips away.

 

[TheStammeringBiker]

As per the video I shared I have put some of that gel into the cavity with the electronics and I'll keep the pins lubed up with ACF50 and see how it goes. Debating whether to mount it upside down as per the recommendations or not.

 

[TheStammeringBiker]

Also, while I was on my way to pick up the gel, I setup the tablet crudely in the car and tethered to my phone, on the way there I used MRA and from a GPS point of view it was spot on, didn't lag behind etc, BUT, I got several instances of it flickering into the "Go offline?" prompt when it loses internet connectivity and a few instances of "You are currently offline". On the way home I used the built in DMD routing screen and the title bar stayed solid green and connected the whole way. Whether it's an MRA app or just teething trouble I'm not sure, but I've not really done enough testing yet to make a judgement.

I did notice though that even stood in the middle of my street the GPS accuracy reported by both DMD and What3Words lists it as approx 4metres and nothing I did reduced this. I assume (and hope) this is due to the tablet not having it's own SIM so I'll try again with mine inside it and see what happens. On the route home the icon showing where I am was permanently off to the side, which could be argued this was due to the accuracy but it maintained that exact trajectory following the road the entire time and didn't waiver at all.

EDIT - So I put my SIM in the tablet and went for a wander around outside, in a fairly clear unobstructed area and the GPS accuracy reported by DMD2 never dropped below 4metres and in What3Words never below 13ft so not sure if thats comparable to more modern devices or not. But I will see how it goes.

I also inverted the cradle and it definitely gives a better view of the TFT if nothing else. The fact that the word RAM is now upside will only play on my mind......a bit.

 

[Berin]

I tried this 2-3 years ago with a rugged Ulefone Android phone, mostly for off road use since the XT doesn’t cater for this well, and I wanted a back up for my Montana 700i. I tried a number of apps, again mostly for off road use, and concluded that Locus maps was the best one, even though it’s got a bit of a learning curve. I know a lot of the TET types use OSMAND.

The plus side was the ability to download and use multiple maps from different sources very easily, very good track handling and management, and the ability to switch easily to something like Google Maps when getting into town.

The negative (for me at least) is that all require a mobile phone signal to set a destination unless you are using waypoints or routes/tracks stored on the device, and there are still many places without that whereas the Garmin devices don’t as they have the databases on the device.

They were all complex to both set up and use, in comparison with the Garmin devices. Locus requires you to set up the router, either online or offline, and do some other set up steps before it will do anything. They are all to some extent buggy, since they are mostly community sourced or have one or two devs.

Device wise, my Ulefone was pretty rugged and used as a nav device, not my main phone. I used a hot spot on my iphone for internet. It got wet (rained on) and dumped in a water crossing and was fine, but connected to a pretty robust wireless charger/mount it often overheated and was much harder to see than the Montana 700 I was using as well.

Charging is often the issue with phones as the usb type connections are not intended to be bounced and vibrated and wireless charging does seem to cause an overheat - same in my car. The Samsung mount addresses this with pin mounts, but a friend who used this set up did trash a couple of tablets and mounts and found it hard to see in bright sunlight.

DMD is just like an app aggregation device with (now) the ability to run Topo maps, so you could happily run an android rab without it and use the normal android apps. It’s also in a permanent Beta release state, good if you like access to new stuff that might not work. Some manufacturers like AJP use it with a tablet as the dashboard and you can use it as a speedo and to show other bike functions like temperature and stuff - but why would you unless your doing a custom built bike and want to chuck away the existing dash.

The Carpe Iter device mentioned above does solve a lot of the hardware issues, it’s a custom built very rugged very bright tablet with excellent mounting options, can run DMD and so use the handlebar controls, and price wise it’s got much more reasonable.

They even do some sort of BMW kit that I assume integrates into the clicky wheel thing.

In the end I concluded that overall for tracks and trails the Montana was better, and I use the XT on the road. I use the Ulefone as a back up on the travel bikes, tracking my route with Locus and switch to either Tomtom or Google maps for local info in towns.

For just using Waze or the TomTom app on the road, I’d be happy to just stick the Ulefone in a wireless charger and use that.

Cost wise, not cheap as you might think.

The Ulefone was about £200, the Hondo Garage Perfect Squeeze mount about £250 by the time I got it back here, plus some subscription to get pro versions of the apps, plus some maps, so around £500.


As a side note, this set up did get me out of trouble on the French TET as the 700i had one of those show stopper bugs that Garmin push out every now and again with a firmware update that prevented it creating a route.

 

[TheStammeringBiker]

Thanks for that Berin! I'm hoping the fact I never go offroad means I'll hopefully avoid the vibration/dust ingress issues people have seen, but we shall see in time.

And yeah, i've been looking over DMD and it's definitely catered more for the offroad crowd so I'll likely be using it as a launcher for now mostly. I think for me the 2 main bug bears I'm going to experience is the screen brightness/visibility and potential pogo pin charging problems. Fingers crossed though, and I won't be selling me XT any time soon!

 

[Wapping]

GPS in SIM carded phones are good for about 4.5 metres on average, so it’s probably not too far out at four metres. I’d guess that a single carriageway road is not much over seven metres, so four metres ain’t too bad.

 

[TheStammeringBiker]

GPS in SIM carded phones are good for about 4.5 metres on average, so it’s probably not too far out at four metres. I’d guess that a single carriageway road is not much over seven metres, so four metres ain’t too bad.

Thanks Richard, seems consistent with my iPhone.

Speaking to the developers of the DMD2 app on Discord at the moment and apparently alot of devices out there (he didn't specify which) have a GPS offset bug that alot of satnav type apps have to work around by using a "snap to road" logic to assume that if you're driving and the icon on the screen is slightly off centre, then to snap you to the road to keep things neat, but DMD2 doesn't do that as it's more geared to offroad use.

Either way it's not a major issue for me as I don't think the likelihood of me taking my GSA offroad is high, unless you count a gravel carpark.

Will probably be out on the bike tomorrow or Thursday night so I'll be using it properly then.

 

[Santa-2512]

4m is the best accuracy you will ever get. Unles your name is Uncle Sam,

As we piggyback of the satteiltes owned by uncle Sam the resrict the accuracy incase nasty people use the 100% level of accuracy against them

4m is approx 13.8 ft, not quite the width of a carriageway

 

[Berin]

Thanks for that Berin! I'm hoping the fact I never go offroad means I'll hopefully avoid the vibration/dust ingress issues people have seen, but we shall see in time.

And yeah, i've been looking over DMD and it's definitely catered more for the offroad crowd so I'll likely be using it as a launcher for now mostly. I think for me the 2 main bug bears I'm going to experience is the screen brightness/visibility and potential pogo pin charging problems. Fingers crossed though, and I won't be selling me XT any time soon!

Hi Peeyay, I think your charging set up will be fine, seemed to work well on my friends set up. Brightness, well, it’s winter now so you won’t notice till next year .

Are you planning to use any of the handlebar remotes that Carpe Iter sell?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[TheStammeringBiker]

Hi Peeyay, I think your charging set up will be fine, seemed to work well on my friends set up. Brightness, well, it’s winter now so you won’t notice till next year .

Are you planning to use any of the handlebar remotes that Carpe Iter sell?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Thats true haha Hopefully there will be a bright day so I can judge for myself haha

Eventually if this proves to be a good way forward then I may invest in the DMD-T865 or the Carpe Iter and will definitely end up with some handlebar controls, either from Carpe Iter or Thork Racing who make DMD, just not right now I don't think.

 

[Berin]

4m is the best accuracy you will ever get. Unles your name is Uncle Sam,

As we piggyback of the satteiltes owned by uncle Sam the resrict the accuracy incase nasty people use the 100% level of accuracy against them

4m is approx 13.8 ft, not quite the width of a carriageway

Sat Navs typically use GPS, Glonass, and some use Galileo now. Galileo allegedly has accuracy of 1m and its high accuracy version even better - its intended to enable self driving cars.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Fluffmeister]

Excellent work so far, and is very good reading, thanks for posting. I am going a similar, slightly simpler route with a Galaxy S20Ultra that’s rooted and running Android AOSP without any Samsung bloatware in a quadlock case and quadlock wireless charging head.

I am just playing around with DMD2, and so far really like it. I’ve popped a LycaMobile sim in the phone with unlimited calls / texts etc, and 20GB data a month, which is £6 a month for the sim.

My iPhone will stay in the tank bag or pocket as my “phone” and I’m got the S20 paired as phone 1 to my Senna, and the iPhone paired as phone 2, so if I want to I can take / make calls, but most importantly hear Nav cues and Spotify from the Galaxy.

You have really given me lots to think about and I’d not seen DMD2 until this thread.

 

[Berin]

Thats true haha Hopefully there will be a bright day so I can judge for myself haha

Eventually if this proves to be a good way forward then I may invest in the DMD-T865 or the Carpe Iter and will definitely end up with some handlebar controls, either from Carpe Iter or Thork Racing who make DMD, just not right now I don't think.

I keep looking at Carpe Iter, especially now the price has come down.

But like DMD2 it’s a perennial work in progress, and I think the Thork device, which also looks good, is not even out yet. I wouldn’t want one of the first ones.

Interesting that both use Galileo (as does your Samsung tab, I think).

Not much to choose between them on spec, maybe the Carpe has better charging options but doesn’t seem to have Wi-Fi, which the DMD device does. The DMD’s mount maybe not as good, but it’s cheap so you can have it on more than 1 bike.

I’m not much into Android so I have no idea if the different Android versions make any odds.

They are both now the same price as the Montana 700i


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Berin]

Excellent work so far, and is very good reading, thanks for posting. I am going a similar, slightly simpler route with a Galaxy S20Ultra that’s rooted and running Android AOSP without any Samsung bloatware in a quadlock case and quadlock wireless charging head.

I am just playing around with DMD2, and so far really like it. I’ve popped a LycaMobile sim in the phone with unlimited calls / texts etc, and 20GB data a month, which is £6 a month for the sim.

My iPhone will stay in the tank bag or pocket as my “phone” and I’m got the S20 paired as phone 1 to my Senna, and the iPhone paired as phone 2, so if I want to I can take / make calls, but most importantly hear Nav cues and Spotify from the Galaxy.

You have really given me lots to think about and I’d not seen DMD2 until this thread.

Let us know how you get on, and what maps/navigation you go with.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[TheStammeringBiker]

I keep looking at Carpe Iter, especially now the price has come down.

But like DMD2 it’s a perennial work in progress, and I think the Thork device, which also looks good, is not even out yet. I wouldn’t want one of the first ones.

Interesting that both use Galileo (as does your Samsung tab, I think).

Not much to choose between them on spec, maybe the Carpe has better charging options but doesn’t seem to have Wi-Fi, which the DMD device does. The DMD’s mount maybe not as good, but it’s cheap so you can have it on more than 1 bike.

I’m not much into Android so I have no idea if the different Android versions make any odds.

They are both now the same price as the Montana 700i


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The DMD-T865 and DMD-T665 are both available to buy and have generally gotten good reviews it seems. Although they are constantly refining it looking at the Discord group they’re being very responsive to issues and replacing units that fail or encounter issues.

They are also engineering some beautifully CNC’d mounts and accessories for their own devices.

Seems like there is some bad blood between them and the Carpe Iter guys as they’ve asked Carpe Iter not to ship their tablets with DMD installed as they aren’t officially “certified”.

 

[Santa-2512]

OK,

Time for my update,

So my reasons for the tab nav were straightforward,

Age related diminishing near sight,
long distance perfect, but 12-24 inches it’s either LARGE FONTS or glasses
Which either means bifocals or in my case, half moon glasses,
So an alternate was a bigger screen with bigger display



I started with a Nexus 7 tablet, it worked fine, but had some shortcomings
The version of Android was obsolete, so some apps wouldn’t work
No LTE capability (LTE = phone & data ability)
On the plus side, lots of mounts and accessories

It worked well, but my primary goal was to run the Wunderlinq dongle and the GS software
However the developer stopped support for Android Kit Kat, so that put paid to the Nexus 7 (for now)

So the Tab active 1 - Later version of Android and LTE capability J
It ran an old version of Android, so wasn’t compatible with a lot of stuff

So its Tab active 2 - works with far more apps etc
MY main aim was simple -
Nav software that gave the biggest real estate, and showed the speed limit for the road I was on.

What did I find,
Almost tall of the Nav programs fell into two camps

UK – focused apps
US / Europe apps
The latter were more adventure based mapping – no posted speed limits and every option but a straight route
The UK focused units were best, but still had limitations, either missing one feature or another, or overblown with almost every feature but the actual NAV function

So - out was
Kurviger
Calimoto
Rever
Any nav software which used the software engine from the above units

That left the factory and commercial stuff
So - In
Waze
Tom Tom
Co pilot
Sygic
Navmi
Mapfactor
Here we go

So I tried them all
Waze –
Not really an adventure nav system
More a local A-B planner, for the I had a sandwich (pic) went 6 miles, coffee (pic)
Saw a mate (wave) arrived.
Give it a long route and it falls over
Shame as the spotty integration was good

Tom Tom
Ok but discounted either for price or app display options

Co Pilot,
Cheap -£14 pa for UK & EU
Good display with speed limits
Junction display good
Bad bit, even if you load a pre planned route it will try to give you alternates!

Navmi
Mapfactor
Here we go
All tried, but discounted for varying reasons

Sygic
This was the oddball
Sygic car, was meh, nothing special
But Sygic Truck, had just about everything I wanted, brilliant !
But at £60 pa was taking the proverbial

So I settled with Co pilot

So we have a tablet and a Nav program
Now for a mount.
I’ve always used Brodit for mounts, they make stuff to fit oem, so no springy clips in an airvent, They fit into panel gaps, trim mounts etc
They offer a big range for the Tab active 2 - also the tab active 1 is the same form size as the 2 so everything is interchangeable,

So V1
Wunderlinq dongle
Ultimate addons ram mount
Tab2
Good bits
It worked

Bad Bits
Wunderlinq dongle was a pain to sync, and took ages to get to see the tablet,
And when it did, it was a bit clunky tbh – I used to leave it on Nav and that was it
I asked Thork if they would mod the joystick troller they had developed to work with DMD via the jogwheel
It wasn’t well received, so left it there

Update – apparently they have released a dongle that works with the jogwheel and will control DMD except I no longer have a jogwheel

DMD & DMD2

DMD works with the Tab2, and will allow maps to be loaded to the SD card
DMD2 (beta) wont allow maps to be loaded to the SD card - so cant load UK & France mapping ( not enough room)
DMD says its an android issue, it isn't, they dont have the toggle switch in the program lol

DMD is just a front end, and needs a joystick or jogtroller to navigate -

If you dont have a jogtroller or joystick, your better off sticking to just running the apps one at a time

So now we have
Mount / tablet / nav / music
I have a GIFF GAFF golden goody bag - £7 -10 a month
20 GB data U/L calls & texts in the UK 6GB data in EU if I recall
Only requirement 1 call made received every 6 months to keep active

Good bits
It works - works well,
I didn’t bother with voice nav in the end, you don’t really need it, for nav
But for traffic cams its good J
I have it wired via a usb to a DIN socket, I used a USB power draw dongle to see what it draws, and its well within the power capabilities of the bike
I forgot to plug it in and it goes flat (low power warnings) after about 4 hrs constant use, but on bike power its fine

Bits to watch.
It needs to be run at full brightness to be seen clearly in bright sunshine
The display however can be washed out in bright sunshine!
Currently there are no over the counter shades available for 8” tablets

I made my own, its WIP, but it worked - the MKII will be tidier

So pics of the setup below

Ultimate addons Ram bar mount




Brodit Lockable Tab1 & 2 mount



Co pilot showing - road speed and upcoming turn - No nav shade fitted


Waze with Nav shade fitted


Nav shade - WIP

 

[TheStammeringBiker]

Thanks Santa!

I've been using a mixture of Waze and MyRouteApp for my navigation on my phone up til now so I plan to continue with that, I do have a subscription for Calimoto but I prefer MRA currently for touring etc.

 

[PitaNaanRoti]

Join the Facebook DMD2 user group.
Joao the guy who actually built the software is running it.
The issue with Thork is that they refused to pay for the licenses so are shipping it out with an old version, charging for a license but when the buyer registers it they are being asked to pay again.
Joao is about to go legal on them.

 

[TheStammeringBiker]

Join the Facebook DMD2 user group.
Joao the guy who actually built the software is running it.
The issue with Thork is that they refused to pay for the licenses so are shipping it out with an old version, charging for a license but when the buyer registers it they are being asked to pay again.
Joao is about to go legal on them.

Yep already a part of the group and also their Discord channel.

Yeah, DMD is made by Thork by the looks of it, but Carpe have been shipping units with DMD installed and making users think they have a lifetime licence, which they don't!