Tablets for Electronic Targets

[daniel.chisholm]

Nice to see a number of people telling about their actual real-world experiences, I hope these reports keep coming. In theory any device with wifi and a browser will do the job, after a fashion. But some end up just being easier than others.

When buying a tablet for e-target viewing use, the amount of storage (e.g. 16GB vs. 32GB vs. 128GB) doesn't matter.

It is nice to have a fast processor, and good battery life and a bright screen are really useful.

If you are in a store considering a tablet to buy for use with an SMT system, if you have access to the internet you can always go to the silvermountaintargets.com website and run the "simulator" on the tablet you are considering buying, so as to see if that particular tablet has any funny or objectionable quirks (direct link is http://support.silvermountaintargets.com:4000/ ). Then again most big-box stores have pretty generous no-questions-asked return policies, in case you buy a tablet and find that it is objectionable for some reason or other (for example, two or three years ago the native browser on Samsung devices tended to use up nearly 40% of the vertical area with useless non-scrollable browser bits.... thogh I don't think this is a problem with the Chrome browser, which is available for almost any device nowadays).

Apple devices tend to be expensive but they all seem to work very well with SMT e-targets, both with their Safari browser as well as with "Chrome".

For what it's worth the SMT software developers use "Chrome", so things usually work quite well with the Chrome browser. Browser quirks always show up, e.g. Firefox and others, we do try to fix these as soon as we find out about them.

 

[AndyTaber]

I purchased an Amazon Fire tablet, 7" screen for $50.00. I just tried it on the demo and it worked great. I also plan on using it for my Caldwell shot camera system. Decent tablet for the money.

 

[spclark]

Daniel you down at Palm Bay for the OBR?

Weather there has to beat weather in CN right now, or Lodi WI for that matter

 

[Heman]

The 7" RCA tablets that WalMart sells for $60 work great and have a keyboard what the club bought. We tried Kindles, they don't work. iPad/iPhones work great, Chrome books work great, Samsung tablets work great. Chrome is the browser that works best with the SMTs.

 

[Dos XX]

Anyone use a Nook?

 

[243Mendoza]

I purchased an Amazon Fire tablet, 7" screen for $50.00. I just tried it on the demo and it worked great. I also plan on using it for my Caldwell shot camera system. Decent tablet for the money.

I have tried the Fire tablet with mixed results. Sometimes you don't see the score value ribbon on the right side (that may be the Amazon Silk browser problem) and it cannot connect to the wifi at 1000 yd without the repeater. I have no connection problems with my Dell laptop. The problem with the laptop is that the battery only last 2 hours while the tablet will last at least 8 hrs.

 

[sfldiver]

I recently purchase an Insignia 10.1" Tablet (Model NS-P10A7100) on Amazon to use at Port Malabar in Palm Bay, Florida with their Silver Mountain Target System. I've already used it twice and it worked perfectly. The tablet comes with 32gb internal memory and has a slot for a microSD card which expands the memory up to another 32gb. The Tablet cost me $95 on Amazon. I spent $11 on a cover which stands the tablet up in an inclined position for prone shooting. It has an android based operation system, which works just like my Samsung cell phone does - very user friendly. I would've happily spent 10 x's that $ for a tablet/pad for my competition shooting needs, but this one seems to work perfectly for my needs. Here's a link to the pad and cover I purchased:

Insignia 10.1" Tablet (32gb):
https://www.insigniaproducts.com/pdp/NS-P10A7100/5157700

Cover For Insignia 10.1" Tablet:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01KFYNTKS/?tag=accuratescom-20

Adrian

I just got home from 3 days straight of shooting at the Orange Blossom Regional at Port Malabar in Palm Bay, FL. The $95 10.1" Insignia tablet I mentioned earlier in this thread worked flawlessly. The battery lasted all day without issue - I usually had approximately 40% battery left after 3 matches (3 shooters per lane / 4 - 5 hours of shooting). In the vertical position, I was able to take a screenshot of each of my relays , which allowed me to save the target and the information from each shot down the right hand side for each relay. I did notice it was a bit tough to see the screen in the strong sun, but that wasn't an issue at Port Malabar, because the shooting line is covered. Very happy with my purchase of this tablet for shooting events.

 

[DRNewcomb]

I have an EnGenius (www.engeniustech.com) mast-mounted outside WiFi access point. With a phone or tablet, I'm hard pressed to get a signal 200 yds from the mast it's mounted on. With a long range USB WiFi adapter on a laptop, I can use the signal across the lake, about 1000 yds away. I wonder how SMT is getting 1000 yds to an iPad?

 

[spclark]

I wonder how SMT is getting 1000 yds to an iPad?

With their single-user systems they supply a proprietary signal repeater used to feed data to wifi devices on the line. One repeater seems sufficient to work well with multiple down-range target arrays, but we've not yet had more than 3 systems functioning with one repeater and that was at only 600 yards. Before Winnequah's SMT deployment I used mine with great success back to 1,000 yards there.

The more sophisticated system now at WGC has fiber channel connectivity from the target server in the pits feeding data to a slave server at the stat office. I don't know whether this feeds data to wireless repeaters positioned at the 1,000 yard line (I believe it does to at least one of three as we ran network cable to the one permanently mounted nearest the stat office last year) or whether the wireless transmitter positioned high up on the hill above the impact area provides this function exclusively.

At the F-Nats last year we were working out how best to position the two portable, mast-mounted repeaters near the line to avoid the dreaded Red-X syndrom seen too often early in the week.

Once this year's OBR has run its course I'll be looking for feedback from shooters I know who are attending as well as reportage here and on other forums as to how their SMT system performed. They're using a system similarly configured to what WGC has but that the range in Palm Bay extends only to 600 yards the circumstances are different.

 

[6BRinNZ]

I have an EnGenius (www.engeniustech.com) mast-mounted outside WiFi access point. With a phone or tablet, I'm hard pressed to get a signal 200 yds from the mast it's mounted on. With a long range USB WiFi adapter on a laptop, I can use the signal across the lake, about 1000 yds away. I wonder how SMT is getting 1000 yds to an iPad?

Yeah (what spclark said) we use the repeater that is supplied out to 1000 and it works fine.