What to do with the Tablet

Jan’s has a 10” Samsung Tablet which she uses daily and it has a problem.  The issue is the tablet battery won’t fully recharge, which means she can’t constantly use it.  I’ve examined the tablet and identified the problem is with the tablet usb socket.  The connections inside the socket are now weak and when the power cable is connected the tablet often doesn’t recharge.  If the cable is held at a slight upwards incline then it will recharge.  However that proves difficult for Jan to achieve.  Apart from that the tablet is in good working condition.

I could disassemble the tablet and replace the usb port, but that is very “fiddly” and involves some minute soldering.  I doubt my old eyes are capable of achieving this these days.  The decision has been made for Jan to purchase a new tablet.  However that leaves us with her original tablet which is quite functional, apart from the usb charging issue.

I’ve decide to convert the tablet into an off-road gps.  I’ll install the OSMAND maps from the Google Play Store.  These are free, however you’re limited to six downloads.  If the maps prove useful I’ll probably purchase the enhanced version ($14.99) which provides unlimited map downloads, contour lines, hill shades and slopes.  OSMAND uses the Open Street Map data which is free with an open content license.   The application has route navigation, voice instructions, etc.  Just like a bought system.  Actually I think it’s better, as the maps are more up to date than a commercially purchased map (such as the map in our Isuzu).  

One of my pet hates with Android devices is the amount of “bloatware” the manufacturer adds.  Then they “lock” the operating system which prevents the bloatware from being removed.  Today I unlocked the tablet (the term is Rooted it) and then installed an application remover (instructions for Jan’s model here).  Finally I deleted all the unnecessary applications making it clean, lean, mean and fast!

Having done that I install all the OSMAND maps of mainland Australia.

The next step is to make a bracket which will hold the usb cable firmly into the tablet charging port.   In the meantime I’m using duct tape.

The plan is to mount in the vehicle like this

There is a usb power socket on the dash below the vehicle aircon controls.

Whilst researching gps map applications I also looked for associated apps like camping and fuel.  The following are interesting

1.  Camps Australia Wide (7 day free trial)

2.  CamperMate  (free)

3.  WikiCamps (14 day free trial)

4.  FuelMap (crowd sourced data on fuel station locations and prices)

I’ve installed CamperMate on the tablet (free…of course)