Thread: Android Tablet navigation question

There may be a better section for this question but I know a lot of you are experts on this and I know virtually nothing.

My question actually relates to an off road motorbike. I want to replace the analog speedo with a 5" rugged android device that can run an independant nav app (recommendations welcome). This will give me a speed reading in any case.

Looking at Aliexpress there is a huge amount of devices meeting the size and rugged spec however they are always focused on Carplay so I can't work out if you can load seperate apps? You'd do this via WiFi connection at home I would imagine?

Because power is in short supply it is better if the Iphone is in the pocket doing nothing so I can focus on powering the android device and not having two devices working hard.

I know the device will need to have a GPS chip.

Can anyone give me some pointers so I can refine the search. At around $50 there's some great options if they will do what I need.

Thanks

Originally Posted by PerthDisco

There may be a better section for this question but I know a lot of you are experts on this and I know virtually nothing.

My question actually relates to an off road motorbike. I want to replace the analog speedo with a 5" rugged android device that can run an independant nav app (recommendations welcome). This will give me a speed reading in any case.

Looking at Aliexpress there is a huge amount of devices meeting the size and rugged spec however they are always focused on Carplay so I can't work out if you can load seperate apps? You'd do this via WiFi connection at home I would imagine?

Because power is in short supply it is better if the Iphone is in the pocket doing nothing so I can focus on powering the android device and not having two devices working hard.

I know the device will need to have a GPS chip.

Can anyone give me some pointers so I can refine the search. At around $50 there's some great options if they will do what I need.

Thanks

It might be worth your while looking at a phone-sized ex-industrial Panasonic Toughpad device. One which might suit your needs is the Panasonic Toughpad FZ-N1. You can get them on ebay out of japan pretty cheap (A$100-ish) or out of Germany or the UK if you want to pay more.

The FZ-N1 is older tech but later Marks of the device (Mk 3) can be progressively updated to Android 11 I believe. If you don't care about the android version because it's just a GPS speedo and a navigator for your bike, then early Android versions should be OK. The device has onboard GPS, wi-fi and 4G/LTE capability (but whether it'll work with Aussie carriers as a phone is unknown).

It's a fully ruggedised device and it has a MicroUSB port for charging - note that Toughpad devices older than this one often require a full 16v charger.

I dunno about the chicom aliexpress specials, but if you're happy to roll the dice, you might find a gem.