Note: this blog post was originally posted on lambtracker.com and has been moved here for preservation. Some information may be outdated.
LambTracker® has always been focused on providing inexpensive options for shepherds. Specifically, we provide detailed individual records using automated systems, with the ability to use EID tags. We’ve changed hardware several times, and I thought it would be useful to look over our hardware history.
Initially, our field use handheld was a Nabi Jr. This small, inexpensive (for the time) Android handheld was designed for kids, and it had a fairly robust case. This worked for a while, but the small screen size became an issue, especially as we started tracking data on drugs given, toe trimmings, and other management tasks. It was very hard to read the information on a given sheep, as the lists could get long, and scrolling wasn’t an ideal way to navigate the data.
Our next device was a Kindle Fire tablet. These worked really well. We were able to source a nice, tough case for them that was great for outdoor use, and it had a great handle, too. They were very inexpensive at about $50 each, and they had a large enough screen to easily fit new features on the system. Some things got hard to read near the end, but overall, they worked well.
Sadly, these tablets suffered from USB connector problems. Ken repaired them when they broke, but it’s a one-time-per-tablet fix. The design itself is what’s bad. Over time, the simple act of plugging and unplugging the USB cable breaks the connections on the board. When that happens, the tablets cannot connect via USB anymore. Sometimes, they can’t even charge. Amazon has shown an unwillingness to do any sort of redesign to improve the USB connection.
The new Kindle Fire devices would be perfect, except that they suffer from the same USB connector problem. More importantly, they cannot be rooted, so we can’t run LambTracker® on them anymore.
We’ve started to search for an inexpensive tablet that we can use for the next generation of LambTracker® handhelds. Most tablet manufacturers have defaulted to adding more features than we need, inflating the price. Our target tablet costs less than $100, including some kind of rugged case. We need a tablet with a seven or eight-inch screen, at minimum, to display critical sheep information in the field.
Right now, we’re testing the new Onn 8-inch Android tablet, which is available at Walmart. So far, our only issue is that the battery life appears to be a bit shorter than we’d like. They’re reasonably priced at $64 each, and they have all the features we need for LambTracker®. We have not yet used it in the field, so there may be issues we are as yet unaware of, but it’s working on the bench so far.
If you know of another inexpensive Android tablets, please let us know.