Tiny Android cell phones

[Bill Carter]

After much effort I am to the point now of building IOIO-based rovers that have the Android cellphone mounted on them and I can control them remotely from another cellphone or tablet. This is a major milestone in my ultimate quest to create our robot overlords, implement Skynet, bring the Terminator back to the present time, etc. The usual stuff, you guys are probably a lot farther along than me. Maybe my robots can carry things for your robots at least.

Does anyone have suggestions as to good really small cellphones that can interface with the current IOIO firmware? I am seeing phones with ~3.5" screens but they are stuck back in the Android 2.2 era.

[Thanos Fisherman]

How about android wearables? (Smart watches) their sdk is basically the same as android 4.4.x

[Banibrata Dutta]

Order the likes of Micromax, Karbonn, Lava, Intex from India, or their mother models directly from Shenzen. There are many models of very low end Androids running Kit-kat (4.4.2), although with measly RAM (256MB) and NAND storage (around 200MB of free user application space), with small 3-3.5" screens.

On Sat, Jan 3, 2015 at 7:04 AM, Bill Carter <a11y...@gmail.com> wrote:

After much effort I am to the point now of building IOIO-based rovers that have the Android cellphone mounted on them and I can control them remotely from another cellphone or tablet. This is a major milestone in my ultimate quest to create our robot overlords, implement Skynet, bring the Terminator back to the present time, etc. The usual stuff, you guys are probably a lot farther along than me. Maybe my robots can carry things for your robots at least.

Does anyone have suggestions as to good really small cellphones that can interface with the current IOIO firmware? I am seeing phones with ~3.5" screens but they are stuck back in the Android 2.2 era.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "ioio-users" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to ioio-users+...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to ioio-...@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/ioio-users.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--

regards,
Banibrata
http://www.linkedin.com/in/bdutta
http://twitter.com/edgeliving

[Bill Carter]

 I don't have any experience with smart watches, but they generally have to be tethered to a cellphone in order to have much functionality don't they? No camera, no WiFi, can't make phone calls on their own. Has anyone tried running an app on a smartwatch that interfaces with IOIO?

[Bill Carter]

Looks like I could get phones like that for about $40 US, but not sure how to buy them from the USA, not seeing any distributors here. I looked at an online dealer in India and they don't appear to ship them out of the country.

[Banibrata Dutta]

How about these:
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/3-5-inch-mini-BML-S51-SmartPhone-Capacitive-Screen-Android-4-4-SC7715-1GHz-WiFi-GSM/1980522183.html

Or similar.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "ioio-users" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to ioio-users+...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to ioio-...@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/ioio-users.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

[pa...@justwatersaversusa.com]

We use dealsmachine.com (ex china). Previously known as ahappydeal. They have been a very good supplier for us, although we use 7" tablets.

Here is an example:

http://www.dealsmachine.com/best_208562.html 

[Bill Carter]

Those phones both look interesting, they are both apparently M-Horse? Would I have any trouble finding USB drivers? I would hate to buy one and then be unable to install and debug apps.

[pa...@justwatersaversusa.com]

I wouldn't expect any problems (USB drivers would 99% be generic), but like anything out of China, you just really wont know until you try it.

We buy 7" tablets in bulk, and always buy a single unit for testing when moving to a new model.

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: Tiny Android cell phones

[Bill Carter]

I'm worried that the WiFi and/or bluetooth connectivity may be bad, it looks like some pretty weak hardware, but I'll gamble $47 (with shipping) to find out and report on how things turn out when I receive it.

On Saturday, January 3, 2015 1:36:53 PM UTC-6, Paul James wrote:

I wouldn't expect any problems (USB drivers would 99% be generic), but like anything out of China, you just really wont know until you try it.

We buy 7" tablets in bulk, and always buy a single unit for testing when moving to a new model.

optout.

[Al B]

Will a Nexus S be too big for your requirements?  There are some pretty good deals on eBay.

http://tinyurl.com/pnpsptb

[Bill Carter]

Looks like an interesting possibility, that is a good phone. I want to mount the cellphone on pan/tilt mechanisms so smaller and lighter is better, 4" screen is stretching it but I would try it.

[Al B]

Do you mean like this?

http://youtu.be/IpGD7KBM4zA

[Bill Carter]

Cute! I look at pan/tilt hardware that is available online and I don't like what I see. All of the small instantiations seem to rely on the shaft of the servo motors as support, very poor. I can't see it slinging around the body of a cellphone for more than a few days or weeks.

[noros]

for my last robot, I used a pan & tilt system based on the SPT200 and a Reticam phone holder. It's extremely robust and very stable compared to the LynxB I used before. You might want to look at it.

HS-485HB Servo

http://www.robotshop.com/en/hitec-hs-485hb-servo-motor.html

SPT200 Direct Drive Pan & Tilt System

http://www.robotshop.com/en/servocity-spt200-pan-tilt.html

Direct Drive Pan Base Mount for SPT200

http://www.robotshop.com/en/direct-drive-pan-base-mount-spt200-or-ddp125.html

RetiCAM® Smartphone Tripod Mount

http://www.amazon.com/RetiCAM%C2%AE-Smartphone-Tripod-Mount-Universal/dp/B00FS5L9D4/

[Bill Carter]

Wow, that is looking like a quality setup. Ball bearings, a base mount, a great holder for the cellphone. Pricey though, around $100 US for all the parts? I may need to go that route though.

[noros]

yes, it is quite pricey but you get what you pay for. The build quality is good.

I have a picture of it mounted on the robot here:

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/android-based-robotics/_H8Zmvbxx-M

[Bill Carter]

Maybe something could be printed. I am looking at this clever pan/tilt device on thingiverse. Looks like it does have support elements that do not depend on the servo shafts.

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:107957

[Ytai Ben-Tsvi]

Only semi-relevant to the original question, but I have an Android watch that I've been wanting to check the IOIO with. It does not have a camera nor USB but otherwise seems to have a bona-fide Android running on it (can work completely standalone from a phone) that should be able to run the IOIO libraries and talk to the IOIO over Bluetooth. But a lot of things work on paper... This one is still waiting proof.

--

[edwin]

Here is what i had before:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qaibTJm5QXk

[Bill Carter]

The phone finally arrived, slowboat from the Netherlands apparently. As I suspected, it is very weak. But even worse, it has so little internal memory (much of which is occupied by bloatware apps that can't be uninstalled) that it doesn't even have enough room to install all the updates to the initial apps, lol. I actually had to reset to factory default after attempting some updates, it didn't even have enough memory left to run the launcher. Also the WiFi radio is very poor, shows only 'fair' signal strength even when it is right next to an access point.

It does require several special USB drivers. I was able to find some, but not the one needed to make it visible to ADB. So I had to post my test applications to a web page that the phone could get to and download/install them that way. It claims to be running Android 4.2 but apparently some things are missing from the Chinese port. Some of my simple apps will install and run - and communicate with the IOIO over bluetooth after a fairly lengthy connection delay. But the more complicated ones will not install. No way to know why, all it says is 'problem parsing the package',  though they do run on other 4.0+ phones. I'll have to write it off as a failed experiment. But it was worth trying.