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Recommended Hardware For Optimal Practiscore Use?


RolexJohn

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Advice needed from MD's using Practiscore. We've had an insane amount of problems trying to get our matches set up, run, and uploaded to Practiscore - much stress. A big part of the problem is hardware related. Can anyone recommend tablets which work well?
 
1. Must have BRIGHT displays
2. Must have battery life to make it through a match.
3. Must not be temperature sensitive - we run matches in Ohio year round.
4. Must be proven to not have any compatibility issues with Practiscore.
 
Let's see the recommendations!
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We used the kindle fire. And I had an iPad as a master. The kindles would last the match and were bright enough to get the job done. I kept a cord and a battery jump pack with me just in case one got close. We always finished he matches.  Typically ran about 120 rounds and 48 shooters per match. So twelve shooters per squad per tab 

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Nooks for the score collection at the stages, there cheep will run all week on a charge and are easy to read.
For master I prefer a large android tablet, (latest is a samsung tab10.1)I like the UI better than the apple program and really love the red-green mark on the shooters list after syncing all the stage devices so I can easily spot any missing scores or walk-ons that need to be merged.
Then an I device of some sort for creating the uspsa upload file.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Tapatalk


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IPad as the master device for sure.  But I'm also partial to using iPads for each squad.

We started out with Nook NSTs for the squads, which was fine for the first few years.  Easy to read even in sunlight, seemed durable given the amount of use (we also do weekly SC matches 5-6 months/year), and synced just fine with the iPad master.  But Nooks don't seem to like the cold and really don't like dust or wet.  

So last year I started buying used/refurbished gen 2 iPads as replacements for the Nooks.  Seems better with all the benefits of the Nooks and less of the short-comings, tho we had to tell people to put the iPads to sleep between shooters or we start running low of go-juice by the end of a 7-8 stage match.  We did have one iPad screen break when somebody tossed it into the squad bucket from across the bay, but replaced the glass in-house by one of our more IT-oriented shooters for less than $20 + his time.  

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Interesting.   We've seen very odd errors when using iOS devices (which typically act as the Master).  Penalty types mysteriously changing after synching...that sort of thing.  We're using some sort of Kindle devices now - I'm not sure how old they are. 

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1 hour ago, 2MoreChains said:

So last year I started buying used/refurbished gen 2 iPads as replacements for the Nooks...

Something to be aware of... The ipad 2 already can't be updated to latest ios 10. But the bigger issue is that Apple forces developers to move to latest dev tools in order to post updated apps to the app store and those new tools generally can't build app for the old devices. So, within 2..3 years (not really something developers can control) you won't be able to update PS on ipads 2. I think some of the yearly ipods used to run PS and some 1st gen ipads are already off the grid. Though people who running them had they worth of the money already.

Edited by euxx
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Thx for the heads up, Euxx.  Already seen it with a couple iPad 1's that we are retiring this year b/c we can only go up to iOS 5-something.  Bummer on iPad 2s but if I can get 3 years out of them I'll probably be fine with that.  But that also depends on how long PS will be supported on iOS 9, right?  I was planning on buying a few more iPads this year, maybe I'll start looking at used iPad 3's.  Good tip.   

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I use Nook Simple Touch, iPad Mini's and a full size iPad as the master. The Nooks have the best bright light visibility but most people keeping score prefer the larger screen of the iPad Mini. Battery life sucks on the iPads though.

 

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23 hours ago, euxx said:

Anyone tried Nook GlowLight Plus yet? http://www.barnesandnoble.com/mobile/w/nook-glowlight-plus-barnes-noble/1122314015

It also has e-ink display and it is waterproof. You should be able to side load android apps using adb and usb cable. Some info here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=3230323

If someone can get that figured out for a easy root then I think we have a winner,

getting rain on the screen is the biggest issue I have with the NST, luckily we don't have much dust at our range.

 

 

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We have a plenty of other tablets at a comparable price or cheaper. But this one is a waterproof eink tablet. If that makes no difference to you, by all means, get the other one.

The battery life and visibility in bright sun supposedly non comparable. And it is still half the price of ipad mini.

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On 11/19/2016 at 3:57 PM, euxx said:

We have a plenty of other tablets at a comparable price or cheaper. But this one is a waterproof eink tablet. If that makes no difference to you, by all means, get the other one.

The battery life and visibility in bright sun supposedly non comparable. And it is still half the price of ipad mini.

Just tossing out an additional possibility that caught my eye as it was from B&N and made me wonder about the future of their e-ink devices. Nothing else implied or inferred, and you don't have to mess with the android developer stuff to get the app onto it. Happy Thanksgiving! :)

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I'm just pointing out the differences. It is not the first B&N tablet either - they had Samsung-branded one some time ago (if I recall correctly was at a higher price). Don't have to mess - true. But then we have even cheaper Kindle for over a year now. Kindles work out of the box too and from my stats they are second in popularity to Samsungs between PS users (at least for those who have their devices connected to internet).

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36 minutes ago, euxx said:

I'm just pointing out the differences. It is not the first B&N tablet either - they had Samsung-branded one some time ago (if I recall correctly was at a higher price). Don't have to mess - true. But then we have even cheaper Kindle for over a year now. Kindles work out of the box too and from my stats they are second in popularity to Samsungs between PS users (at least for those who have their devices connected to internet).

Aaahhhh!!! Spyware reporting back to the mothership, invading everyone's privacy! Get the torches and pitchforks out, people.

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Sure, sure... Let me assure you, most big apps you have installed are doing that. But this is how we get early reports on app failures and crashes, all anonymous. In the past, some of the crashes were fixed even before users emailed to us. We switched to automated reporting after number of devices didn't have email or any other apps configured or even installed. Aggregation by device type is just a free metric.

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I can't really comment much on specific hardware. Simply don't have access to all of them. I did seen that some users liked the cheap Kindles. From the common sense, the HD model has better screen and overall is a more expensive device, it supposed to be better. For most part, compare battery capacity and see which ones will fit your budget better.

Last weekend we run 6 squads (about an hour each) every day on Samsung devices. Batteries were down to about 40%. One thing I'd like to have all devices the same, it is easier to manage them.

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I just saw this thread, and thought I would add some other options.
I use a pc laptop with remix os (Android) on a usb stick running practiscore.
I like the use of my normal laptop with the keyboard.
I have an Android tablet as backup.
We use nook simple touch for the steel challenge matches.
In steel challenge times are entered with the automatic decimal point.
Very handy.
The Nooks with the newest practiscore can update the app
without a memory card inserted. Very handy.
The IDPA matches run in our area use I pads for master and
Kindles for scoring.

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