SAMSUNG GALAXY TAB 3 using External HD and Antenna

rbraddock

Observer
As an anniversary present my wife bought me a Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 (7.0) with 3G/4G. I haven't opened yet will this evening when I get home from work, but I do have several questions:

1. I am looking at getting BCN or AlpineQuest to use for off-road mapping. Given the size of the files, I am curious if anyone has hooked up a powered External HD via USB OTG, WIFI, or BT to store the maps. Is this possible with the hardware and software?

2. Is the internal GPS antenna enough? I have read mixed reviews and I am considering forking out the coin to get an external antenna (BT or USB) to mount on the roof rack. What are your thoughts?

3. I will be mounting the Tab in the Tacoma on a RAM mount and will hardwire the charging circuit leaving just a USB pigtail on the mount. Since I am doing this, is it possible to get the USB OTG and just attach it to the mount and wire the peripherals (i.e. antenna, HD)?

Any other suggestions, comments, concerns appreciated. Thanks in advance for you knowledge and help.

Randy
 

barlowrs

Explorer
I have a galaxy note 2 7" tab that I run as my primary GPS in my rig. I use copilot for turn to turn navigation on streets and backcountry for topos and offroad nav (both require no data). The main perk that sold me on the galaxy note was the fact that it has an SD card slot, so I can throw a 64 gig card in there, or carry multiple with different map sets and use them all. I would assume the new Tab 3 still has an external SD car slot no?

As far as on board GPS, it has never given me any issues, it will get me to within a few feet of where I really am usually.

Not sure what you are asking for #3. Mine is hard mounted in my rig, it is always plugged in and charging (unless I remove the tablet to DL maps, or take it into camp for some reason or another). She works great being hard mounted.
 

ert01

Adventurer
I have the Samsung tab 2 so mine isn't the exact same as yours but here's my take on it:

1) I use the micro sd card for storage of maps. 32gb is plenty.

2) internal antenna works good. I have my unit dash mounted inside my jeep XJ.

3) look at the proclip mounts rather then the ram mounts. You can find really nice mounts with hard wired power to fit almost any vehicle. I'm VERY happy with my proclip.
 

rbraddock

Observer
Here is an example for #3

images


While this is not the best picture, the idea is to mount the OTG on the back of the RAM mount and have peripherals (HDD, antenna, camera, etc.) plugged in to it and the cable from the OTG to the TAB available to allow me to remove the TAB and take it with me. I am concerned that if I download a bunch of maps to SD cards I will lose them, but if I had an external hard drive mounted in say the space under the center console I would have all the space I need for maps. Just thinking and haven't actually played with the TAB so my concerns about filesize may be unwarranted.
 

Finlay

Triarius
For BCN on my Tab7-2, I just used the SD card and that works great. The Accuterra maps for most of western Colorado weigh in at about 20 gigs, so a 64GB card is plenty large enough and hassle free.

One tip, though - when you format the card, use a PC and change the cluster size from the default of 128K to 16k or 32k. The downloads are much more space efficient that way. This is because if the filesystem has an allocation size of 128k, even a file that is 1k in size will consume the entire 128k cluster - and a file that is 129k will consume two 128k clusters. Most of the tiles used in BCN are about 25k in size - so with a default 128k cluster size that wastes 100k per tile - and there are many, many tiles.

The downside is that filesystem checks will take longer - and Android does that on external devices at every boot. With roughly 35 gigs of map data, the card on my system is not ready for about an hour. I would expect that to be less on your system, given that it is much faster.

I've had no issues at all with the internal GPS. I can't imagine that it has gotten worse in the newer revision. Anyway, I'd hold off on buying another antenna unless you had performance issues.
 

rbraddock

Observer
Thank you all for the quick responses.

And the Proclips look awesome, had never heard of them. I'm thinking the console mount and hardwired cradle may be in the near future.
 

barlowrs

Explorer
I am using the RAM mount right now, I have it mounted where my rear view mirror normally is (with flippac and loaded tire gate, I never used review mirror). The RAM mount does work great, though I have never tried anything else. I keep my tab in an otterbox since I do take it out in the field sometimes, so the RAM mount allows for that
 

ert01

Adventurer
Thank you all for the quick responses.

And the Proclips look awesome, had never heard of them. I'm thinking the console mount and hardwired cradle may be in the near future.

I was originally worried about the way the pro clip mounts to the vehicle and I was afraid it would squeak or rattle or move but it is a very solid mount. It makes for a very tidy and clean installation.
 

rbraddock

Observer
I have been playing with my new tab for the last few hours. Downloaded BCN AlpineQuest and pdf maps. Still trying to learn all this new stuff


Sent from my SM-T217S using Tapatalk
 

Vermonster

Observer
I have been playing with my new tab for the last few hours. Downloaded BCN AlpineQuest and pdf maps. Still trying to learn all this new stuff


Sent from my SM-T217S using Tapatalk

Did you get the OTG cable working on the 7" Tab3? I"ve been told it doesn't work on the 7" but does on the 8" and 10". This is a change from the Tab2.
 

rbraddock

Observer
Did you get the OTG cable working on the 7" Tab3? I"ve been told it doesn't work on the 7" but does on the 8" and 10". This is a change from the Tab2.

No I opted not to get the OTG or HDD based on the input here. Right now I am just trying to learn how the software works and deciding what I like better; much to learn.

Sent from my SM-T217S using Tapatalk
 

JimBiram

Adventurer
I had some GPS issues inside my truck due to defroster wires in the glass, so I got a xgps150 bluetooth, which communicates really well with the Tab3. There is some configuration that you have to do to allow the xgps to deliver the location information. But once configured it is very accurate. So far my Back Country Navigator has used up most of my 32 gb memory card, so I may have to get a larger one to store more maps. But BCN has lots of map choices and works well both for tracking locations but also to view topo maps. I tried the other programs but so far BCN seems to work the best.
 

Forum statistics

Threads
185,527
Messages
2,875,534
Members
224,922
Latest member
Randy Towles
Top