COMPLETED - Testing Portable Dev Work System

[granz]

Well, this is something that I have been thinking about for several years. A few months ago, I rescued many Lenovo tablets (TB-X104F) from my e-Waste site. I finally got the time to set one up for dev work. The idea is to put one of these into my Portable Workstation - Notebook (https://zappbots.altervista.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=327) and other development systems.



It was actually pretty simple: just connect the tablet through a OTG adapter and USB cable to my dev board. The terminal program that I am using is Serial USB Terminal (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.kai_morich.serial_usb_terminal&hl=en_US), but any terminal program should work. This board is the one being used in my Handheld Computer (https://savagechats.com/index.php?topic=295.0) system. You can see that the TEXT 1,1,"Hello" line (third from the bottom in the photo) has actually put the "Hello" onto the LCD panel.

There are some other development systems out there: ArduinoDroid (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=name.antonsmirnov.android.arduinodroid2&hl=en_US) for example. There are probably others for PIC, Propeller, BASIC Stamps, TI MSPs and others, but, since PicoMite is my device of choice, I have not tried them. Try locating Android tools for your device of choice, or load an onboard language onto the microcontroller like PicoMite BASIC is on the Raspberry Pi Pico and work through a terminal emulator program.

It was pretty cool being able to control my PicoMite from the tablet, but I have never liked these types of terminal programs. I came from the early days where our terminals were either ASR-33s, or our "glass teletype" (possibly a Hazeltine terminal, or something similar.) To me, the terminal program should have my typing intertwined with the output from the microcontroller, or whatever. I've never been able to get used to having my input text located separate from the output text. Beyond my personal preferences, I'm not sure if (or even how) the onboard BASIC editor would work. The editor uses a subset of the VT-100 terminal codes, and it seems to me that that could not work with this Serial USB Terminal. So, while it works for single line commands to a PicoMite, before I put this into more elaborate use, I will need to find a VT-100 emulator for this Lenovo tablet.

BTW - if any of my friends are interested in one, or three, of these tablets, let me know. The things seem to work well (I will test that they can boot, and reset them to factory default,) but the battery seems to be hit or miss. They take a charge, but my wife's first of these tablets burned through the charge quickly (maybe 30 minutes? she just leaves it plugged into the charger when she wants to use it for more than a few minutes) but her second one seems to go for a few hours. I have not noticed any troubles with my tablet.

[Chris Savage]

BTW - if any of my friends are interested in one, or three, of these tablets, let me know.

Just how many of these things do you have? This is a 10" tablet? I maybe interested in one, or three! LOL

[JKnightandKARR]

BTW - if any of my friends are interested in one, or three, of these tablets, let me know.

Just how many of these things do you have? This is a 10" tablet? I maybe interested in one, or three! LOL

This might be specs for it.
https://www.devicespecifications.com/en/model/fca74c48

[granz]

They are, as mentioned above, Lenovo TB-X104F tablets. The actual Lenovo page for them is:
https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/tablets/android-tablets/lenovo-tab-series/lenovo-tab-e10/zzitztatb9x?srsltid=AfmBOoq9_Ujkq2DfrXbTD3r2dFbq2PCaL5whUMfiI5Td8x_KGoYzcGwZ
When you open that page, it will complain that they don't sell those tablets, just close that warning window, and it will give you the specs, and other stuff.

I don't know what the difference is between that page, and the one that you posted, Joe - I didn't see any difference at first glance.

[Chris Savage]

Well, I don't know how many you have available. But I would be interested in two. 

[granz]

Well, I don't know how many you have available. But I would be interested in two. 

I'm not really sure how many I have left, but it originally was probably near 75 to 100. Apparently a church, or some other organization, had them set up to boot directly into a bingo program, and either quit or upgraded. They were easy to reset to factory default, though. A few have been given away (BTW, Marilyn thanks you for taking some.  ) So, I still have most of them.

PM with tracking info sent.

They were already packed up last night, so you get what you get (WYSIWYG.  )

[JKnightandKARR]

They are, as mentioned above, Lenovo TB-X104F tablets. The actual Lenovo page for them is:
https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/tablets/android-tablets/lenovo-tab-series/lenovo-tab-e10/zzitztatb9x?srsltid=AfmBOoq9_Ujkq2DfrXbTD3r2dFbq2PCaL5whUMfiI5Td8x_KGoYzcGwZ
When you open that page, it will complain that they don't sell those tablets, just close that warning window, and it will give you the specs, and other stuff.

I don't know what the difference is between that page, and the one that you posted, Joe - I didn't see any difference at first glance.

I found a page that was supposed to be it, but said they didn't have specs for their own tablets. Lol I'd get one, but not sure if I'd be use to me. As it is, I'd like to replace my 32Gb Samsung tablet with one with much larger storage....

[granz]

I found a page that was supposed to be it, but said they didn't have specs for their own tablets. Lol I'd get one, but not sure if I'd be use to me. As it is, I'd like to replace my 32Gb Samsung tablet with one with much larger storage....

Apparently they are still being sold - $138 at this page: https://www.pcnation.com/lenovo-za470006us-8hg147?srsltid=AfmBOopbG27m9OGh8WOMZhu4AsIrc0cjT2kQyGi2PB6p1vPTKZZI-ESf. That page also shows the specs for this tablet: 2GB RAM, and 16GB flash, plus it has an SD slot (under the blue plastic cover.)

So, you don't want this if you need more than 32GB flash, especially if you want much more than the 32GB.

[JKnightandKARR]

I found a page that was supposed to be it, but said they didn't have specs for their own tablets. Lol I'd get one, but not sure if I'd be use to me. As it is, I'd like to replace my 32Gb Samsung tablet with one with much larger storage....

Apparently they are still being sold - $138 at this page: https://www.pcnation.com/lenovo-za470006us-8hg147?srsltid=AfmBOopbG27m9OGh8WOMZhu4AsIrc0cjT2kQyGi2PB6p1vPTKZZI-ESf. That page also shows the specs for this tablet: 2GB RAM, and 16GB flash, plus it has an SD slot (under the blue plastic cover.)

So, you don't want this if you need more than 32GB flash, especially if you want much more than the 32GB.

My tablet has almost NO space and there is NOT much on it...

[Chris Savage]

PM with tracking info sent. They were already packed up last night, so you get what you get (WYSIWYG.  )

My package arrived and I am most grateful, sir! Thank you!

[granz]

PM with tracking info sent. They were already packed up last night, so you get what you get (WYSIWYG.  )

My package arrived and I am most grateful, sir! Thank you!

I hope you enjoy them (and maybe get some good use out of them, too.  )

[Chris Savage]

I hope you enjoy them (and maybe get some good use out of them, too.  )

One is for my wife who has a 7" tablet that has a cracked screen and she plays some simple games on it. The screen has a spider-web crack and it very difficult to use, but she still does. A co-worker who works on Arduino projects with me was interested too. I have the correct charging / data cables, so I will set Valerie up tomorrow.