Does Android offer Dial Up Networking?
 

Take the new Nexus 7.

I am looking at dumping my old (2005) LS800 because it is quite heavy, has a battery life of ~1.5hrs (so needs to be powered during flight), and runs a a bit too warm even with the glued-on fan.

But the LS800, being winXP, does DUN to a standard Hayes modem satellite phone, (Thuraya 7100) via a USB-232 cable. This pic shows the same setup with a little laptop. This is brill for getting a whole pile of met data on a long flight.

Can this be done with an Android tablet?

Also, how much work would it be to write a little app which captures and dumps all touchscreen messages, until terminated by one of the side buttons? For flying, you don't want the touchscreen to be accidentally messed with (another advantage of the LS800, but all the new tablets have this problem). Obviously this can't be done on an Ipad (unless jailbroken) but an Ipad doesn't run half the apps I need to run anyway...

Regarding the phone side of things, could you get a bluetooth enabled satellite phone and connect the tablet via that?

Another good place to ask your questions would be the XDA developers forum.

There are bluetooth satphones indeed but the Thuraya ones (SG-2520 XT) are bug-ridden crap.

Iridium ones are a lot better but the operating cost is ~5x to 10x higher. On T I can fill my boots with tafs and metars for $0.99 (1 minute) :) T offers 9.6k whereas Iridium is 2.4k.

I am aware of more obscure solutions using bluetooth-RS232 adaptors which may be another way but I am looking for something that will always work when you need it, which can't be said for bluetooth :)

I will already be connecting the unit to a bluetooth GPS (which is fed from a rooftop antenna) and IMHO having 2 bluetooth channels concurrently is pushing it :)

This may be of use: HOWTO: tethering with USB/bluetooth DUN - xda-developers

Interesting... many thanks.

The next job is to find out if the Nexus 7 connects to some phone (that definitely supports the DUN USB profile, e.g. a Nokia 6310i) over bluetooth, and whether it offers the DUN option when the bluetooth device is right-clicked on.

Interesting that Android appears to have deliberately clobbered the tethering option. Are google looking to enter into deals with big telcos?

[rant mode]

It is un-necessary to utter the (technically incorrect) statement above when you have to ask......

If I had a penny for every time someone asked me "how much effort/time/money would it be to write/change a little X for/on Y" .... :E

Since you probably don't know how to write Objective-C (assumption made because if you did, you would know the answer to your question), its irrelevant whether or not you (or someone else) can write something for the iPhone.

[/rant mode]

But because I'm feeling nice today :cool:, the answer to your question is....

On linux or windows where you can run high level scripting languages (php,perl,ksh,batch files), its easy as pie if you've got the right sort of data feed (easier on *nix/*nux than windows, but I digress)..... but on something like an iPod/iPad where you need a lower level compiled language.... unless you know how to write it yourself, you're going to have to rely on someone else's skills and time.... which will probably cost you some money unless you meet someone down the pub who's day job involves a bit of programming.

It's not just about writing something... it's about writing something stable, bug-free, that handles exceptions well and is programmed in such a way that it parses your data in a correct and efficient manner (and ideally displays it in a nice pretty output format). So someone's mate who's just worked his way through "<some programming language> for Dummies" is unlikely to do a good job.

Surely this is being looked at from the wrong direction?
You don't want dial up networking. What you want is a phone which can act as a modem/router, allowing connection via bluetooth or wireless.
Plenty of G3 phones do this, presumably some sat phones do?

mixture

I don't want to play you in your own game unnecessarily but how the hell do you get user code (or any code other than an app from the Apple shop) into an IOS device unless it is jailbroken?

FWIW, a colleague of mine who used to develop for a Pocket/PC (Windoze Mobile) device reckoned it would be a few hours' work. But then he was used to writing very low level (block device driver) code for it.

Android is, I assume, very different from WM.

Milo Minderbinder

Well, yes, but there are no bare satphones that do that.

The satcom business is suprisingly behind the times.

The "professional market leader", Iridium, offers 2400 bits/second. Not kidding. This is DUN, no "network" connection like GPRS or 3G. But you get worldwide coverage.

Thuraya offer DUN at 9600 bits/sec (you dial 1722 to get their "in-house ISP") and they also offer a version of GPRS which gives you about 20-40 kbits/sec (and you dial *99# as usual to get the connection) but my tests showed it to be reliable in 2009 and crap ever since, and being Arabs and with the apparent target market being the millions of semi-nomadic Beduins (sorry, but this is what their adverts show) they probably can't see why they should fix a service mostly used by the infidels :)

There are "boxes" which use dial-up satphones to provide (essentially) a WIFI access point. This is for the "not quite downmarket" yachting (sub £1M gin palace) community where, obviously, you must have WIFI on the boat. But I don't want yet another "box", and WIFI involves quite high power which is something else to consider in a GA cockpit...

For £100k+ you can get airborne and marine fast broadband solutions... I think they are mostly Immarsat ($$$$$$).

Seen this??
Its another box, but its cheap
also can be run off 12V or a battery

Optimizer Satellite Phone Wifi Hotspot Firewall and Router - Wxa-102 - 9555 Phone Accessories - Iridium

"Compatible Satellite Phones and Terminals:

Inmarsat BGAN
Inmarsat FleetBroadband
Inmarsat Fleet Phones
Iridium 9555, Extreme (9575) USB Phones
Iridium OpenPort
Inmarsat IsatPhone Pro
Iridium 9500, 9505, 9505a, 9522 serial port phones (requires USB to Serial Adapter)
Globalstar GSP-1600, GSP-1700, GSP-2900
Thuraya IP
VSAT
OR, any LAN/WAN based Internet connection "

Never used it (or even heard of it before) so can't comment on it





I see what you mean about the cost of kit from Iridium.
Ironic when you consider that was intended as a low cost solution...

Yes; that was one of the boxes I referred to earlier.

Saw this today. Would it work for the DUN side of things, as well as being windows based, light, fully featured, supposedly decent battery life and with USB onboard?

Being Windoze, yes that would work.

IMHO it's pretty brave of Dell to come out with a Windows tablet. They must have some specialised vertical markets in mind.

"it's pretty brave of Dell to come out with a Windows tablet"

I think you'll find that M$ probably threatened to increase the price Dell pay for Windoze if they didn't......