Using a Phone Like a Pi

Type ?android exploits? into Google.

Surprisingly, there does appear to be gforth for Android:

However I'm not sure how well it will play with the phone UI - does it use the Android widgets or do you have to build all of that yourself?

Otherwise I'd suggest implementing your control logic on, say, a Pi and having the tablet talk to it via wifi - simplest would be a web interface. Any tablet you buy will have a web browser so you can treat them as completely interchangeable. The Pi running the control logic and web server is where the application does most of its work and talks to whatever hardware you need.

You might get away with a more basic microcontroller instead of a Pi, but running a wifi/TLS/etc stack on those is a bit of a pain. Maybe an ESP8266 would suffice, but it's quite limited especially when doing TLS.

You could go Bluetooth or USB device instead, but the downside is there's more risk it will be incompatible with future tablets in some way.

Theo

Why surprisingly? I've downloaded it but not done anything with it yet.

Why is a pi needed at all? I don't follow.

Wow! I remember years ago, back when trade magazines were paper, an article talked about how much MCUs were shrinking and that we may have Linux on a chip at some point. That is essentially what a pi is. But running a non-realtime OS is not the way to go when doing low level hardware I/O. It's ok to play with the pi and make things go ding and flash lights, but a tiny MCU is much more appropriate for most things. I'm pretty sure I mentioned that previously. The sensor will have an MCU and communicate with the phone via bluetooth as long as it is reliable. I've had trouble with bluetooth on every PC I've ever had. But it seems to work ok phone to earpiece anyway.

I also read that phones can have TTL level serial ports on the USB connector, so that might be an option as well.

Why? Use of standard interfaces seem like the low risk approach to me.

Nobody. Nothing about your original post said *anything* about what you planned on doing, or if you planned on doing anything at all. All you did was point to a cheap tablet and ask people to compare it to using a RPi. That?s what people are doing, and it?s a very trollish response to cop an attitude like we?re doing something wrong when we point out the strengths *we* see in using an RPi.

Well good for you, I guess, but that has nothing to do with using a tablet vs. an RPi. Or do you imagine these cheap Android tablets are built to offer that ?bare metal? experience you?re looking for? Time to reconnect with reality.

Doc O'Leary wrote on 12/19/2017 9:45 PM:

I have no idea what you are talking about. I thought my explanations have been abundantly clear. Perhaps you should go back and review the thread. It's not all that long.

It's typical dickman posting style. Ask a question about a subject he has limited knowledge about then kick the crap out of everyone who replies pointing out how and *why* they would do it differently. He is incapable of asking a question and being civil in return. He went in the plonk-file some considerable time back for this behaviour and so I only see his comments when he gets quoted. I haven't seen any change in behaviour to warrant his release.

Then your reading comprehension is quite low. I directly addressed the specifics of ?Using a Phone Like a Pi?, when you seem to want to have nothing to do with the topic you yourself raised. So get your thinking straight. If you want to talk bare metal, talk bare metal in a different thread.

Nobody said they weren?t. They *also* were clearly and abundantly trollish. If that was not your intent, the burden is on *you* to tell us how *you* are using low-end tablets as a platform for things, and then ideally how they perform better than an RPi for those things. But, like I said, that would not be surprising at all, because there are many problems that can be solved with an app and/or some small bit of hardware that interfaces with a mobile device.

Doc O'Leary wrote on 12/20/2017 1:48 PM:

No, you started on a tangent of modifying the phone hardware. I said I wouldn't use the rPi for low level hardware control either, you accuse *me* of going off on a tangent.

You seem to have anger management issues. You can always ignore the parts of my posts you don't like.

You know the best way to handle a troll, right? DON"T REPLY!!!!

If you want to discuss the topic, read what I have written, then come back and be civil. You clearly have not read the thread.

No, I simply mentioned that one of the strengths of using an RPi is that it allows hardware interfaces beyond what most mobile devices support. That?s not a tangent at all; if you wanted the topic to be about *your* personal tastes, you would have given more details in the original post.

There?s no anger in my simple statements. You?re projecting.

I wasn?t sure you were a troll rather than someone who has a bit of a muddled mind that needed correcting. Are you outright admitting to trolling the group? You certainly don?t seem that interested in using an RPi for anything, or really even a cheap mobile device. If you can?t get back on topic even when prompted to do so, I?ll be happy to killfile you.

Please take this to email, no one else is interested.

---druck

Doc O'Leary wrote on 12/21/2017 1:01 PM:

From your first post here...

"Simple" statements like "your reading comprehension is quite low" and "clearly and abundantly trollish". All the while the problem was that you couldn't be bothered to have read the thread!

I wish you had long ago. I won't be responding further. I have made my points.