Two Android Orbiters - pros and cons ?

[bulek]

Hi,

I first express gratitude to both authors of Android Orbiters. But when one has to choose, would like to compare them. I'm new to Android and would kindly ask if someone with better insight can give some comparison on wiki between two Android Orbiters.

BTW, I also have problem downloading Orbiter from los93sol , cause link in forum thread doesn't work... In SVN there are 3 binaries and no info which one to use...

Thanks in advance,
regards,
Bulek.

[Marie.O]

Unfortunately, the two devs did not really joined forces, so a lot of energy was wasted.

los93sol's orbiter was suppose to be more advanced.

darrenmason's orbiter was the only one I got to work.

[darrenmason]

Hi,

At the end of the day the actual TouchOrbiter part of it is extremely similar. I built a basic version modelled on a standard touchorbiter (ie: Display the image from the server and send back touch events). The main aim was to get something working realiably and for it to be functional. I have what is quite a relative primitive Android phone comapred to what is now available (HTC Tattoo) so I built it for that and figured it would therefore work fine on all other platforms. It is built with android 1.5 libraries so should work on any device.

los93sol and I have discussed a few aspects and I have looked at both sets of code. There is little value in merging them at the moment and Adam was concentrating more on streamlining the user setup experience. So he has spent a lot of effort in wizards and server side setup so that it is easier for users to setup. Whereas I have assumed that you setup the server side yourself (by adding a weborbiter) and just point the software at that setup.

There has been a couple of requests for some small enhancements to the code and I will look at doing those shortly but in the meantime the code should be working and once you are setup it should be reliable.

I am not sure what state los93sol's code is in but hopefully it will get polished up and working as it was looking good, but I know he had other things on as well.

If you cannot get my one working, let me know as I will fix it but as it currently stands it should work fine.

Regards
Darren

[totallymaxed]

Hi,

At the end of the day the actual TouchOrbiter part of it is extremely similar. I built a basic version modelled on a standard touchorbiter (ie: Display the image from the server and send back touch events). The main aim was to get something working realiably and for it to be functional. I have what is quite a relative primitive Android phone comapred to what is now available (HTC Tattoo) so I built it for that and figured it would therefore work fine on all other platforms. It is built with android 1.5 libraries so should work on any device.

los93sol and I have discussed a few aspects and I have looked at both sets of code. There is little value in merging them at the moment and Adam was concentrating more on streamlining the user setup experience. So he has spent a lot of effort in wizards and server side setup so that it is easier for users to setup. Whereas I have assumed that you setup the server side yourself (by adding a weborbiter) and just point the software at that setup.

There has been a couple of requests for some small enhancements to the code and I will look at doing those shortly but in the meantime the code should be working and once you are setup it should be reliable.

I am not sure what state los93sol's code is in but hopefully it will get polished up and working as it was looking good, but I know he had other things on as well.

If you cannot get my one working, let me know as I will fix it but as it currently stands it should work fine.

Regards
Darren

Your Andoid Touch Orbiter App is working well here - we use it everyday and I use it regularly in demo's too. Currently we have it running on a range of phones running Android 2.1 and 2.2. I personally am using it on my Samsung Galaxy Mini under Android 2.2 (I expect an update to 2.3 any day now) and it is working really well. The only limitation is down to the Samsung Mini's small 320x240 screen size and clearly the App can't be blamed for this lol!

I will probably upgrade my phone to a Samsung Galaxy Ace which has a somewhat better resolution screen of 480x320 in about a weeks time and i will report back on the experience once i have.

The App is fast and totally stable too... nice work!

All the best


Andrew

[klovell]

Has anyone used one of these on a DroidX? 

The orbiter works great on my wife's Samsung Galaxy on both the old and new versions of android.  I have a droidX and the orbiter crashes when I switch the phone from portrait to landscape but works fine from landscape to portrait.  It only works fine if I start the app in landscape or portrait and I don't switch.  Once in a while it'll stop responding to my requests (if I push a button nothing will happen).  I realized this is mostly when I turn wifi on or off while the app is running so no big deal there.  I've already wiped my phone for other reasons and I thought this would be a residual fix but it wasn't.

Anyone having issues with the orbiter crashing on other android devices?  Not a huge issue but I saw this thread and figured I'd ask.

[totallymaxed]

Has anyone used one of these on a DroidX? 

The orbiter works great on my wife's Samsung Galaxy on both the old and new versions of android.  I have a droidX and the orbiter crashes when I switch the phone from portrait to landscape but works fine from landscape to portrait.  It only works fine if I start the app in landscape or portrait and I don't switch.  Once in a while it'll stop responding to my requests (if I push a button nothing will happen).  I realized this is mostly when I turn wifi on or off while the app is running so no big deal there.  I've already wiped my phone for other reasons and I thought this would be a residual fix but it wasn't.

Anyone having issues with the orbiter crashing on other android devices?  Not a huge issue but I saw this thread and figured I'd ask.

We've no experience with the DroidX. But we have it on an HTC Wildfire, HTC Hero and Samsung Galaxy Mini (all under Android 2.1 and 2.2) and have not seen any issues with the transition from landscape to portrait or with Wifi (at least not that I have witnessed or been informed about).

Anyone else with a DroidX?

All the best


Andrew

[purps]

Has anyone used one of these on a DroidX? 

The orbiter works great on my wife's Samsung Galaxy on both the old and new versions of android.  I have a droidX and the orbiter crashes when I switch the phone from portrait to landscape but works fine from landscape to portrait.  It only works fine if I start the app in landscape or portrait and I don't switch.  Once in a while it'll stop responding to my requests (if I push a button nothing will happen).  I realized this is mostly when I turn wifi on or off while the app is running so no big deal there.  I've already wiped my phone for other reasons and I thought this would be a residual fix but it wasn't.

Anyone having issues with the orbiter crashing on other android devices?  Not a huge issue but I saw this thread and figured I'd ask.

darrenmason's latest touch orbiter has an option for locking it to landscape. Sorted

Cheers,
Matt.

[klovell]

darrenmason's latest touch orbiter has an option for locking it to landscape. Sorted

Cheers,
Matt.

WHAT!?! I thought I had the latest version.  I'm assuming this option is under settings, correct?  I'm going to look for the newer version right now.

[klovell]

darrenmason's latest touch orbiter has an option for locking it to landscape. Sorted

Cheers,
Matt.

Purps you're the man!  I must have missed the post with the link to the latest version.  Landscape is locked and it vibrates when I make a selection! Darrenmason, you're the man also!

[darrenmason]

Out of interest - with this version and not locking it to Landscape - does it still crash on rotate? I made a couple of little changes that I thought might fix it but I couldn't replicate the problem with any hardware I had or the emulator.

[totallymaxed]

Out of interest - with this version and not locking it to Landscape - does it still crash on rotate? I made a couple of little changes that I thought might fix it but I couldn't replicate the problem with any hardware I had or the emulator.

Rotate is working fine for us here... just did a straw poll and no one reporting any issues.

All the best


Andrew

[klovell]

Out of interest - with this version and not locking it to Landscape - does it still crash on rotate? I made a couple of little changes that I thought might fix it but I couldn't replicate the problem with any hardware I had or the emulator.

look at that... it's not crashing on rotate anymore.  I think you fixed it.  I'm going to leave it locked to landscape though. 

I also noticed with this version that the orbiter remains open after the screen locks.  After I unlock the screen instead of going back to my home screen I'm presented with the orbiter.  I LOVE THAT!!

You're the man! Thanks for all hard work.

[marrandy]

Unfortunately, the two devs did not really joined forces, so a lot of energy was wasted.

los93sol's orbiter was suppose to be more advanced.

darrenmason's orbiter was the only one I got to work.

Ref:-

http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=11547.msg81721#msg81721


I'm on linuxmce 10.04 with current updates.

I just downloaded the orbiter from the provided link to my Droid (original) phone running Android 2.2.2

http://svn.linuxmce.org/trac.cgi/browser/people/darrenmason/AndroidTouchOrbiter/bin/AndroidTouchOrbiter.apk

I set the wireless to my .80 router, it picked up an IP address at 192.168.80.249

I can login to the admin at 192.168.80.1

I get a blank screen and when I click refresh, I get  'Connection Failed'

Did I miss something    As I don't see any other directions.

Regards...Martin

[klovell]

Did you create the proxy orbiter on the core?

[marrandy]

No.  There were no install/configure directions or links to install/configure directions with the app.

So its a manual config as opposed to the automagical config.

I will check into it.

Like I said...

"Did I miss something    As I don't see any other directions."