Okay. So I don't feel like spending stupid (sorry) amounts of money for old tech, so I'm not gonna buy an iPad Mini whatever number. I want to have a GPS onboard without the Cupertino extortionists saying, "Oh, GPS. Sure that'll be another $130." I want fast processors, RAM, and storage. Plus bright. I want a bright. screen. It also has to fit the phone brackets on the controller. (Which basically comes down to me being a total cheapskate and cranky.)
So I got a Brand New 8" Samsung Galaxy S2 T713 (yes, that one. the one everybody warns against getting.)
And boy does it suck.
The new ones are running Samsung's Nougat offering which has that little USB issue where everything goes belly up if you don't do things in just the right order. If the sacrifice isn't sufficient. Or if you glance away while it's trying to connect. It also had the interesting property of just disconnecting and providing me with the flashing Use DJI GO 4 when this USB appliance is connected? message. That's exciting. Particularly with me being a total Noob.
I had read something about the T710 (pre-2016) S2 being a more stable implementation so I tried to roll back the OS to Lollipop (not supported on the hardware) so I settled on Marshmallow. Which was indeed more stable EXCEPT now if I glanced away the S2 would immediately try and update itself to the horrid and wobbly Nougat that Samsung is passing off as a fine user experience.
So I figured I'd root it and see if I could get rid of enough stuff to make it even better.
And I bricked it.
So a couple more hours of punching arcane button combinations allowed me to flash in a boot partition and get to the Device Text Menu (something whose existence I was unaware of until today) and got the thing back to Marshmallow where, as you might have figured, it immediately tried to upgrade itself to Nougat.
I thought I caught it in time but once the smoke cleared and I went to boot into download mode I saw the little Android whatever character telling me it was updating and then it fell over dead (Really, X's for eyes and a really alarming red exclamation point.
I bricked it again.
Another couple of hours and (this time) I just reinstalled the image for Nougat, let it try and update itself and finish. Yay!
So now stable-ish again. I flashed in the TWRP bootloader, flashed in LineageOS 14.1 (another Nougat variant), and flashed in some Google apps.
Yay!
What a sweet ride. Very tight, amazingly stable, no junk or bloatware. And, it runs Go 4 like it was made for it. No more flashy-flashy. No more random disconnects. No more start-up rituals. Unplug the controller and jack it back in. No problem. Turn off the controller and turn it back on without turning off the S2. No problem.
It's just really nice. Highly recommended.
So total cost was $249 bucks from Samsung. Two hours to do the new OS and configure everything. Plus about six hours to get over being stoopid.
So I got a Brand New 8" Samsung Galaxy S2 T713 (yes, that one. the one everybody warns against getting.)
And boy does it suck.
The new ones are running Samsung's Nougat offering which has that little USB issue where everything goes belly up if you don't do things in just the right order. If the sacrifice isn't sufficient. Or if you glance away while it's trying to connect. It also had the interesting property of just disconnecting and providing me with the flashing Use DJI GO 4 when this USB appliance is connected? message. That's exciting. Particularly with me being a total Noob.
I had read something about the T710 (pre-2016) S2 being a more stable implementation so I tried to roll back the OS to Lollipop (not supported on the hardware) so I settled on Marshmallow. Which was indeed more stable EXCEPT now if I glanced away the S2 would immediately try and update itself to the horrid and wobbly Nougat that Samsung is passing off as a fine user experience.
So I figured I'd root it and see if I could get rid of enough stuff to make it even better.
And I bricked it.
So a couple more hours of punching arcane button combinations allowed me to flash in a boot partition and get to the Device Text Menu (something whose existence I was unaware of until today) and got the thing back to Marshmallow where, as you might have figured, it immediately tried to upgrade itself to Nougat.
I thought I caught it in time but once the smoke cleared and I went to boot into download mode I saw the little Android whatever character telling me it was updating and then it fell over dead (Really, X's for eyes and a really alarming red exclamation point.
I bricked it again.
Another couple of hours and (this time) I just reinstalled the image for Nougat, let it try and update itself and finish. Yay!
So now stable-ish again. I flashed in the TWRP bootloader, flashed in LineageOS 14.1 (another Nougat variant), and flashed in some Google apps.
Yay!
What a sweet ride. Very tight, amazingly stable, no junk or bloatware. And, it runs Go 4 like it was made for it. No more flashy-flashy. No more random disconnects. No more start-up rituals. Unplug the controller and jack it back in. No problem. Turn off the controller and turn it back on without turning off the S2. No problem.
It's just really nice. Highly recommended.
So total cost was $249 bucks from Samsung. Two hours to do the new OS and configure everything. Plus about six hours to get over being stoopid.