an Android "touchbuddy" button box ???

chip · Oct 14, 2011

I remember when pgrande busted out his touchscreen button box using touchhbuddy. Totally cool!

I'm not a programmer in any sense but I was wondering if anyone has been working on using a tablet in place of the touchscreen monitor that was used. I ask because I just picked up a white Pandigital Novel 7" color multimedia e-reader. When flashed with modified firmware, you get a fully working android 2.1 tablet. Still use mine for a lot of reading though.

I browsed the touchbuddy forum a while back and I thought someone was working towards getting touchbuddy running on a cell phone. I think somewhere it said that androids can run perl (touchbuddy's language.) Since there are apps that allow an android device to control a pc, I think through VNC, I wonder if it's just around the corner of having an wireless android tablet work like pgrande's touchscreen?

Gary Jibb · Oct 15, 2011

I second that android based screen would be fantastic. I really want to find a rDisplay type of application for use on a tablet. I hope this starts a good indepth thread about something I think alot of us would find very useable in our racing. Thumbs up.

chip · Oct 15, 2011

well iRacing has one:
http://www.racedepartment.com/iracing/66826-iracedash-for-android-phones.html
[url]http://iracedash.com/index.html

[/URL]maybe rFactor or GTR2 in the future?

Gary Jibb · Oct 15, 2011

That is exactly what I am looking for. I wonder if I could change the program somehow to adapt it to rFactor. I'd end up sitting infront of a screen full of basic, or C++ (no matter what it is, I don't know it) and just hope something changed and it would magically work.

I'm sorry if I took away from the "button box" theme you had Chip, I didn't mean it in a bad way and I do still think a touch screen button box would be a great app that I would use just as much as I would a dashboard.

David Kennard · Dec 14, 2011

The various apps like this coming out give hope that maybe the game makers themselves would step up and create apps for the various platforms out there. There are dash apps out now for iOS, Android for rFactor but none (as far as I know) that let you use the touchscreen features like this one. Hopefully the iracedash developer will also expand to other sims.

Jim Cole · Dec 15, 2011

Not sure I would hold my breath too much. The G15 keyboard has been out for quite some time with a nice little display and several buttons to control what might be seen on screen, but no one has made an app for them to this point that I am aware of. I would love to have info on my G15 showing stuff like tire temps, current brake bias, maybe a couple of moving bars to indicate throttle position and brake position.

Dave Flower · Nov 4, 2013

Been looking into android stuff over these last few days - Droidpad seems to be all I've turned up that is customisable in terms of its buttons etc. Its not that pretty but is functional as a button box - up to 12 buttons - and it is free.

It becomes the first controller in GTL though, I've been told your wheel should always be the first controller in GTL, but seems to work, so far .Buttons are plain black n white but you can edit them and put text on them, don't know if theres anyway to make it prettier (Big red start button, background carbon fibre etc) This thread shows a (poor for our purposes) example that someones made its the black screen with white buttons near the bottom that shows what you'd see on the screen of the phone or tablet.
http://forum.warthunder.com/index.php?/topic/61712-droidpad-extend-your-controls/

You can have up to twelve buttons, choose slider, momentary press or toggle buttons.

Toggles don't work well for anything but the handbrake as the sim doesn't like toggles for say ignition making you press twice to switch it on or off.... Sliders are crap for seat position - better using buttons for forward back up down if you don't have anything better to map to buttons. Although I don't have a tablet and have been using it on a small phone screen so have limited slider movement, a large screen tablet and teh sliders may be more useful/precise (flaps in a flight sim maybe?)

Works over WiFi and your device will need a camera as it uses a pc generated barcode for secure connection between tablet and pc. Not tried USB yet but seen some people saying they can't get it working. Website is a bit sketchy on user guide but I got there in the end and thought someone might have an interest in this, hence the post.