The (near) perfect tablet for the S1

[noiseboyuk]

My Fire 10HD gave up the ghost, and oh dear what a shame. I'd been increasingly irritated with the too-small screen size for the S1, which was designed for the 12.9 iPad Pro (I think).

All this tablet has to do is run Control reliably and be the right size, I figured. It literally has one job. I looked a slew of budget Chinese 12" Android tablets on Amazon, £150+, with fairly decent specs. But all had not great screens that were in the widescreen format, missing some of the useful height of the iPad Pro.

Eventually I realised the answer - buy an iPad Pro. Not a swanky new one at £1,300 - what a waste that would be. I did a bit of digging and found the 2nd Generation (2017) iPad Pro works up to iPadOS 17. I mean, even the battery doesn't have to be great cos it can be plugged in all the time.

I found a place that sold refurbished iPads on eBay. A grade 2 condition Space Grey 256gb 2nd gen unit was £227 with a discount, less than a fifth of the cost of a new iPad. Arrived today... pretty much perfect. It's so much crisper, brighter and clearer than the Fire HD, superb resolution. And all the channels line up with the faders! Nearly... it's still half a centimetre short I reckon.

It still almost feels overkill, it's a very slick tablet with 230gb of storage free. But it's quite thrilling to not even have email on it, just be a permanent part of the S1. Boots up fractionally faster than the S1 too. One Control app gripe that struck me afresh - I wish the highlighted track was more obvious, that orange border should be round the whole virtual channel, not just the tiny track name.

Looking forward to the coming EuControl update, hoping this will transform the experience on Cubase.

[BScout]

Originally Posted by noiseboyuk

Eventually I realised the answer - buy an iPad Pro. Not a swanky new one at £1,300 - what a waste that would be. I did a bit of digging and found the 2nd Generation (2017) iPad Pro works up to iPadOS 17. I mean, even the battery doesn't have to be great cos it can be plugged in all the time.

The battery eventually bulges as it dies and separates the glass until it becomes a fire hazard. These models did not have any proper battery charging regulation (and Apple never offered it later through software for these models) so having them always on charger had the batteries overcharge.

Keep an eyes on that and if you see bulging, get the battery replaced (by third party) -- once it expands too much, nothing can be done. And you have to check, when they are sitting always in the stand, it doesn't become immediately apparent that it's happened/happening. By the time I noticed one, the clips at the bottom of the stand were what was holding the glass to the tablet frame.

Later iPad Pro (and regular) models had some battery charging regulation so the overcharging didn't happen which increased the battery lifespan and prevented this.

[noiseboyuk]

Originally Posted by BScout

The battery eventually bulges as it dies and separates the glass until it becomes a fire hazard. These models did not have any proper battery charging regulation (and Apple never offered it later through software for these models) so having them always on charger had the batteries overcharge.

Keep an eyes on that and if you see bulging, get the battery replaced (by third party) -- once it expands too much, nothing can be done. And you have to check, when they are sitting always in the stand, it doesn't become immediately apparent that it's happened/happening. By the time I noticed one, the clips at the bottom of the stand were what was holding the glass to the tablet frame.

Later iPad Pro (and regular) models had some battery charging regulation so the overcharging didn't happen which increased the battery lifespan and prevented this.

Good tip. I had this happen to a couple of my older iPhones.

Part of the refurbishment was a battery check but I'm under no illusions that it will be great forever. I'm thinking I'll actually leave the iPad unplugged once full or nearly full, and just turn on and off when I use the S1 (which isn't daily). Then when it's nearly flat plug in until it's nearly full again. Not ideal, but not too troublesome.

I've always wished there was a mode on Macs and iPads to bypass the battery completely and just run on mains like in the olden days.

[Frank Kruse]

I wish my FireHD10 ran reliably with Eucon but apparently it's not powerful enough even compared to my 10 years older old iPad mini 2nd generation which runs fine with a half-broken display.
Many moons ago Eddie says they were optimising the code to make EC run more reliably on FireHDs but it's been almost a year since the last update. It seems like EC only works well with the fastest last generation FHDs not the ones from 2 years go. I've been keeping my fingers crossed that my ipad hold up til whenever EC get's an update. The screen is all burnt-in and when it gets warm the screen gets all rainbow colored but I can kind of see what I'm doing.
But at least it works and doesn't disconnect all the time like the HD10.

Thread here
https://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=426771&page=5

[its2loud]

Originally Posted by noiseboyuk

Good tip. I had this happen to a couple of my older iPhones.

Part of the refurbishment was a battery check but I'm under no illusions that it will be great forever. I'm thinking I'll actually leave the iPad unplugged once full or nearly full, and just turn on and off when I use the S1 (which isn't daily). Then when it's nearly flat plug in until it's nearly full again. Not ideal, but not too troublesome.

I've always wished there was a mode on Macs and iPads to bypass the battery completely and just run on mains like in the olden days.

All you really need to do is get a simple USB power switch, like this..

https://a.co/d/4ddJqp2

You can easily turn the charge on/off to the iPad whenever you want to run it on battery.

[EddieJones]

Originally Posted by Frank Kruse

I wish my FireHD10 ran reliably with Eucon but apparently it's not powerful enough even compared to my 10 years older old iPad mini 2nd generation which runs fine with a half-broken display.
Many moons ago Eddie says they were optimising the code to make EC run more reliably on FireHDs but it's been almost a year since the last update. It seems like EC only works well with the fastest last generation FHDs not the ones from 2 years go. I've been keeping my fingers crossed that my ipad hold up til whenever EC get's an update. The screen is all burnt-in and when it gets warm the screen gets all rainbow colored but I can kind of see what I'm doing.
But at least it works and doesn't disconnect all the time like the HD10.

Thread here
https://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=426771&page=5

Give it two weeks....

[noiseboyuk]

Originally Posted by its2loud

All you really need to do is get a simple USB power switch, like this..

https://a.co/d/4ddJqp2

You can easily turn the charge on/off to the iPad whenever you want to run it on battery.

Another excellent tip, thank you - ordered, along with a right-angled lightning connector cos it will look nicer.

[Frank Kruse]

Originally Posted by EddieJones

Give it two weeks....

Very much looking forward to it.

Thanks!

[smurfyou]

Originally Posted by its2loud

All you really need to do is get a simple USB power switch, like this..

https://a.co/d/4ddJqp2

You can easily turn the charge on/off to the iPad whenever you want to run it on battery.

Those are right cute. Thanks.

[[email protected]]

I was just going to post a reprise of "what's the best tablet" as there's a lot of older models in prev posts

So it seems it still boils down to an Apple iPad 12.9 for optimal - Any advice on the cheapest model that won't catch fire - I have 2 x S1 and a Dock which I need to populate so budget will be a consideration

I def want the real estate for the Dock - but the S1's may be just an expensive meter - Is there truly no other option? Or bite the bullet and be done with it ?

Also - I'm running everything through a pretty cheap ethernet hub - Seems to work fine but approciate if anyone has any best of breed recommendations

Academic for the above i supppose if using Wi-Fi - Is there any benefit on hard wiring the pads?

Thanks in advance - I'm at the start of my Avid journey as you will no doubt be able to tell