I’m working on a data collection app for a HS Robotics team, and one of the issues im having is getting as close to real-time data updates without an actual connection to the devices. Some background, this will be used at events where Wi-Fi is explicitly banned for use, and roughly half to all of the devices we will be using wont have any way of using data (Older Fire tablets and Samsung Galaxy Tab 2’s) and I don’t have the budget to buy a new fleet of devices that can accept SIM cards, along with buying the data plans. The goal is to have the users update as often as data is entered, as that data is needed in real-time to help direct decisions during the event.
My original idea was to make use of QR codes and have a device with a data plan that could scan and send it to a google sheet, and even found this forum post with a way to do it, but even it requires the data to first be in Google Sheets for the QR code to be made, which kinda defeats the purpose of the client devices being offline. A couple others have been thrown around, such as a 4g router with each of the devices connecting to it via an adapter, but keeping them tethered isint something im very keen on doing, along with the cost issues alluded to earlier and testing to see if such a plan would work.
I’m wondering if anyone else has any ideas as to how to tackle this problem. A semi-obvious solution is to just ditch Appsheet for the data collection side and have it in a custom app, but I could leave at any time and they would have nobody to take up the custom app, and Appsheet is just easier to leave documentation for since its as simple as editing a Gsheet currently.