iDRY Vacuum Kilns

Sponsors:

An App For That?

Started by danno, April 12, 2011, 09:03:03 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

danno

I'm searching for info on using a smart phone for calculating cut logs and standing timber. My process right now is to write down each tree/log on paper, take it back to the office, calculate the footage, multiply that by price per foot and total it at the end. A farmer who brings in about a 1/2 dozen logs, no big deal. Calculate several hundred standing trees or several semi loads of logs and it becomes very time consuming. I priced the hand held units our veneer buyers use. They are nice, but my frugal (cheap as my wife calls it) ways won't let me spend that kind of money for something that has the functionality of a $5 pocket calculater.

Love the forum, been a member for a long time. Late nights on the computer and my wife knows what I'm looking at... nothing dirty, just the Forum. Thanks!
Owner of a small sawmill & logging operation.

Maine76251

Wood calculators for android its available on the market place for .99c i havent tried it yet and it looks a little clunky but it hey its only .99cents! hope that helps here the developers web site the may have it for different OS their if your not running a droid phone
www.tufat.com

jeffreythree

I use the Toolbox calcs right here on the forum using the phone's browser instead of an app.  Actually, I now use a cheap little chinese android tablet for the bigger 7" screen and use my phone as its wifi internet connection.  I messed around with the google app inventor for a little bit, but most of what I need is already available. 
Trying to get out of DFW, the land of the $30,000 millionaires.  Look it up.

mad murdock

There is an Idea for you.  Someone with the savvy needs to come up with a forestry forum app for all the smartphone users out there! What ya think Jeff?
Turbosawmill M6 (now M8) Warrior Ultra liteweight, Granberg Alaskan III, lots of saws-gas powered and human powered :D

smwwoody

Danno

What volume of logs / month are we talking about?  I bought 328000bf of logs at our mill last month. I have tried the new gadgets for tallying logs and they slow me down. I scale all of them with a stick as I scale I have a digital recorder running in my shirt pocket. When I get back to the office I play the recorder back and fill out my tally sheet. Then I add it up with an adding machine. This way I have nothing but a can of paint and a stick in my hands while I am scaling logs. This let's me move much faster in the yard. I have also set up my tally sheets with blocks under each specie with footage numbers in each block. That way all I have to do is put a hash mark in the correct block for each log.

Last month was a slow month for logs I normally do about 400000bf this way every month 
Full time Mill Manager
Cleereman head rig
Cooper Scragg
McDonugh gang saw
McDonugh edger
McDonugh resaw
TS end trim
Pendu slab recovery system
KJ4WXC

clearcut

Most smartphone operating systems have a spreadsheet or database application that you could use to create a simple "app" where you could plug in your own species, size classes, and pricing information and make it work how you want it to.

I like Documents to Go (available for many operating systems and devices) to adapt simple spreadsheets to the device at hand.

Online apps like Google Docs and Zoho Office have spreadsheets and database utilities that allow you to work from anywhere you have an active data connection. I have used the spreadsheet in Google Docs from a web enabled GPS for some quick and dirty data entry.
Carbon sequestered upon request.

sjfarkas

I'd start by trying to use excel.  create a template to use and see how that works for you.  Once the template was created you would just have to plug in numbers and the totals would be ready and waiting.
Always try it twice, the first time could've been a fluke.

Piston

I use an app for tractorbynet.com which is really handy for keeping up with the forum on the smartphones, maybe they would be a good place to start for creating a FF app?  I know the forum pays the developer to create and maintain they're app, although it may be expensive not sure?  I would certainly pay for a FF app  8)
-Matt
"What the Lion is to the Cat the Mastiff is to the Dog, the noblest of the family; he stands alone, and all others sink before him. His courage does not exceed his temper and generosity, and in attachment he equals the kindest of his race."

Thank You Sponsors!