clinometer Iphone app- sorry me again trying to make money out of arborists!

[showoffsummer]

No adds on the app!

 

Hi at the moment im not 100% sure if there is going to be ads on the app, basically the app is going to cost me about 4k plus maintance charges and apple take 30% of each sale. so if I dont have any ads I will have to charge more over wise its going to be very hard for me to break even, let alone make proffit, we shall see though!

 

cheers ciaran glyde

[showoffsummer]

I had a solar guy stood in my garden using an iPhone compass. He insisted that due West was South. He was not going to be swayed even when pointing out the position of the sun, next door's weather vane and the orientation of the nearby church and so we quickly parted company.

 

Blind faith is a dangerous thing.

 

hi, thanks for your imput, completly agree on that one, I think the problem the guy had with the compass was that he didnt change the defult compass settings on the app to magnetic north as its defult is true north. but completely agree that with any app you need to ad common sense with it to get a accurate reading.

 

cheers ciaran glyde

[showoffsummer]

How can you be sure it will be deadly accurate? A clinometer requires no batteries and is as accurate as ther person using it. Other posters have pointed out the pitfalls associated with apps ie incorrect readings (compass) and app stops working (previous post).

How will your app improve on the reliability and accuracy of say a suunto clinometer?

 

hi, thanks for your input and very good points.

 

firstly the preposed app will also be as accurate as the person using it. I have just above given my diagnosis of why the compass app wasn't reading correct.

 

and finnaly im first to admit that if you want to measure trees deadly accurate to buy a clinometer or a laser ace etc.

but for a easy to use £3-5 app I belive it will be accurate. im not trying to be patronising but basically the basics of the app is trigonometry as im sure you know. so the app like a clinometer will ask you to stand X meters away from the tree and then you tilt the phone up until the top of the phone is on the top of the tree and lock the degrees.

this then will be inputed into the built in trig calculator to give you the height of the tree.

 

so aslong as the user points the phone at the top of the tree correctly(same mistake as people use with clinometers or laser aces) and are the fixed distance from the tree, the only thing the app could get wrong is calculating the degrees, and the designers im using have done many accurate spirit level apps which is the same concept.

 

hope this all helps.

 

cheers ciaran glyde

[Arctostaphylos uva-ursi]

I think it's a good idea and if the app is only a quid I am sure there will be a lot of takers and not just from people wishing to measure the hight of trees.

Good luck with it. I will be sticking with my trusty suunto. Partly because of its reliability and speed and partly because I don't have an iphone or an ianything for that matter!

[showoffsummer]

I think it's a good idea and if the app is only a quid I am sure there will be a lot of takers and not just from people wishing to measure the hight of trees.

Good luck with it. I will be sticking with my trusty suunto. Partly because of its reliability and speed and partly because I don't have an iphone or an ianything for that matter!

 

thank you for your kind words, unfortunatly the app isnt going to be £1 as the start up costs are huge (£4,000+) Im thinking in the reigion of £3-£5 hopefully that wont put to many people off!

 

cheers ciaran glyde

[Jamis]

I just use a protractor with a bit of tread through the origin and a ball of bluetack on the end of that. Works fine, and you can press the bluetack to the back of the protractor to record the angle until you get back to the vehicle.

 

I would however be interested if your app recorded a file say where you can have photos of the tree, input ident info, and gps data, that would be a tool...

[showoffsummer]

I just use a protractor with a bit of tread through the origin and a ball of bluetack on the end of that. Works fine, and you can press the bluetack to the back of the protractor to record the angle until you get back to the vehicle.

 

I would however be interested if your app recorded a file say where you can have photos of the tree, input ident info, and gps data, that would be a tool...

 

hi thank you for your input, unfortunately I could not afford to make that app, the basic app is costing me around 4K, if it sells well I may deffenitly do somthing along those lines as a add on, but that would be significantly expensive.

 

cheers ciaran glyde

[john k]

the app like a clinometer will ask you to stand X meters away from the tree and then you tilt the phone up until the top of the phone is on the top of the tree and lock the degrees.

The app I mentioned already does that. Why spend £4k reinventing the wheel?

[MattyF]

And There is already an ap called site survey that measures, height distance and width....

[kev7937]

Not wishing to pee on anyone's fire here but I think someone recently put several links up to height measuring apps , it was on a thread about a fancy laser height measuring device.