Android App / Mobile website

[Chris & Laura Coulson]

Greetings all,

 

I have made a few android applications in the past, and looking to apply my skills toward aquaponics.   I would like to gauge everyone's interest to see if it is even worth creating an app or website.

 

Please take a few moments to answer a few questions.

1. What mobile apps do you use for aquaponics?  
2. What websites do you use, and for what?
3. What features would you like to see in an app.

 

Depending on the responses, we will look into a mobile website, or a mobile application.  

 

Thanks

 

 

 

[Sahib Punjabi]

Good idea...let me think and see what apps would be beneficial while out in the garden...perhaps being able to identify pest issues.

 

God bless.

[TCLynx]

is there an ap that would save you after you drop the phone in the fish tank?

 

Most useful apps I could guess for dealing with aquaponics might do with measuring mass and volume and converting between imperial and metric.

 

What about flow rates trough different size of pipe under pressure and via gravity.

 

Perhaps some easy way to view some of the useful charts that show what nutrients are most available at different pH.

Or the chart that shows how the toxicity of ammonia changes over different temperature and pH ranges.

 

Or being able to take a picture of a plant leaf and find out what deficiency or disease it is suffering from.

 

 

Now keep in mind, I don't even own a smart phone so these are just ideas of what others might like, I won't be using it.

[Izzy]

This would be awesome, but I think it would be far too complicated for a simple app.  The chemistry involved is mind boggling and without direct measurements it would always be way off anyway.  However, I think a simple qualitative approach would help.  Maybe something that indicates nutrient availability for a given nutrient at a given pH rated from very low to very high (it just gives some interaction to the chart we have all seen).

TCLynx said:

Perhaps some easy way to view some of the useful charts that show what nutrients are most available at different pH.

[Izzy]

1. What mobile apps do you use for aquaponics?   NONE.
2. What websites do you use, and for what?  NONE (I'm about to write one actually; so, this is interesting!  Can we integrate this with Drupal 7.9 ???)
3. What features would you like to see in an app.  Data entry and report generation would be ideal.  Some tools like TCLynx has stated would be nice, and having the tools integrated with the data to give specific information would be ideal.

[TCLynx]

I was thinking more simple along the lines of an app that has the different charts available to see so when you run your own water tests you don't have to go to your computer and then try to remember where the charts were posted.

Izzy said:

This would be awesome, but I think it would be far too complicated for a simple app.  The chemistry involved is mind boggling and without direct measurements it would always be way off anyway.  However, I think a simple qualitative approach would help.  Maybe something that indicates nutrient availability for a given nutrient at a given pH rated from very low to very high (it just gives some interaction to the chart we have all seen).

TCLynx said:

Perhaps some easy way to view some of the useful charts that show what nutrients are most available at different pH.

[Izzy]

Oh, then just "Save Image As" and copy to your Android device! :-)  Or browse right from your phone!

 

I think you're onto something though.  If someone can just input say a pH of 6, it can spit out the relative availability.  It would be neat, but yea you don't really need it with the chart.

TCLynx said:

I was thinking more simple along the lines of an app that has the different charts available to see so when you run your own water tests you don't have to go to your computer and then try to remember where the charts were posted.

Izzy said:

This would be awesome, but I think it would be far too complicated for a simple app.  The chemistry involved is mind boggling and without direct measurements it would always be way off anyway.  However, I think a simple qualitative approach would help.  Maybe something that indicates nutrient availability for a given nutrient at a given pH rated from very low to very high (it just gives some interaction to the chart we have all seen).

TCLynx said:

Perhaps some easy way to view some of the useful charts that show what nutrients are most available at different pH.

[TCLynx]

I don't own any sort of smart phone myself so I was really just throwing out some ideas.

[Eric Warwick]

What I think are the most challenging aquaponic problems are: information, resource gathering, building, and, quite honestly, the science. One thing I think you could program is what TCLynx said about the water chemistry, but the hydrology, physics, is important too. So, I think a animation or a equation maker would be useful. Also a link to wikipedia. 

A design application would be useful. There has already been work done in this field for filtration. But using a constant (this assumes we can agree to anything) you could spatially optimize a design. This would be especially helpful. 

A light/lumen biomass ratio would be nice for each type of plant. 

I think using a USDA map you could tell the general water type for an area and the appropriate supplements and feeds, again, using a constant.

I'll add to this later as I think of more. 

[TCLynx]

a USDA map might be useful for temperatures as in Zones but I'm not sure how useful it would be for source water since that will vary by well depth, soil type/structure, if people are even using a well or on city water, or using rain water or surface water.

 

In my neck of the woods Hard well water full of calcium carbonate is rather "normal" but my Friends down at Green Acres have VERY different water from me.

 

However, an app with a calculator that can tell you how much say, salt to use to get to a particular ppt for a particular number of gallons of system.

[Chris & Laura Coulson]

Great ideas everyone, keep them coming. 

 

Some of this may be too complex for  version 1.0 of an app.  But don't let that stop the ideas from flowing.  There are so many endless possibilites that can be done with this.

 

Making it web based and storing data in the cloud is one of the goals as well.  One of the major problems between mobile websites, and apps, is that the mobile website takes up so much more data and in turn eat the battery life.   So making it an app, will help save on battery and open flexibility up to the native OS, like interactive charts, or using it as a data recorder (read sensors etc).   The app will probably talk to the web site through some sort of open API down the road.

 

While we are at it, using arduino to get sensor reading from various inputs. This will inturn also help do automation, which will also talk back to the web.  Somewhat like pachube.com is already setup to do.

 

So without derailing this thread, what other functions/features can we think of to do with an app initially?  Keeping in mind the direction (web/api/sensors) that will be added down the line.

 

[Izzy]

Basic data entry with some basic reporting would be good starting point.  Temperature, pH, TAN (total ammoniacal nitrogen), and nitrite, would be the most basic starting point.  You might as well throw in DO even though measuring this is quite contextual (except in extreme circumstances).  The app will need to interpret this information for the layman by giving relevant values and maybe basic suggestions or recommendations.  Being able to export the data would be a great help.  Export as CSV and SQL please! :-)

Chris Coulson said:

Great ideas everyone, keep them coming. 

 

Some of this may be too complex for  version 1.0 of an app.  But don't let that stop the ideas from flowing.  There are so many endless possibilites that can be done with this.

 

Making it web based and storing data in the cloud is one of the goals as well.  One of the major problems between mobile websites, and apps, is that the mobile website takes up so much more data and in turn eat the battery life.   So making it an app, will help save on battery and open flexibility up to the native OS, like interactive charts, or using it as a data recorder (read sensors etc).   The app will probably talk to the web site through some sort of open API down the road.

 

While we are at it, using arduino to get sensor reading from various inputs. This will inturn also help do automation, which will also talk back to the web.  Somewhat like pachube.com is already setup to do.

 

So without derailing this thread, what other functions/features can we think of to do with an app initially?  Keeping in mind the direction (web/api/sensors) that will be added down the line.

 

[Chris & Laura Coulson]

Export would be a given.  Writing it to an SD card for easy access. CSV, SQL dump should be no problem.

Infact data stored on the device would be written using SQLite, so dump is pretty easy.

This same data dump would also dump to an API on a website (down the road as well).

 

The sensors are going to be tricky, but I think we could come up with something, that too is down the road.

I already have a proto-type greenhouse controller based on arduino, and will re upload the video to youtube.  The end got cutoff.

 

I think for now, I can get started on something for reference.  Like nutrient, ph chart, etc.  

 

Side note: anyone have a list of reference sites information that would be good to link to in the app?  Wiki, calculators, etc.

 

Izzy said:

Basic data entry with some basic reporting would be good starting point.  Temperature, pH, TAN (total ammoniacal nitrogen), and nitrite, would be the most basic starting point.  You might as well throw in DO even though measuring this is quite contextual (except in extreme circumstances).  The app will need to interpret this information for the layman by giving relevant values and maybe basic suggestions or recommendations.  Being able to export the data would be a great help.  Export as CSV and SQL please! :-)

Chris Coulson said:

Great ideas everyone, keep them coming. 

 

Some of this may be too complex for  version 1.0 of an app.  But don't let that stop the ideas from flowing.  There are so many endless possibilites that can be done with this.

 

Making it web based and storing data in the cloud is one of the goals as well.  One of the major problems between mobile websites, and apps, is that the mobile website takes up so much more data and in turn eat the battery life.   So making it an app, will help save on battery and open flexibility up to the native OS, like interactive charts, or using it as a data recorder (read sensors etc).   The app will probably talk to the web site through some sort of open API down the road.

 

While we are at it, using arduino to get sensor reading from various inputs. This will inturn also help do automation, which will also talk back to the web.  Somewhat like pachube.com is already setup to do.

 

So without derailing this thread, what other functions/features can we think of to do with an app initially?  Keeping in mind the direction (web/api/sensors) that will be added down the line.