CubedRoot
Well Known Member
Hi all,
I am starting this thread in hopes of getting some feedback from you all that are currently building, or have finished building. I am starting my build and I have struggled with finding an electronic build log that fits what I want. Kitlog Pro is very long in the tooth and very limited (photos, etc). Some of the online logs seem clunky. I also looked at Wordpress and shoehorning some sort of way to calculate totals. Everything I looked at...well...sucked.
So, I figured why not build something that works and works well? I myself am not very good and wiring code, as my career centers around building datacenters, orchestrating and automating them to be cost effective and dynamic so that developers can build those whizbang applications. However, being in this industry, I have contacts with some highly skilled developers, and one of them is a very good friend of mine.
He and I have been talking about this dilema for a while now, especially since he has to hear me griping about no good solution out there for builders. We both agreed that between the two of us, we could build a really good platform.
Here's our challenges. My friend, whom is one of the best coder/developers/maker of software that I know, has no idea about building aircraft and what we'd need. I myself am a very very new builder, just starting my tail kit. While I have a pretty good idea of what I'd like to have, I would like some feedback from you experienced builders as to what you'd like to have.
Some of the ideas I want to incorporate are:
Thats just a very quick and broad list of things I could think of to get started. What I want to do is start a discussion to gauge interest and get feedback from you guys as to what would make the "ultimate build log software"
Then of course, the reality. This is going to cost money. Nothing in the "cloud" is free of course, and it takes man hours to build software like this. Would anyone be willing to pay for something like this? A small monthly fee? a one-time fee? or a combination of both depending on what you want (local vs cloud storage of logs, etc). When we started digging into the costs, the big one was storage. We are both good at optimizing code and infrastructure, but the photos and raw data have a cost to them.
In summary, we are willing to build this, but we are just not sure of the interest, or what folks want. The good thing is that discussion doesn't cost us anything but the time to type up a reply! What do you all think?
I am starting this thread in hopes of getting some feedback from you all that are currently building, or have finished building. I am starting my build and I have struggled with finding an electronic build log that fits what I want. Kitlog Pro is very long in the tooth and very limited (photos, etc). Some of the online logs seem clunky. I also looked at Wordpress and shoehorning some sort of way to calculate totals. Everything I looked at...well...sucked.
So, I figured why not build something that works and works well? I myself am not very good and wiring code, as my career centers around building datacenters, orchestrating and automating them to be cost effective and dynamic so that developers can build those whizbang applications. However, being in this industry, I have contacts with some highly skilled developers, and one of them is a very good friend of mine.
He and I have been talking about this dilema for a while now, especially since he has to hear me griping about no good solution out there for builders. We both agreed that between the two of us, we could build a really good platform.
Here's our challenges. My friend, whom is one of the best coder/developers/maker of software that I know, has no idea about building aircraft and what we'd need. I myself am a very very new builder, just starting my tail kit. While I have a pretty good idea of what I'd like to have, I would like some feedback from you experienced builders as to what you'd like to have.
Some of the ideas I want to incorporate are:
- "Cloud" based logs, so you don't have to worry about loosing your logs. This includes the ability to save your logs locally on your PC and export them into PDF's for printing.
- Easy to use interface for creating an entry. This should be quick and easy, you don't want to spend ALL your time logging your build.
- Is mobile ready, meaning you could use your smartphone to snap photos, take quick notes, etc while you are actually building. Those entries get uploaded to your account so that you can finish the log entry from the comfort of your computer (or on your mobile device if you prefer). This let you sync your entries between all your devices, and lets you edit or create entries from anywhere.
- Optionally can integrate with social media. You can post your log entries to your Facebook page to share with your friends or family. Post can also be easily linked from forum software like vBulletin (which is what VAF uses). This would let you post a link to your log entry and ask questions in the forum for help or advice or even boast
- Is able to format your logs so that they print beautifully on paper to be bound, or to present to an inspector. This would also include the ability to export to a PDF if preferred.
- Allow you to categorize and group entries so you can easily build reports by selecting what you want. Report on how many hours the tail took, or how many hours just the horizontal tab took, or how many hours you spent on priming, etc. Also including the ability to privately track your costs (only you can see costs if you choose). The costing function would act just like hours allowing you to report on many different categories or sum total.
- A section for "ideas" and "notes" on the build. Lets you store links to threads, links and photos of things you want to do later in the build, or helpful information.
Thats just a very quick and broad list of things I could think of to get started. What I want to do is start a discussion to gauge interest and get feedback from you guys as to what would make the "ultimate build log software"
Then of course, the reality. This is going to cost money. Nothing in the "cloud" is free of course, and it takes man hours to build software like this. Would anyone be willing to pay for something like this? A small monthly fee? a one-time fee? or a combination of both depending on what you want (local vs cloud storage of logs, etc). When we started digging into the costs, the big one was storage. We are both good at optimizing code and infrastructure, but the photos and raw data have a cost to them.
In summary, we are willing to build this, but we are just not sure of the interest, or what folks want. The good thing is that discussion doesn't cost us anything but the time to type up a reply! What do you all think?