Anybody use OpenRocket Android?

Hi all. I wrote the OpenRocket Android application and am at a cross road now. It started out as a little experiment to see if it could be done and I ended up doing two releases of it. I've used it on the field and will continue to do so. But with the pretty radical changes I put into the desktop application in release 13.05, the android app is pretty far out of line now.

With the end of the flying season coming near, I'm trying to gauge interest in continuing the development of the app. Basically, I'm on the fence to try to update it to support 13.05, or just let it rot. This might be your chance to influence me.

One thing I do want to ask, is not having it on Google Play an impediment? The reason I didn't want to put it on play is The Big G charges $25 for the account to post the app, then skims about 35% off any payments. Basically, I'd have to sell it and gross $40 in order to break even. Honestly, I'd rather buy myself a nice H motor. When I talked to Sampo about charging for the app on play, he wanted the application to always have a free download - so even if it is put on Play, you could still not pay by d/l it from the web site and doing the manual install. Would there be enough takers to make Play worth while?

Kevin

OpenRocket Android?!? Never heard of it! :grin:

Of course I'm just yankin' yer chain Kevin...

Let's get together and chat about it while we're at AIRFest. Some things work really well, others are a bit cumbersome, still other functionalities could really be a big help at a launch. Anyone else (attending AIRFest OR just in the thread) with suggestions, critiques, etc please throw 'em out there as I for one would really like to see the 'droid version continue to be developed and mature.

I have used it, but still looking for complete functionality. My vote is to keep developing it!

Aaron

I played with it a bit. I would actually love it if you kept developing it. I have some nice Android devices that are much easier to bring into the field than my huge 17" laptop with 10 minute battery life.

I had actually looked into the source code for both a bit after I found the Android version. One thing I thought of, but it's no small task: You could potentially rewrite the UI in an OpenGLES framework (such as LibGDX). That would allow you to share the majority of the code between the desktop and mobile versions. Like I said, no small task, and it sucks building ui in OpenGL, but certainly possible. This is something I've done for a few of my projects in the past, and the portability is nice.

I do use it on my Tablet, much easier to check delay times on different motors than trying to boot the laptop and run a sim on the laptop. My issue with my laptop is that the battery dies just as you need it, I would never bring a newer laptop out to a launch, so I am using my old Laptop that I installed Linux on. OpenRocket runs great on it, but the battery dies too quickly.

zortness said:

I played with it a bit. I would actually love it if you kept developing it. I have some nice Android devices that are much easier to bring into the field than my huge 17" laptop with 10 minute battery life.

I had actually looked into the source code for both a bit after I found the Android version. One thing I thought of, but it's no small task: You could potentially rewrite the UI in an OpenGLES framework (such as LibGDX). That would allow you to share the majority of the code between the desktop and mobile versions. Like I said, no small task, and it sucks building ui in OpenGL, but certainly possible. This is something I've done for a few of my projects in the past, and the portability is nice.

Click to expand...

I don't know how well Java works with Qt, but but Qt Quick offers scalable UI's with OpenGL acceleration...

I have it but haven't had the chance to put it to use. I would also like to see further development.

I've used it several times on my tablet.

kruland said:

Anybody use OpenRocket Android?

Click to expand...

Heck yeah!

One thing I do want to ask, is not having it on Google Play an impediment?

Click to expand...

Not a problem for me!

Please don't let it rot. And thanks for all the effort you put into this thusfar.

I use it at every launch

Kevin,

I've played with it at one launch. I can't give an honest evaluation due to lack of experience, but our launch site has spotty cell coverage; is there an option for downloading a subset of motors (say all CTI 38 grain motors less than 6 grains or all Aerotech 54mm J motors) rather than one at a time? I promise I'll play with it more at AIRfest and give some more feedback.

Doug

fully functional things needed to be simulated at a launch would be great. ability to import .ork files to use and modify at field would be great. building a rocket file from scratch in the field would seem silly to me. i wouldn't have a problem donating $ to the cause especially anything you would have to pay out of pocket for us to use it for free.

It's nice would love to design with it would be great . Not having your lap top with you . I would buy that ! Keep going with it

Play Store would be a plus. If it's really just a matter of $25 I'm sure you could raise that in a single call for donations. Keep the app free.

Thanks for the support. I'm starting to fall off the fence.

Kevin

Yep, I'm using it on my Droid when out at the field.

I use it at every launch. Of course, any further development will probably require updating my phone.

Keep developing it, put it in Google Play, and I'll pay the $25 to post the app there.

Howzat?

-Kevin

I've used it a few times for when conditions turned 'iffy' from my original preset loadouts. Works fine...would hope you will continue to develop it. I wouldn't try to add design functionality to it other than 'field' mods, such as different sized chutes. Fully functional designing on an Android device seems like way overkill.

FC

I finally have it running on my Nook HD+ but it's not clear what functionality is supported (what should it be able to do?)
Is there a document I've missed that would explain the goal for the port and what works?

I've been trying to move away from mobile tools that have to be booted before they can be used and having OpenRocket on a tablet would be very useful.

Like Rich I'd be happy to pay the Google Pay listing fee. I don't want to pay for every release, that's why I stopped upgrading RockSim, it was turning out to be one of the most expensive things in my range box.

The ability to model a rocket and simulate a flight at the field aren't silly to me. There are time as an RSO that I'd like to run a quick check on something, or help someone out with a quick motor/delay selection.

Hi Steve,

There isn't any documentation on it Here's a brief rundown.

It has a motor browser (motor icon on the top right). It comes with no motors but you can download them from thrustcurve through the application. Find the "download" menu item (it's a down arrow). You have to enter some search criteria because thrustcurve only allows downloading 50 motors at a time. For me this isn't such a hassle since I download using manufacturer & diameter for the few cases I have. For some of the diameters there are more than 50 motors so then I add in impulse.

Once you have motors you can view their thrustcurves with a tap. Long press lets you edit some of the data or delete a motor.

You need to copy .ork files from your desktop to the device. Once you have them there, you can open the file, rerun simulations, try different motors, view simulation. It doesn't support the 13.05 features I've added for "flight configurations" (different altimeter, air start settings per configuration).

My plan is to hit up a few volunteers to pay the account registration fee then offer it on play for free.

Kevin

Steve Piette said:

I finally have it running on my Nook HD+ but it's not clear what functionality is supported (what should it be able to do?)
Is there a document I've missed that would explain the goal for the port and what works?

I've been trying to move away from mobile tools that have to be booted before they can be used and having OpenRocket on a tablet would be very useful.

Like Rich I'd be happy to pay the Google Pay listing fee. I don't want to pay for every release, that's why I stopped upgrading RockSim, it was turning out to be one of the most expensive things in my range box.

The ability to model a rocket and simulate a flight at the field aren't silly to me. There are time as an RSO that I'd like to run a quick check on something, or help someone out with a quick motor/delay selection.

Click to expand...

kruland said:

It comes with no motors but you can download them from thrustcurve through the application.

Click to expand...

I guess I'm confused by what you are saving by shipping it with no motors. Seems like the additional space required is insignificant and going through the download process is a bit of a hassle.

I hope you will also have this available by methods other than Play. I have an Android tablet that is not Google approved so I have to use Amazon's appstore, GetJar, and SlideMe to load apps on it.

mikec said:

I guess I'm confused by what you are saving by shipping it with no motors. Seems like the additional space required is insignificant and going through the download process is a bit of a hassle.

Click to expand...

In retrospect that was probably a bad decision. But this is what went into the original decision.

- As a flyer, I don't really like unavailable (e.g. ellis), or motors I will never likely use (hybreds or 75 & 98mm) "cluttering" up my view of the motors.
- Before I started the OR "port" I had already written the Thrustcurve download code for the android, so I wanted to use that code.
- As you know, OpenRocket desktop application comes with the thrustcurve files baked into it. These are raw eng & rsp files. Unfortunately those file formats don't contain the case info field which I think is pretty important (I can only fly motors for which I have a case...) By using the thrustcurve query api, the android application has access to that information (but the desktop application does not).

Well, that's some of the old thinking. I want to add to the desktop application support for case info (and modelling CTI & AT adapters - though in general the extra mass isn't that important). I realize the additional mass is not likely important to the simulation (though the cg & mass changes could be important to some high performance rockets), as a user I would like to know if I have access to the cases needed to fly the motor.

Given all this, I am likely to bake the thrustcurves into the android application and add support for custom thrust curves supplied by the user. But that won't be until the off season.

Kevin

There should always be a raw apk on the openrocket.sourceforge.net site.

falingtrea said:

I hope you will also have this available by methods other than Play. I have an Android tablet that is not Google approved so I have to use Amazon's appstore, GetJar, and SlideMe to load apps on it.

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I have the application installed on my Galaxy Note 10.1.

It would be really nice to be able to put in a change while at the launch site and see how it might affect the flight, including the ability to change some weights IE add nose weight, add extra engine weight to compensate for Larger casings and spacers.

Things don't always go as planned.

kruland said:

I want to add to the desktop application support for case info...

Click to expand...

IMHO the selection of motors to simulate is one of the klunkiest and most confusing parts of OR, so some improvement would be welcome. You could imagine having configuration information that would restrict the motor choices to specific vendors, case sizes, etc.

For field use, sometimes it'd be nice to just set the motor based on its name rather than scrolling through a list of every motor in existence.

kruland said:

There isn't any documentation on it

Click to expand...

There probably should be. I at least couldn't initially figure out the user interface. I downloaded it some time ago but saw no way to run a simulation on it; it looked like it only gave an overview with the length, mass, CG, CP, and stability margin. I saw the words "Overview" and "Components" at the top and thought they might be dropdown menus or buttons but nothing happened when I tapped them. So I shrugged and closed the app. Later having read these recent messages I went back and finally figured out you can swipe between various screens including ones that let you change configurations and run simulations.

I have a couple of other apps with similar screen-swiping interfaces and in those, tapping on the screen name (or icon) also takes you to that screen. A sliding transition gives the use a clue that swiping will also work. You might consider adding a feature like that for those of us to whom swiping doesn't always come to mind as a thing to try.

One other user interface comment: "Simulations" comes before "Configurations". That seems counterintuitive; you have to define a configuration before you can do a simulation. Overview > Components > Configurations > Simulations to me makes more sense.

I hate to admit it took me hours to finally discover that you swiped the screen. :blush:

Once I got there, I couldn't find a way to see the attributes or edit and decided it was time to look for doc.

All I've used it for is to open .ork files at the launch site, so far. Oh and when it was first released, I messed around with some of the code.

If this is a wishlist of functionality, the main thing I'd want it for is to see sim results, re-sim with new motor config, and maybe change a few rudimentary things like weight. But then I'm just using it on a phone rather than a tablet, and have netbook with the full version to hand as well. Need to see if it works nicely with dropbox as an easy way of syncing .ork files over.

My next task on the to do list is to get PC rebuilt with latest OS, and get full JDK, Eclipse and Android dev kit installed. Mainly cos I want to play