App for logging rocket launches?

[mjremijan]

I wanted to reach out to the community to see if anyone knows if there is an iphone/android app for tracking model rocket launches? It seems to me an app would be a perfect fit...be able to take videos, pictures, and geolocate your launch site all with the phone and maintain a nice log of launches. Store data in the cloud for easy phone switch. Optionally share launches with social media platforms.

I'm a software developer by profession so this seems like a no brainer but I searched the android appstore and couldn't find anything? Am I just missing it?

 

[neil_w]

I believe the general answer is "no". I have hacked something for myself using Airtable; it is imperfect but I still love it. A purpose-built app would obviously be preferable, especially one that would work off-line. Fortunately my launch sites generally have cell service.

Threads of interest:
https://www.rocketryforum.com/threads/a-phone-app-that-i-really-want.164851/https://www.rocketryforum.com/threa...acking-app-as-implemented-in-airtable.165212/

 

[techrat]

I use a notebook. Obviously, I can't store or share videos in a notebook, but I'm keeping track of which rockets have how many flights. However, some kind of flexible database would be nice to have if it was easy to use. Heck, I don't even need it to run on my phone - because I can barely see the screen of my phone in bright sunshine. Technically, I could probably use OneNote or even Excel, but if anyone has better suggestions, I'm all ears.

 

[neil_w]

I use a notebook. Obviously, I can't store or share videos in a notebook, but I'm keeping track of which rockets have how many flights. However, some kind of flexible database would be nice to have if it was easy to use. Heck, I don't even need it to run on my phone - because I can barely see the screen of my phone in bright sunshine. Technically, I could probably use OneNote or even Excel, but if anyone has better suggestions, I'm all ears.

My Airtable app is great, *if* you have cell service at your launch site. I can imagine how much greater it would be if it were purpose-built, or perhaps if I were a paying customer (as opposed to using the free account) and could take advantage of more features. Works on PC, tablet or phone.

The other big limitation, which is a serious one, is that the free account only allows for 2000 records in the DB, which is enough for me but probably not for many others. But using it gives an idea of what would be possible.

 

[DigBaddy]

I recently was playing with building a MTB trail status app via GlideApps. Worked rather well, all it has is a Google Sheet behind the scenes, but with the right setup, you'd be able to log things from the "app" as well and update the sheet.

 

[techrat]

The other big limitation, which is a serious one, is that the free account only allows for 2000 records in the DB, which is enough for me but probably not for many others. But using it gives an idea of what would be possible.

I have 30 rockets, and my max looks to be 50, after that, I run out of house. And over the course of the next 2 years, I will probably lose about 10 to 15 due to incidents beyond my control. I don't need to track much, other than how many times I've flown a particular bird. Maybe what motor I was using and the date of the flight, and that's about it. I can't track altitude as I don't yet even have an altimeter.

 

[neil_w]

I have 30 rockets, and my max looks to be 50, after that, I run out of house. And over the course of the next 2 years, I will probably lose about 10 to 15 due to incidents beyond my control. I don't need to track much, other than how many times I've flown a particular bird. Maybe what motor I was using and the date of the flight, and that's about it. I can't track altitude as I don't yet even have an altimeter.

Do you have cell service at your launch site? If so, then read the thread linked below and see if it looks appealing to you. If so then PM me and I'll give you access to my base and you can try it. It really is fun.

 

[mtnmanak]

A number of years ago, I sat down and used MS Access and some VBA code to work out an intricate set of tables, relations, reports, etc to track all my rockets - builds, parts, motors, launches, etc. At one point I had even imported all the motor data from Thrustcurve to do rudimentary analysis on flights, etc. It included pictures, videos, links, etc. It worked very well, but was cumbersome, difficult to maintain and not very mobile (may be different now with O365...).

About two years ago, I transferred all the info I cared about to Google Sheets. I have a workbook for launches (sheets separated by year), a workbook for motor hardware and reload inventory (sheets separated by vendor/EX), and a workbook for rockets (each sheet holds all the data for a single rocket, including all launch data for different motors). The only "code" I use now is VLookups to check things like motor inventory and let me know on the rocket pages if a particular motor is on-hand.

This isn't a purpose built app and it doesn't have a cool interface, but it is available on every single platform I could possibly use, is available both on and offline, and requires only moderately advanced spreadsheet skills to get a lot of power out of the system.

For me, it is often easier to do the "dev" in Excel and copy over to G-Sheets later. Sheets has most of the functions Excel has, but often "hides" functionality in menus and in an interface that is different than Excel. After decades of using Excel, I can just work quicker in that app. Some younger folks may not have that legacy inertia.

 

[Rocketjunkie]

I use a simple .txt file listing altimeter file name, rocket, altitude, motor(s), and a short comment. For example, here's the Motoreater deluxe (11.5", 98 and 8 54 mounts. (When I built it, there were no 75 mm motors.)
MDXM1939.DAT Motoreater Deluxe 5760 M1939 7/6/96 Orangeburg, SC L3 cERT fLIGHT
MDXM1900.DAT Motoreater Deluxe 5738 M1900, 8 I250 (ex) 7/4/99 Orangeburg, SC Arcing flight, severe damage
MDXM2400.DAT Motoreater Deluxe 2343 M2400, 4K550 7/1/00 Orangeburg, SC Only M2400 burned, LDRS XIX
MDXN2000.DAT Motoreater Deluxe 7288 N2000 2/10/01 Orangeburg, SC Main at apogee

 

[jdsmith39]

Being a programmer, I've written my own...several times (In the past, I've used my rocket launch journal as a way to learn new technology). The latest version, I have also open sourced.
Source code
https://github.com/jdsmith39/RocketLaunchJournalWritten in C# using .Net 6 using a Blazor web assembly frontend.
Live site
https://rocketlaunchjournal.jeremydsmith.dev/
The data recorded is built a bit around the Altimeter Two output. I love having all the data! I will be expanding it more in the future.
Before the programs, I've used Excel and before that a spiral notebook.

 

[Chad]

i use google sheets and literally print out my checklists and rocket flight profile and stick them on a clipboard on launch day. An app would be great but it would have to be available offline since many site don’t have cell service.

I’ve been thinking about making a checklist app because it would be easy to make it 100% offline capable. Also, there’s some new dev tools I’d like to get some experience with.

 

[krislhull]

I have a notebook that lives in my range box that I record all info on. Then, after the launch at home, I put everything into an excel spreadsheet that has all of my launches, motor used, altimeter data (if equipped) and basic notes about the flight. The same spreadsheet also tracks the number of flights each rocket in my fleet has, serves as my build pile inventory list, my current motor inventory list, as well as data on how many of each motor I have flown.

 

[Voyager1]

I think having an app that could upload the flyer’s, the rocket and flight details to a database would be very convenient. Our club uses a detailed flight card system for each flight, but someone then has to manually enter the card details into an Excel spreadsheet after every launch event. Very time-consuming!

 

[Chad]

Flightsketch.com is run by someone on the forum (can’t remember their name) and you can publish flight data from their altimeter through the mobile app to the website. It would be cool to have your own database but then be able to publish to a central location.

https://flightsketch.com/flights/

 

[4regt4]

First, I know the difference between a spreadsheet and a database. I used to get really irritated with small business owners that insisted on keeping store inventory on spreadsheets, I kept telling them that is a database application. They didn't understand what I was saying.

I've been looking at both database and spreadsheet solutions for the launch logging problem. I'd like to keep it simple. I really like the output for this to be in a spreadsheet format, one for the launch event itself, another for the data for each rocket. For simplicity, I don't want to maintain a motor database, location database, etc. What I'm finding is that any of the database solutions don't have an output like what I want. For example, the Airtable example that neil_w supplied shows the "Flights" in the Rocket database as several entries in one field on one line. I want a separate line for each flight in that display. I don't want to drill down to see the detail. And spreadsheet solutions - that I've looked at - are not capable of updating in the manner that I'd like. What would be perfect for me is a "Rocket" spreadsheet with a line for each launch of that rocket. And a "Launch" spreadsheet with a line for each launch at a given event. What would be required is that every time a line is entered in the "Launch" sheet, it automatically creates a new line in the "Rocket" sheet. That's the sticking point. A new line. I tried "Glide" spreadsheet system, but I can't create new lines automatically, at least not in the manner I'd like.

I've come up with a surprisingly easy workaround. In Google Sheets, I created a "Launch" spreadsheet. New lines are added at the bottom for each rocket launched that day, together with the event and date. I preload the sheet with what I'm expecting to use that day, including sim data. Then I update with actual launch results. So it's a sequential list of all launches. Then to find out what's going on with specific rockets, I merely sort the sheet on the "Rocket Name" column. Now each rocket is grouped together separately from the rest. If I want to see what I did at a particular launch, I can sort by date. If I want to see what motors were appropriate in a particular rocket for a given field, I can sort on location,

Hans.

 

[neil_w]

For example, the Airtable example that neil_w supplied shows the "Flights" in the Rocket database as several entries in one field on one line. I want a separate line for each flight in that display.

Can you clarify? My table is certainly one line per flight, e.g.:

 

[4regt4]

Can you clarify? My table is certainly one line per flight, e.g.:
View attachment 542560

True, it's one line per flight *in this table*. What I'd like is one line per flight in the Rocket database/spreadsheet. In other words, I'd like this very information to be repeated in the Rockets table. I'm not finding this easy to do in any of the apps I've tried so far.

Hans.

Edit: What I meant in the previous post is that in your "Rockets" table, the flight records are just a line of digits linking to the flights in the "Flights" field.

 

[4regt4]

Note that I'm not saying that what I want can't be done in Airtable, it's just that the way of expanding the rows for each rocket to include flight info wasn't obvious to me. And I've struggled to do just that in the limited number of other options I've looked at. A few of those options were a non-starter just because of price.

Hans.

 

[neil_w]

I haven't found a way to do what you're asking, although new features have been added steadily and I haven't looked in a while. I agree it is desirable, and something that a bespoke app could do very easily.

You can, however, achieve something similar just by grouping by rocket on the flights table. But it's not quite the same as having the listing "inside" the Rockets table.

 

[4regt4]

Thanks, yes. That's what I meant. Airtable is still something I want to play with, but we have some family priorities just now, so it may have to wait awhile.

However, what you've done here is what I'm doing with my "Launch" spreadsheet - I just sort on the Rocket Name column.

Hans.

 

[neil_w]

Can you show some screenshots of your spreadsheet?

 

[4regt4]

It's just prelim at this point, there are more fields needed, and I've only put in recent data from a couple of past launches as sort of a "dry run" just to play with it.