Engineering Apps for Android phone
Engineering Apps for Android phone
(OP)
The following thread discussed Engineering Apps for iPad/iPhone
thread724-289781: Engineering iPad apps
This thread will be the same topic for Android (note there was some discssion of Android near the end).
I'd be interested in hearing what you find to be useful calculation Apps for Android (particularly spreadsheets, but not limited to spreadsheets).
thread724-289781: Engineering iPad apps
This thread will be the same topic for Android (note there was some discssion of Android near the end).
I'd be interested in hearing what you find to be useful calculation Apps for Android (particularly spreadsheets, but not limited to spreadsheets).
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RE: Engineering Apps for Android phone
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RE: Engineering Apps for Android phone
My summary: It is very powerful, but with somewhat of a steep learning curve, not as user-friendly as we are accustomed to with modern programs. There is a rich texture of features built in and accessible, and with that rich texture comes a fairly complicated/diverse user interface.
If you think about it, the challenges of packing a lot of diverse features/commands, displays into relatively small calculator interface is similar to the challenge of packing a lot of features into an Android interface. It's something HP worked on for along time, and they came up with a lot of creative solutions, but much different than standard Android since they had only keys, no touch-screen.
Several of the tools that HP used to pack a lot of interfacing capability:
1 – multiple uses for each key. Most keys can be pressed, or left-shift-pressed, or right-shift pressed for different functions. Additionally to create characters, there is alpha-press, alpha-left-shift-press and alpha-right-shift press. Not all of the choices available are displayed on the keyboard, and behavior of a given key or shifted key can depend on the context. I find I have to do a little bit of studying to remember if I need to left-shift or right shift in a given context. This is one of the things that contributes to the learning curve I mentioned.
2 – soft keys. The 6 keys at the top of the keyboard (just below the display) have changeable meanings depending on the context. Their current meaning is displayed in the display immediatley above. The NEXT key allows us to look at the next 6 choices when there are more than 6. Some of the menu choices have a special appearsance (like a folder) indicating that if we click on this, we get a whole new choice of menus (hierarchical menus).
So what can it do?
Let's start with the simplest part: you can use it as a calculator. RPN as they call it, should not be a problem for most people.
So, you have a stack of theoretically unlimited size (limited only by memory) in which to store your numbers if you choose.
Stack may be is somewhat inconvenient, so you can also store your numbers as a named variable.
The named variables can be arranged within named directories, which can be nested to any level.
Browsing the directory structure is fairly easy using the soft-keys, in the context which is created after you press the VARS key.
So you can see we have a pretty elaborate and user-friendly system (stack and named variables stored in hierarhically-arrangable directories) for keeping track of the "numbers" in our calculator.
Now here's a bit of elegance: the variables that we can manage using that system are not limited to numbers.... we can use that exact same system to handle any type of "object" that calculator deals with. Here are some of the object types (each occupies one spot in the stack or one named variable):
numbers (real)
complex numbers
unit objects (combination of number and a built-in unit)
vectors (1-D matrices)
matrices
strings
lists (sequence of objects of any object type... can be mixed within a lise)
algebraic ojbects (special type of string which contains expression or equation)
program objects (define a sequence of commands)
graphics objects
and more...
Now let's talk about what you can do with some of these objects:
Dealing with complex number calculations proceeds identically to real number calculations. Use +, -., *, / ^ etc. Plus a few extra functions to convert between real and complex as needed.
UNITS!.... the calculator has a large library of built-in units. Units are handled in a transparent manner for the user (supply inputs in whatever units you want... possibly mixed units in single calculation...specify output units and calculator does all required conversions). Units are also easily handled by the other embedded applications (plotting, equation solving etc). One thing I am not 100% sure yet is how to deal with units I want that are not inside the pre-defined library. This is anyway a very useful feature and one I didn't expect to find on a calculator. It is on-par with the unit-handling supplied by smath and quite a bit better than the unit handling of Matlab's Mupad.
Algebraic Objects / equations - We can use these as an alternative to RPN to do a computaiton. The variables (like X) embedded within the expression can refer to a variable X if it exists in current directory path or anywhere above it (there are other structures for passing variables into the equation also).
There is also built-in equation editor with "pretty-print" that puts numerators, denominators, nested stuff in their right place. I don't find a need for it since it never leaves the calculator.
Solvers – These numerically solve equations supplied as algebraic objects. An interface is presented where you can supply the input variables and pick any single one of the equation variables (not necessarily the one by itself of the left hand side of the equals) and it will be solved based on the supplied values of the other variables. Equations can use units or not at your discreation. If you want to use units, you can pre-load the variables with their units into the directory of the equation, it makes it a little easier to enter the variables with appropriate pre-selected units when you execute the solver. But you can certainly adjust the units on the fly as well.
Multiple-equation solver – leads you through a series of individual related equations, feeding results from one equation into the next. Keeps track of which variables are known and which equations have only one unknown (candidates as the next equation to solve). Can also press "ALL" and if you have N non-linear equations with N unknowns left, it will solve them all.
Matrices – a very full library of multiplication, inverse, singular value decompositon, eigenvalues/eigenvectors, row swap, column swap, row extract, column extract/add etc. For very large matrices you will be hindered by the memory size. There is also a matrix editor which resembles a spreadsheet interface.... pretty handy. Matrices can also house algebraic objects, but I havne't used that feature
Strings - lots of built-in string handling functions
Lists – lots of built-in list handling functions.
Statistics – built in statistics applicsations.
Numerical integration – built in
Limited symbolic capabilities. Does include symbolic integration and differentiation and retrieving variable values in the current path, which are then automatically plugged into equations or experessions.
Plotting. There are quite a lot of plotting routines built in. An interesting thing is they don't label the axis. Instead they give you the ability to move an x-y cursor around the plot with coordinates displayed.... can also lock onto one of the curves and scroll along that looking at coordinates. Also lots of built in ability to zoom in and zoom out and move around areas of the plot. I believe these tools are attempt to give a good view of the data, working within the constraint of limited dispay area. There are a lot of different plot types (15 at least IIRC), each with slightly different syntax. Surprisingly,, no simple X-Y plot with points connected by lines. But there is a workaround where you can build that using the parameteric plot type.
Graphics – Results of plotting can be saved to graphics object and manipulated and annotated. There is a set of drawing tools (line box, circle, pixel, invert, etc).
Input/output – There are tools supplied which allow you to create a dialogue box for interaction with user (INFORM)
Customization – There is quite a bit of ability to customize the keys and build custom soft-key menu's to do whatever you want to gain easy access to the things you do frequently.
Customizations can be tied to directory. A certain menu combination can be tied to a certain directory so you have the menu you need when you are in that particular directory (the stuff you normally do with the programs and data stored there). Plotting options are also stored with directory, so if you customize your plot for that particular directory, it will come back the same next time. Libraries can also be linked to directories. The idea is that you will be doing the same type of tasks every time you visit the same directory, so it can remember the customizations you want for that directory.
All of the above is "built-in". Of course since there is a program object type, you can build your own program. The programming language they supply is called User RPL. RPL is similar to RPN, but includes handling for al the objects supplied. The L stands for Lisp.. the language is supposed to be similar to Lisp and to Forth. Typical structured programming tools: It has If/then, Repeat until. Do while..... The ability to call other programs with arguments passed etc.
There is also a whole different layer of RPL called System RPL. It can do more and execute faster, but also is a little more dangerous since it accesses the machine at alower level. And there is also Assembly.
Extensive user documentation is available for free on-line (both the documentation and the ROM were released to public domain by HP after the HP48 was discontinued). For simple User RPL, there is:
Getting Started guide ~ 150 pages
User manual ~ 600 pages
Advanced User Reference ~ 700 pages.
(all free).
Again for the SystemRPL and assembly there is also documentaiton freely available.
I was talking about programming. There are a ton of programs that have been created by others that are freely available to be loaded into your HP. You can find them all at HPCalc.org
This includes:
simple word processors implemented on HP48
simple spreadsheets implemented on HP48 (cell48 and exAL)
simple databases implemented on HP48
Video games
There is a very crude Pascal coded in RPL available to run on HP48 = "HP Pascal Studio" (different than "HP Pascal" which does not run on 48)
"Erable", which is supposed to be equal to Maple, and is incorporated into newer versions of the HP (HP49) to give improved symbolic capabilities. I hadn't tried it out.... if I want symbolics I do it on my computer.
Alg48 – a large math package to extend capabilities.
There are memory management utilties.
There are varaible 'hiders". So you can store variables that you want to be accessible from program but don't want them to clutter up your display when you browse a directory.
There is almost an endless supply of tweaks to the user-interace that people have built to get around long-standing annnoyances.
The HP48 had several kinds of memory: ROM (512k), user-RAM (128 unmerged, 256K merged), and then extended ROM/RAM available in port memory. Most of what we do is in user memory. The tools for accessing the port memory are a little different than for user-memory... another part of the learning curve. Some of these programs are provided as libraries which load into port memory. Installing them can be a little bit tricky... at least I haven't fully gotten the hang of it yet.
I should mention there are a large number of companion programs you can use on your PC to work alongside your Droid48. The two huge ones imo are HP User Edit and Emu 48. When installed together, they allow you to emulate an HP48 on your PC (emu48). You can type and manage code easily in HP user edit. I have set it up so all my customizations and equations etc live in a master file in user edit, and I can load them back into Droid48 whenever I update them. It's a lot easier to type in code on the PC then to hunt/peck on the calculator keyboard. And a lot easier to look at a large program at a glance, and cut/paste to move parts around etc. By the way you can include comments in the PC text version of your programs, the comments get wiped out in the calculator when you convert it to a calculator program.... another reason to keep the PC as your main programming environment for anything other than small tasks.
All in all, I hope you can see why I labeled it as very powerful, but also comes with a learning curve. Probably the best/only program available to develop detailed math calcs on Android. As I mentioned, the interface is somewhat clumsy on the calculator. It's a little easier when you can use the PC for program development.
There is something else on the horizon...
The ND1. Built for smart-phones form the ground up.
Programs in either RPL or java.
Looks pretty slick.
http://naivedesign.com/ND1/Quick_Tour.html
At this point only available for i-phone...NOT for Android ;(
The developer told me it will be available for Android eventually:
ht
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RE: Engineering Apps for Android phone
Like there is a built in ODE initial value solver.
And probably a lot more. Look for literature on HP48 to see what it does.
For example if you google HP48 User Manual, you should find the 600 page user manual downloadable for free.
Also somewhere I found/downloaded "The Hewlett Packard Journal" from June 1991 which has 40 pages on the HP48S (predecessor to the HP48G that is emulated by Droid48). It's too big to upload here, but has quite a good overview of the variety of things you can do with it..
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RE: Engineering Apps for Android phone
Notes:
What they call ROM Parts is what I called Port Memory (there is up to 4MB port memory available on the 48GX and the Droid48).
What they call RAM is what I call user-memory (128K to 256K, depending on if we take advantage of the allowance to merge one of the extended ports into user memory)
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RE: Engineering Apps for Android phone
Disappointment 1 - Not all of these above-mentioned programs will work with HP48. In particular I tried the two spreadsheets exAl and xCell, and neither one worked. The reasons are discussed here:
ht
As far as I can tell, we should be suspicious of whether any of the programs based on SysRPL or assembly will work on the Droid48. (But that still leaves vast collection of the standard math features discussed prior to the above quote which we can program ourselves by UserRPL).
Disappointment 2 – There is no way to get data out of the HP48, other than reading it off the screen or doing screenprint. (This contrasts with the actual HP which has some built in tools, and other emulators like emu48 which have an export feature... I'm not sure whether the i-phone version has export capabilities)
This is discussed a little more here:
ht
Since I provided an initial review with generally positive comments, I felt I should mention these two areas of disappointment in the same thread. But overall I still feel this is a great tool if you have any interest in doing math calculations on your Android phone (I especially like the unit capabilities... have had many opportunities to use those).
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RE: Engineering Apps for Android phone
Not all of these above-mentioned programs will work with
HP48Droid 48There is no way to get data out of the
HP48Droid 48=====================================
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RE: Engineering Apps for Android phone
Fe (IronX32)
RE: Engineering Apps for Android phone
I don't use i-Phone, but apparently they have an emulator for HP48 as well, that is called "m48":
http://www.mksg.de/m48/m48.html
While the Android Droid48 does only the things the HP48 does, it looks like the iphone m48 adds some interface capabilities based on looking at that webpage. It also looks free.
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Fe (IronX32)
RE: Engineering Apps for Android phone
Disappointment 2 has been remedied with a free Android App called Droid48 reader which can read any variable (or array etc) stored in the user memory and save it as a "binary file", which is shareable to other HP48 calculators/emulators and more importantly readable on HPUserEDIT, from where it can be exported as text.
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RE: Engineering Apps for Android phone
...
but
...
WHY?!
Why you would you WANT to go to all the trouble of emulating an old graphics programmable calculator (other than to show that it can be done!), when you are holding an actual fully-featured graphics COMPUTER in your hands?!
So ... back to the OP's question:
Are there any good ENGINEERING Apps for Android out there?
My $0.02 worth:
DocsToGo: for basic compatability with Word, Excel, etc
DropBox: so I can get my Word docs, Excel workbooks, etc onto my Android seamlessly, using "The Cloud"
Engineering Suite from "LetsConstruct": includes FrameDesign2D, Engineering libraries, Steel design, Concrete design, Weld design, Circle of Mohr, Parallelogram, Channel design
Solid Mechanics by Simple Solutions Droid: Swiftly calculate engineering stresses/strains for standard loading conditions.
http://julianh72.blogspot.com
RE: Engineering Apps for Android phone
But the fact is, this late 1980’s programmable calculator simply has capabilities that no other Android application I know even comes close to in terms of building my own calculations/programs for use on Android.
Start with simple stuff: single equations. Any equation you solve – type it in once and store it in a logical place within the hierarchical memory system (nested folders). It’s there whenever you want. And by the way, you’re not limited to solving for single variable on the left side of the equals sign, you can numerically solve for any of the equation variables given all the others.
And by the way, you want units – use whatever units you want (change on the fly), the program worries about the details.
And by the way, do you need complex variables? They are treated identically to scalar variables. Here’s the equation I have to type in for a single-plane balance of rotating machinery:
UC = UT * [VO / (VO - VA) ]
Where UC, UT, VO, VA are all complex variables.
Have you tried doing that on your Docs2go spreadsheet? Doesn’t work because it doesn’t have the excel Add-in needed for complex numbers. And you can’t build it in vba because that’s not there either. You’ll be stuck working out all the conversion from polar to rectangular for addition and then back again for multiplication.
Did I mention matrices? It’s in there. Matrices are stored as single variable. Syntax for adding and multiplying matrices is fairly simple. I don’t think Docs2go can do that.
And what if you’re algorithm requires if/then, looping, subroutines, user interaction, time delays. I don’t think Doc2go can do it. It’s built in to the HP48. I’m getting ready to build a program to assist in performing an electric motor dc step voltage test. This requires that the voltage be raised in to predetermined levels, held for a minute, record current, then increase to the next voltage level. Current vs voltage must be plotted to check for non-linearities so test can be stopped if necessary. All of this can be programmed into the HP48 including prompting user with instructions (what voltage level is next), counter to time one minute after user identifies target voltage is reached, display of voltage vs user-input current curve at each step.
Programs can also be developed on the PC using HPUserEdit in an interactive display environment (auto-indent, program language elements color-coded), integrated with a PC HP48 emulator. You can write it, test it, debug it on the PC and transfer to Android and it will perform identically. This is in sharp contrast to excel.... if I develop a program on excel I have no idea how it will work on Docs2go. In fact if I put in a type of function that Docs2go doesn’t implement like lookup, it just makes the whole spreadsheet read only. And I have no way of testing the behavior from within excel to know what tools I can use until it gets there.
I understand it’s not for everyone. Some people may have no need or interest to develop their own programs and find it more efficient to use canned programs – it’s a matter of needs and preference to some extent. But if you want to develop a custom engineering application for Android anywhere from simple single equation to moderate complex algorithms, this is the simply best tool out there that I know of.
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And... I think this thread will get boring if I continue to talk about HP48 forever.
Has anyone found any spreadsheet programs they consider better than Docs2go?
Anything else new and exciting in the Android Engineering Apps world?
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should've been:
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You're spot-on about the spreadsheet application in Documents To Go - it gives you basic Excel capability but none of the "advanced" analysis features. Still - it gets me by (mostly). I wasn't aware of the Google take-over - can you provide a link? (It's had "Google Docs" integration for some time, but I prefer DropBox as my "Cloud" application.)
For some basic "Computer Algebra System" (CAS) capability, you might be interested in taking a look at EigenMath 4A on the Google Play store. There's a free version and a paid-for version. I haven't been able to work out what extra features you get for the paid-for version (if any).
I'm REALLY hanging out for the Android port of SMath Studio - "Mathcad Lite" on your Android device! The Alpha version could be "a couple of months" away:
http://en.smath.info/forum/yaf_postsm7259_When-ver...
If it does all (or most) of what the Windows PC / Windows CE versions do, it will be my "number one" maths / engineering calculation application!
http://julianh72.blogspot.com
RE: Engineering Apps for Android phone
Also, I've been playing with a circuit simulator called EveryCircuit that allows you to build and simulate circuits. I've been using the free (limited) version, but I've been considering upgrading even though the price is a bit steep in the world of mobile apps ($10). As a ME, I like it because the graphs give me a better feel for what is happening in the circuit. If I designed circuits on a regular basis, I'd already own it.
I'm running Android, I'm not sure if these are available on iphone but I suspect they are.
www.nxjournaling.com
RE: Engineering Apps for Android phone
http://nothingwired.com/2012/06/07/google-takes-ov...
I definitely like the pc version of that one. The strength is in producing well formatted unit-aware calculations that can easily be checked even by someone not familiar with the program. Seems like laying the equations out on the page would be a small challenge on Android. At any rate if it's free I'll definitely take it for a test run when it shows up.
Thanks Cowski, I might check those programs out.
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ForceEffect:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.....
ForceEffect Motion:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.....
It looks like they have only been posted in the last couple of days. I just loaded them onto my Nexus 7 tablet, and both seem to work well - quite impressive!
http://julianh72.blogspot.com