This now brings us to an interesting dilemma:
“Do we keep it free?“

I initially decided to place it back to the launch price of £1.79 after the festive season but given the huge take up in downloads I’d like to keep this coming and placing a cost on the app no matter how small impacts this. People are willing to spend $5 on a coffee (myself included) but not $1 on an app and with this in mind and the fact that we want to update it with another 2000 words I’ve decided to add “AdMob” to the application and keep it free.

We already see from this site that people will consume the content you give them and do not click the Google ads (hint hint) but I guess the idea is that you have to appeal to the individual and not the masses and that’s why we’ve signed up to AdMob to keep the app free. Of course if you don’t want the adverts then you don’t have to update the app you have but I will be making updated and some corrections to it and the adverts themselves are at the top of the screen (see image) so they’re not intrusive at all. The idea of this app was for each download to pay for a small items in the house like a roof tile or a brick and at present this is just not happening with either the app or the Google ads.

We are looking for some feedback from the users on this as we are also thinking of tuely opening up the app to allow people to contribute and suggest words that’ll be automatically added at the next build.

What do you think of this ?

iTunes Link for Petite Assistante is : HERE

You can download your free app from iTunes or in your iPhone & iPod touch HERE

If of course you want to show us some Google add clicking love that would be great too… More shortly, lots and lots to tell you .

To this end i’ve taken the previous task of building a solar power logger & now we’ve gone one step further and purchased this weather station that has arrived. The weather station itself is made by Watson and is the W-8681, It’ll will measure wind speed, direction, gusts, rain, temp, pressure and the best thing it logs it all wirelessly to a touch pad up to 300ft away so it’ll be safe inside the house. Both transmitter and receiver run on a few AA batteries that’ll last up to two years and the receiver can log up to a years data in its internal memory before requiring downloading… BRILLIANT !!!

Why?
Well i’m trying to solidify solutions for rain water harvesting, wind turbines and solar panels so the fact i don’t have to constantly be around to collect this information is fantastic. The only downside to all of this is the horrible software interface is Windows only however that’s not overly important to me once i get the data out of the thing.

I’ll be installing it the next trip out which is currently scheduled for Christmas and i’ll post some images and some initial data readings but i’ll continue to post readings when i get out on site.

Below is a quick overview of what it does and i’ve linked to an eBay search for the item if you fancy a look. If you’re a store that sells these in the UK, Europe or USA and want a link then just drop me a line.

eBay search link (UK) : http://bit.ly/w-8681

Spec Sheet

Features:

1) Touch screen panel
2) USB port for easy connectio to your PC
3) All the weather data from the base station and weather history data with user adjustable measuring intervals can be recorded and uploaded to your PC
4) Free PC software for transfer weather data to PC
5) Rainfall data (inches or millimeters): 1-hour, 24-hour,one week,one month and total since last reset.
6) Wind chill and Dew point temperature display (° for °C)
7)Records min. and max. wind chill and Dew point with time and date stamp Wind speed (mph, m/s, km/h, knots, Beaufort)
9) Wind direction display with LCD compass
10) Weather forecast tendency arrow
11) Weather alarm modes for: a) Temperature b) Humidity c) Wind chill d) Dew point e) Rainfall f) Wind speed g) Air pressure h) Storm warning
12) Forecast icons based on changing barometric pressure
13) Barometric pressure (inHg or hPa) with 0.1hPa resolution
14) Wireless outdoor and indoor humidity (% RH)
15) Records min. and max. humidity with time and date stamp
16) Wireless outdoor and indoor temperature (° for °C)
17) Records min. and max. temperature with time and date stamp
18) Time and date with manual setting
19) 12 or 24-hour time display
20) Perpetual calendar
21) Time zone setting
22) Time alarm
23) High light LED backlight
24) Wall hanging or free standing
25) Synchronized instant reception
26) Low power consumption (over 2 years battery life for transmitter)
Set includes:
1) Receiver
2) Four outdoor sensors: thermo-hydro transmitter, wind speed sensor, wind direction sensor and rain sensor

Specifications:
1) Outdoor temperature range: -40.0°C to + 65.0°C (-40°F to +149°F)
2) Indoor temperature range: 0°C to + 50.0°C (32°F to +122°F)
3) Humidity range: 10% to 99% (1% resolution)
4) Rain volume display: 0 – 9999mm (show OFL if outside range) Resolution : 0.3mm (if rain volume < 1000mm) 1mm (if rain volume > 1000mm)
5) Wind speed: 0~100mph (show OFL if outside range)
6) Measuring range air pressure: 27.13inHg – 31.89inHgResolution : 0.01inHg
7) Alarm duration : 120 sec Transmission range up to 100m (330 feet)
9) Power consumption: a) Receiver: 3 x AA alkaline batteries (not included) b) Sensor WH7: 2 x AA alkaline batteries (not included)
10) Transmission frequency: 433MHz,868MHz(Europe) / 915MHz (North Ameria

Update Dec 25 2009
We’ve bought this with us for Christmas and i’ve managed to install this, this afternoon. I’ll be starting the data collection shortly and will post up a write up.

So a few bits of news …

1) Petite Assistante v1.1
Major word-base update coming out soon. I’ve been working hard on updating the word list even more and am hopefully over the next week i’ll get this submitted to Apple for approval.

Sales are going well considering it’s such a niche product and i’ve even made contacted a few “France / French” magazines to see if they can do some sort of editorial and we’ll do some sort of app giveaway with them. This will for the moment be UK based only but it’s a start. I’ll keep you updated on this. The very latest version of “Petite Assistante” will always be HERE

2) A few days away coming up soon
With the Christmas holidays coming up we are taking the dog on his first european holiday to the house. To do some prep for this me and my dad are off to the house for just under a week from next Thursday. This will just be getting the house ready for living in at christmas so there will be some videos, photos and posts for the work we’ll be undertaking. That said this is a few days away for us to chill out and will not be busting my nuts to work on the house. However here’s what i’ll try and achieve :

• Cow shed roof full removed and the wall taken down
• Pipping lagged in prep for the winter
• Interior wall pointed to help insulate for the winter

We’ll also be travelling on the new LDLines service that is now running from Dover – Boulogne route so i’ll post up as this will be yet another carrier we’ve been on so it’s time to do a comparison. So that’s it really, they’ll be more over the coming week. Also the irony of the timing of this post hasn’t gone unnoticed.. The last time i wrote a “No news is good news” post, we got married and yep we’ve just had out first wedding anniversary.. It seems September is destined to be a slow blog month

The video above shows you some basic functionality of the app running & how to use it just to wet your appetite. As we’ve said before this is no ordingary French dictionary, this is going to be an epic renovation and building dictionary of super super handy proportions.. No more worrying if you know exactly what a word says just look it up in seconds.

The great news is that we are constantly updating the word lists and we’ve already send an update to Apple correcting a (rather embarrassing) spelling mistake and we’ve added 1500 more words. As promised these updates are always going to be FREE, so don’t wait around CLICK HERE and go the App Store today & get the WORLDS 1ST French Renovation iPhone/iPod Touch App brought to you by us here at www.Montpillard.com

So here’s the skinny :
iTunes Link : Petite Assistante
Cost : Launch price £1.19 NOW FREE (see post for why)

Right now we can’t give any away as a launch special as Apple only allow this via the US store so we’ve dropped the price by 1/3rd for a week. Lets hope they fix that soon so we can do a small giveaway.

Get the balloons, party poppers & the orange juice as we are about to have ourselves a wrap part!

Introducing little Miss “Petite Assistante” your personal French renovation dictionary, translater and all round life saver.

The app is a dedicated English to French to English translation dictionary however this IS NOT your normal batch of French words. You’re not going to be flirting with the ladies or buying groceries but these
6,000+ dedicated building/renovating words covering everything from fractions in English to French to tools, materials and so so much more.

We’ve even gone the other way and you can search French words (by alphabetically scrolling if you’re that way inclined or using the search function) so if you come across a word you’re not sure about when you’re out and about then you’re not lost. We don’t think there is any point in just having the English to French translator as when you actually have no idea what the French words are on their own. All that is now a thing of the past.

Here comes the some FAQ’s :

• Where can I get it?
  iTunes App Store. As soon as they approve it we’ll post the link here and on @Twitter.
  Petite Assistante will work on ALL generations of iPhones & iPod Touch’s.

• When can I get it?
  Apple say about 2 weeks from submission if we’ve managed not to break any rules.

• How much is it?
  NOW FREE (see post as to why) £1.79 or €2.00 depending what iTunes store you are connected to.

• How many words do you have & are you adding more?
  At launch we have over 6,000 translations in both English & French and YES we are adding more. We are going to keep it tight to renovating, renovation and building as this app is here to help you with these types of terms so we’ll not be cheating by swelling the word base by putting in basic French conversational words.

• Is there a “free” or “lite” version to try?
  Since we can’t do time limited trials we “may”  release a “lite” version for you to try. This will have around 500 words maximum and will just be a taster. This app will not be updated with all the extra words we are adding week on week.

• What do you mean English to French to English ?
  Simple … You look up the word “Paint” in English and you’ll see “Peinture” in French. But if you’re out and about and you see the word “Peinture” then how do you go about finding what that means.. With “Petite Assistante ” app you simply either drop into “Français à l’anglais” mode and search to word or scroll to it and that of course will bring up “Paint” in English.

If you have any questions about the app at all please either get in touch or drop us a comment and we’ll answer each and every one of you.

We are recording a demo video for you now and will post it shortly however here are some screen shots of the final layout and graphics. Enjoy

]]> http://www.montpillard.com/2009/08/french-renovation-there-is-an-app-for-that/feed/ 4 http://www.montpillard.com/2009/08/iphone-app/ http://www.montpillard.com/2009/08/iphone-app/#comments Tue, 04 Aug 2009 18:24:39 +0000 Lee http://www.montpillard.com/?p=1930 I did mention a while back that we are trying to put an iPhone app together to help with renovation & that wasn’t very specific so it’s time to put some flesh on the bones now we’ve started the project (as if we didn’t have enough on the go).

“Petit Assistant” is a nice and simple app, we’ll to be honest it’s more of a dictionary than an application however the ability to have 1000′s of renovation terms in French and English with a look up between the two of them in your pocket is going to be priceless.

Why?
Currently i have to carry a book around with me no matter where i go to constantly do word look ups & it gets cumbersome, also i guarantee the one time i don’t have it on me i think of something i need to know, so with it all in your pocket this will be no more.

But aren’t there online translators?
There are indeed, but all these require a data connection where your requests is sent and processed by a server. In France we constantly find no data connection and when I’m in Brico Depot & I’m looking up a word it takes ages to send it out to the server and return it plus it costs me a small fortune using data while roaming. My last data bill was over £100 in 2 days just with this type of use. “Petit Assistant” will be a pocket tool which will do an internal lookup of over 10,000 words (to start) to give you quicker and much much cheaper results.

How much will it cost?
Nothing.. It’ll be a free app and that’s because we want your help. This really is for everyone French or English. We’ll start to build the word list shortly and we’ll be publishing it on the site, we’ll then be opening it up so everyone can add words and their translation. This will then be placed into an online file that can be updated instantly by the app should you want to.

When will it be available?
A few weeks… The actual coding and UI design isn’t the hardest thing since we are keeping version 1 very simple, the longest task is to build the word lists, if i can find a way of opening up the submission page sooner for your help then i will do.

So that’s it.. We are really trying to do something very simple and put it in your pocket so when you’re in a lumber yard, paint store or a tool hire shop you’ll be able to get exactly what you’re after.

If you want to help then drop us an email we’ll love to hear from you, and if you want to sponsor the app even better.

More soon….

Our plans have always been to place a good quality solid wooden floor in the main living space. The living area will be a high traffic area and somewhat of the centre of the house so whatever goes down needs to be durable, comfortable and fit with the feel of the house, and we ended up going for a “scrapped” wood as the unevenness of it along with some nicks and dents will help blend when the kids drop their toys on it.

In the UK we seem to be both blessed and plagued with cheap DIY options for wood laminate flooring options which has sprung up from the renovation boom of the past 10 years. I’m sure this is great for many people, in fact we have this on the floor in our current home and I have come to hate it! The cheap feel, the sound as you walk on it, the chipping of the covering etc etc it just doesn’t feel right but with prices anywhere from £8psm i can see why people do it. But it’s not for us, and that leaves “real wood”..

“Real wood” solutions in the UK don’t come cheap, and in France they certianly don’t come cheap.

Of course it’s not all about price but their has to be a compromise reached since the budget isn’t infinite and wow how times change! When we first started looking for this kind of quality floor we were being quoted £90psm + & but thankfully  there are now suppliers online that’ll supply from £50psm. So here is some maths.

The lounge area is 7m x 11m ( 23ftx36ft approx ) giving a square area of 77sqm or 828Sft.

Cost @ £90psm = £6930 / $11365 ( @ £1 = $1.64)
Cost @ £50psm = £3850 / $6338

and this is where Twitter came in….

Searching around online and searching keyboards (hash tags) on Twitter we found @HardwoodForLess (honest i was searching flooring) a username of Lumber Liquidators based in the US. The name was familiar to the wife who swears she’s seen them on Extreme Makeover Home Edition (don’t hate her for her viewing sins). Being in the U.S. we couldn’t see them being of much use to us except maybe for some inspiration however  a bit of reading & we find they ship to the UK but is it going to be worth it?

Looking at the handscraped selections we found exactly what we were looking for. Lumber Liquidators call it Virginia Mill Works 1/2″ x 5″ Potomac Plank Handscraped Pre-Finished Natural and it comes in at $4.29/sq.ft.

Again here comes the maths :
Cost @ $4.29/sq.ft. x 828/sq.ft =

$3974.59 / £2414.33

But how do you get in contact with a company that only supply a 1-800 number (Lumber Liquidators you NEED to change this) ? After a quick “tweet” out asking how i can do this using Skype i got a reply that using Skype i just simply need to dial 001 800 427 3966 . I managed to get through on the freephone number and there i was on the phone for 15 minutes to the U.S. for free speaking with an extrenely helpful salesman by the name of Robert Dworkin (details to follow) who then dropped the bombshell.

SHIPPING TO THE UK IS FREE!

Basically their is $150 tax and fees on the price, it’s loaded on the boat with all the other wood their shipping and then just go pick it up at Southampton and pay the import duty (@4.9% and then vat @ 15% ) and we take it away!

So with shipping, VAT, import duty how so the figures really stack up now ? (more maths)

Cost £2414
Import Duty – £108.63
VAT @ 15% – 362.1
Total Shipped to the UK = £2883.73

That’s a few £ under a £1000 saving and this can only get better as the exchange rate goes up & before i twist the arm of LL for a discount

Like any renovation, every saving is a bonus and that £1000 is basically the cost of the windows in the 3 new dormers we are creating and that’s just another reason why we are sold on Lumber Liquidators as a supplier.

What about the quality of the wood ?
Of course as yet we’ve not seen it, touched it or smelt it so why would we be so crazy as to risk spending all that money on something we’d not seen?  Well that’s where Rob has came in, a few emails with some suggestions of flooring and we’ve got samples winging their way to us at £0. Seriously the service we are getting from Lumber Liquidators is fantastic and once again I have to talk about the attitude of internet suppliers over traditional suppliers. Lumber Liquidators have taken the giant step to get their message out using Twitter, Facebook and its website and it’s paying off as we’ll be spending money with them that they would otherwise had not got.

Traditional suppliers really need to start to embrace technology, social media just as much as old media, print and shows more and more people of our generation (tech savy 30 somethings) are now shopping this way and i can only compliment what Lumber Liquidators have done. KUDOS to you all.

Well done Lumber Liquidators and please buy Rob a coffee!

Here are their details :

Website : http://www.lumberliquidators.com/
Twitter ID : @HardwoodForLess
How to get them on Skype : Dial 001 800-476-0007 x 7549 (you may need SkypeOut credit)
Who do you want to speak to : Robert Dworkin / rdworkin@lumberliquidators.com

We will of course keep you updated with what we diceide to buy in the end and the whole process of shipping, collecting and fitting. Watch this space

I only managed to be patient enough to record just under 2 days data to share with you, but now i have some basic data i’ll leave it soak testing for a week.

To start to understand what this means you’ll need to know that the panel we have is a basic off the shelf  5w panel we purchased online and at present it is located behind glass in out bathroom as this room currently gets the most sun. While this rooms gets the most sun it does mean that the energy to the panel is filtered somewhat. As soon as i get a chance to weather proof the panel i’ll have it in the garden logging away.

So here is the quick read out from the panel.

What this means
We take a reading from the panel once a minute. At this rate the logger will store 22 days worth of data, however I would normally recommened once every 5 minutes giving just under 3 months data collection available (battery permitting).

What you can see here is that on both days there was a stead stream of energy being produced with the panel peaking out just under 20v 14:47 19 June. It appears that between 14:30 & 15:38 on that day the panel was collecting far more energy than any time over the previous day. So you can see we are getting sold data out of the unit, now we just need to do some research on some full size panels and work out some easy formulas to take our data & enable you to “size up” the information to work out what a solar array would generate.

To this end i’m going mate ALL the test data avaiable to you (below), in txt, csv & excel format so you can see exactly what is going on here.

Logging Software
At present the logger programing software is only available on Windows (which is irony as we are totally Mac in this house), so further down the line i’ll try and get a Mac version written, however once installed the software is very easy to use.

Simply plug the logger into the USB port and select STOP & Collect Data. This will stop the logger and pull the data off in a text format for you. This will then run the basic logger software to give you an instant read out you see above and then export to Excel if you wish.
This is all very easy.

To program the logger is just as easy. Simply click the Set up & you’re greeted with a screen asking you to set the logging interval and it’ll tell you how long you can log for. At this point simply click “OK” and then stick starts logging. Simply unplug from your computer and back into the panel enclosure, fit to your desired location and leave. That’s it, you’re logging

So as you can see the whole process “should” be dead simple and with a few clicks, an Excel spreadsheet and some forumla’s you’ll be able to work out if Solar is the way forward for you.

Download the data
Just right click and “Save as” (Windows) or “Download as” (Mac) these files to see the raw data out of the logger to have a play with.

I’ll be really interested to see what you do with the data you get out. Let me know what you get out of it and we’ll post it up here.