I would love something like this targeting a broader category of machines. For example, keeping track of when I last changed the oil in my lathe or pressure washer and notifying me to do some kind of regular maintenance. Somewhere to keep track of what kind of oil to buy (for example) alongside a digital copy of the machine’s manuals as well as the ability to log maintenance records.
I used to use Notion for some of this, but they didn’t quite have the functionality I wanted a few years ago.
I'd like something like this with NFC support. I should be able to scan a tag, and the logs page for that tag just automatically pops up, and anyone else can also scan it and access the page, with full offline sync.
Accounts could just be tags too. Hit "Write user credentials to card", tap a blank card, hand it to someone.
Or you could do challenge response auth. Tapping the card gives you access to that note for some selectable time period, no accounts or settings, the tag is the note.
Check out greaseboss.com.au, its an RFID tracking technology for zerks in industrial operations. It tracks zerk by zerk how much grease, the timing and grease type.
This is a nice project, but I like the simplicity and portability of a google docs file that is just a running log. I can just give that file over to a new owner.
My GF is a highly successful person, her sister is a highly successful person.
I had to create a Sheets for them to reconcile expenses so it shows who paid and who owes what - and I had it load images of their shared dog in the sheet for them...
I made GF owner, and they have been using it for ~3 years now with a tab for each month. It was a life saver over reducing my noise on their $ bickering sisters thingamajig.
Anyway - build a google doc/sheet/etc for others when they need it, to keep things quiet. These women are so smart, but couldnt manage a split bill for stuff in any given month, until I built that Sheet - and they thank me to this day....
But its SO fn simple to build things in Sheets/Excel (MS' greatedst program - watch Martin Skrelli's vids on youtube to see how powerful Excel is)
Oh yes! Build quick stuff for folks, yields so many dividends!
My wife was doing work for her Anthropology professor, translating coordinates using some goofy coordinate system that some paleontology folks use. Was constantly referring to some page in a book and copying stuff out, making mistakes.
I made her an Excel macro to take the coordinates in one column and generate the translation in another. Simple, took under an hour.
Used it for years. Generated a sensation in the department. So, yeah, worth doing.
I’ve been using Road Trip MPG on iOS for everything car related. It saves a CSV to Dropbox or iCloud and lets me use it between multiple devices. Really happy with it!
In the hope that the maintainers of https://lubelogger.com/ read this: On the homepage under "Showcase" the left and right chevron buttons for seeing more images are shown black on a dark background and are hard to spot.
I'm curious what people do with their service records. I used to keep detailed logs until I found I never needed to go back to them. The car tells me when the oil needs changing and the tires need rotation and all the other standard maintenance. So I just go in when the car says I should. My car also shows me the milage for my last three tanks of gas, so I just check that after each fill up to make sure it's in line with expectations (did I do a lot of city driving this tank, highway, etc). If it's not, I tell the mechanic something is wrong because the milage is too low.
I've never sold a car to a stranger before. All my old cars either go to my dad (who eventually donates them after driving them into the ground), donation, or in once case back to the dealer who didn't care about the service record at all.
So you don't plan your maintenance well-ahead, and you trust your car producer not to try to take advantage of you (like imposing shorter maintenance intervals then really needed). You also apparently own modern car, and you bought it new, and authorized maintenance is available nearby, and they are probably competent enough. Nothing's wrong with it, but as you see, there are plenty of conditions which could be different for other people. Not to forget that many actually sell their cars after some time, not leaving them to relatives.
To be clear I wasn't saying there isn't a use for this. I was saying I don't have a use for it and was curious as to what uses other people have.
> So you don't plan your maintenance well-ahead
Do people do that? I've never known anyone who plans it ahead, they just budget for it monthly and save the money to do it when they have the money and it's needed.
But this is interesting none the less.
> You also apparently own modern car, and you bought it new,
1/2 my cars I purchased used and were at least four years old when I bought them. It's true, I'm not buying 20 year old cars.
> and authorized maintenance is available nearby, and they are probably competent enough
How does having service records help with these issues? I don't see the connection.
> Nothing's wrong with it, but as you see, there are plenty of conditions which could be different for other people.
Yes, which I acknowledged. That in my situation it never comes up, but I was curious what other situations exist where it matters.
> Not to forget that many actually sell their cars after some time, not leaving them to relatives.
Only 1/2 my cars when to my dad, the other 1/2 I donated or sold to a dealer. Neither requested maintenance records. And when I bought my used cars I didn't ask for maintenance records. Which is why I asked if anyone actually asks for those and won't buy the car if they don't have it. I've only ever seen it as a nice to have during a car sale.
I use my vehicle's maintenance screen to track when service work has to be done. But I use fuelly.com to track my mileage.
It's been great but as they have added features, videos, animations, etc. over the years it's become very slow to use on my phone. And the entry fields don't default to numbers anymore (the iPhone used to present the keypad keyboard for them). I've been looking for a lightweight (aka fast) replacement for a while.
I will say that their site is a great resource to use when shopping for a car, as the mileage they report is by real owners and not EPA estimates. Click "Research Vehicles" - they have everything from Abarth to Yugo.
Great idea, I regularly got the urge of making something like this myself.
It would be interesting to add a database of Make and model.
An open source vehicule maintenance planning database containing the maintenance tasks and their period would be a great sister project. In it one could also add all the additional data concerning the vehicule usual "weaknesses". Because the car that pollute less is the one that you keep a little longer, focusing more on car maintenance instead of constantly churning new cars will make these kind of data essential in the future.
I have a truck, an old car, and a couple of motorcycles. Keeping track of maintenance, observations, parts, etc. across them is important. For a long time ive used a spreadsheet with no issue, so not sure I’d set this up myself.
I noticed that you don't have the option to tag something "Done" in the project planning screen. You can be planning it, doing it, or testing it but you can't tag it done.
Looks nice. I use an excel sheet for mine right now.
For fuel consumption I track a running average of the last X fillups where X is equivalent to the oil change interval. That helps identify performance issues as you can see your fuel economy decreasing as it nears time to replace plugs, air filters, etc. I also break out parts replacement by system - transmission, engine, transfer case, differentials, wire harness, lighting, etc just as you would use in ordering parts. That way specific items are easier to find in the maintenance records just by searching records for specific systems. It helps to understand the expected lifetime of your parts and to spot things like differences between OEM and aftermarket parts from specific parts suppliers.
I actually did. The previous owner could not open it because the front panel got disconnected from the electronics at the inside and he didn't bother to look further.
I used to use Notion for some of this, but they didn’t quite have the functionality I wanted a few years ago.