Pool Math........The App

[Leebo]

I 2. When evaluating FC, to see how much bleach to add, the target always defaults to the middle of the target range. This doesn't work for me. The mid point is 6, but my daily target is 7. It would be nice if we could set our own "target" and it save rather than having to change it. I am sure at some point I am gonna forget to change it.

This was done as a "safety feature" for new users. Several times per year we see newer users enter a low FC result into the PoolMath webpage and never notice they're not maintaining a high enough FC level. We reset this field after you close the advice page to make sure a user never runs too little chlorine. This "should" be the only page that doesn't hold your target.

My only request would be that the app also log what we actually add to the pool.

We've already started but put it on hold to address the login issues. We hope to get it going again soon.

The PoolMath App is awesome and very convenient to have on my phone. The only issue I am having so far is the CSI when using the app comes out different than when I use poolMath on TFP website. Anyone else see the same differences?

TFP PM CSI = -.28
PoolMath App CSI = -.38

Are you tracking your salt levels? We made a change in the default salt levels for users who don't input a level that may have contributed to this difference. The webpage used zero for users who didn't track salt however that's not realistic. We've now increased that to 1000 on each. Make sure both salt levels say 1000 and I'm guessing they'll match.

I see, I was trying to change the values by hitting the buttons on the left instead of entering in a test log first. 4-11 FC seems high, as the SWG pool chemistry section here says 4-6 is the range I'm shooting for, but maybe there's other math that's making it display like that? Just want to make sure I'm syncing it all up right.

I guess I see the benefit of putting the real numbers in the log, and then being able to change them as 'what if?' drills from the overview page. Maybe there should be an instruction/help tab that explains it, though, or a 'getting started' popup when you run the app for the first time to walk you through it, as it didn't get it at first.

I'm planning on instructions soon however the login issue took my attention away. At first my path was the same as yours having users tinker one by one changing as they go. Enough users however expressed the desire to open up the logs for free users that we switched this logic and made both ways work.

The math it's showing is the same on both the App and webpage. I'm guessing you're using a CYA level of 80 this showing you a target of 4-11 on the App. If you put that CYA level into the webpage you'll see the 4 matches the SWG minimum level while the 11 matches the high end of the daily target level.

That said, If you open up the advice page you'll see the target level shows as 9 (a middle ground) which matches the low end of the non-SWG target level. I do believe this is a glitch that I need to look at, but too much FC here is better than not enough.



Thanks all for the feedback!! Keep it coming!!

 

[Skitch]

I'm on Android and can't log in. Gets stuck at "Syncing".

 

[Leebo]

I'm on Android and can't log in. Gets stuck at "Syncing".

We've still got several bugs to address on this build such as crashes on iPad during import or a subscription error but by far this issue is our top priority. We have ran into an issue with logins that has greatly frustrated everybody here since Sunday. We're starting to make progress hopefully now and we're starting to pinpoint the root cause.......I hope! We've worked with multiple companies and tinkered with multiple settings and unfortunately each time the problem is pointed deeper in the code. We're really fighting to avoid taking a major turn to "fix" this problem so please stick with us as we hopefully fix this stupid thing!

 

[packrat555]

FC target defaults to 6.0 while I can manually set this back to my target of 4.0 it reset everytime.

btw, Raypak advises less than 5.0 except when occasionally shocking

 

[dkimble]

FC target defaults to 6.0 while I can manually set this back to my target of 4.0 it reset everytime.

btw, Raypak advises less than 5.0 except when occasionally shocking

4 seems low for a daily target. How much do you lose per day?

My min at 50cya is 4ppm. I use 1-2ppm, so I target 7 daily to make sure I stay above the min.

 

[griffths]

FC target defaults to 6.0 while I can manually set this back to my target of 4.0 it reset everytime.

btw, Raypak advises less than 5.0 except when occasionally shocking

Keep in mind that the recommendation is for "available" chlorine but if you have 30-40 PPM CYA then you are not really close to / above their max recommendation as Some is locked up by the CYA

Regards

 

[911medic]

Leebo, I know you are busy with higher priority bugs, but just wanted to make sure you saw the android icon bug a number of us reported a bit back in this thread.

Thanks for all your hard work!

 

[Leebo]

Leebo, I know you are busy with higher priority bugs, but just wanted to make sure you saw the android icon bug a number of us reported a bit back in this thread.

Thanks for all your hard work!

That I did. I've got a user who's emailed the issue to me as well that responded with their device make/model as well so we can attempt to recreate it more. All of Jon's efforts is getting out towards login but once that's complete we'll start addressing other items.

 

[rkeller62]

That I did. I've got a user who's emailed the issue to me as well that responded with their device make/model as well so we can attempt to recreate it more. All of Jon's efforts is getting out towards login but once that's complete we'll start addressing other items.

Definitely fine with you 'back burnering' this issue since it doesn't affect app functionality at all.

Just curious if any of your Android test units are running Nougat or not as I am wondering if this bug is OS dependent.

 

[Leebo]

Just put a match to the UserName......it's you we have the info for. So far we haven't really looked just yet so I don't know how far the issue goes.

 

[JVTrain]

FC target defaults to 6.0 while I can manually set this back to my target of 4.0 it reset everytime.

btw, Raypak advises less than 5.0 except when occasionally shocking

Raypak likely does not recognize the CYA/chlorine relationship, much like the rest of the pool industry. Disregard FC maintenance levels recommended by manufacturers, unless you are extremely concerned about a warranty issue, such as with a builder and new plaster.

Sorry for the off topic post, but I thought it needed addressing.

 

[911medic]

That I did. I've got a user who's emailed the issue to me as well that responded with their device make/model as well so we can attempt to recreate it more. All of Jon's efforts is getting out towards login but once that's complete we'll start addressing other items.

Totally understand. Just wanted to make sure it didn't slip through the cracks.

Definitely fine with you 'back burnering' this issue since it doesn't affect app functionality at all.

Just curious if any of your Android test units are running Nougat or not as I am wondering if this bug is OS dependent.

I am on Nougat, on a Google Pixel, if that helps.

 

[D&JButler]

Sorry for not reading through all the messages in this thread for a possible answer. I just realized there is an app, and I downloaded it onto my iphone. But it won't accept my login information. I changed my password and tried again and still no luck. I don't see any links for app support within the app, so I came here. Any suggestions for logging in so I can start using it?

 

[dkimble]

Sorry for not reading through all the messages in this thread for a possible answer. I just realized there is an app, and I downloaded it onto my iphone. But it won't accept my login information. I changed my password and tried again and still no luck. I don't see any links for app support within the app, so I came here. Any suggestions for logging in so I can start using it?

There have been some log in issues that they are trying to sort out.

 

[redth]

UPDATE

First of all let me say sorry.

As you no doubt know, we've had some major issues with logging into the app this past week. Mostly if users could get properly logged in, things would work, but many of you had issues actually getting that far. Again, I sincerely apologize for the issues.

We had a wonderful beta test period and everything worked generally well, so we really thought we were ready to release to the app store. We had a pretty large beta test (around 500 users) which gave me confidence in the system and that we shouldn't have major issues scaling. Unfortunately, I was very wrong about this. When an email went out to TFP users letting more people know about the app, we had a lot of interested people downloading and trying out the app. This caused the system to grind to a halt.

If you've read this whole thread, I've tried to be very transparent about what technologies we are using, and you might have heard about this one called Realm.io that we use to enable syncing to the cloud across devices and platforms. The technology has great promise, but for some reason our modest user load caused huge issues within the server software. We did not anticipate this. Realm did not anticipate this. We were told this amount of user activity should be absolutely no issue for the software to handle.

While we couldn't have predicted these issues, and they weren't caused by us directly, they are still our problem to deal with.

I've spent the past week working hard with the realm.io team to try and diagnose these issues, and figure out how to fix it going forward. We tried throwing more hardware at the problem to temporarily make it go away, but because of how the software is architected, that really didn't help. Eventually I decided to completely reimplement part of the service myself, to minimize the load on the actual realm server software.

As of this morning, we've switched over to using a combination of my own implementation and the core parts of realm syncing. It's hard to tell at this point, but I think this should fix our login and sync issues going forward.


If you are still having issues, please try these things first:
1. Uninstall and reinstall the app
2. If you are an android user, clear the app's cache and data: Fix app stuck spinning on Android : Pool Math App Support
3. Login again, you should now be able to login and see your data.



Again, I apologize for the trouble. I would not have let the app go into the store knowing these issues were going to occur. We are discussing our next steps towards data sync and the technologies we will use going forward, and the possibility of finally allowing users to bypass the login completely if they want to opt out of cloud sync entirely.

Thanks again to everyone who's been so patient and encouraging. Even though this is a hobby or 'fun' project for me, it's been a week of very little sleep, high anxiety, and much frustration trying to make things right. Hopefully we're back on a forward moving path now.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Jon, thank you for the informative update. It sounds like you guys were relying on some fundamentally flawed (not your fault) technology and Realm let you down. I truly believe you guys when you say you would have not released the app had you anticipated these problems so it was just a "black swan" event. You guys tried to do you best to make this app as available and easy to access data as possible and I commend you for that. Syncing data across platforms and devices is a non-trivial task and you guys did your best. Keep pushing and I know you'll get there.

The underlying App is still a great piece of work and I'm sure your future updates will be great. I look forward to them.

 

[Leebo]

It sounds like you guys were relying on some fundamentally flawed (not your fault) technology and Realm let you down.

You ever tried calling a Tech company letting them know their code has a major flaw that requires a complete redo of their code? That’s what Jon did Monday morning, on a major holiday in Canada. Unfortunately it was a few days before Realm even took him serious but when they did they were very helpful. They tossed Jon the keys to much of their code and assisted whenever they could. Hopefully the changes Jon made has helped. It’s WAY to early to tell yet but so far we’re seeing some success.

So beyond the large changes Jon mentioned he’s also made some additional smaller changes behind the scenes. First he’s updated the login to allow your email address that’s associated with TFP to work as well as your UserName. Second while he was at it he’s updated the App’s login to work with iOS 11 new feature that will allow third party Apps access to the “keychain.” This means once you update to iOS11 the App will automatically ask you if you wish to use your information from TFP to login. No more entering your information if it’s saved already in Safari.

Again, I’m VERY sorry for the frustration to all the users. We’ll keep you updated on this patch as we see if it works or not.

 

[D&JButler]

I was able to log in with my email address. Thank you!
Kudos for your diligence and perseverance! It looks like a handy app. I'm anxious to work with it.

 

[rkeller62]

Latest update fixed my app icon issue on Android. Thanks for all the hard work on this great app.

 

[Leebo]

I’m SO glad to see it working for you both again as it should! Thank you greatly for putting up with us.
Lee