Jason McNeil Posted October 26, 2017 Share Posted October 26, 2017 After the less-than-perfect-release of the last King Song App , I approached King Song about the possibility of managing the development of a new revamped App which would be more in line with what our Customers expect to see in an App. While WheelLog/WheelInfo/DarknessBot are very nearly there, these do not provide the ability to unlock the Wheel & perform other vendor specific functions. It's still early days, but here is the first mock-up. What do you guys think? For this first release, in order to keep it on schedule/budget, we wanted to keep it relatively simple. There's some ideas for additional features in a v2, such as locating your Wheel in a non-invasive way, if it were to get lost or stolen & performance datalogging. What are the Current Problems in the Current Release: App should NOT require additional permission setting to install on Android Interface is a mess, non-standard buttons & controls Connection to the Wheel is not stable, often disconnects, takes too much time connect Customer registration simply doesn't work. Customers do not want to be forced to register in order to perform basic setup & configuration Addition of features that serve no conceivable benefit, e.g., shutting down the Wheel There are no distinguishing differences in the KS Icons, so if Users install multiple versions, they are unable to tell them apart from the App list App is too large, at 37MB it's absurd size in proportion to it's functionality Quality of translation is extremely poor Distribution of Android is still not available through the Google Play store New App Design Principles Must support both Android & IOS Simple but powerful, no complex menu navigation Size of the App should not exceed 5MB To ensure high performance, downloads from servers located in either Europe or North America. Chinese Internet connections are simply not good enough Interface should by built on an existing GUI framework Permissions: no additional security requirements for installation, allow access to BT & GPS receiver (later) BT connectivity: must be stable, should use native Android/IOS BT stack User must NOT be required to register All information on one screen without being too cluttered Intuitive easy to navigate configuration What Functionality will NOT be added: Social: there are a host of other-better Apps for this Estimated Range: provides Customers with inaccurate data that creates confusion Shutdown: no possible scenario in which this will be included Path tracking: we will suggest a link to a 3rd party Apps that do the job better Main screen: Speed Battery level: both volts & % available Power avg over 1sec, bar graphs Board temperature Light status Horn Accumulated mileage, trip Serial number Setup configuration for King Song Wheels First connection to Wheel, Discovery & registration Unlock the speed from 20kph Calibration the pedals Upgrade the firmware Change head-light light settings LED lights, colors Change BT password Setup Ride modes Imperial or metric Customized name to unique ID mapping Firmware update process App detects the serial number & provides relevant FW choices Detailed change Log Ability to revert back to a previous version FW files to be stored on servers in North America for faster access Integrity checking during the download & transfer to Wheel Maximum BT file transfer speed to Wheel Datalogging Capability: Collect information into a log data file, can be disabled, ability set to maximum size Will be able to graph speed, board temperature, voltage level & power output Ability to export info as CSV using the standardized Share Future Locate Functionality: 'Locate Your Wheel' by uploading GPS coordinates Locate can be optionally disabled, but first time App connects to Wheel, connects uploads coordinates to server Feature can have 'optional' registration for device tracking Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HermanTheGerman Posted October 26, 2017 Share Posted October 26, 2017 Thanks Jason, For this initiative! I can't agree more on (nearly) everything. If you need a beta tester at any time, I'll be happy to help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
US69 Posted October 26, 2017 Share Posted October 26, 2017 O 25 minutes ago, Jason McNeil said: It's still early days, but here is the first mock-up. What do you guys think? For this first release, in order to keep it on schedule/budget, we wanted to keep it relatively simple. There's some ideas for additional features in a v2, such as locating your Wheel in a non-invasive way, if it were to get lost or stolen & performance datalogging. I find watts, percentage and temperature numbers much to small on this design....and i personnaly see no use of this speedometer like ring-visualation around all the number. Also i would be missing amps.... As they just released their new app, i would find it a much better aproach if they now use this new app with all the functions, just work out all the kinks/faults, get rid of the Registration process....and give it a better and much more structured designed GUI. That would be more Logical than starting a development of a completly new app ?again?......(and make us wait 9 months again!) The app as it is now, is just missing watts....it has Speed, Batterie, temperature, amps....just a very horrible display with this orange on White, which has no contrast and some numbers much to small. Beside that the app is working (relativly) fine for me...i set my Speed after 1000km and other Options, allready loaded a new Firmware on my wheel(which works much better with Progress bar, you can repeat it after a fail) etc etc.....Sure the Interface is a total mess...but that's a minor to Change.... The only Thing that is crashing alltime are the map-functions of the social media stuff. Other than that it is working ok for me.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HermanTheGerman Posted October 26, 2017 Share Posted October 26, 2017 I assume you use the app on your ks18 or ks16s. I hate the app, because 1. It has severe problems to connect to my ks16b, 2. It is ridiculously big, 3. It is rather chatty. Actually it sent more data than my YouTube app received a week ago, and after recognizing that I deinstalled it immediately, and will not try it a 2nd time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason McNeil Posted October 26, 2017 Author Share Posted October 26, 2017 2 hours ago, KingSong69 said: The app as it is now, is just missing watts....it has Speed, Batterie, temperature, amps 2 hours ago, KingSong69 said: The only Thing that is crashing alltime are the map-functions of the social media stuff. Other than that it is working ok for me.... That might be your opinion, because you have a lot of experience with the App, but take, for example your relatives; if they were Wheel novices & wanted to unlock the speed, surely you wouldn't want them to suffer the torments of having to navigate through interface, it's complete unwanton cruelty to the User. You might not spend a good chunk of your day supporting the KS App, I do! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason McNeil Posted October 26, 2017 Author Share Posted October 26, 2017 - Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason McNeil Posted October 26, 2017 Author Share Posted October 26, 2017 14 minutes ago, Asylsteirer said: If you need a beta tester at any time, I'll be happy to help. Thanks, we're still probably several weeks away from testing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
US69 Posted October 26, 2017 Share Posted October 26, 2017 20 minutes ago, Jason McNeil said: That might be your opinion , but you don't have to spend a good chunk of your day supporting it, I do! Yip, you are right.... i am just spending a good chunk of my day here in the Forum and on Facebook giving Support to others, i just dont have to, it's voluntary! I just dont see a reason to start from scratch again...to have an end result that sounds functionwise exactly like the old app. Than the more consequent approach would be just to have a Kingsong app only for adjustment and fw updating...and leave all Driving and logging completly to third Party Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
houseofjob Posted October 26, 2017 Share Posted October 26, 2017 39 minutes ago, KingSong69 said: Yip, you are right.... i am just spending a good chunk of my day here in the Forum and on Facebook giving Support to others, i just dont have to, it's voluntary! I believe @Jason McNeil is talking about eWheels customer support as a distributor, and I would certainly hope that is not voluntary, for the customers' sake (although many Joe Schmo distributors seem to think so, in my personal experience... *smh). 39 minutes ago, KingSong69 said: I just dont see a reason to start from scratch again...to have an end result that sounds functionwise exactly like the old app. Than the more consequent approach would be just to have a Kingsong app only for adjustment and fw updating...and leave all Driving and logging completly to third Party Not sure I see anywhere in this thread that this app would be replacing the newly released official KingSong app, am I missing something? Plus, at least in the case of Android, a new app doesn't mean you can't keep using older apps (see Gotway v1 app users). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meepmeepmayer Posted October 26, 2017 Share Posted October 26, 2017 Don't like these "analogue gauges" - lots of visual noise for little info. Make it a bar that climbs (and goes from green yellow to red) or simply the (colored) number in BIG font. For reference, I'm always using the second screen in Wheellog to look at anything - speed, current, battery, ... Realistically, the app will be looked at during riding, so minimal with big letters/numbers/buttons and no possibility of accidentally tapping something should be priority. These pictures are still too messy for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gonnabiff Posted October 30, 2017 Share Posted October 30, 2017 Agree with all Jason’s arguments and design specs. Simple, lean, functional, western cloud for firmware updates. For me, I’d like one app that does basics with good English language UI rather than two or more. As KS app is not available for my new 16S, please consider me for iOS beta tester. Appreciate your efforts, Jason. Pretty vital in my opinion to broaden appeal beyond expert hobbyist realm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smoother Posted November 16, 2017 Share Posted November 16, 2017 Hey @Jason McNeil. Many thanks for the effort to fix this app. Can you please teach them the phrase "Tilt Back" so we can put "Ollie" to bed for ever. Over 250,000,000.00 English speakers in China but no one at KingPong can be bothered to have their English checked, by just about anybody walking down the street, or, maybe here, where even the ESL writers use better English than a lot of native speakers. Imagined conversation at KingPong: " Who checked your English for the app?" "Someone on that Forum. He's from Finland" "ah! That's alright then" Also all the other instructional/informative text is pretty naff. Can that be translated into real English? Cheers. Keep up the good work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yasbean Posted November 16, 2017 Share Posted November 16, 2017 I like this new design, and like having both digital and graphical displays. Numbers work when you have time to read, but a circular graphical display works when taking a quick glance. I look forward to using this new app. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrd777 Posted November 16, 2017 Share Posted November 16, 2017 It’s wonderful you are working on this app and convincing Kingsong to make some changes. I really think they should reconsider this “speed unlock feature” after 1000km. I think that’s ridiculous that they control such a thing, why not leave this responsibility to the owner.. way over protective which turns me off to buying Kingsong. All said, thanks for your effort and hard work toward improving the app, everyone appreciates it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EUCMania Posted November 16, 2017 Share Posted November 16, 2017 I want the ability to sound the horn just by touching my cell phone when it is in pocket. or in hand, EASILY. Imagine that I put cell phone in my pocket, facing forward. When I need to horn, I just touch my pocket. The current horn button is tooooo small for this purpose, making horn button useless. So, the app should have one page, touching it anywhere except a small slide bar will sound the horn. The device info such as speed etc can still show, but under a almost transparent horn mask on this page. The small slide bar is for turning pages, and all other pages will not sound the horn. The horn sound should be customizable, with various sound effects for us to choose. Example of sound effects: car horn, bike bell, duck quack, dog bark, nuclear fart, ice cream truck, "passing on your left", music ring tones. etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommybayshore Posted December 6, 2017 Share Posted December 6, 2017 Need MPH option... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve454 Posted December 6, 2017 Share Posted December 6, 2017 On 11/15/2017 at 10:25 PM, EUCMania said: nuclear fart, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smoother Posted December 7, 2017 Share Posted December 7, 2017 On 11/16/2017 at 4:25 AM, EUCMania said: I want the ability to sound the horn just by touching my cell phone when it is in pocket. or in hand, EASILY. Imagine that I put cell phone in my pocket, facing forward. When I need to horn, I just touch my pocket. The current horn button is tooooo small for this purpose, making horn button useless. So, the app should have one page, touching it anywhere except a small slide bar will sound the horn. The device info such as speed etc can still show, but under a almost transparent horn mask on this page. The small slide bar is for turning pages, and all other pages will not sound the horn. The horn sound should be customizable, with various sound effects for us to choose. Example of sound effects: car horn, bike bell, duck quack, dog bark, nuclear fart, ice cream truck, "passing on your left", music ring tones. etc. 5 This is an excellent suggestion. It's just too damn fiddly to find the horn on most apps, and keeping your expensive phone in your hand all the time is a PITA and dangerous, especially when wearing wrist protectors. And every time the phone goes to sleep, one has to enter your passcode, just to alert people of your presence. All this while continuing to ride. Except, instead of having the phone facing forward (outwards) (danger of breaking the screen in a fall), maybe program the volume buttons, two horn choices; one on the up button and one for the down button. Some people have bad hearing and just don't seem to hear the usual polite bicycle bell, so a different sound using different frequencies would be a nice option. Sounds like a lot to ask. But you know what they say, "you don't ask, you don't get". While we're in fantasy land. I bought a Bluetooth selfie stick. Comes with a little fob with Android and iOS buttons. Is there any way something like this fob could activate the sound program when the app is live and the camera is not? Just putting it out there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nute Posted December 10, 2017 Share Posted December 10, 2017 Thanks Jason, a good KS app would be fantastic, i'd happily even pay for it from the app store. The current KS one is just terrible, keeps loosing connection, difficult to set up on iOS, poorly translated into english and the screens are not well set out. A volume control for the beep would also be helpful, if possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cranium Posted January 27, 2018 Share Posted January 27, 2018 As a new King Song 16S owner, I am having to navigate back and forth between the IOS version and Android with multiple versions to try and get my wheel set up for the first ride. This is very, very frustrating. In IOS it shows my speed being unlocked after using the unlocker tool. In Android, it's wanting me to unlock it to set the speed above 20KPH. I'm going to just have to take it out and see what happens with the speed....I don't like that. And I had to use my Android tablet to get the firmware updated to 1.03 because the IOS app would only show the existing firmware version. Bottom line is the existing software is terrible. The UI is not intuitive and there is no consistency between platforms in the UI or the backend integration. This new app design looks well thought out and if it works on both platforms in the same way, it will be a HUGE improvement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pyrolupus Posted January 27, 2018 Share Posted January 27, 2018 I just found this topic. Good to see this. My top desires: Considering the distribution of this community, translations are paramount; everything should be localized. Even more exciting would be for the app to be Open Source. Being able to submit PRs for bugfixes and new translations (and translation or typo corrections) would be huge. Coming behind those are a couple nice-to-haves: Distance traveled since last charge would be helpful. API hooks for wearables (Android Wear, Apple Watch, Samsung Tizen, anything else under the sun), either as companion apps or as pieces that can be activated in settings. What's the current status on this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duaner Posted January 27, 2018 Share Posted January 27, 2018 15 minutes ago, Pyrolupus said: a. Even more exciting would be for the app to be Open Source. Being able to submit PRs for bugfixes and new translations (and translation or typo corrections) would be huge. b. API hooks for wearables (Android Wear, Apple Watch, Samsung Tizen, anything else under the sun), either as companion apps or as pieces that can be activated in settings. Excellent ideas! To emphasize 'a': When considering the not-yet-released Z10 one substantial negative for me is lack of WheelLog support. To emphasize 'b': I (like Marty and others) use WheelLog with pebble which gives me vibration alarm where I can feel it on my wrist. This is great because I've repeatedly been in environments where I could not hear the audible alarms (high wind, loud traffic, loud parade). This vibration alarm would also be wonderful for deaf folks - I've taught kids to ride at school for the deaf, and lack of audible alarm makes any wheel without strong tiltback far(!) too dangerous to use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scubadragonsan Posted January 30, 2018 Share Posted January 30, 2018 I don't know if this is asking too much of Jason or KingSong. Can they make a KingSong app that is compatible with Android wearables--such as Android watches? Right now, I use a Samsung S8 phone and a Pebble watch, both loaded with WheelLog. I'm able to open WheelLog in my phone and then connect Pebble watch to my phone. I can see speed, distance and battery level. Can KingSong make an app that enables these data be seen on an Android watch? I am willing to pay for app like this. It's very convenient and fun not having to pull my phone out all the time. Actually, I am waiting for a pair of smart glasses like the ODG R8 with HUD to come out, so I can see all these data in my glasses. Very cool and high tech! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acevalsl Posted February 1, 2018 Share Posted February 1, 2018 Hi. Is this topic real or an app dream? someone is making app? i can traduce to Spanish if you want...... I use iOS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmethvin Posted February 1, 2018 Share Posted February 1, 2018 10 minutes ago, acevalsl said: Hi. Is this topic real or an app dream? someone is making app? i can traduce to Spanish if you want...... I use iOS It sounded like Jason and King Song were cooperating to build it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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