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Thread: a map app for your tapping updates

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2016
    Location
    Lake Ann, MI
    Posts
    24

    Default a map app for your tapping updates

    Hey All. I wrote another web app for sugarin this year that I want to share with you.

    Some of you used my web app last year that calculates the temperature when your sap becomes maple syrup based on local barometric pressure, using your mobile devices gps location and a realtime weather lookup. That app still exists with some upgrades and now I made another. Both still free to use.

    The new web app is for logging how your sap is flowing and sharing it on a google map. When ever I look at the tapping updates threads here at mapletrader.com I always think how cool it would be to see what people are saying about how their flow is on a map. So I wrote that. I tried to make it simple to use so that people will want to participate. The first time you log in just create a profile for your sugar bush, then in the future you just log how many gallons or liters you collected since the previous collection. Then I make some calculations about volume per tap and plot it on a map.

    I used Googles heatmap technology which I think will display the data nicely. This type of mapping is used with scientific data to display things like population density or seismic activity. Of course as I write this message the map is blank. Until somebody starts collecting sap and logging it nothing will show up. Still about a month away from when I normally tap in Northern Michigan so I haven’t posted any logs yet myself. Meanwhile I hope some of you south of me will want to participate.

    You will not find this in your app store. You don’t download anything. These are web apps. They work like any website on your computer but are designed to look good on your mobile devices and take advantage of the GPS capabilities. I may need to make adjustments to the map colors and radius etc once we get some real data, we’ll see. So here it is same address as last years app...

    https://www.saptapapps.com

    Besides just plotting on the map I’m also collecting the current weather data from the National Weather Service about the closest observations to the location of your sugar bush for the time frame of each log entry. It’s my plan in the future to do some analysis of this data to share back on the site. We’ve got plenty of old school, hand me down knowledge about what makes the sap run and averages per tap per tree, not to mention plenty of university studies that are made available to the public. But I also thought it would be modern to crowd source some data collection and make my own analysis from collections provided by both commercial and hobby producers here too.

    I hope no one thinks this is commercial spam. I’m not charging to use the apps. I simply wrote them because I wanted to be able to use them myself and I’m just offering to share. I’m going to post a link to this message in the tapping update of my own home state of Michigan. I don’t want to spam all the thread so if anyone is interested in getting people from your state to participate too, consider sharing a link to this thread in your states tapping update.

    I’ll keep an eye on this thread for any questions or pm me. The web apps also have a contact form I’ll monitor. Thanks for your consideration.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Location
    Rochester, NY USA
    Posts
    639

    Default

    Nice work. I noticed the syrup temp calculator used the local airport altimeter setting for the barometric pressure. They are not the same thing. Does your calculator correct for this? An altimeter setting is the barometric pressure corrected so that an altimeter will indicate the correct elevation above sea level.
    Smoky Lake 2x6 fuel-oil fired, raised flue, hoods, SSR, concentric exhaust
    Home-built auto draw off
    Home-built RO - double XLE 4040, PLC controlled
    8x10 Sugar Shed
    200 taps on tubing with Shurflo vacuum with solar
    https://www.facebook.com/flowercitymaplesyrup/

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2017
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    ...
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    ..........
    Last edited by Scm; 04-11-2018 at 08:23 AM.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Feb 2016
    Location
    Lake Ann, MI
    Posts
    24

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Urban Sugarmaker View Post
    I noticed the syrup temp calculator used the local airport altimeter setting for the barometric pressure.
    That's curious. The app should NOT be using the altimeter reading. And yes my calculator should correct for the elevation reading at your device vs the elevation from the reporting station. That's something new I added this year by getting your device elevation from google map at the time it gets your lat/lon. The feed that comes from National Weather Service provides multiple pressure values though. I did just switch from using Weather Underground to using National Weather Service feed. I will double check my code in the morning. What is your local airport I'd like to double check it on the weather.gov site to compare it to what I'm getting in the data feed. Thanks for the feedback.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Feb 2016
    Location
    Lake Ann, MI
    Posts
    24

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Scm View Post
    Thanks for the apps. Great work. Used the temp one last year.
    We really need a “tapcast” app to help forecast when might be a good time to tap. Taking into account long range weather forecasts from multiple sources, Snow pack, and user observations. What type of taps you use, etc..... I wouldn’t expect precision forecasting, just a general idea. I’m no programmer so I won’t be doing it
    Funny, your thoughts about the forecasting, I started work on that one all ready actually. Assuming some people use my logging application I'll have some real historical data to build good forecast models from. And you almost got the name right. I'm calling mine a "Sap Flowcaster". Coming soon watch for it. Meanwhile hope you continue to use what I've built so far and provide some logs. Thanks for the feedback.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jan 2017
    Location
    Danbury, Connecticut
    Posts
    331

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    awesome! I will give the data logging a try when i get tapped, hopefully by the weekend. I was just telling my father about your app that does the temp adjustment per geo location/barometer.
    2016 - 36 Taps - File Cabinet Arch + Food Pans
    2017 - 2.5'x10' drop flues - 3/16 Natural Vacuum - 122 Taps
    2018 - 16x20 Sugar Shack - 3/16 Natural Vacuum - 235 Taps

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Feb 2016
    Location
    Lake Ann, MI
    Posts
    24

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    Quote Originally Posted by BSD View Post
    awesome! I will give the data logging a try when i get tapped, hopefully by the weekend. I was just telling my father about your app that does the temp adjustment per geo location/barometer.
    I see from your signature you're in Connecticut. Several people from there have logged collections the last couple days and are showing on the map now, https://www.saptapapps.com/saplog/sapmap/
    Good luck to you and thanks for the feedback.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jan 2017
    Location
    Danbury, Connecticut
    Posts
    331

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    I shared it with a CT local maple group on FB. WX doesn't look great for tapping this weekend unfortunately, but we'll see.
    2016 - 36 Taps - File Cabinet Arch + Food Pans
    2017 - 2.5'x10' drop flues - 3/16 Natural Vacuum - 122 Taps
    2018 - 16x20 Sugar Shack - 3/16 Natural Vacuum - 235 Taps

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jan 2017
    Location
    Quaker Hill, CT
    Posts
    328

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    I'm going to see temps in the 40's today, southeastern CT on the coast, so I might get a small run today. The last two weekends have flowed really well. I'm at about 3 gallons of syrup and 275 gallons of sap so far. I have mostly reds that are buried in the woods so my sugar is low.

    Nice app the logger is going to help me keep me keep track of what I actually collect I was already starting to loose track.
    2017 25 taps on buckets got me hooked 1 gallon of sweet
    2018 51 taps on 3/16 tubing/ DIY oil tank evaporator 8.5gallons finished
    2019 60 taps 7 gallons finished ended season short
    2020 New 2x4 divided pan ready to get away from the headache that is steam table pans
    2021 off year due to pandemic and projects
    2022 back at it

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Apr 2015
    Location
    Thornton, NH
    Posts
    143

    Default

    Nice setup on the site!
    Suggestion, a print log or send log to email button would be awesome.
    Matt Durrell
    2012 - 12 Taps hand me down 2x2 and made a barrel stove
    2014 - 20 Taps 8x10 timber-frame shack
    2015 - 25 Taps
    2016 - 28 Taps new 110 acres
    2017 - 12 Taps january, 55 Taps spring and 15 Taps fall, same ol 2x2
    2018 - Helping another sugarmaker 5000 Taps, 57 at home

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