Clouttery - the smart, cross-platform battery monitor

u/Dream of Omnimaga July 08, 2016, 06:54:45 PM

I,m unsure if I understand fully, but having all notification options together like in the 2nd screenshot might help at a bit at least. Also I like it better. I really need to get Clouttery on my two phones and PC at some point because I noticed lately that I often forget to charge my main phone during evening.

u/gbl08ma July 09, 2016, 01:01:17 AM

Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on July 08, 2016, 06:54:45 PM
I really need to get Clouttery on my two phones and PC at some point because I noticed lately that I often forget to charge my main phone during evening.

When you feel the time is right, just follow the instructions at http://clouttery.xyz/signup . This is valid for everyone, by the way. Later, when Clouttery starts charging for subscriptions, you'll regret not getting an account now. Users who begin using Clouttery now will get unlimited, free for life plans. Like, a real lifetime supply of Clouttery. Only downside is having to deal with more frequent updates during the beta-testing phase...

Last Edit: July 28, 2016, 09:35:16 PM by gbl08ma

u/Dream of Omnimaga July 09, 2016, 01:40:09 PM

Yeah I know that. Actually I wasn't sure if the free testing phase was over yet but I didn't have much time to test stuff yet (partly also why CW news pending queue is very large). I'll probably sign up very soon, though.

u/Unicorn July 09, 2016, 05:05:11 PM

Quote from: CloutteryCoupon

You have active coupons.

100% off for 100 years, until September 27, 2115.

What happens if we use this for 100+ years?

u/gbl08ma July 09, 2016, 07:32:35 PM

It's a lifetime supply and stats by multiple organizations say over 99% of people aren't expected to live to be 100, but don't worry: if it happens, the coupon will be extended

u/Dream of Omnimaga July 10, 2016, 04:48:21 AM

Considering my health a few yeears ago, I worried I wouldn't live past 35-50 or so but it looks like I could make it at least past 60. I hope for higher, though. But yeah by then most of my phone batteries will be dead anyway

u/gbl08ma July 12, 2016, 08:23:45 PM

Today, some changes have been pushed to the management console:

Data can now be exported from the account in CSV and JSON format
Users can now upgrade and downgrade their accounts, but this isn't of much use to the Beta testers which already have a plan with all the features and unlimited capacity
Accounts can now be deleted
The controls for the battery graphs have changed
Other minor changes and fixes

You can see these by yourself at https://clouttery.xyz/manage

u/gbl08ma July 14, 2016, 03:48:20 PM

...and today, there's a new version of the Android app. Here's what changed:

Estimates for battery life and charging times
Simplification of notification settings user interface
API client updated to work with latest API version, with support for encrypted communication (HTTPS session requests for key negotiation, followed by AES-over-HTTP)
Fix for problems with sizing of graphical resources
Fix for bug where notifications would vibrate the device regardless of the setting
Fix for problems with battery history graph
Performance and stability improvements

The download link is the same, get the clients at: https://clouttery.xyz/apps .

Prior to release the app was hanging after running for a while, but I think I managed to find the cause and fix the problem - at least, in further testing it didn't happen again. Please report if you experience any issue.

u/Dream of Omnimaga July 14, 2016, 11:40:45 PM

Glad to see those bugs fixed. Does the app take a lot of battery power for notifications?

u/gbl08ma July 14, 2016, 11:57:05 PM

No, the app uses a negligible amount of power. It stays well below Google's own apps such as Gmail, and even below Pushbullet. For example, right now in over 12 hours of monitoring, Clouttery held my phone awake for a total of 27 seconds. Gmail held it awake for over thirty minutes (!), Android's default calendar 55 seconds (little to no events for today, and no reminders) and Pushbullet for 40 seconds.

u/Dream of Omnimaga July 20, 2016, 03:27:43 AM

That is good. I was worried because some community apps use lots of battery power just for notifications. For example, Cumred's post notifier for Android will drain them like crazy unless it's set to check for new posts every 60 second.

u/gbl08ma July 22, 2016, 05:32:03 PM

On the server side, what feature would you like to see developed next?
- Support for advanced notifications, including battery health warnings (so you would be notified, for example, about devices staying on the charger for too long, or batteries left empty for extended periods of time), or
- Support for "dumb" devices which are never going to be able to support Clouttery clients, like toys, calculators, game consoles (and their remotes), etc.

After implementing the selected feature (and maybe after releasing the Linux client), and making the sign-up experience easier, I'd like to begin advertising the project more, including posting on more forums, maybe present it to websites like Hacker News, etc.
So ideally the feature to choose would be the one that makes Clouttery a more interesting product. But I'm unsure, so opinions about what you'd find more useful in the shorter term would be appreciated.

u/Dream of Omnimaga July 23, 2016, 05:08:50 AM

For the 1st one, I guess you would need to take the difference between devices into account. For example, I heard that older batteries are more prone to damage due to overcharging or discharging and that newer ones are more protected against that. You will probably need to do a lot of research about that and have some devices be flagged at risk (eg most old iOS devices)

I don't know how the 2nd one could be implemented, though, but I guess it would be nice to have support for "dumb" devices, especially TI calcs and the PS Vita. It's possible that many people outside CW might want that, especially the PSVita and 3DS on gaming websites. Personally, option 2 would be my favorite addition, but it's ok if you're unable to pull it off.

u/gbl08ma July 24, 2016, 10:44:32 PM

Support for dumb devices would rely on users letting Clouttery know whenever they change the batteries or recharge the device. Of course, this only works for devices with more or less constant battery draw. For example, if it's a 3DS you rarely use and just sits in a shelf, then Clouttery would often get its battery level guess right, and could remind you to charge it when the battery gets to 40% or so (adjustable, ofc). But if you begin using it more often all of a sudden, for a while Clouttery's estimate will be off by a lot.
Similarly, if you use it every day for a bit, say, you spend 20% of the battery each day, then that is a approximately constant battery draw too, and Clouttery will catch on the fact that the battery goes empty every five days. Of course, with these devices it wouldn't be possible to notify the user when charging completes.

This feature really would work best with "set and forget" devices that are always on, like smoke alarms, wall clocks, watches, room thermometers and weather stations. It could also work well for low-power devices that are randomly used and thus use energy randomly, but have a constant draw when analyzing large time periods: remote controls, emergency/presence lights and doorbells. Finally, it should also work well with devices that are very rarely used but have batteries always put on for whatever reason (which will naturally lose charge by themselves as time goes) - pocket radios, flashlights, etc. It could be of use to people with large collections of calculators, iPods or whatever which they obviously aren't always using (but you should take out the batteries if possible, then. And the iPods could go to a museum

).

Clouttery wouldn't care what type of "dumb device" it is, all it wants to know is how often the batteries need to be charged or changed and the last time you did it. It would then assume a constant power draw and let you know when the guesstimate of the battery level gets down to a certain value, which could be zero for alkaline batteries, or something higher for rechargeable ones of the kinds that don't like full discharges.

u/Dream of Omnimaga July 25, 2016, 08:00:55 AM

Yeah, I guess manually setting up the time when you get notified that the battery is about to get low for unused devices would do the job well enough. The user just have to calibrate. I guess there could be some pre-sets that the user can edit, though, if you can find the data online.

Without pre-sets it would still do the job, though. It would just require the user extra trial and error I guess. In my case, I know my TI-Nspire CX gets discharged after 2-3 weeks, so I would just need to set Clouttery so that after 2 weeks, it tells me I need to hook up my CX.