Measuring acceleration within a commercial plane

[Wido]

Hi:
I´ve got problems exporting acceleration data while on a commercial plane. No WiFi and no access to the Internet. On an Iphone I can save the data on Notes and later recover. On a Samsung Note8 this option is not present. The Total Commander app suggested by Phyphox doesn´t work properly. How can I add export options to the suggested by Phyphox?
Thank you!
Wido

[Sebastian Staacks]

Hi and welcome to our forum.

Technically, phyphox offers the exported file to any app that can handle the filetype (CSV or Excel in this case). The Total Commander App for example accepts any file as it simply stores it on the file system. Therefore, you can use any app that is able to share, store or otherwise process CSV, Excel or generic file types.

So, more specific for your need, I have three suggestions:
1. Use the "Save state" function instead of the "export" function to save your measurement in phyphox and then export it later when you have an internet connection.
2. Look for a different app that can save files locally. (I have not researched other ones than Total Commander but I would be quite surprised if there aren't more options.)
3. We can try to figure out why Total Commander does not work. (This app is not created by us, but I have had good experiences with it so far, so maybe we can figure out what's wrong.)

[Wido]

Hi and welcome to our forum.

Technically, phyphox offers the exported file to any app that can handle the filetype (CSV or Excel in this case). The Total Commander App for example accepts any file as it simply stores it on the file system. Therefore, you can use any app that is able to share, store or otherwise process CSV, Excel or generic file types.

So, more specific for your need, I have three suggestions:
1. Use the "Save state" function instead of the "export" function to save your measurement in phyphox and then export it later when you have an internet connection.
2. Look for a different app that can save files locally. (I have not researched other ones than Total Commander but I would be quite surprised if there aren't more options.)
3. We can try to figure out why Total Commander does not work. (This app is not created by us, but I have had good experiences with it so far, so maybe we can figure out what's wrong.)

---

Hi:
Yes, I´ve tried to "Save State" the experiments "to Collection". Later on, when I try to export the data, Total Commander gives the following message:"Error, opening file src" and doesn´t save.
Otherwise I´ve also got problems trying to save to Google drive. Sometimes there is no upload.
What I´m trying to say is that you should provide some simple way for the user to save data wherever he wants to save them. The options you give in your app are all WiFi options, at least for Samsung phones, in my case Note 8.
Yor app is great. I´m not complaining nor criticizing at all!

[Sebastian Staacks]

Hm... First of all: We are not really offering explicit options, but are handing our files to the system which compiles the options from the installed app. It is the same on iOS, so the option to save the data to a file is offered by the iPhone, not by us.

In principle, both systems do not offer direct access to the file system. The iPhone "save to file" function uses a small virtual section of the file system, which is either synced to the iCloud or offered through USB. On Android, you find very few apps that expose the file system and usually you cannot expect users to even know that there is a file system and how it works. (Actually, most users that are aware of the filesystem think of it in Windows terms from their early PC days and are confused when seeing that their SD card starts at something like /storage/emulated/0/)

This is why we decided against including a save-to-file option. First of all, we cannot provide it consistently across both platforms (on iOS there only is this little virtual section). Secondly, it is pretty much a design anti-pattern to expose these technical details to the user. The idea was, that the functionality can easily be installed through 3rd party apps, which forces teachers (who often think of smartphones in terms of PCs of their generation) to consider modern file sharing methods instead (which are much more intuitive to their students who may have never really used a PC). These other options tend to be Wifi or web methods, because smartphones are rarely attached to a cable except for charging.

So, on one hand, I would like to hear some thoughts on this from other users and I will certainly keep in mind that you are interested in a save to the file system feature directly in phyphox. Maybe, we will add it if more users prefer it this way.

Until then, I would like to find the cause of the problem, which can be a bit tricky since it does not happen on my phone (Google drive and Total Commander are working fine). So, I would start with the following questions:

• Which version of phyphox are you using? (Usually, it is the most recent one, but I want to be sure that it has been updated.)
  
• Which Android version is running on your Note 8? (I can emulate most systems, so maybe I can reproduce the problem this way.)
  
• Have you tried other apps for the export? If so, which ones are working and which are not? (Hoping to see a pattern there.)
  

By the way, you can also transfer your data through the remote interface. So if you open your saved state and enable the "remote access" function in phyphox, you can simply open it in a web browser of the target device (which needs to be on the same network, for example in your home Wifi) and download the data through the menu in the top-right corner.