Mechanical Components Blog

With no keyboard, no (precise) pointing device and only one tiny monitor that demands the use of corrective ocular devices to view a tiny bit of your work at any time.....NO and not any time soon.

I would love to use my iphone for engineering apps. Unfortunately, most of these apps cost $5-10 and have no reviews on them. I really don't feel like spending lots of money just to find an app that works.

If anyone has any suggestions on good engineering apps, please let me know. It's nice to have a way to check a formula or reference a table in the field when I have no access to a computer.

For in field technical reference the mobile devices are great. You can search in the field.

But for engineering office work they just don't cut it. Yet.

You're right. I trust my Mark's Handbook over this. Or the computer programs that are written for engineers.

Thanks for the advice. I'll look up some apps.

You don't need any apps to search the internet. Unless you consider a search engine to be an app.

Mobile devices can connect to the internet.

Lol that's normally what I use but I have heard of apps like a vibration app. You set your phone on a vibrating piece of equipment and it will give you frequency and amplitude.

Smart phones do have accelerometers on board that can be used this way. OK for some trouble shooting I suppose. I wouldn't do commissioning measurements with it. You could use a smart phone without apps the same way you use a laptop now to run software for the control and management of systems and their parts collecting data and such.

Virtual instrumentation is what you are talking about. Good luck getting a calibration certificate.

Our Maintenance department began using tablets and ipads almost a year ago in an effort to eliminate paper logs and manual data entry. They worked so well we issued them to our Environmental Services, Engineering and Operations departments. To date each department except for Engineering has found them to be very useful and a huge time saver.

We now have CMMS access from the devices which allows work order processing and creation remotely, inventory control and access to SCADA for troubleshooting and alarm acknowledgement. I believe this is an up and coming technology that will become an every day tool of the trade.