This release will be the last release to support iOS 6.x and earlier (it may also drop iOS 5.1 support, depending on how the tools handle things). The next release will be iOS 7 and later only. I am reluctant to drop the older support, but the installed base stats just do not justify keeping around the old code. There was a lot of “if iOS7 do X; otherwise do Y” that had to go in to the last few releases to play nicely with all the releases. It is time to clean that stuff up and migrate to some of the new APIs.

For a variety of reasons, the UI in RCLogbook does not allow you to change the type of a model after it has been created. However, you can change the type through the database import and export functionality. It is a bit more involved, but it works.

What you will need to do is this:

1. Make a backup of your database by downloading the fully binary database through the web server or Dropbox (this step is precautionary so you can get back to your original database in case something goes wrong in the following process).
2. Export your database in text format through either the web server or Dropbox (if you use Dropbox, this creates a file named “DbExport.txt”).
3. Open the text file with the database in your favorite editor (either a text editor or spreadsheet).
4. Remove all sections except “Models” and the “[INFO]” lines.
5. Delete the lines for each model that already has the correct type (that is, delete the models you do not want to make changes to).
6. Change “Helicopter” to “Multicopter” on each model that is left (that is, the ones you want to change). Do not leave trailing spaces or anything after the “Multicopter”. Do not make any other changes to the line unless you want to change things beyond the type.
7. Save the file so that you can import it (if you use Dropbox, this file should be called “DbImport.txt”). Note that if you opened it in a spreadsheet, you need to save as tab-separated values.
8. Import the saved text file into the database through the web server or Dropbox. Once that is done, check to make sure everything looks in order.

Consult the user’s guide on CleverTangerine for more information on how to backup your database and use the import/export capabilities through either the web interface or Dropbox.

For example, after you get through step (4), your file might look something like this (note that the content will be different depending on what models you have, when you last used them, and so on):

[INFO] RCLogbook Database (Release 4.2.0 with DB v.6)
[INFO] Generated on Feb 6, 2014, 4:44:04 PM

[INFO] With great power comes great responsibility: Use CAUTION when editing a database.
[INFO] ALWAYS backup or checkpoint before importing.
[INFO] For more on the format of this file, see the database import guide or import template (available from the database access page).
[INFO] The database import guide is also available at http://clevertangerine.com/RCLogbook/content/RCLogbook_DIG.pdf .

[SECTION] Models
Model UID Model Name Retired? Type Vendor Last Event Date (M/D/YY) Last Event Time (H:MM A) Total Time (H:MM:SS) Total Events Total Fuel (L) Logs Batteries? Logs Fuel? Default Prop Default Style Model Notes
53 AJ Slick No Airplane 3DHS 7/3/10 10:23 PM 70:44:40 536 0.00 Yes No
8810 Test Model No Helicopter 12/9/13 8:39 PM 0:05:03 1 0.00 Yes No

[INFO] End of file

Now, in this case, let’s say we want to change “Test Model” to a multicopter. So, for step (5) we would remove the line in underlined bold above. Then, for step (6), we would change the “Helicopter” in underlined italics above to “Multicopter”. That would leave us with the following file:

[INFO] RCLogbook Database (Release 4.2.0 with DB v.6)
[INFO] Generated on Feb 6, 2014, 4:44:04 PM

[INFO] With great power comes great responsibility: Use CAUTION when editing a database.
[INFO] ALWAYS backup or checkpoint before importing.
[INFO] For more on the format of this file, see the database import guide or import template (available from the database access page).
[INFO] The database import guide is also available at http://clevertangerine.com/RCLogbook/content/RCLogbook_DIG.pdf .

[SECTION] Models
Model UID Model Name Retired? Type Vendor Last Event Date (M/D/YY) Last Event Time (H:MM A) Total Time (H:MM:SS) Total Events Total Fuel (L) Logs Batteries? Logs Fuel? Default Prop Default Style Model Notes
8810 Test Model No Multicopter 12/9/13 8:39 PM 0:05:03 1 0.00 Yes No

[INFO] End of file

Which could then be uploaded and processed by RCLogbook.

Though, in the meantime, 4.1 and 4.2 got taken care of and released into the wild. You can find 4.2 on your friendly neighborhood App Store. These are both incremental releases, but there is some good stuff in there like Dropbox support (finally) and multicopter model types.

The coding elves are busy working on putting in a few cool things for whatever comes after 4.2. Parallel charging/discharging support is wrapping up along with a few other goodies.

The next release, 4.0.1 will probably be submitted in the next day or two. This is mostly a maintenance release with a few minor features (access to notes from pre- and post-event checklists).

Once that drops, we will turn our attention to iOS7.

It is looking like 4.0.1 will be the last build of RCLogbook that supports iOS4. We are thinking that the next release for iOS7 will require iOS5 or later. Honestly, given the scope of changes in iOS7, a pretty good case can be made for moving the next release to iOS7 or better. The changes are deep enough that maintaining support for pre-iOS7 versions is going to be a huge pain. We are going to give it a shot and see how it goes.

There is all kinds of goodies in 4.0.0, many thanks to the beta testers who did great work beating on the app.

Happy flying!

Then, I am not sure you heard this, but I guess Apple announced a new iPhone?

Along with the phone came new development tools which created a few other issues.

So, we are holding the release until next month. This will give us a chance to get it updated for iOS 6 as well as iPhone 5. Plan is to get the submission to the App Store elves at Apple right around the end of September which would put it in the store early October. This will add one more bullet to the feature list:

• Support for iOS 6 as well as the iPhone 5.

The only bad news out of this (well, other than the delay), is that RCL 4 will now require iOS 4.3 or greater. This means that 3.8.2 will be the last release than runs on the venerable iPhone 3G. Long story as to why this is so, but it is due to some changes in the development tools and a desire not to leave anyone with an iPhone 3G running a broken 4.0.0 release that we cannot release an update for.