Z32 Service Manual mirror and Android app

[Dragginz]

**EDIT** For Convenience, here's the Z32 Service Manual for Android download link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... wsMSwyLDNd

Fellow Z enthusiasts,

I'm a new member here, but I figured I would start out by making a small contribution to the community. I wrote a little Python script that pulled a copy of the 300ZX service manual from http://www.300zx-twinturbo.com/cgi-bin/manual.cgi , which I've posted up on my own server as a mirrored copy. (Note that I'm not trying to steal anything from anyone, and I will be making a donation for the bandwidth in the AM, just trying to help provide redundancy in the event that their server goes down.) You may also notice that there is a file, "Z32.zip", in the directory, which is a complete copy of the entire manual so that you can work offline if desired.

Everything can be found here: http://fixitfixit.co/media/Z32/

I'm going to try and get in touch with the folks who run 300zx-twinturbo.com to ask for permission, but granted that they don't have any issues, I'll write up an Android app as well so that you can keep a pocket-reference on your phone/tablet. I'm thinking that user annotations (drawing lines, circles, whatever for illustration, taking notes, etc) should be a feature. As the community this would be targeted towards, I'd love to hear your input on potential features you'd like to see included.

Respectfully,

DragginZ

[Ace2cool]

Seriously? This would be awesome! I'd want to be able to hit a menu button and go to different sections and type in a page number on the fly, obvious navigation would be swiping, and no auto-rotate, since some of the wiring diagrams are laid out sideways.

[EvanW]

That would be awesome!

[Trimble Epic]

I keep a copy of the '93 manual.PDF in my phone.. Yay iBooks

[zswap0429]

I love the app idea. and I also have the pdf on my tablet. But the app would be allot more user friendly in my opinion

[Dragginz]

I'm stoked to see some positive feedback here! Coincidentally, I'm actually uploading the beta version of the app to the Google Play store right now, should have a download link for you guys in the next 20-30 minutes if all goes well. You'll be able to search, "Z32 Service Manual" then, too. Just look for the glowing Z icon :P

[NolimitZ32]

You sir are are a gentleman and a scholar, you are a warrior for the Z32 clan and belong in the pages of history among the likes of da Vinci and Hawking. I guess what I'm trying to say is thank you, this is the TITS!

[Dragginz]

You sir are are a gentleman and a scholar, you are a warrior for the Z32 clan and belong in the pages of history among the likes of da Vinci and Hawking. I guess what I'm trying to say is thank you, this is the TITS!

Hah, cheers man, happy to help! App is up on the play market now...strangely, someone else apparently has an engine code app with a similar icon (brushed aluminum Z with a red glow), which is entirely coincidental, I swear, I never even searched before I made mine. I guess I'll have to change it to be...orange or something :P

[zswap0429]

Downloaded and tested. Your the man!!!

[300ZXttZMAN]

to NICO!!! Hell of a first post haha! Awesome idea! Rock on!

I wish I had an android now.

[Dragginz]

Downloaded and tested. Your the man!!!

Epic! I'm glad it's working for you, all I had available to test with was a newer Android tablet, so I was worried most people's stuff might not work. There are always little bugs when you switch versions.. If you do have any problems, lemme know and I'll see if I can fix them.

to NICO!!! Hell of a first post haha! Awesome idea! Rock on!

I wish I had an android now.

Heh, I didn't wanna get booed off the stage the first time I posted a question, so I figured I'd do something useful in advance I grabbed the manual files and I thought to myself, "Oh, wait, I should help share these...and oooh, an Android app would certainly be handy, too!" Just hope it works and helps everybody out... I'd do an iOS (iPhone/iPad) version too, but I reaaally don't want to pay the $100 Apple developer fee just to put a free app on the app-store -_-

[A Paratroopers 300zx]

Downloaded and installed! Dude I have been waiting for something like this for a while! So much better than running to my 7 year old laptop to get a torque spec Haha. Thank you sir!!

[zswap0429]

I tested on both my samsung tablet and my motorola phone. Works fine on both. So I dont see why any other androids shouldnt work the same. And like 300ZXttZMAN said ^ hell of a first post!

[300ZXttZMAN]

Well hell how hard would it be for you to make it? In other words of I were to help raise the money for it could you do it with just a couple simple clicks now that you have already done it? Or would it basically be like starting over? Is the 100$ developer fee the only cost involved (and your time of course). About how much time did it take you to do that?

I have no clue about this kind of stuff, sorry for the questions.

[2DLogic]

Tested, reviewed, and rated on Galaxy S3, works great. Very straight forward, clean design that's easy to navigate. A search function is the only thing I can think to ad.

Thanks for doing this.

[Ace2cool]

Good old Apple. Always looking out.

Thank god I hate them. LOL

[Dragginz]

Well hell how hard would it be for you to make it? In other words of I were to help raise the money for it could you do it with just a couple simple clicks now that you have already done it? Or would it basically be like starting over? Is the 100$ developer fee the only cost involved (and your time of course). About how much time did it take you to do that?

I have no clue about this kind of stuff, sorry for the questions.

Haha, no worries man, like I said, happy to help out, ask away! It wouldn't be too hard to write, this is a fairly simple application, fortunately. I'd have to start from scratch, but I don't mind that one bit at all. The biggest obstacle right now is that I won't have a Mac to program on for another couple of weeks or so, at least not until I get back home (Apple ALSO requires that you write stuff on one of their machines...major pain). As far as the developer fee thing goes, shoot, I'll leave that up to you guys, if you raise half of that, I'll match it and pay the rest myself, or, I can pay the whole thing, but I'll throw the app up for like $1-2 to cover the developer fee... I suppose that's essentially the same end result, heh.

Also, search - some of you guys mentioned that you'd like to see that as a feature, and I totally agree, that would be super handy. However, the manual pages are GIF images, not really searchable. I'm looking into using Google/HP's Tesseract OCR (Optical Character Recognition) engine to turn all the pages into text for searching, so that's in the works, but it might take a little while as it's downloaded as source code. You have to write your own implementation of the whole thing, etc, compile it all, generate text, throw it all in a sqlite3 database on the phones, and then search that. What this translates into for you guys is that when you do a search, you'll see a listing of potentially matching pages, but when you open the page, the matched text probably won't be highlighted or anything, but you'll be on the right page. (I'd just display the text on the page instead of the original GIF, but then you'd lose all of your diagrams.)

** EDIT ** As of right now, I've got my laptop crunching away at turning the manual pages into searchable text, so expect working search in the next couple of days

[300ZXttZMAN]

Hmm I think we should be able to raise enough money to where you wouldn't have to come out of pocket since it takes so much time. I'll see,

Hmm, I'll see about raising funds.. I think I could sell some stuff and use the proceeds to pay for what ever doesn't get donated.

NICO, would any of y'all be able to donate a couple bucks?

[t.mcginley.jr]

Download and rated/commented on Droid Razr Maxx, it works great!! Thanks a ton man you're awesome. I've been wondering if something like this would ever come out.

[zswap0429]

Im an android user or else I would be more than happy to donate to making an ios app. Ill talk to some of my jdmz drivers out here in japan to see if they would be willing to donate.