Tallie Tales LLC
Android
Pile Boss app icon

Pile Boss on Android

The app, screen by screen — what an inspector sees standing at the rig with the hammer running.

Set the phone down where it can hear the hammer. Pile Boss counts every blow, reads the stroke from the rhythm, keeps the count by the foot as you mark each one, checks the drive against the drive criteria, and prints the finished record on your agency's own form. No account, no server, no signal needed.

Available now on Google Play.

Get it on Google Play See pricing

The screens

The Pile Boss welcome screen, listing what the app does.
WelcomeWhat the app does, the first time you open it.
The new pile form: pile ID, start penetration, structure, substructure, length and elevations.
New pilePile ID, start penetration, structure and substructure, length, elevations.
The recorder: a live waveform of the hammer, stroke, blow count and penetration, and a large MARK FOOT button.
RecorderEvery blow on the trace as it lands, stroke and count live, and one glove-sized MARK FOOT button.
A substructure showing three piles with their verdicts and the drive criteria in force.
SubstructureEvery pile in the bent, its verdict, and the criteria being judged against.
A finished pile record: final penetration, total blows, and the drive log with blows and stroke for each foot.
Pile recordFinal penetration, total blows, and blows and stroke for every foot.
The drive graph, plotting blows per foot and stroke against penetration and elevation.
Drive graphBlows per foot and stroke, against penetration and elevation.
The export screen: four file formats, an agency form picker, date filters, a pile list and the count of free exports left.
ExportFour formats, ten agency forms, date filters, and what is left of the month's five.
Settings: project, drive criteria, inspector, mic check and threshold, haptics and waveform range.
SettingsProject and inspector, the threshold, haptics, and the waveform range.

Made for a loud site and a bad phone

Android is not one phone. Microphone gain differs by more than 15 dB between models by Google's own specification, and a loud rig can overload a phone's input outright. Pile Boss carries controls the iPhone does not need because of it:

Mic checkMeasures the site's own noise where you have set the phone down and suggests a threshold to match it.
A waveform you can scalePick the range the trace is drawn on, so a phone with a high noise floor still leaves somewhere to put a threshold.
External microphonePlug one in and the app says so on screen, so you can see it is actually being used.
Manual modeTap each blow yourself whenever the microphone is not the right tool. The record is the same either way.

It shows you every blow it heard and every one it rejected, so you can see what it did rather than trust it blind. Check your counts — a phone is not a laboratory instrument, and a rig is loud.

What it is not

Pile Boss is not a PDA or dynamic testing system. It does not measure driving stress, energy transfer or capacity, and it does not replace the engineer's judgement or the contract documents. The decibel figure it shows is uncalibrated — it exists to help you set the threshold, not to measure sound.

Tallie Tales LLC is not affiliated with or endorsed by any transportation agency. The form layouts are reproduced so an inspector can fill them in; they are not approved submissions.

The iPhone version

The same app, recording the same way and writing the same file. See Pile Boss on iPhone.