UKC

I'm now the proud owner of my very own board, which is tonnes of fun but surprisingly difficult to remember problems I've set.  What apps do people use for recording problems? I've downloaded Stockt (as thats what my local wall uses), but at £40 it's a little pricey, or should I go old school with numbered holds and writing it down?

Also if anyone has any tips on not filling your house full of chalk dust they would be greatly appreciated.

I've used something like this when sanding floors. Pretty good at keeping the dust down, though you would need a window open to duct it out of.

https://www.therange.co.uk/diy/building-equipment-and-materials/machinery/m...

I don't use an app, as I don't like looking at my phone while training.... my low tech approach has been to write directly on all the holds (wooden) and give them names. I then write the problems down in a notebook. 

Retro Flash has the option to add a home wall. Think it's free.

That looks quite hardcore! This may by the excuse I've always wanted to buy one of those battery powered fans which I can also take to the crag, I'm just not sure I can live with myself though and it may end up in the gear cupboard of shame along with my kneepad, crack gloves and overpriced premium chalk.

Thanks will check it out

We originally had a book for the routes and it was nice to physically write it out, but once we got a lot of routes it became a bit of a faff to search through them for quality problems / problems of the right grade / tell what the problem was from a glance. I've seen people use A4 books with a page per route, where each page is a picture of the board and you can place stickers on the holds directly - that would solve the problems we encountered logging them in a notebook, but is also a lot more effort to do than just downloading an app! I imagine when we get a nicer training space I'll go through the effort to make a nice book like that, but for now it would be a little out of place compared to the quality of the space lol.

So we use an app called BoulderChallenge, it's paid but only a few pounds. Adding a wall is free and its easy to use although a bit bare bones UI wise. Only downside is others have to pay too if they want the app on their phone while you climb together.

For keeping chalk levels down we just use liquid chalk only and have a fan running towards the window. Seems to keep it low enough to not be noticeable even with a couple of you in a relatively small space for a few hours. 

I've used "BoulderBook" as a free alternative to Stokt. Despite being a little homemade it can do everything you need it to pretty well.

I think you could use Boulder Creator for your home wall.

i just use coloured stickers.

Check out cruxapp.ca and boulderbot

not used either personally but I have seen the devs post on reddit and the technology looks quite impressive especially cruxapp

I use retroflash, it's free and I think it's pretty good.

A third vote for retroflash from me.

Boulderbot is good for setting new problems based on a few parameters you enter (but not so good for keeping a logbook)

We only use liquid chalk at home which does help

Would be easy enough to program an Arduino to light up a board like a moon or kilter. 

Probably more challenging to make an app to go with it but you could have a list of routes in a physical book or excel and then scroll through to select routes on the Arduino. 

Chatgpt can probably do the coding for you if inputted accurately if you're not versed. 

How about using block chalk and keeping it in a block? I've done this for many years now and it works brilliantly. Just rub your fingers across the block and get a perfect covering exactly where you want it and nowhere else. I chalk up a lot on routes and problems but I hardly go through any chalk at all.

l'm another Retro Flash user, does everything I need.

I use Boulderbot (see pic of one of my boards below). You take a square on pic of your board, then the app scans it, identifies the holds and auto generates problems. You can keep the probs you like, and the feedback you provide tightens up the level of difficulty it sets. I’ve been using it for a while and it seems to work well.

I moved over to liquid chalk during Covid, and never went back. No dust problems at all on our home wall. 

Thanks all, sounds like a toss up between boulderbot and retroflash, I might give both a go and see which I prefer. Boulderbot's functionality to generate problems looks cool. Liquid chalk also sounds the way forward, for whatever reason i never get on with liquid chalk, i think I only associate it with DWS,  salty hands and mega greasy holds, John Arran's block idea sounds ingenious. 

Either way it will have to wait as the sun is shining here so I'm off out.