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What difference does ticking the partial fill-up box make?
When you mark a fill-up record as partial or that you've missed some previous records (feature added in v1.0.4), you're giving hints to Fuel Efficiency (MPG) calculation engine on how to do the calculation.
If you want to have a correct Fuel Efficiency value for your car, you should have FULL TANK fill-ups. So if you mark one or more records as partial, the engine will only calculate the fuel efficiency (for those partial records) AFTER you enter a full record. And it will be the average fuel efficiency of all those partial ones. You can return back to middle of this thread and study the sample fill-up records we've discussed on.
Just downloaded this now. I have been using gasbuddy with my iTouch for the past 4 months and am now a droid owner and hope this is one is just as good or close. Based on playing with it for a few minutess, it seems to be and have everything that one did.
I'm in sales and use my personal vehicle for work so I need a good app like this to track mileage and expenses since we do get reimbursed.
Do you have a feature to print out records or a way to email them to your email address?
Will leave feedback at the end of the work week!
Last edited by Tierlifer; November 22nd, 2009 at 08:50 PM.
Just downloaded it. How do I put in a new tire replacement I did last week? Am I limited to only those maint items on the list ?
No not at all. You can freely customize the services list and add your own. On the main screen, go to options menu (press the hard MENU button on your phone) and you'll find a "Manage Services" item there. Tap on it and you'll see the list of the services recognizable by aCar. Notice the top blue bar and the ADD icon at the right side. Tap on the ADD icon and you'll get forwarded to "New Service" screen. Add whatever you want and save them :-) As well, you can tap on any of the available items in the list to view & edit their details.
Please let me know if you need anything further...
The David: Well, this puzzled me for quite a few days and I found what seems to be a definitive answer. Apparently its caused by Google's crappy DRM protection. If you recently upgraded your firmware, I think the phones signature changes, and your access to copy protected apps becomes restricted. This makes me quite mad because I have well over $60 of apps that I can't access any more until google or the publisher makes some kind of update - not sure what. Can I get a refund??? This pisses me off because I feel it discourages developers who I'm sure are affected substantially by decreased sales - which delays innovation and creativity, and is quite frankly pushing me to look for a pirated copy of software I purchased.
Note that I recently upgraded my firmware. I'm also finding other apps not appearing. For curiosity, is your app copy protected?
Note that I recently upgraded my firmware. I'm also finding other apps not appearing. For curiosity, is your app copy protected?
Thanks for investigating this further. Yes, aCar is copy protected and it may be good reason for this anomaly!
More and more I hear and read these complaints about Google copy protection mechanism, the more I think that I've made a mistake by copy protecting my application. The bad news is that there are some bad bugs when you change the copy protection setting of your application on developer console! It can completely screw up your application (there are some reported bugs about this) and I'm not going to take this risk at the moment.
As an alternative you can easily download aCar from two other Markets I've already mentioned in one of my previous posts (see comment #50 on this thread).
Thanks for investigating this further. Yes, aCar is copy protected and it may be good reason for this anomaly!
More and more I hear and read these complaints about Google copy protection mechanism, the more I think that I've made a mistake by copy protecting my application. The bad news is that there are some bad bugs when you change the copy protection setting of your application on developer console! It can completely screw up your application (there are some reported bugs about this) and I'm not going to take this risk at the moment.
As an alternative you can easily download aCar from two other Markets I've already mentioned in one of my previous posts (see comment #50 on this thread).
Best Regards,
Well, we can only hope Google sorts this out soon.
Thanks for making the app available on other markets. I have just downloaded it from SlideME. I'm looking forward to trying it out.
You'll have backup/restore in next major version. I've not set any strict date but you'll have it soon.
Eagerly waiting for your feedbacks after the real usage :-)
Yeah it's no rush really. I need my mileage more documented than my gas consumption as we get paid per mile anyways. I run close to 2500 miles a month and fill up 2-3 times a work week so I'll be a good guinea pig for you. So far from what I saw it's just as good as gas buddy. With the holiday this week it's a short work week but I will get back to you anyways.
Sidebar: Do you or can anyone else reccomend any good mileage apps? Saw a few but did not get a chance to check 'em out and would prefer a free one if possible.
Yeah it's no rush really. I need my mileage more documented than my gas consumption as we get paid per mile anyways. I run close to 2500 miles a month and fill up 2-3 times a work week so I'll be a good guinea pig for you. So far from what I saw it's just as good as gas buddy. With the holiday this week it's a short work week but I will get back to you anyways.
Sidebar: Do you or can anyone else reccomend any good mileage apps? Saw a few but did not get a chance to check 'em out and would prefer a free one if possible.
Thanks!
Would you please let me know what features you expect from a mileage app? aCar might be able to do them or might already have such or similar features...
Would you please let me know what features you expect from a mileage app? aCar might be able to do them or might already have such or similar features...
Sure....
milebug is what I use for my iTouch.
Basically it has inputs for a "trip name" ,vehicle, purpose..etc
Then when you touch the "+" sign a odometer pops up and you input what your odometer is when you leave your destination. Then you click the "+" again when you either get back home or at your destination and input what your odometer says. It adds it up and keeps track of as many or as little as possible. I do mine every month and have it sent to my email then print it up so I can take it to my accountant come tax time.
Basically it has inputs for a "trip name" ,vehicle, purpose..etc
Then when you touch the "+" sign a odometer pops up and you input what your odometer is when you leave your destination. Then you click the "+" again when you either get back home or at your destination and input what your odometer says. It adds it up and keeps track of as many or as little as possible. I do mine every month and have it sent to my email then print it up so I can take it to my accountant come tax time.
I would be interested in this one too. It would also be cool to overlay or merge to track with existing data.
Device(s): HTC EVO Rooted, running: Myn's Warm Two Point Two RLS3
Thanks: 6
Thanked 22 Times in 20 Posts
Just ran into this thread, liked the screenshots and decided to give it a try. Downloaded app from AndAppStore, as I couldn't find it on the market. Fantastic stuff here! keep up the great work on this app
Much easier on the eyes than the app I was previously using, and easier to navigate through the different options.
Just ran into this thread, liked the screenshots and decided to give it a try. Downloaded app from AndAppStore, as I couldn't find it on the market. Fantastic stuff here! keep up the great work on this app
Much easier on the eyes than the app I was previously using, and easier to navigate through the different options.
Quote:
Originally Posted by brohism
Excellent app! I just installed it and I'm very excited to start using it with my car.
I was just searching for an app like this and stumbled into this app. Looks to be exactly what I'm looking for. But I don't see it in my Market . Not enabled for Asia? I'm residing in Malaysia.
Please, please, give us some love.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mirager
I'm really interested in this app, just can't find the danm thing anywhere...
Using sapphire (myhero 2.0.4), on the market from denmark... build 1.5
Tried market enabler to fake 5 or 6 different providers, no luck.
Any ideas?
Quote:
Originally Posted by blampars
Just ran into this thread, liked the screenshots and decided to give it a try. Downloaded app from AndAppStore, as I couldn't find it on the market.
Would you please check once more and see if you see aCar on Market. I know you may have already downloaded the app from alternative websites, but I've just read a news about Google fixed some of these visibility issues. I need a confirmation....
Thank you,
Last edited by Armond; November 26th, 2009 at 05:13 AM.
Would you please check once more and see if you see aCar on Market. I know you may have already downloaded the app from alternative websites, but I've just read a news about Google fixed some of these visibility issues. I need a confirmation....
I started using your app, and it seems to have much of the functionality I seek. Unfortunately I lost my data after an update. I had entered a couple of items (fuel, oil change, tire rotation), then updated the app following a notification from the Market. After the update all of my data was gone. No events, and no vehicles entered. My original download was ~Nov 7th, and the update that broke things was the first pushed out after that.
I started using your app, and it seems to have much of the functionality I seek. Unfortunately I lost my data after an update. I had entered a couple of items (fuel, oil change, tire rotation), then updated the app following a notification from the Market. After the update all of my data was gone. No events, and no vehicles entered. My original download was ~Nov 7th, and the update that broke things was the first pushed out after that.
I'm so sorry for the data lost :-( It's the worst that can happen!
But the odd is that after my Nov 7th release I've had two further releases (on 11th and 14th) which didn't touch the data at all! It was only on my Nov 21st release when I just ADDED one database column. Again no existing data have been even touched. I can't see any reason behind this. You are the first to report any such problem. Maybe a bug in Android application-update process?
Can anyone else confirm this?
Anyways, I would like to take a closer look at what has happened on your phone. It would be great if you can email me your phone log so that I can analyze it in detail. There are two FREE very small applications to collect and send your log via email. One is called "SendLog" and the other one is "Log Collector". Please download/install them from Market. As soon as you run any of them, they'll ask for an email to send the log (I guess one of the above applications also asks for a log format - choose the "time"-based one). Enter my email and done! Obviously you'll need an active internet connection while doing this. As well, please let me know what version of aCar caused that problem.
I downloaded SendLog, but it only shows info from today, and nothing with aCar, so I will not send the log.
One perhaps critical piece of information that I did not think of before is that I had to exchange my first Droid for a new one. The first one was extremely unstable, freezing and crashing about 20x per day. The replacement has been very stable.
I don't recall looking at aCar right before and after the exchange. I thought the loss of data occurred after an update of aCar, before the exchange. It is possible it was due to the exchange of phones instead.
Does aCar store the data on the SD card? If so, maybe that is why my entered data is no longer accessible. I didn't save the info from my first SD card. I was under the impression from reading other forum posts that the phones automatically saved everything and restored it, but that seems not to be so.
I downloaded SendLog, but it only shows info from today, and nothing with aCar, so I will not send the log.
It's okay. Perhaps the log size is limited and it does not keep all the logs.
Quote:
Originally Posted by btmac
One perhaps critical piece of information that I did not think of before is that I had to exchange my first Droid for a new one. The first one was extremely unstable, freezing and crashing about 20x per day. The replacement has been very stable.
I don't recall looking at aCar right before and after the exchange. I thought the loss of data occurred after an update of aCar, before the exchange. It is possible it was due to the exchange of phones instead.
It may be a good reason. As I stated in my previous post, there is no such other data corruption/deletion reports between the updates. I've thought a lot today, but couldn't come into any conclusion that why such thing might happen.
After all, I will keep an eye on this problem to see if I can reproduce it somehow or anyone else reports it. Anyways, Thanks for letting me know.
Quote:
Originally Posted by btmac
Does aCar store the data on the SD card? If so, maybe that is why my entered data is no longer accessible. I didn't save the info from my first SD card. I was under the impression from reading other forum posts that the phones automatically saved everything and restored it, but that seems not to be so.
aCar stores its data on phone internal memory because I can count on it, but not all Android devices may have SD Card (although most have!). Moreover the data doesn't take much space. Here I've generated random data worth of two years for 3-4 vehicles (around 450 fill-up and service records) for my own tests but the data size is still under 200kb.
But the good news is that backup/restore feature will come in next major version. And you'll have the option to take backup from your data once in a while to prevent such data loss situations. I'm still not sure what to do with backup file... To store it on SD or to email it? Or both? I'm trying to come up with a basic but FULLY WORKING solution without over complicating the application.
By the way, Brian, is it your comment and rating on Android Market (on Nov 29) requesting for a full version without ads? If it's you, you can donate to get the option to remove the ads completely from the application :-) Please refer to aCar website.
Regards,
Last edited by Armond; November 29th, 2009 at 12:06 PM.
Im a statistics type person and im always keeping track of my MPG because a dippage will always point to something else being problematic with your vehicle.
Looks to be a great app and i will definitely use it when i get my droid on tuesday!
I just reDL'd this after getting my new and hopefully unrebooting Droid. Can't wait to fully use this on a daily basis. Thanks DEV!
Great product, one feature request I would like to see would be the ability to export the info to google docs.
I have this feature request already in my list :-) Perhaps this will be one of the websites I will export the records to (or sync with).
Quote:
Originally Posted by tipopilota
would also like to see if there is a way to zoom into the charts. currently they are very hard to read.
I just added this to my list, but I'm not sure how good it will be to view a chart partially. I personally like to see such statistical or comparison-based charts or graphs in one shot.
But you already have an option to get 48 more pixels on your phone screen, which means %15 bigger view in landscape mode!!! Just make a donation and you'll get the option to remove the ads ;-)
I have this feature request already in my list :-) Perhaps this will be one of the websites I will export the records to (or sync with).
I just added this to my list, but I'm not sure how good it will be to view a chart partially. I personally like to see such statistical or comparison-based charts or graphs in one shot.
But you already have an option to get 48 more pixels on your phone screen, which means %15 bigger view in landscape mode!!! Just make a donation and you'll get the option to remove the ads ;-)
What's a great app. I have the experience of using "Personal Vehicle Manager" on my old WM phone. I'd like my old data to move to this app. and keep them in the future. Therefore importing & exporting feature for backup is very important to common user like me. Besides, it would be better if importing & exporting data is Chinese language compatible. Thanks a lot.
Last edited by eespy; December 3rd, 2009 at 10:38 AM.
I'm a previous iPhone user, trying to convince my husband to switch to a Droid as well--one of the apps he absolutely loves is GasCubby, because with our iPhones, we were able to sync our GasCubbies between two phones(by setting up a backup/sync account with one email), and has basically said that he would switch if I found an app with this capability. aCar seems to be the closest to what he is looking for. With the backup/restore that you're looking at implementing, do you think you could also implement a sync function, for people that have multiple Android phones in their house, as well as multiple cars that they're tracking? Thanks in advance! I love this app.
Love the app! Just got an HTC Hero about a week and a half ago and I've been wanting this app before I even got the phone! A couple features I would love to see:
1. Extra reminders. For example, whenever you remove a wheel you're supposed to retorque the lugs after 50-100 miles, a little reminder of that would be cool. So any maintenance item that requires removing a wheel would have that on there. It would use your average miles/day to calculate that, right?
2. Trip meter section for fill-ups. I know I can just put it in the notes section but a dedicated trip meter option would be cool.
I'm a previous iPhone user, trying to convince my husband to switch to a Droid as well--one of the apps he absolutely loves is GasCubby, because with our iPhones, we were able to sync our GasCubbies between two phones(by setting up a backup/sync account with one email), and has basically said that he would switch if I found an app with this capability. aCar seems to be the closest to what he is looking for. With the backup/restore that you're looking at implementing, do you think you could also implement a sync function, for people that have multiple Android phones in their house, as well as multiple cars that they're tracking? Thanks in advance! I love this app.
Hi Nicole,
Thanks a lot for downloading and trying aCar, and glad to see you've liked it.
Well, sync functionality is a bit different from backup/restore. Backup/Restore is something quite standalone and aCar can do it locally all by itself. But synchronization needs a website to work. You need to synchronize your data with somewhere (website). To tell you the truth, I have some long term plans in my mind which includes a sync function and much more. Let me not go into details till I can come up with a practical result. I have great plans if I can succeed!
I'm sorry that I can not help you at the moment, or promise any strict release date for such feature. Although I'm working on aCar in full-time basis but being just one person it's really hard to do all these features. Plus I should do the support which takes great amount of time.
As a side note, you can already track multiple vehicles on one phone if you've not noticed yet.
Love the app! Just got an HTC Hero about a week and a half ago and I've been wanting this app before I even got the phone! A couple features I would love to see:
1. Extra reminders. For example, whenever you remove a wheel you're supposed to retorque the lugs after 50-100 miles, a little reminder of that would be cool. So any maintenance item that requires removing a wheel would have that on there. It would use your average miles/day to calculate that, right?
2. Trip meter section for fill-ups. I know I can just put it in the notes section but a dedicated trip meter option would be cool.
Thank you for all your hard work!
Thanks for your kind words, and glad to see you've liked aCar :-) About your feature requests:
1. I guess you need a free one-time reminder which is different from fixed repeating service reminders you have now. Like "Remind me after 100 miles or a week, to do X". Is this what you're looking for? It seems interesting and useful! Please confirm and I will add this to my list.
2. Yes, recently I'm getting more and more requests for trip meter (for business and tax purposes). And I've already increased the priority of this item in my list :-) I should just think more about how well I can integrate this into aCar. I have to answer some questions: Where is the best place to put the icon to start/stop the trip? The main screen is already very crowded, so should I create an entire new screen for it? Then will it look integrated with rest of the application? Moreover, where should I show the trip records? On main screen? and the list goes on...
I will appreciate your feedback on this. If you think here is not the right place to start a detailed discussion, you may contact me directly by email.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Last edited by Armond; December 5th, 2009 at 08:29 AM.
great app you made there. May I make a minor (but probably not too hard to implement) feature suggestion?
I am driving an old car with more than 200,000 km on the odometer. I have to fill it up every 300-400 km. And I have a Tattoo, which has a kind of small screen with a small keyboard.
It would be great if I didn't have to enter the full odometer number every time, but only the last 3-4 digits.
Let's say the last fill-up was at 212,376 km. If I just enter "721" as the odometer reading, it will assume that the new (full) reading is 212,721 km. Maybe you can even make it assume wrapped numbers, so for example if I entered the next reading as "108" it would assume (108 < 721) that the new reading is 213,108 km.
Do you think that might be implemented?
Thanks, and Cheers from Down Under
Skywolf
Last edited by Skywolf76; December 15th, 2009 at 08:44 PM.
Sweet! I'm going to download this and give it a whirl. I've been keeping a spread sheet on my laptop for years for my motorcycles (since maintenance on a motorcycle is of upmost importance... ), but I've been searching and searching for something for my phones.
With this, I'm more likely to keep track of the cars now as well.
Having the option to export the data (for backups and for convience as well) would be really nice.
I am driving an old car with more than 200,000 km on the odometer. I have to fill it up every 300-400 km. And I have a Tattoo, which has a kind of small screen with a small keyboard.
It would be great if I didn't have to enter the full odometer number every time, but only the last 3-4 digits.
Let's say the last fill-up was at 212,376 km. If I just enter "721" as the odometer reading, it will assume that the new (full) reading is 212,721 km. Maybe you can even make it assume wrapped numbers, so for example if I entered the next reading as "108" it would assume (108 < 721) that the new reading is 213,108 km.
It's interesting. I've had another request for users who want to enter the "distance since previous fillup" instead of full odometer reading.
These two requests have some conflicts unless I make the whole odometer reading input configurable:
- Entering full odometer reading (as it is now)
- Entering the distance since previous fillup
- Entering the last three digits of odometer reading (your case)
Okay I just added your request to my feature request list, but no promise on exact release date because I still have higher priority features to implement first.
Just a question... When you want to edit that fillup/service record you've entered the last 3 digits of odometer reading, do you want to see the full odometer reading? Or just the last 3 digits you've entered?
Sweet! I'm going to download this and give it a whirl. I've been keeping a spread sheet on my laptop for years for my motorcycles (since maintenance on a motorcycle is of upmost importance... ), but I've been searching and searching for something for my phones.
With this, I'm more likely to keep track of the cars now as well.
Having the option to export the data (for backups and for convience as well) would be really nice.
Thanks!
As I've already mentioned, there are no backup and export facilities at the moment. But you'll get the both:
- "Full Backup" will include your entire data along with application settings and so (several files packed in a zip container). This will be used only for restoring, and won't be useful to view it on your laptop or so.
- "Export as CSV" will come after backup/restore (v1.1) and import (v1.2 ??) in a third major update (v1.3 ??). Since this will be in plain CSV format, you can easily view it on your laptop in MS Excel or other such softwares.
Regards,
Last edited by Armond; December 17th, 2009 at 12:58 AM.
This is being asked other places... but if you could make this work with a bluetooth obd2 scanner.. you would be my personal hero!
Yes, other users have already discussed this. And I'm very excited about such potential feature. Since Android is a bit limited when it comes to BlueTooth communication. Currently Android uses BT for audio streaming (to BT headphones and such), but of course I've seen applications which have enabled BT files transfer and other communications as well. I should do further investigations...
I guess I will call for help (and for brainstorming) as soon as I want to start this feature. I want to implement this correctly not half-baked! Even after implementing, it will need extensive testing on different cars to see if it really works flawlessly.
Okay I just added your request to my feature request list, but no promise on exact release date because I still have higher priority features to implement first.
Just a question... When you want to edit that fillup/service record you've entered the last 3 digits of odometer reading, do you want to see the full odometer reading? Or just the last 3 digits you've entered?
On the first thing: Of course, that is only a minor feature request, so no hurry. I am interested in the sharing as well, and some other requests made here.
Secondly: My idea is just a quicker way to enter the full odometer setting, so it should display the full odometer setting. A simplified code would look somehow like this:
Code:
private int calcNewOdometer(int oldOdometer, int newEntry) throws UncalculableOdometerException{
int newOdometer = newEntry;
if (newEntry < oldOdometer) {
if ((newEntry >= 1000) || (newEntry < 0)) throw new UncalculableOdometerException();
int distance = newEntry - (oldOdometer % 1000);
if (distance < 0) distance += 1000;
newOdometer = oldOdometer + distance;
}
return newOdometer;
}
If you take the odometer entry as a string, you might check for a + sign at the beginning to indicate a relative entry, too. So no need to make too fundamental changes to the system, with introducing new settings and stuff.
There is one further request I'd like to make:
Last fillup I got ads in the app. Now that wouldn't be bad, after all I want you to profit from this. But with the on-screen keyboard, and the ad, there was no room left for the entry box, so I had to type blind.
I only have a Tattoo, with QVGA resolution (240x320), can you reproduce that? Is there a way around it? Can you offer an ad-free version for money?
Cheers,
Skywolf
Last edited by Skywolf76; December 20th, 2009 at 07:34 PM.
On the first thing: Of course, that is only a minor feature request, so no hurry. I am interested in the sharing as well, and some other requests made here.
Secondly: My idea is just a quicker way to enter the full odometer setting, so it should display the full odometer setting. A simplified code would look somehow like this:
If you take the odometer entry as a string, you might check for a + sign at the beginning to indicate a relative entry, too. So no need to make too fundamental changes to the system, with introducing new settings and stuff.
Thanks for sharing the code :-) Okay. I will try to implement this along with relative odometer readings (starting with +) in next version.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Skywolf76
There is one further request I'd like to make:
Last fillup I got ads in the app. Now that wouldn't be bad, after all I want you to profit from this. But with the on-screen keyboard, and the ad, there was no room left for the entry box, so I had to type blind.
I only have a Tattoo, with QVGA resolution (240x320), can you reproduce that? Is there a way around it? Can you offer an ad-free version for money?
Well, that annoying ad bar can be removed for donators. People who donate will get a donation reference ID. They should just enter that ID in "Donate..." screen of aCar (accessible from options MENU on main screen). After that, they will have the option to remove that ad bar. The option to hide/show the ad bar will be added to application "Settings" (accessible from options MENU on main screen).
If you want to donate, please go to the following address on aCar website: ZoneWalker.com » aCar
Please let me know if you need anything further.
Last edited by Armond; December 22nd, 2009 at 09:40 AM.
Great work on this app, just one thing doesn't make sense to me. I'm on the fuel statistics screen and after 4 fill-ups, I have 30.42 average MPG and cost per gallon of $2.77. which would cause me to assume my cost per mile would be $0.09, however, it shows $0.12...
Can you give us an estimate of when the Backup/Restore will be implemented?
In the meanwhile, if I wanted to back-up my data (I am thinking about switching ROM again), what files would I need to save to my SD card?
Thanks!
Nicolas Racine
BTW, I am going to your donation page right now. I reallike like this app!
Hi Nicolas,
I guess the next major version, which will include backup/restore as well, will be ready in 10 days. But no strict promise on this. Sorry if I'm not as fast as you might like to get the update. Backup and specially Restore are two very sensitive features which are directly dealing with user data. Any mistake (even small) can ruin all or some parts of user data which is a disaster! So I'm doing my best to implement it real carefully and to test it as much as I can (and to test it on different versions of Android - 1.5, 1.6 and 2.0).
Thanks a lot for your donation. It's very much appreciated :-)
. Not enabled for Asia? I'm residing in Malaysia.
