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aCar - Track your vehicles

Armond

Well-Known Member
Nov 7, 2009
195
18
[UPDATED for v2.5.x]

Hi Guys,

It's a few days I've released my first Android application (aCar) to Google Android Market under "Productivity" category (for FREE). aCar is an all-in-one handy application to effectively track the fuel mileage and costs, maintenance, business (and non-business) trips/mileages and general expenses of your vehicles.

Feature List:
* Tracking the fuel mileage, fillup costs, maintenance and general expenses of your vehicles
* Tracking the business trips/mileages you're going with your vehicles
* Multiple vehicles support
* Supporting several international units: MPG (US, Canada & Imperial), gal/100mi (US & Imperial), mi/L, km/gal (US & Imperial), L/100km, km/L
* Service reminders for vehicles (both time and mileage based); will be posted on your phone status bar. They are highly customizable for each vehicle separately
* Thorough statistics of your vehicles at a glance
* Powerful searching and filtering
* Graphical charts and reports: Fuel Efficiency, Fuel Price, Fuel Costs, Service Costs, General Expenses, Distance between FillUps, Price per Gallon/Liter, Gallons/Liters per FillUp and many more (Pro Feature!)
* Comparison charts for your vehicles (Pro Feature!)
* Full manual/automatic data and application settings backup/restore (Pro Feature!)
* Importing data from various sources: Auto 3in1 application (Windows), AutoMobile application (PalmOS/Windows/Android), Mileage application (Android), MPG application (PalmOS/iOS), Road Trip application (iOS), TealAuto application (PalmOS/WebOS), Vehicle Manager application (Windows), Fuelly.com website, FuelFrog.com website, SpritMonitor.de website and any plain Excel compatible CSV file (Pro Feature!)
* Exporting records to Excel compatible CSV format (Pro Feature!)
* Exporting statistics to Excel compatible CSV and browser viewable HTML formats (Pro Feature!)

The application contains a FAQ (accessible from the main screen) where you can find the frequently asked questions. This is a good place to start with if you are experiencing any problem, before contacting me!

I will appreciate if any of you download and give it a try and let me know what you think. Whether the overall user interface of the application is intuitive and good enough, or how you would like to see it improved. I need all your feedback, comments, complaints, mentioning of pros and cons, or whatever else you would like to share about this application, good or bad! All are welcome!

More information: ZoneWalker.com
 
Thanks for developing this app. I just downloaded it, entered info for one vehicle, and entered one service item (oil change). The app seems quite nice. Is it possible to export data, e.g. as a CSV file? Checked the user guide and did not see anything.

Thanks a lot for your interest, and glad you've liked it.

For the moment, aCar does not have any import/export feature. But it's in my todo list for the next major version. Moreover, I'm planning to make it possible to export the charts and reports in a common graphic format (JPEG or PNG), saving them to photo gallery or emailing them.

I have many features in my mind, but first I need to know I'm on the right track with the initial version I've published :)

By the way, just in case you've missed the charts and reports, tilt your phone 90 degree counter clock wise (to go to landscape mode). aCar will sense the new situation and unveil a bunch of charts and reports to you :) While watching the first chart, just swipe on screen by your finger to see the next ones...

Have Fun!

Armond
 
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Great app!!! I was using Personal Vehicle Manager ($20) on Windows Mobile for 4 years, and when I switched to Android, I needed another app which tracked all vehicle expenses.

aCar is by far much superior!

Just sent a donation. Keep up the great work!


WOW! Thanks a lot for your donation :) Really appreciated! I'm glad to see you've liked it and that it's comparable to a product which has been in use for 4 years.

Doug, it will be great if you let me know the pros/cons of aCar from your point of view, as a user who has used a similar software professionally. All your suggestions and comments (even negatives) are welcome :)

Cheers,
 
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Looks great! Will this always be free?

There is one important point for personal products/projects. If the product/project is taking a lot of time for the supporting person, then it needs to have revenue in anyhow to help him continue his efforts. Unless he's doing it just for his own entertainment and at his spare time.

Speaking explicitly about aCar, as long as the donations and ads-generated money can cover my costs plus bring me some decent revenue, I will keep it free. Otherwise I should go for other options to afford keeping the project alive.

After all, developers also need to make their life :) I have spent 4-5 dedicated months working on aCar without earning even a cent. So obviously I will seek for new ways of monetization if the current applied ones do not work.

But whatever happens I won't forget my user base. I will find a way to keep them happy.

Regards,
 
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I installed it but coincidently hit back and now I cannot get back to the initial setup screen to finish entering my vehicle information. I even tried reinstalling but the screen is somehow skipped. I imagine it would be in the documentation and is just my laziness.

answer: (from his user guide) http://www.zonewalker.com/acar/help

"After entering some more records and while you are on main screen, you may tilt your phone (turn it 90 degree counter clockwise) to go to landscape mode and to see some charts and reports. While you are viewing the first chart in landscape mode, just swipe on screen (like on iPhone to see more pages) to see the next charts/reports."
 
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I installed it but coincidently hit back and now I cannot get back to the initial setup screen to finish entering my vehicle information. I even tried reinstalling but the screen is somehow skipped. I imagine it would be in the documentation and is just my laziness.

Hello, and thanks for trying aCar :)

Maybe it's my fault and I should provide a better user guide. But anyways...
The Vehicle Bar at the bottom is a fully clickable section on main screen. If you see "All Vehicles" written there, you'll also see a very small "+" sign at the right of it. It means that tapping on the bar will lead you to "New Vehicle" screen. But if you're seeing your entered vehicle name on the Vehicle Bar, you'll also see a very small ">" sign at the right of it. It means that tapping on the bar will lead you to VIEW your entered vehicle information and perhaps to edit/update it there if you want.

Now explicitly speaking about your case, from your explanations I guess you've entered just ONE vehicle information and it's not quite complete yet. If you're seeing "All Vehicles" on the Vehicle Bar, just try to tap on the BIG LEFT/RIGHT ARROWS at the edges of the bar to navigate to your vehicle. When you saw your vehicle name written on the bar, just tap on it and you'll see you vehicle details. At the View Vehicle screen, you'll notice an EDIT icon (a big pencil) at the right edge of TOP BLUE BAR. Tap on it and you'll go to Edit Vehicle page to update and complete your vehicle information. After completing the information you want, just tap on SAVE icon again on right edge of TOP BAR and you'll have it stored :)

Hope this helps... Please let me know if you still can't work suitable with aCar.

By the way, I've designed the initial setup screen in a way that it provides information about the things you've not done yet (like entering your vehicle info). As soon as you do it, it will go one step forward (like a wizard) and will show you further things you can do.

Best Regards,
 
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I transferred all my fuel data for my vehicle from my Windows Mobile device to aCar.

For some reason, the full tank entries preceeding a partial fill-up entry have very high MPG numbers. I unchecked 'partial fill-up', the MPG reading drops but is still very high.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Thanks a lot for your issue report...

While I'm trying to reproduce your given scenario here to find the problem, it will be great if you can send me a block of your fill-up data (like 3-4 entries) which can reveal this problem, as well as the calculated MPGs and your expected values. I want to be able to test exactly with your numbers. If you don't feel suitable to post them here, you can email me directly (ZoneWalker.com
 
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Doing further tests last night I could catch a bug in unit conversion process. If you've changed the Fuel Efficiency unit from the application Settings (which has resulted into Fuel Efficiency conversion), you've had a great chance to hit this bug and to get unusually big numbers!

As well, for partial records, I was intentionally skipping the Fuel Efficiency calculation. But now I'm thinking that it will be good to calculate an average efficiency from the full-tank entry proceeding partial entries and all of those immediate previous partial entries and apply the result for all. Example:

# -- Odometer (mi) ---- Gas Volume (gal) ----- Partial? ----- MPG
==================================================
1. ------- 1000 --------------- 11 -------------- No ------- 36.1
2. ------- 1350 --------------- 9.7 ------------- No ------- 30.5 *
3. ------- 1500 --------------- 5.4 ------------- Yes ------- 30.5 *
4. ------- 1830 --------------- 10.3 ------------ No ------- 33.0
5. ------- 2250 --------------- 12.7 ------------ No ------- 26.9
6. ------- 2540 --------------- 10.8 ------------ No -------

Do these numbers seem correct to you?

Good news is that the bug has been already fixed, and partial records fuel efficiency calculation is under development right now and both will be included in the next release.

Doug, if you've had all full-tank entries and have not done any unit conversion, I couldn't find any other case that might have caused such a problem for you :-( Hope you have the time to help me on this!

And others who have used aCar and have had such MPG calculation problems, please let me know...

Thank you,
 
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Snippets of my fuel entries and the reported MPG:

# -- Odometer (mi) ---- Gas Volume (gal) ----- Partial? ----- MPG
==================================================
1. ------- 46,613 ------------- 18.39 ------------No ------- 14.87
2. ------- 46,945 --------------22.32 ----------- No ------- 76.83
3. ------- 47,260 --------------4.10 ------------ Yes -------2.18
4. ------- 47,313 --------------24.29 ------------ No ------- 11.05
5. ------- 47,562 --------------22.54 ------------ No ------- 12.85
6. ------- 47,856 --------------22.88 ------------ No ------- 66.31
7. ------- 48,163 --------------4.63 ------------ Yes ------- 18.12

Thanks for your help!

If you need any other information, let me know.
 
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Snippets of my fuel entries and the reported MPG:

# -- Odometer (mi) ---- Gas Volume (gal) ----- Partial? ----- MPG
==================================================
1. ------- 46,613 ------------- 18.39 ------------No ------- 14.87
2. ------- 46,945 --------------22.32 ----------- No ------- 76.83
3. ------- 47,260 --------------4.10 ------------ Yes -------2.18
4. ------- 47,313 --------------24.29 ------------ No ------- 11.05
5. ------- 47,562 --------------22.54 ------------ No ------- 12.85
6. ------- 47,856 --------------22.88 ------------ No ------- 66.31
7. ------- 48,163 --------------4.63 ------------ Yes ------- 18.12

Thanks for your help!

If you need any other information, let me know.

Okay! I confirm the bug. I've corrected the calculations, but still it needs further testing :) Here I paste the new calculated MPGs... According to my on-paper calculations, they seem to be correct. Please let me know if you confirm them:

# -- Odometer (mi) ---- Gas Volume (gal) ----- Partial? ----- MPG
==================================================
1. ------- 46,613 ------------- 18.39 ------------No ------- 14.87
2. ------- 46,945 --------------22.32 ----------- No ------- 12.96*
3. ------- 47,260 --------------4.10 ------------ Yes -------12.96*
4. ------- 47,313 --------------24.29 ----------- No ------- 11.05
5. ------- 47,562 --------------22.54 ----------- No ------- 12.85
6. ------- 47,856 --------------22.88 ----------- No ------- 14.78*
7. ------- 48,163 --------------4.63 ------------ Yes ------ 14.78*
8. ------- 48,220 --------------20.00 ----------- Yes ------

(*) Again I stress on the new way I'm calculating the MPG for partial records. It's an average of the both partial and non-partial record after that, and the calculated number is used for both of them!
 
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Guys,

I've just published a new maintenance release (v1.0.2) for aCar. It fixes the MPG calculation problem for partial fill-ups, plus it contains some minor UI improvements especially for new users (guides them better on main screen to have a smoother start).

Doug, please download this update and edit each one of your fill-up records and save them without any special change (for the sake of speed, you can Long PRESS on each record at main screen to get a context menu which contains "Edit FillUp Record" option. In that way you can directly edit the records). This will force the MPG to be recalculated with the new formula! You should get the numbers I'd pasted in my previous post, which are correct according to my calculations. Please let me know otherwise... I'm so sorry to put you in trouble. I wish I could provide you a better way without having to go to each record and edit/save it!
Thanks a lot for helping me to resolve this issue.

Best Regards,
 
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