Gas Manager FAQ

Gas Manager

FAQ

Purchase & App Store

Is the application free of charge?

Downloading the application from the AppStore is free, but you will only be able to create 10 fill-ups. This will allow you to try the application and see if it fits your needs.

When creating the 11th fill-up, you will be given the opportunity to make an In-App Purchase in order to remove this limit. If you decide to make this purchase, you will then be able to create as many fill-ups as you wish.

How can I become familiar with the application?

During installation, the application creates some example data, one car with a few (fictitious but realistic) fill-ups.

You can then browse all the views of Gas Manager, and change what you want.

You will quickly learn how to use the application and its possibilities.

Once you no longer need the sample car, you can delete it from the application.

How can I restore my In-App Purchase?

If you lose your in-app purchase because the app was accidentally deleted (or install it on another device), or if you had to restore your device without a backup, the application won’t recognize your first in-app purchase but you are able to unlock it again for free.

  • iOS: select the About tab, tap the Settings button, tap the “Restore in-app purchase” button
  • Android: select the About tab, tap the Purchase button, hit the “Restore in-app purchase” button

Important note: make sure that your device is connected to the iTunes or the Google Play account you used for the first in-app purchase.

Your in-app purchase will be restored, and you won’t be charged again.

iOS: You can restore your in-app purchase on up to 5 different iOS devices, using the same iTunes account. More information about in-app purchases at: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204530

Possible errors when making in-app purchases:

Error messages: “In-app purchases are currently disabled.” or “There was an error purchasing this item, please try again.”

Check the following items:

  • iOS: in-app purchases are enabled (iOS Settings, General, Restrictions, In-app purchase)
  • your Internet connection is OK
  • you are properly connected to your iTunes or Google Play account (iOS: iOS Settings, iTunes Store and App Store, Apple ID, Android: Play Store, Settings, Account), and your credit card details are valid.
  • reboot your device and retry

if there seems to be nothing wrong with your iTunes account, contact the Apple Express Lane at: http://www.apple.com/support/contact/

 

Vehicles

Can I use the application for a two-wheeler?

Yes: a two-wheeler generally has the same characteristics as a car in terms of budget and fuel consumption. Car Manager enables you to manage all motorized vehicles indistinctively: cars, motorcycles, mopeds, scooters, quads, etc.

How can I add a vehicle?

Hit the “+” button in the car list. You’ll be prompted to enter the vehicle name and its approximate mileage at the last fill-up.

Note: For instance, if your car displays 1000km, consumes approximately 10l/100km (or 25 MPG), has a tank of 50l and your tank is half full, then the mileage at your last fill-up was approximately 750km, because you used 25l and thus traveled 250km.

How can I link a picture to a vehicle?

Select the vehicle’s detailed view.

iOS & Android : hit the ”Edit” button in the navigation bar. Hit the camera icon and select whether you want to take a picture or use one from your library.

How can I manually modify the mileage of a vehicle?

You input the mileage of a vehicle when you create it. It is then automatically updated every time you enter the data about a tank refill.

If you need to (for example if you made a mistake when first typing the mileage, or if you want to delete or recreate fill-ups, or if you lent your vehicle and someone else filled it up), you are able to manually modify the mileage by following these steps:

Select the vehicle’s detailed view.

iOS & Android : select the vehicle, then hit the “Edit” button at the top right of the screen. Select the “current mileage” cell and enter the new value.

Please note that the value you enter will be used as former mileage when you input the next fill-up.

How can I delete a vehicle?

iOS : select the Vehicles tab, hit the Edit button, then the red sign to the right of the vehicle you want to delete, and confirm the deletion.

Android : select the Vehicles tab, make a long-press gesture on the vehicle you want to delete, and confirm the deletion.

Note: Confirming the deletion of a vehicle will also delete all the fill-ups linked to that particular vehicle.

Fill-Ups

How can I add a fuel fill-up?

Important: fill-ups have to be entered in chronological order. Otherwise, the vehicle odometer value will not be updated automatically.

Select the vehicle’s detailed view.

iOS & Android : hit the “Fuel” label, which will display the fill-up list. Hit the “+” button. Input the amount and volume of the fill-up, as well as the current mileage of the vehicle.

Note: It is important to enter the total mileage of the vehicle, not just the distance you traveled since the last fill-up. The application then calculates the distance you traveled since the last fill-up, the fuel price and your average consumption, which will help you check that the data you entered is correct.

The fill-up list also enables you to modify or delete previously entered data (in case you made a mistake).

When you input a new fill-up, the current mileage of the vehicle is automatically updated with the value you enter. You can nonetheless modify that parameter manually if you need to (if you forgot to register a fill-up for example).

It is possible to enter partial or complete fill-ups. For partial fill-ups, simply activate the Partial Fill-up switch.

How can I delete a fill-up?

iOS: select the Vehicles tab, select the fill-ups button, hit the Edit button, then the red sign to the right of the vehicle you want to delete, and confirm the deletion.

Android: select the Vehicles tab, select the fill-ups button, make a long-press gesture on the fill-up you want to delete, and confirm the deletion.

How can I add the first fill-up of a brand new or used car?

This fill-up is a little bit special because the driven mileage will probably not be realistic (for example, car bought with a current mileage of 5 miles and completely filled up after 10 miles driven) and is thus not relevant for the consumption calculation.

We therefore advise you to just not register that fill-up in the app. And to just enter the related mileage (at the time of that fill-up) in the “Vehicle Odometer” field of the vehicle. (see the “How can I manually modify the mileage of a vehicle” FAQ section above).

What is a "Partial Fill-Up"?

The Partial Fill-Up switch should be set to ON only if you did not topped up your gas tank (i.e. it has not been filled-up to its max capacity).

For example:

  • you gas tank max capacity is 80 Liters
  • currently there is only 20 L left in your task

 

Example 1, normal fill-up:

  • you go to the gas station and fill up your tank at its max capacity (thus you fill up 60 L, total capacity being 80 L)

Example 2, partial fill-up: – you go to the gas station and fill up your tank with 50 L. (so you tank contains now 70 L, not its max capacity)

The consumption cannot be calculated on any partial fill-up. Even if we know the distance traveled, we do not know the exact gas volume that has been consumed.

When you enter a partial fill-up, the app will calculate the consumption when you enter your next fill-up, if this next fill-up is not a partial one. Those two fill-ups (the partial one and the full one will be consolidated into one virtual full fill-up)

For example:

  •  your tank is filled-up, its max capacity is 50 L
  •  you travel 500 km, and you fill your tank for only 10 L, you enter this fill-up in the app
  •  you travel 100 km more, and you fill your tank up for only 40 L (complete fill-up), you enter this fill-up in the app

The app will then calculate consumption for the last fill-up as follows:

  • (total volume) / (total distance) /100 = 8,33 L/100km
  • (10+40) / (500 + 100) /100 = 8,33 L/100km

How can I enter my fill-ups history?

You have two options for inputting your fill-up history into the application:

1) Manually:

Fill-ups data have to be entered chronologically, so it is important that no newer information is entered before you try to enter older data. If this is the case, you first have to delete these data.

Before entering the information about the first fill-up into the history, modify the current mileage of the vehicle so that it fits its mileage at the time of that particular refill (see previous question).

You can then enter all the history of your vehicle fill-ups, always making sure that this is done in chronological order.

 

2) Automatically (import of a CSV file):

Your CSV file can be of two types:

USA/UK CSV file: the decimal separator is a period/full stop and the value separator is a comma

Non Imperial Countries: the decimal separator is a comma and the value separator is a semicolon.

Create a “fuel.csv” file formatted as follows (one row for each fill-up):

    • date, format YYYYMMDD
    • amount paid
    • gas quantity (Liter or Gal.)
    • current odometer value
    • odometer value at previous fill-up
    • partial fill-up (empty, or “yes”)
    • comment (optional)

The file must not contain characters with accents or quotation marks.

Examples of valid CSV files for both types (2 fill-ups in May 2011):
20110501,61.25,42.5,1543,915,,comment
20110524,75.53,52.27,2207,1543,yes,
Or:
20110501;61,25;42,5;1543;915;;comment
20110524;75,53;52,27;2207;1543;yes;

 

iOS (iPhone, iPad):

    • Connect your device to your computer
    • In iTunes, select your target device (below Devices), and click on the “Apps” button.
    • Below File Sharing, in the list on the left, select Gas Manager
    • Click on ‘Add’ in the list on the right
    • In the displayed window, select the “fuel.csv” file you created
      in step 1 (see above).
    • The file is transferred to your device.
    • On your target device, select About, Settings, Database Management
    • Select “Import Fuel CSV File”
    • Select the vehicle and confirm the import by clicking on the “import file” button

Android Devices:

    • copy your « fuel.csv » file in the /mnt/sdcard/data/GasManager folder of your Android device. The file is transferred to your device.
    • On your device, select the About tab, Database
    • Select “Import Fuel CSV File”
    • Select the vehicle and confirm the import by clicking on the “import file” button

How can I delete a fill-up?

iOS : select the Vehicles tab, select the fill-ups button, hit the Edit button, then the red sign to the right of the vehicle you want to delete, and confirm the deletion.

Android : select the Vehicles tab, select the fill-ups button, make a long-press gesture on the fill-up you want to delete, and confirm the deletion.

How is the carbon footprint calculated?

The mass of CO2 emitted by your vehicle is essentially linked to its fuel consumption (and therefore to fill-ups). The equivalence used in Car Manager is that a liter of consumed fuel equals the emission of 2.3 kg of CO2 (gasoline) and 2.7 kg of CO2 (fuel oil / diesel).

iOS: saving and transferring data to another device

iOS: How can I save the application data?

Application data backup is a built-in feature of your iPhone-iPad and iTunes, as long as you regularly synchronize your device with iTunes on your PC or Mac.

At the beginning of the syncing process, iTunes saves the following data from your device:

  • Contacts and Contact favorites
  • App Store Application data
  • Application settings, preferences and data
  • Music, videos, photos, etc.

When you change your device, or even with your current device, you are able to restore that backup with iTunes. You will thus be able to retrieve all the data and content saved during the last syncing.

For more information about backup saving and restoring, please visit: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1766?viewlocale=us_US

You can also use the “iTunes Database export” feature (see below) to run an individual backup of your application data. Be careful to properly save the “Database_Export.db” file on your PC or Mac.

iCloud: How can I transfer my application database to another device?

Running iOS 5 with a valid iCloud account, you can export your application database from your device to another device (iPhone, iPad or iPod touch) using the same iCloud account.

A) From your source device (device A):

  • select About, Settings, Database Management, Import Export
  • select “iCloud – Export Database”

B) From your target device (device B):

  • select About, Settings, Database Management, Import Export
  • select “iCloud – Import Database”. Check that the date and time correspond to the file you exported from device A.
  • just confirm the import by clicking on “Yes” in order to replace the former database of device B by the one just transferred from device A.

Once finished, device B contains exactly the same app data as device A.

Note 1: iCloud sync may take several minutes to complete, especially when data size is large and Internet connection, slow.

Note 2: if you have just installed and launched the app on device B, you are advised to wait a few minutes for the app to sync with iCloud, before exporting your data from device A.

File Transfer: How can I transfer my database to another device?

This process will allow you to export your application database to another device.

A) From your source device (device A):

  1. select About, Settings, Database Management
  2. select “iTunes File Sharing / Export Database”
  3. connect your source device to your computer
  4. in iTunes, select the device (below Devices), and click on the “Apps” button.
  5. below “File Sharing” from the list on the left, select the application
  6. from the list on the right, select the “Database_Export.db” file and click on “Save to”.
  7. in the window that appears, select the destination where you want to save the file, and click Choose.

B) From your target device (device B):

  1. connect your device to your computer
  2. in iTunes, select your target device (below Devices), and click the “Apps” button.
  3. Below File Sharing, in the list on the left, select the application
  4. Click on ‘Add’ in the list on the right
  5. in the window that appears, select the the “Database_Export.db” file you saved in step A.6 (see above).
  6. the file is transferred to your device.
  7. on your target device, select About, Settings, Database Management
  8. select “iTunes File Sharing / Import Database”
  9. Just confirm the import by clicking on “Yes” in order to replace the former database by the one just transferred.

Once finished, device B contains exactly the same data as device A.

Note 1: the Export feature can be used to back up your app database: in this case, select the ‘Database_Export.db’ file in iTunes, and click on ‘Save to’ to back it up on the chosen support (hard disk, USB storage, etc.).

Note 2: another way to back up your device is to Sync it with iTunes.