Getting Started With Tankup Manager

Tankup Manager's main screen consists of a vehicle list at the top with several separate screen tabs underneath. Each tab is described in the table below.

Actions can be performed by using the provided menu commands as listed below.

Adding a Vehicle

The first step is to add your vehicle(s) to Tankup Manager. The proper way to begin managing a vehicle with Tankup Manager is to start with a full tank of fuel and record the current date and odometer reading as the "start" settings . Tank Manager will use odometer readings from future events (like fuel fill ups or maintenance services, etc.) to calculate statistics. There is no need to use trip meters or manually calculate distance driven.

Click "Menu" and select "Add Vehicle". Enter the vehicle's name, starting date, and odometer reading of the vehicle. You can also define the maintenance reminder intervals at this time. All settings can be edited later except for the starting date and starting odometer reading. Click the Save menu option after you have entered the necessary information.

Delete Vehicle

The vehicle and all related event data is removed from your Pocket PC.

Select the vehicle from the list and select "Delete Vehicle" from the Menu.

Edit Vehicle

The vehicle name and maintenance reminder intervals can be changed on an existing vehicle. The vehicle's start date and start odometer cannot be edited.

Select the vehicle from the vehicle list and select "Edit Vehicle" from the Menu. To cancel any particular maintenance reminder from generating a reminder alert, simply set the interval to 0.

Event History

Tankup Manager allows you to view all past events, or search for a particular type of event (for example, you wish to lookup the last Oil Change). Tankup Manager uses an Internet Explorer web table to display past events. If your Internet Explorer View option is set to Desktop, the table may appear larger than your screen and require additional scrolling (depending on your Pocket PC screen layout). Changing the View option to "Default" in Internet Explorer will cause Tankup Manager's Event History table to be sized to fit your screen next time it is loaded. Note that for Pocket PC 2003 the event history will be displayed directly in Internet Explorer and does not provide the option to select specific events. This will be corrected in a future release.

Select the vehicle for which you wish to see the event history, and select "Event History" from the menu. When the Event History form appears, simply select the type of events you wish to display from the drop down list and select Search function.

Exit

Closes the Tankup Manager application and removes it from the device's program memory. Vehicle event data is still retained in storage memory. Maintenance reminders will not display when Tankup Manager is closed. Use this function if you need to edit the database files directly or you need additional memory for other programs.

Add Events

Tankup Manager allows events such as fuel fill ups, maintenance (oil changes, tire rotation, etc.), repairs, and even appearance care such as wash and wax. Events must be entered in chronological order (ie the date and odometer reading of a new event must be entered after any earlier events for the same vehicle).

Select the vehicle for which you wish to add an event, and then click "Add Event". When the Add Event form appears, first enter the odometer reading and date of the event. The Add Event form has 4 tabs dividing the various events into Fuel (fuel fill), Care (wash, wax, added accessories, miscellaneous), Maintenance (Oil and Filter change, Tire Service, Brake Service, Fluid Checks), and Repair (general repairs, recalls, warranty service). Simply fill in the details of the event(s) and select the Save function.

Special Notes on Events:

• Odometer readings are rounded to the nearest mile or km unless the vehicle is measured by engine hours; in this case the readings are rounded to tenths of hours.
• Fuel is always measured to 3 decimal places regardless of whether gallons or liters are used.
• Fuel up events allow temperature and driving style to be entered. Additional statistics will be generated if you choose to specify this information. You can ignore them if you wish.
• Check boxes will automatically turn on when information is entered into an event field. When saving events, Tankup Manager will attempt to save all checked events. If you wish to skip an event that was entered by accident, simply uncheck the associated box.
• Recall and Warranty service does not offer a "Cost" field. If there are associated costs (such as a warranty deductible), simply enter that under the general repairs event.
• If you wish to enter multiple events of the same type (for example, you wish to record details of two separate recall services done on the same day) simply save the first event then repeat the add event process using the same date and odometer reading.

Tankup Manager Main Screen Tabs

FE

The FE tab displays fuel economy statistics for the selected vehicle. It offers the following information:

• FE Units: The top line of the FE tab displays the units of measure the fuel economy stats use. You can use the small down arrow to the right to choose between US, Metric, and Imperial units of measure.
• Last Tank: Displays the fuel economy calculated for the most recent tank of fuel used.
• Last #: Displays the fuel economy calculated for the most recent 2 to 10 tanks of fuel. You can select the number of tanks to use in the calculation that best represents a sampling of your recent fuel economy. Beside the Last Tank and Last # statistics are percent change in fuel economy calculations comparing the last tank(s) against the combined fuel economy for the vehicle. The percentage is always calculated as a difference in the usage obtained per fixed volume of fuel. In other words, the comparison is always calculated in mpg, km per liter, or hours per gallon even though the stats may display L/100km or gallons per hour, etc.
• Weather Slider: You can adjust the weather slider to view your fuel economy statistics for different temperature ranges based on the temperature range you select each time you record a fuel event.
• Combined / City / Hiway: Displays the combined, city, and hiway fuel economy for the selected temperature range. Also shows the total usage (miles, km, or hours) each statistic is based upon. The city and hiway statistics are simple estimates based on the city / hiway ratio you select when recording a fuel event.

COST

The Cost tab displays cost statistics for the selected vehicle. The statistics display an overall column for all events and also a 12 month column showing event data for the most recent 12 months. If offers the following information:

• Distance: Displays the total usage (miles, km, hours) each column of statistics is based upon.
• Oper.Cost: Displays the operating cost of the vehicle based on fuel, maintenance, repair, and optionally care costs (see OPTIONS tab for determining if care costs are included in operating cost calculations).
• Total Cost: Displays the total costs recorded against the vehicle.
• Fuel / Maitenance / Repair / Care Costs: Displays the total costs recorded against the vehicle in each category.

Special Note on FE and COST statistics: Statistics for FE and Operating Costs are based on odometer entries for fuel fill events only. Non-fuel event costs (oil changes, repairs, etc.) are added to total cost, but the associated odometer readings are used only for history, not statistics calculations. If the last recorded event for a vehicle is a non-fuel cost, the additional odometer distance is not added until the next fuel event. This may change in future versions of Tankup Manager.

TREND

The Trend tab displays 6 months of average distance driven (based on fuel fill dates), fuel usage (by volume), fuel cost by distance (per km, mile, or hour) and fuel pricing (per gallon or liter). For fuel cost by distance and fuel pricing, for each month it compares with the results for the previous month and provides a percentage increase or decrease. This allows you to compare the general trend in fuel pricing compared with your trend in fuel costs by distance. For example, if fuel prices increase 0.6% for a month but your fuel cost per mile increases only 0.4% this indicates improved efficiency.

An overall average for the 6 recent months is also provided. Note that until you have 6 months of fuel fills recorded in Tankup Manager the overall average won`t be accurate.

ALERTS

The Alerts tab displays the currently active maintenance reminders for the selected vehicle based on the maintenance reminder settings (see Edit Vehicle). Alerts are calculated and a notification is displayed when:

• Tankup Manager is loaded
• A new event is entered
• Maintenance reminder internvals are edited
• Alert preview options are edited.
• Once a day

A notification window appears for only 15 seconds, but the Alert tab will always displays active reminders and in more detail.

OPTIONS

The Options tab displays settings that affect all vehicles in the Tankup Manager database. Option changes are instantaneous and will cause all statistics to be recalculated. The following options are available:

• Include Care in Operating Costs: Allows you to decide whether optional costs such as washing, waxing, accessory purchases, etc. are included in the operating cost calculations for all vehicles.
• Automatic Decimal Entry: Certain data fields have an explicitely defined number of decimals. To make data entry easier on the Pocket PC, you can choose to have Tankup Manager automatically assume the decimal point on those fields:
  • Cost: 2 decimal places
  • Fuel: 3 decimal places
  • Odo: 0 decimal places for miles or km, 1 decimal place for hours.
• Preview Alerts: Allows you to define a preview period for upcoming maintenance reminders, to allow you time to plan for an appointment with your mechanic or purchase of supplies necessary for DIY owners. For example, if you set a 15 day preview any date based maintenance reminders will trigger 15 days before they are due. For odometer previews, the preview is based on a percentage of the maintenance interval. For example, if you have an oil change maintenance interval of 5000 miles set and set the preview to 5%, then you will receive the oil change maintenance alert 250 miles (5% of 5000) before the maintenance is due.

Technical Information

This version of Tankup Manager uses very simple text based data files for its database. These data files allow very simple repair of mistakes or exporting of data to other applications. If you decide to edit Tankup Manager files directly, please be very careful and read the directions below thoroughly. Tankup Manager expects to read these files in proper format, and any unexpected data or format will prevent Tankup Manager from loading.

Also note that dates are stored to these text files in language specific format (ie based on the language setting of your device). If you change the language setting of your device, Tankup Manager may not be able to read the dates of previous event records and will fail to load. If you need to change the language setting of your device, you will have to manually update the data files to edit the dates into the new language of your device.

Tankup Manager's database files are stored in the same folder as the application (typically \Program Files\Tankup Manager). Their are 3 types of files, all of them may be directly edited with the Mobile Word application just be selecting the file using the File Explorer program. If you have reason to edit any of the data files in Mobile Word, when saving the file DO NOT save the file as a Word type file. When the application suggests you save the file as a Word file, click "No" as the file must remain as a TXT type file. Fields of data within each text file are delimited with the "|" character. Tankup Manager does not allow the use of this character within any description field within the application. Do not add this character to any file if editing the file directly, otherwise Tankup Manager will likely fail to load.

TMOptions.txt - This file contains all the application wide option settings. There is no reason to edit this file directly, all changes can be made within the Tankup Manager application.

TMVehicles.txt - This file lists each vehicle within the database. Each line lists the Vehicle Number, Vehicle Name, and maintenance reminder settings. View this file to find the internal Vehicle Number of a specific vehicle, as you will need this number to edit the Vehicle's Event file directly. There is no reason to edit this file directly.

TM#DB.txt - There is one file of this type for each vehicle, the # sign representing the vehicle number found in the TMVehicles.txt file. Each file of this type contains all the event records for a single vehicle. If you accidentally save incorrect event information or enter an event out of sequence, you can use the Mobile Word program to edit the file to correct the mistake. Be sure to exit the Tankup Manager application before editing the file.

• The first thing to do is is make a backup copy of the file you are about to edit. Click and hold the file until a pop-up menu appears. Select "Copy". Then from the "Menu", choose "Edit", then "Paste". A new file will appear as "Copy of TB#DB". You can use rename this file back to the original name if the original file should become damaged during the attempt to edit it.
• To correct mistakes in event information, click once on the appropriate TM#DB.txt file to edit the content with Mobile Word.
• Each line of text matches a single event (text lines might wrap depending on your display size, so you might see one event text line ending on a 2nd line on the display). Each event line starts with the format Event Number | Odometer Reading | Date | and then followed by event specific information.
• The easiest way to repair an event out of sequence (ie you entered an event before an earlier event, and now can not enter the earlier event) is to simply select all event text lines from the point of error to the end of the file and deleting those text lines. When finished, if you cursor down as far as you can to the bottom of the file, the cursor should stop at the first blank line. Do not leave multiple blank lines at the end of the file.
• If you are just correcting incorrect field data, like an incorrect number, you can edit it directly. Do not change dates or odometer readings to cause them to be out of order. Tankup Manager expects the event listing to be in both date and odometer order from earliest to newest.
• Click OK to save the file. Remember to click "No" when Word asks to save the file in the Word file format.
• Load Tankup Manager and see if the data appears as expected. If Tankup Manager fails to load, you have edited the file incorrectly.