This page is an html version of the built-in documentation available in the Diablo version of Fuelpad via the "Help" main menu item.
For further details on Fuelpad, please see the homepage in maemo garage.
Fuelpad is a tool to record your car fuel and other expenses. It has the following features
Fuelpad uses a database to store the data. You don't have to save the changes made, they are automatically stored to the database.
If this is the first time you use Fuelpad, you can quickly get going by reading the Getting Started guide. If you are trying to find help for a specific problem, use the index.
Fuelpad can be used without any configuration but you
might want to change the driver and car names and the used units
in the Settings
dialog. To get the
CO2 emission calculation right, you must also choose either
petrol or diesel fuel type. The default driver and car names
are Default
. You can start using
the database with these names, but you can change these names at
any time. You can also change the display units at any time. The
units setting only affects how data is displayed to you and how
you enter data. Internally Fuelpad always uses the same format
regardless of your settings.
The main window of Fuelpad is divided into two areas: the
main database view frame and a toolbar area. The upper toolbar
is called the Information
toolbar
and it contains statistics about the data for the currently
selected car. The most used operations can be accessed with
the Buttons
toolbar.
The basic operation of Fuelpad is Adding a
record
. You add a record, when you fill your
fuel tank, when you bye new tires or do any other maintenance
work to your car. For regular maintenance recording, Fuelpad
includes a special
Reminder
system. So, for example,
oil exchanges should be entered
into the reminder system.
You can enter the following data into a record:
When you enter data, you must use the decimal separator defined in the language and region settings of the device. Fuelpad does not warn you if you use the wrong separator, it just sets the decimal part to zero.
Except for Car
and Driver
, all data can be
edited later. When you move from overall distance editbox to
another editbox, Fuelpad automatically calculates the distance
from last refill. You can change the calculated value, if you
think that it is errorneous.
Tip: You can activate the thumb keyboard by pressing the key (you must activate this functionality in the device's control center)
When you enter the first record into the database, you
have probably just bought your car with an almost empty fuel
tank. Since you probably don't know the distance from last
refill, this first refill is not taken into account when
calculating the average fuel consumption seen in
the Information
toolbar. From
the second refill on, Fuelpad automatically calculates the
average fuel consumption.
The Reminder
system is used
to keep track of regular maintenances. You can, for example,
set a Reminder
for oil exchanges
so that Fuelpad reminds you of the need of oil exchange every
30000 kilometres or 12 months. When you then change the oils,
you record it by adding a
new Event
. You can of course set
the interval to any value to suite your needs as well as how
long before the next event Fuelpad reminds you.
You can get an overall view of the fuel consumption, car
expenses and other data in the database by using
the Statistics
functionality of
Fuelpad. Graphical
statistics gives
you a quick view of you car's monthly fuel consumption or other
data. Yearly report
calculates and
reports the cost of different categories. You can include
several years in the same report for comparison. This report
can be saved in postscript format and then printed on a
postscript compatible printer or postscript interpreter program.
You can export the data to a spreadsheet program in comma separated value (csv) format. This format can be read by most spreadsheet programs. You can also import data in csv format if you have previously entered data.
The main window of Fuelpad is divided into two areas: the
main database view frame and a toolbar area. The upper toolbar
is called the Information
toolbar
and it contains statistics about the data for the currently
selected car. The most used operations can be accessed with
the Buttons
toolbar.
The data can be sorted by any column by pressing the
column header. The columns that are displayed can be selected
from the main menu View/Select
columns...
The Settings
dialog allows
you to configure how Fuelpad works. It has four tabs,
which are described below.
The Driver and car
tab allows
you to add, delete or edit the properties of cars and
drivers. The driver and car, which are selected in
the Driver
and
Car
comboboxes are the
current driver and car. If you want to see the records
of another car, you must choose the car in the
combobox and press OK
.
The Driver and car
tab also
displays the file name of currently used database. If
you want to open another database, you must use
the Database
menu, which
is accessible from the main menu.
You can also choose the date format used in displaying and entering dates. The combo box contains some predefined formats. The date format uses the following coding:
With the Reminders
tab you
can set when Fuelpad warns you about upcoming reminders.
The Units
tab lets you choose
the units used in displaying the records and various
statistical
data. The Currency
unit
is used only as a name displayed in various
places. There are no currency exchange rates, so
changing from Euro to $ does not change the prices
shown in the database.
Other units (for length, volume, fuel consumption and
mass) can be selected all at the same time or
individually. If the Select
individually
checkbox is unchecked, all
units are set to the unit system selected
in Unitsystem
combobox.
If the
Select individually
checkbox is checked, the three units can be
independent on each other.
There are three possibilities for units. The possibilities and their explanations are
SI
: kilometre for
length, litre for volume, litres/100 kilometres for fuel
consumption, gram for massUS
: mile for length, US
gallon for volume, miles per gallon for fuel
consumption, lb for massImperial
: mile for
length, imperial gallon for volume, miles per gallon for fuel
consumption, lb for massThe choice of units only affects how data is shown. Internally Fuelpad uses always its own units. You can therefore safely play around with the units.
This tab lets you select the paper size for statistics and reports.
The reminder system allows you to track the regular maintenances of your car. Fuelpad can remind you of upcoming maintenances either based on maintenance interval in time or distance between maintenances.
The reminder system has two important
concepts, Reminders
and
Events
.
A Reminder
is for
example, an oil exchange, or an air filter
exchange. Events
record,
when you exchange the oils.
To take the reminder system in use, the first thing to do
is to define the reminders. Each car has its own
reminders and events. You can add reminders from the
reminder system's main menu
Reminder/New
. If you
don't yet have any reminders, you can also add a
reminder by using the
menu Event/New
or most
conveniently by pressing the new event button in the
toolbar.
Events are stored in their own event table in the database, but they are also automatically stored in the main fuel database table. If you try to delete a record from the fuel database table that has a corresponding event in the event table, you must confirm that you also delete the corresponding event. Also, if you delete an event, you must confirm that you also delete the corresponding record in the fuel database.
Events can be edited by activating
the Event/List
menu or pressing the
Edit toolbar button. This opens a dialog, which has two
tabs
Reminder
Events
The Reminder
tab lets you edit
the properties of the selected reminder and
the Events
tab lets you edit the
events associated with the selected reminder.
If an event is edited, the corresponding record in the fuel database is also updated.
Events can be added in the Add a new
event
dialog. This dialog can be opened by first
selecting a reminder in the reminder list and then pressing the
Add toolbar button or
selecting Event/New
from menu.
You can enter the following fields in the Add
a new event
dialog:
Date
Overall distance
Service
Oil
Tires
Notes
The notes field is automatically filled with the name of the reminder, but it can be edited. All the events are also added to the fuel database and it is useful to let the notes to indicate the reminder name. The service, oil and tires fields should contain the cost of the event.
Reminders are the basis of the reminder system. You must
have at least one reminder. A reminder can be added by
selecting Reminder/New
from the main
menu. If you haven't added any reminders, the Add a
reminder
dialog is also activated if you try to
add an event.
You can enter the following fields in the Add
a reminder
dialog:
Short description
Service interval
(either in km or miles)Service interval (months)
Long description
You must also select the car for which this reminder is for. All cars have their own reminders.
Typically the services of a car must be taken care of either within some distance interval or time interval or both. For example, the oil exchange interval might by 30000 kilometres or 1 year. If the service only has a distance limit, set the time interval to 0 and if the service only has a time limit, set the distance limit to 0.
A reminder can be edited by
selecting Reminder/Edit
from the
main menu or from the event list dialog. You can edit all the fields:
Short description
Service interval
(either in km or miles)Service interval (months)
Long description
but you can't change the car the reminder belongs to. If you change the service intervals, Fuelpad automatically calculates the estimate for next time you will need to service your car.
There are four functions that can be chosen from
the Database
menu, which
is accesible from the main menu.
Open
. Usually you don't
have to open a database. The database that you
used last time when using Fuelpad is opened
automatically. But if you want to use another
database, you choose this menu itemClose
. This function
closes a database, after which you can open a
new database. You can also
choose Open
directly without explicitly closing the
database using this function.Import
. This function
imports data from a csv formatted file into currently open
database.Export
. This function
exports data of the current car to a csv file.You must first select the csv file. After Fuelpad has read
the data into memory,
an Import
dialog is
opened. There are three tabs in this dialog. The
middle one, Column
designation
lets you define, which
column in the file corresponds date, overall distance
etc. You must also define what is the date format used
in the imported file.
You can see the first lines of the file in
the Preview
tab. You
should check in this tab that the data has been
divided into columns. You should also check, which is
the first line of the actual data.
The third tab,
the Driver/car/units
lets
you define, which driver is used for the new data,
which car the data belongs to, from which line the
actual data starts and what is the locale of the
data. Locale mainly concers the decimal representation
of figures. If the originating file has decimal points
as decimal separators and your tablet uses decimal
points, you should
choose C
as the
locale. If the decimal separators are same in the
imported file and in the tablet,
choose current
.
Selecting the Export
menu
opens the Save file
dialog, which lets set the output file name. The data
of the current car is then exported to the selected
file.
Graphical statistics gives you a quick view of your car's consumption, driving distance or the average fuel price. Selecting this from the main menu opens a new window showing a bar graph of the data.
The data shown in the graph view can be changed from
the Statistics
menu available in
the main menu. The available data are:
The graph can be saved in postscript format.
You can use the following hardware keys to browse different years:
Yearly report produces a yearly summary of all the expenses and fuel consumption and emission statistics.
Selecting Yearly report
from
the main menu first opens a dialog to select the car and the
last year to be reported. The report contains a maximum of four
years and by default the last year found in the database is
shown. The year selection combo box contains the years found in
the database. The Update
button can
be used after changing the car to update the years.
The Generate
button opens a
preview of the report. The report can be then saved in
postscript format.
The hardware keys and scroll the report and and zoom the report.
The meaning of the fields in the Add a new
car
and Edit car
properties
dialogs is:
Mark
This is the car
mark, for example SaabModel
This is the car
model, for example 9-5Year
This the model
year of the car, for example 2005Register
This is the
registration number of the carFuel type
This
specifies the fuel type for CO2 emission
calculation.Notes
This is a free
field for your notesYou should fill at least
fields Mark
and Register
since these
fields are shown in the car selection combo box in the
settings dialog.
The meaning of the fields in the Add a new
driver
and Edit driver
properties
dialogs is:
Full name
This is the
full name of the driver, for example Julius LuukkoShort name
This is the
shorter version of the name, for example JuliusYou should fill at least fields Short
name
since this field is shown in
several places in Fuelpad.
The database record fields can be entered in two
dialogs. The most common fields are entered in
Add a new record
or Edit a record
dialogs
and the more rarely needed fields in
the Additional fields
dialog. You can add a record either by pushing the add
button in the Buttons
toolbar, or by selecting the
menu Record/New
. You can
edit a record by first selecting the record and then
pushing the edit button in
the Buttons
toolbar, or
selecting the
menu Record/Edit
or most
simply by double clicking the record.
The meaning of the fields in the Add a new
record
and Edit a
record
dialogs is:
Date:
The date of the
record.Km:
or Miles:
(depending of the selected unit) This is
the reading on the overall distance
meter.Trip:
This is the
distance from last fuel fill entry. Fuelpad
can automatically fill this field if you first
fill the Km:
or Miles:
field.
Fill:
This is the
amount of fuel filled in the unit selected for
volume.Price:
This is the
amount of money used.Notes:
This field can
be used freely for entering notes concerning this
record.The Add a new record
dialog
also has combo boxes to select the car and driver of
the record.
The Additional fields
dialog
contains the following fields for entering the
expenses of different things:
Service:
The service
expensesOil:
The price of
oilTires:
The price of
tiresFiltering records means that you can select which records
are shown in the database table. Filtering records is based on a
search string. In a search string you can set the minimum and
maximum values of columns. A search string can contain a
combination of limits for columns. These limits can be combined
to each other either with AND or OR operators. A search string
is constracted in the Filter
records
dialog by first setting the low and high
limits for a column, then selecting either AND or OR and then by
pressing the Add
button. The
current search string is shown at the botton of the dialog. The
search string can be cleared by clicking
the Clear
button. When you open the
dialog, Fuelpad automatically fills the minimum and maximum
values found in the database to low and high limits.
Record filtering is activated from
the View/Filter records...
menu.