User’s Guide

Overview

The Digital Auto Guides (DAG) do-it-yourself manuals or guides have been specially written for the owner who wishes to maintain their car in first class condition and to carry out their own servicing and repairs. Considerable savings on garage charges can be made, and one can drive in safety and confidence knowing the work has been done properly. Note that unlimited use of the manual pages and the service features require an small In App Purchase for each. You will find these in the menu bar at the landing page of the application. Within the service guides, comprehensive step-by-step instructions and illustrations are given on all dismantling, overhauling and assembling operations. Throughout the apps, hints and tips are included which will be found invaluable. A full set of capabilities will help you in managing the various tasks and projects needed to maintain your car in optimal condition. Whilst every care has been taken to ensure correctness of information it is obviously not possible to guarantee complete freedom from errors or to accept liability arising from such errors or omissions. While we use the most advanced computer systems to convert the paper manuals and extensive proofreading, some errors do appear. Instructions may refer to the righthand or lefthand sides of the vehicle or the components. These are the same as the righthand or lefthand of an observer standing behind the car and looking forward. This application contains the same content as the paper manual but in addition has a number of enhanced features not available in a paper book. Amongst these are:

  • Available on the go for all the popular mobile devices
  • Rapid search using keywords to get you to the exact subject
  • Hypertext linked subjects and content
  • A place to document your cars history
  • A means to log all of your fuel consumption and automatically calculate fuel efficiency
  • The ability to determine which maintenance is due by distance and keep track of your progress and costs
  • Manage your projects and how much you have improved your car and when
  • Showing exactly when and how much you spent repairing and improving your car by subject area/date in order to determine its value
  • The ability to use all of these features on numerous devices and store the data automatically in the Dropbox™ Cloud for security and shared access
  • Use of your collected data in other applications such as spreadsheets and e-Mail

All of the features are available for each car you have purchased the Digital Auto Guides for. There is no limit to how many cars or devices you may wish to use the application for (a separate license is required for each platform or if you use a different account for the same platform for numerous devices).

Getting Started

The Digital Auto Guides are available on the following formats and locations:

  • Android smartphones and tablets (Google Play)
  • Apple iPhones, iPads and iPad Minis (The App Store via iTunes)
  • Android smart phone and tablet devices and Kindle Fire phones and tablets (via the Amazon App Store).

The solution is universal and one implementation on a platform covers both phones and tablets. In this user’s manual we will depict the tablet images but the smart phone images are almost identical. In general the tablet displays will depict more columns. To install a native solution follow the instructions about installing applications for your device. Once installed the application is ready to be used without modification or tailoring. However to get the most enjoyment and to tailor the solution to your particular car or geography you will need to make a few adjustments to the settings. Please refer to the Settings section for details on how to configure the application.

settings

Quick Setup

To get started with the Digital Auto Guides application quickly, follow these steps:

  • Install the application from the Apple App Store, Google Play or the Amazon App Store.
  • Start the application and when at the main panel select the Settings (gear) icon at the bottom left.
  • Enter your car number or VIN under the Car Details section. While you type in your car number the settings for the car features below may change on some of the guides.
  • Review the settings that have been selected or make any changes for your particular car.
  • Now review the Maintenance Details settings entering the starting odometer reading you wish to begin with and your units of measure and money preferences.
  • Do not connect to Dropbox® just yet.
  • Select Save to return to the main panel. Your application is now setup and ready to go.
dropbox

NOTE: THIS FEATURE HAS BEEN SUSPENDED BY DROPBOX. WE ARE LOOKING FOR AN ALTERNATIVE

If you would like to use Dropbox® to secure all of your data or to use the application on multiple devices:

  • Go back to the Settings panel.
  • Now select the Link to Dropbox™ button. The application will take you to Dropbox’s website
  • Enter your Dropbox™ credentials and select Sign in.
  • If approved you will return to the Settings panel and the button’s text will change to Disconnect Dropbox™
  • Install the same Digital Auto Guides app on your other devices.
  • Start the application and when at the main panel select the Settings (gear) icon.
  • Do not enter any information on the Settings panel but select the Link to Dropbox button. The application will take you to Dropbox’s website.
  • Enter your Dropbox™ credentials and select Sign in.
  • If approved you will return to the Settings panel and the button’s text will change to Disconnect Dropbox™. All of your settings will be synchronized to the first device you entered.

From this point on everything that you enter on one device will be automatically backed up and distributed to every connected device you have linked to Dropbox™ for the same application. Even if you are out or range of a signal as soon as you are connected your data will be synchronized. Enjoy your experience with Digital Auto Guides and read further for more details when you get the chance.

Main Panel

The Main Panel is your navigation to the Digital Auto Guides® application. From this point you have access to all of the features of the application. The name of the application is prominently shown on the center of the panel in bold letters. The panel is laid out with a softened color picture of your automobiles engine as the background with iconic buttons at the bottom of the screen that give you access to the most used features. At the top of the panel is the title ‘Digital Auto Guides’ flanked by a magnifying glass icon on the left and the menu panel icon (stacked bars) on the right. When the application is first started you will also be shown a Find Out More button just below the application name. This button gives you access to a simple and rapid walk through of the applications features and will be described in detail later.

Main Panel
The seven icons provide access to all of the applications features. They are:

  • Magnifying glass – takes you to the Search panel
  • Menu bar – brings up a pop out menu panel that will appear from the left. Every feature of the application is available from this popout panel.
  • Settings – takes you to the Settings panel as you have seen above
  • Manual – brings up the Manual Chapters menu panel
  • Fuel – shows a Add Fuel popup to quickly document your last filling
  • My Car – shows the My Car panel where you can describe your cars ownership and features
  • Service – brings up the Service menu panel

Each of these features and more is described below.

User Interface

The Digital Auto Guides application reproduces the original manual pages but in a unique way. There is no concept of pages, because this is an artifact of the paper world the manuals were created in. Instead DAG uses advanced technology to reformat the information specifically to the device type and orientation you choose to use it on, sometimes changing its layout as you turn the device. If the application was based on pages they would be too small to read on smart phones and waste a lot of space on larger devices. Because you would have to scroll the pages anyway, it was determined that a better way to display the manual page content was in order. To this extent all of the text is converted into characters and not just digitally reproduced images. This means we can scale the text and reformat it to any device type the user chooses to deploy the application on. Every device shows the text at the ideal size and clarity, no matter how big or small it might be. This can be a smart phone or tablet or any device offered today or in the future. If you chose to use the device horizontally or vertically the application will reformat the content to best suit your viewing preference.

Chapter
The graphics are painstakingly digitally copied in high resolution. While you use the application we constantly scale and rearrange the graphics so your experience and view-ability is the best it can be on the device you have chosen. The graphics will shrink and grow depending on the device but also the devices orientation. As you rotate the device DAG will shrink and grow the graphics so you always get the best representation possible. In this manner it may be advantageous to rotate the device when viewing an image to improve its readability or to see more of the image. On the lager devices DAG will often use columns to deliver the content to you. Often this was done on the original paper manuals too but they had a fixed column layout. With your choice of devices one column may be best (ex smart phone) while two columns may be good for many average tablets. But real large tablets may benefit from even more columns. So DAG uses algorithms to decide how many columns may be best for a given device and orientation. The graphics will be dispersed amongst the text in either columns or taking the entire page based on the type and size of the graphic. For these reasons there are no pages within a DAG application. It is merely a series of panels that are based on chapters. Often the content is divided into sections. The sections are in order but float amongst the graphics in order to optimize the viewing experience. To this extent all references to page numbers have been eliminated from the original documents. DAG will only utilize chapters, sections and figure references in all indexes, contents, table of figures and other forms of cataloging. While scrolling within the panels you will notice a small pop-out upwards arrow appear and then disappear a few moments later. This pop-out arrow appears when you scroll to provide you a simple means to quickly return to the top of that page without having to scroll back up. If you don’t use or select it, it will hide itself after a few seconds. If you wish for it to reappear, just scroll the panel a bit and it will pop out. Tip: If you would like to hide the header when reading manual or other content pages, just tap in the content area to toggle the header on and off.

Pop-out Menu

The Pop-out menu panel, which is available from most panels of the application, gives you access to every feature of the application. The menu is organized hierarchically and also has expandable sections for the manual, appendix and service features. Selecting any item from the menu will close the menu automatically and bring up the selected panel in the application.

menu
In addition you can chose to close the popup panel by selecting anywhere outside the popup panel, or using the Close Menu item near the top. You can also choose to go to the Home panel directly to access information about the application near the bottom of the panel. The panel will scroll with the screen so it may be necessary to return to the top of the screen to see the panel at times. Note: When using the Service Log features the menu icon in the upper right corner of the screen has a different purpose. In this case it provides a context based popup menu for the particular service screen you are viewing. To gain access to the application pop-out menu, first select the Back button in the upper left corner of the screen.

In App Purchases

On Google Play and the Apple App Store the standard version of the app is free. You will be able to view the manual pages up to five times and will be allowed to use all of the service features, but limited to one item at a time. You will also be restricted to only logging one set of maintenance items or projects. For the Amazon App Store only the full versions of the applications are available and there is no need to purchase options or features within the application. To remove these restrictions permanently on all of your devices you may optionally pay a small fee through an in application purchase (IAP). There is a fee for removing the service features restriction and another modest fee for unlimited access to the manual pages.

Making an In App Purchase

On the pop-out menu near the top you will see two items for purchase: Service and Manual. Each can be chosen separately. By choosing either option you will be prompted with the description of the item you have chosen, the price within your market and a chance to complete the transaction or cancel it. Note you must have an established payment method pre approved within your devices store in order to make a purchase. Once you have selected a feature and have confirmed your purchase, that feature will remain unlocked forever.

Restoring Purchases

You will never have to repurchase items for a given application no matter how long ago you purchased them or if you installed the same application on another device under the same account. If you change your device you will also be able to restore your purchases without any additional charge. To restore your purchases just select the Restore Purchases menu item on the pop-out menu.

Manual Chapters

The key feature of the application is the manual pages. Depending on which application you have selected this could be either a workshop/repair or operation/owner’s manual. The manual chapters are generally duplicative of how chapters or themes were arranged within the original paper based manual. There are sometimes changes to this.

Manual Chapters Image
Often the original paper manual may have laid out content based on the page concept and often some subject material just did not aesthetically fit in the correct order based on space limitations or because it could be represented in multiple ways. With DAG’s dismissal of pages we are free to catalog the information in the manner best suited to the usability of the application and can easily provide linkages to multiple places within the application to any content for completeness or relevancy. Within the DAG application you can either get access to menu chapters through the Manual chapter panel or directly from the pop-out Menu Manual section. Once you have selected a manual chapter you are greeted with a table of contents for that chapter at the top of the panel.
Chapter Menu
Within each chapter the content is divided by subject areas or sections. Each section has a title and or a subchapter number. The blue underlined lettering indicates a link or jump to that subject. In this manner the chapter table of contents is all hyperlinked headings. Touching any one subject will take you to that section. Within sections you will find other links or jumps in blue text as well, sometimes within the same chapter or sometimes to completely different chapters or content within the application. To return, just select the <Back navigation item at the top left corner of the panel just like you would do with a website.
Tech Data

Appendix

The appendix is where all of the supporting information is contained. This can include:

  • Technical specifications
  • Lubrication information
  • Service intervals
  • Wiring diagrams
  • Chassis diagrams
  • Conversion charts
  • Wheels and tires/tyres
  • Hints and tips

Each application has a different set of appendixes depending on the type of car and manual that was produced for it. The Appendix pages are accessed by the pop-out menu.

Information

In some guides additional information about the car may be included. This can include:

  • Production information
  • Available accessories at the time of purchase
  • Detailed information about certain features not included in the original manuals

Each application has a different set of additional information depending on the type of car and manual that was produced for it. The Information pages are accessed by the pop-out menu.

Search and Index

While the original manuals had an index in the back, generally accessing each subject area by its title, the new electronic format offers a much more robust means to access the content of the application. The search feature is accessed from the main panel by selecting the magnifying glass icon. This feature is part of the In App Purchase for the manual features. You will need to purchase this feature after the first five viewings.

Search
Not only can you find subjects by their titles alphabetically, but the list can be shortened by keyword or phrase. Just enter a keyword in the search box and the list will shrink or grow depending on which topics contained your search word. You can also enter a phrase, but it has to be an exact match. Select the item from the list to go to the application page and topic listed. Press the ‘X’ character in the search box to clear the search term and bring the list back to its full listing. The search term will be retained during your session so you can easily revise it upon return.

Service Capabilities

We understand that owning and operating a vintage automobile or classic car requires a great deal of dedication and personal involvement. You are truly the curator of the preservation of a breed of automobiles never to be seen again. Your personal attention and commitment is unlike today’s modern automobiles where the enthusiast just drops it ‘off at the dealer’ to be picked up later after the car has had its maintenance attention. Our users generally are personally involved in every process of their cars maintenance and want to document their activities not only for their own interest, but to demonstrate their level of commitment and the soundness of their automobile once it is time to transfer ownership. This feature is part of the In App Purchase for the service features. You will need to purchase this feature after you experiment with the capabilities in a limited way. You will be restricted to a few maintenance items and projects as well as a singular experience in logging service prior to purchase. If you ever need help while in the Service Capabilities panels just select the popup menu in the header and choose Help. A help panel will overlay the screen from the right and guide you through the options on that panel. You can close the panel from a button at the top or just select anywhere outside the panel and it will close automatically.

Service
The Service Logs feature of the Digital Auto Guides® allows you to capture your fuel consumption and quickly calculates your efficiency in miles per gallon, Imperial miles per gallon or hundred kilometers per litre. The solution will also provide a graphical representation of your fuel consumption over time so you can detect any anomalies or situations that could indicate a maintenance concern. The Digital Auto Guides® application can also help you with your maintenance activities. The application provides a list of all maintenance the original car company felt was appropriate by distance. Each designated maintenance task can be selected as the basis of a specific work task or maintenance To Do. The solution keeps track of the completion of each activity and allows you to log your results both by distance (odometer reading) as well as by date. You may also include a personal note on each task if required and the costs associated with the maintenance, if any. When you have completed one or more tasks you can easily transfer or archive that set of maintenance items to a historical log. The logs are by chronology and segmented by the year, most current at the top of the list. Optionally you can electronically mail the maintenance log to yourself or any other recipient. The electronically mailed logs can be printed or easily incorporated into a spreadsheet for further analysis or documentation. The Digital Auto Guides® can assist you in managing your projects for the car too. For example keeping a list of all of the items you want to restore or those nagging issues we all have that just seem to be forgotten about until the next time we go out for a drive. Digital Auto Guides® can even help you manage your finances by keeping track of estimated and final costs for each item. When a project item is complete, Digital Auto Guides® will log it to an archive so you can refer to it later and build a chronology and value sheet on how much you have done to improve the car over time. The logs can be displayed either chronologically or by category, such as engine, transmission, wheels and tires/tyres etc. These categories mimic the sections of the manuals where appropriate. Lastly Digital Auto Guides® will summarize all of your costs for you for those maintenance items and projects that you indicated had a cost associated with them. The program will aggregate all of the costs per category (maintenance falls into a Maintenance category) for each year. It will then depict all of the costs for that year in a stacked bar chart.

Fuel Log

To enter a new fuel log entry press the Fuel icon on the main panel or select Add from the action popup on the Fuel Log menu popup. A popup panel will be displayed for you to enter the current odometer, the fuel pumped and the date you pumped the fuel. Today’s date will be automatically filled in for you. Use the units you have chosen in the Settings panel.

Add Fuel
You can remove one or more entries by selecting the Delete item in the action popup menu. The panel will expand showing you some black selection circles that you can use to choose each item that you want to delete. A red minus icon will display and can be toggled. Select the Delete item to carry out the operation. Pressing Cancel in any operation will terminate the action and nothing will change in the logs. You will always be prompted first before any deletes or logging takes place.
Fuel Edit
You can also have the application graph your fuel efficiency too. Just select the Graph heading and the panel will switch to a fuel graph. To return to the log just select the Log heading.
Fuel Graph

Maintenance Logs

The Maintenance Log will document the reoccurring services you perform on your car. The means to document those services is via the Maintenance Due panel.

Maintenance Due
In this panel you choose any item from the Maintenance Items list below (sorted by their recommended repeat distance). Using the select circles will toggle an item to and from the Maintenance To Do’s at the top of the panel. When you have one or more To Do items, you can use the tool to document your actions or help support you in completing the task. To help you pick the correct items:

  • The Current Odometer value is where you enter the odometer reading that you would like to use as a default when completing a task. This value is also updated from the fuel log whenever you make an entry there.
  • The Calculate Due button will use the current odometer value along with your past maintenance history to show you which items you should be considering. It will post the recommended miles (or km) in the Due column.

If an item has exceeded the recommended interval it will be shown as a negative number. Various levels of colors moving from cooler to hotter will emphasize the urgency of completing the maintenance on each item.

Maint Menu
You can add additional notes to an item by selecting the Note button. A small popup panel will appear to allow you to enter or edit an existing note. After saving the Note button will be a darker shade indicating a note exists for that maintenance item. If you want to edit it you can by selecting the Note button again. You can also gain access to the owner’s or operation manual page that describes the maintenance procedure by pressing the wrench icon. To complete an item you will simply select the empty circle to the left of a To Do item. A blue check icon will appear. By doing so you have indicated that that item has been completed and it is ready to move to the Maintenance Log, ready for the next time you will need to document that procedure. The current odometer value will be entered for you and today’s date will be supplied as well. You can change any of these for each To Do item if you wish before logging the items. If you chose to cancel a completion status simply uncheck the item. Note that on some devices a calendar popup will appear to assist you in choosing the date. Once you are ready to log all of the maintenance items you have completed, you select the Log Completed item on the action menu on the device. Each item that has been checked will be removed from the panel and its corresponding green + icon will be removed from the list below. The checked items will be transferred to the Maintenance Log.
Maint Logs
Each and every maintenance entry completed in the Maintenance Due panel, its odometer reading, date completed and any notes you might have entered will be stored permanently in the Maintenance Logs. These logs are stored by year and you simply select the + on the year to show the maintenance logged during that year. If you wish to delete a log entry select the Delete item in the action menu and you will be able to select one or more items to delete with a red minus icon. When you have selected all of the items you wish to delete, press the red Delete button that appears in the heading. If you delete a log entry it will be permanently removed. There is no way to recover it so make sure you have selected only the items you want deleted. You will be prompted to confirm your action before the deletion takes place.
Maint e-Mail
Another feature of the Service Log is the ability to electronically mail the logs to any email you choose. An electronic mail message will be generated for you for every year you have opened. You can select one or more years at a time. The application will send the log as a comma separated variable format so it can easily be incorporated into spreadsheets and other programs as you wish.

Project Logs

While the Maintenance Due and Maintenance Logs are for documenting the reoccurring service of your car, there are other tasks or possibly enhancements to your car you might want to track too, both historically and as projects. The Digital Auto Guides® applications support the creation, editing and logging of projects.

Projects
Using this feature you will enter a description of your project, choose the category it belongs to, pick a completion target date, the cost and any notes you wish to capture. To create a project select Add from popup menu in the header. A new blank project is added to the bottom of your project list. Data is automatically saved as you make changes. Once you have completed one or more projects you can log them to the Projects Log. You do this by selecting the Log Items button from the popup menu. Select each item’s little black circle to toggle it to a blue check if you want it moved to the Projects log.
projects log
The Projects Log can be organized either by date or by the category that each project was assigned to. To toggle the sort order, just press the Sort button in the popup menu. You can delete items from the Project Log by selecting the Delete Items menu item and then choosing the small circle by each project which will turn into a red minus icon. Press the Delete button to permanently remove the log items that were selected. You will be prompted to confirm any option that will delete or log items first. Press Cancel if you do not wish to carry out the action.

Chart of Expenses

The Chart of Expenses shows your costs for each maintenance item and project summed by category by year. The legend below shows all of the possible categories, but only categories with costs will be shown in the graph.

Chart
If you wish to know the details of a segment just touch it and a popup panel will appear showing the combined costs for that category within that year as well as what category the bar segment represents. Just touch anywhere on the graph to dismiss the popup. Note: Because of the small size of phone screens we have eliminated the legend on those devices. You can determine which category a segment belongs to by touching it. A popup panel will appear showing the category and also the total cost for that segment. This popup feature is also provided on the tablet view too.

My Car’s History

The guide will catalog your cars history. You begin with the Settings panel where you enter your car number, model and other details. Then proceed to the My Car panel which is available from the main panel or the popup Menu panel.  Press the Edit button to allow the panel to be edited. On the My Car panel you will complete the description of your car by adding the engine number and date manufactured.

My Car
If you know where your car was fist sold (the dealer) you can enter their name, address, city and the date it was first sold. Then you can enter the location history of your car as well as any major accessories or modifications. For the locations of your car you can enter the year, month, location and owners name, if available. For the Major Accessories/Modifications enter the Year, Description and an optional comment.  Press Save when you are all done to record your entries or Cancel if you want to discard your changes. You can add additional rows by selecting the  image or remove a row by selecting the  image.

Glossary of Terms

Also included with your Digital Auto Guides application is glossary of terms. Often the cars, because of their historical or country location, will use terms that may be uncommon to you. For example in the United States the term Lifter may be used where in the UK the term is Tappet. This can be confusing to someone who might be new to an automobile type or mark. For this reason a simple to use Glossary is included with the application and is accessed from the popup Menu.

Glossary

Device Synchronization

NOTE: THIS FEATURE HAS BEEN SUSPENDED BY DROPBOX. WE ARE LOOKING FOR AN ALTERNATIVE

If you want to use Digital Auto Guides® on multiple devices, for example your smart phone and tablet, we will take care of keeping the devices synchronized and up to date with the latest information you have entered. For example you could enter your fuel consumption while on the road using your smart phone and later with your tablet review the logs. Another benefit is that you only have to enter your settings on one device and they will automatically be kept in sync with the other devices (each device must be connected to the internet to receive the updates at some point). Finally your data is also protected from loss. In the event that you lose your device all you would have to do is to install Digital Auto Guides® on a new device, enter your Dropbox® credentials and your data and settings would automatically be transferred to your new device. The data is always secure and is stored in your private Dropbox® account where only you have access to it. Digital Auto Guides® cannot access any other information on your Dropbox® account and you can terminate the synchronization at any time. Only the Digital Auto Guides® application can see its data and it cannot be shared with anyone who has access to your Dropbox® account or other stores.

Additional Information

There is also other information that may be useful to you when using the application. These are all found within the popup Menu towards the bottom. Include are:

  • Find Out More – a simple set of nine panels that helps explain the features of the application
  • License Agreement – Legal and privacy terms
  • About the App – A panel that shows you which version you are running and where to get help etc.