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Research/Survey on Equipment Manuals

R

RolfTaylor

Guest
I am conducting a research on user preferences with regards to user manuals for hardware purchases. Please share your preferences with regards to the manuals you receive when buying broadcast hardware. Specifically here are some common methods:

-Hardcopy only provided with equipment. PDF available online

-CD-ROM only provided with equipment. PDF available online

-CD-ROM only provided with equipment. PDF available online. Hardcopy available available for purchase

-CD-ROM only provided with equipment. PDF available online. Coupon or other method included for hard copy at no charge upon request

Comments please:


Many thanks for your input.

Rolf Taylor
 
I'll vote for a hard copy provided with the equipment and a PDF on line. Making the customer print out a manual for a new piece of gear is an invitation for them to never read the manual at all.
 
Absolutely a hard copy.
I've purchased equipment which came with no hard copy manual.
The CD which they furnished contained a pdf of the manual ..... nearly 500 pages.
I realize that the manuals cost the manufacturer a few dollars to print. It costs the end user even more when they have to print the manual locally.
Ink/Toner, paper, binder(s) and the time that it takes to print the manuals are not inexpensive.
That's my two-cents worth.
 
If the PDF/CD-ROM version is "searchable", then that would be acceptable. You could simply search for the topic you need help with and if necessary, only print out the relevant pages.

I'd probably go with choice #3, but don't make the purchase price outrageously expensive (as some console makers do).
 
Hardcopy with the equipment and PDF available online. No substitute for a hardcopy manual when working on equipment. I keep a PDF copy of all my downloaded manuals on my laptop for situations when the manual isn't available or missing.

RFB
 
Broadcast gear is not cheap, and when you need to fix it in a hurry, you may not always have access to a computer.

It may be totally impractical to have a laptop computer open next to a rack, especially in a tight space (a lot of control rooms are pretty small).

My choice is a hardcopy with the unit, and a PDF online - with one proviso:

Manufacturers need to pay more attention to their online manuals. Often sites are dogged with dead links, they only have manuals available for the current models or worse, they have user guides available as immediate downloads but if you want the service manual you have to email them to get it, and they NEVER answer their damn emails!

So - have ALL manuals available online as an instant download, and that includes manuals for obsolete units. Heck, it doesn't really cost anything to host a few extra manuals.

The hardcopy manual will often be around a lot longer than a CD-rom version, which will inevitably get lost or damaged.
 
HARD COPY, please!! That's the best way when you're cramped in a TX cabinet or some other weird, cramped place that equipment usually resides. Can't drag my laptop everywhere.

A downloadable PDF as a back up is a good second option, but for goodness sakes, if I spend 5 to 10 grand (or more) on a console or audio processor, can ya at least spend the $5 and print the damn manual?
 
WNTIRadio said:
HARD COPY, please!! That's the best way when you're cramped in a TX cabinet or some other weird, cramped place that equipment usually resides. Can't drag my laptop everywhere.

A downloadable PDF as a back up is a good second option, but for goodness sakes, if I spend 5 to 10 grand (or more) on a console or audio processor, can ya at least spend the $5 and print the damn manual?
Click to expand...

HERE HERE "WNTIRadio"!!! Rolf, HARD COPY all the way!
 
I've always liked the idea of ONE OR TWO hard copies with the equipment (I don't really need twenty when I buy twenty DAs, or whatever, at a time), and a properly updated website pdf download, so I can make changes to the manual as pages change. I can also go to the web, or even carry a downloaded copy on the laptop, when I need to travel or "climb the mountain" late at night.

Also, contrary to what some folks might say, it's nice to have the manual on line and not restricted. That's how you find out what device you really want to buy. Some people worry that the competition may "snoop" on your website publications, but I know of at least one major manufacturer who decided that was dead wrong. They put EVERYTHING on line.
 
I'm with most here, a Hard Copy of the manual with a PDF available online would be my preference.
It's extremely helpful to be able to take out the book and make notes were applicable but I try to keep a backup PDF as-well in the event the hard copy is lost or at a different location.
 
I find it impossible to trace a circuit on PC display. Having it laid out on a table is the only way I don’t get completely lost. Plus you can make penciled notes on it!

Not many shops or transmitter sites for that matter have a 52” display to view large size schematics.

But the PDF can be really handy IF they’ve been compiled properly with indexing and searching.
Not all are.
 
I want a hard copy and a pdf. file online. A pdf is nice if you have access to a big printer. I have taken several pdf schematics to the local print shop and had them blown to a 4 foot by 6 foot print. Sure makes it easier to read a schematic when it is blown up big.
 
As a follwow on to Rolf's question, what content do you wnat to see in manuals? Theory of operation, schematics, trouble shooting charts?

Thanks

Rich Redmond
 
I'd like to thank everyone that responded. The replies were pretty much as I expected. A few further thoughts:

SO how does one address the problem with equipment (DAs was a good example) where the stations may have a dozen or more pieces. I guess there is no good solution other than including the manual with each item.

Some companies use there manuals as a education tool. This means many pages that are not directly related to day to day operation or regular maintenance. These manuals are really nice to have before purchase however, particularly when you are not sure if you want to invest in a technology. Many companies will respond to a request before the purchase for a manual.

I am beginning to think that the manual should only give a tech introduction and then refer the reader to specific articles on the manufacturer's web site.

Rich asks a good question. Of course I think most will respond "all of it". For transmitters I'd argue that is a legitimate answer, but for other equipment I wonder. Theory of operation and detailed on-board troubleshooting can't be written by anyone other than the designers, who's time arguably would be better spent working on addressing hardware and software bugs versus writing documentation.

Thanks again to all that responded.

Rolf
 
Rich883 said:
As a follwow on to Rolf's question, what content do you wnat to see in manuals? Theory of operation, schematics, trouble shooting charts?

Thanks

Rich Redmond
Click to expand...

I probably already have a reasonable idea how the unit works, so if I'm reaching for the manual it's the schematic I need to look at to see where various rails come from etc.
Therefore, I want to see a BIG, CLEAR schematic, which is easy to follow. Having to track it across several pages isn't ideal, but I do appreciate it may be necessary.

I want to see VOLTAGES, as nine times out of ten, a failure is due to a missing or incorrect voltage rail. I want to know what to expect on any particular part of the circuit, on any pin of any IC.
If this is done in a table, so be it, but please include it.
If your machine has proprietary ICs in it (and most stuff does these days) there's often not a lot of info out there about them.

Theory of operation is indeed useful, but I find many manuals fall short on this. They usually have scant information about the particular part of the circuit you are working on, but copious detail about every other damn thing in the machine!

Trouble-shooting charts are in a similar league. They rarely detail the particular fault that's apparent on the machine you have in front of you, and when they do, they often end up pointing to something that isn't the fault.
 
I think that this survey needs to have another question appended: How much extra would you pay for a piece of equipment with a hard-copy manual? The reason is that printing hard-copy manuals (particularly Orban-style manuals, which are typically around 300 pages in length with two sizes of paper so that schematics can be accommodated) is not cheap.

I have come to prefer pdf manuals if they are extensively hyperlinked and searchable, as ours are. Navigation and search are much faster than with paper manuals.

Also, we take great care to make sure that schematics and parts locator diagrams are kept in vector form all the way from our CAD system to the final pdf manual. This allows almost unlimited zoom within Acrobat Reader and helps compensate for screens that cannot show the schematics with sufficient detail at 1x zoom.

Bob Orban
 
Hard Copy and a PDF available online for the stations I represent. Please don't password the PDF files online in case I need them in a hurry during odd hours.
 
I like a hard copy, and I appreciate the extra information provided in a lot of manuals (Orban, Telos, and Omnia have a pretty good education included with their books). When I get a DVD with the box, I have to stop and feed it to one of the two sided printers, punch the result, find a binder, and put it in. Total P.I.A.

Consider though. Let's look at the docs as a part of the equipment cost. If it costs in quantity a hundred to produce and print a decnt manual for a processor or CODEC, if the street price of the equipment is $5 - 10 Large this isn't out of line. I can live with a simple one page scematic of the DA though, there isn't much magic in it. Charging extra for a manual leaves me cold - it smacks of businesses who advertise a price and then boost it with this or that add - on. I see absolutely no reason to hide PDFs of manuals on-line at all. Believe me, youer competitor already >has< the equipment in his lab and he's looking it over closely.
 
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