Owner's Manual Format

There is no indication that CD's will last 50 years banging around in
a flight bag, being tossed into the baggage compartment, thrown on a
shelf in the hangar where they go from 20 below to 120 degrees over
and over through the years

They probably won't. Then again, how many pieces of avionics do you have in
the airplane that are 50 years old? 40? 30? 20, perhaps.


....... I have printed manuals on Fat Albert
that are that old and have ... THey still boot up just fine...
Also, I cannot balance a CD on my tummy in bed and read it..

So you are interested in assessing everybody who buys the equipment to pay a
$5 tax because you want a printed manual? That doesn't seem hardly fair,
does it? You want a full manual? Print your own from the CD. You only
need chapters C and G, print just C and G.


I vote
for the manufacturers to be required to supply a printed manual on
dead trees...

Ya know, one of the privileges of being in the manufacturing game is that
the customer can't "require" anything. You are perfectly welcome to vote
with your pocketbook, but you can't "require" anything.

Jim

RST Engineering wrote:

Ya know, one of the privileges of being in the manufacturing game is that
the customer can't "require" anything. You are perfectly welcome to vote
with your pocketbook, but you can't "require" anything.

Jim



Didn't this whole thread start Jim with you asking us our opinion on the
issue? And your privilege is only for those manufactures like yourself
that are selling ones and twos to a bunch of customers. Try doing
business with Wal-Mart and tell me how they can't require that you do
something.

Well, Jim is a grump when anyone disagrees with him, especially me..
Second, he is correct that the customer can vote with his feet - once
it becomes known on the chat groups that a manufacturer is a grumpass
who is not friendly after the sale...

The issue for Jim, is that the cost of a printed manual is a
significant fraction of the total price of his product.. And, what I
am reading betwen the lines is that he is hooked on the horns of a
dilemma where raising the price of his product will reduce sales
because his customers are looking for a cheap solution to their
needs, but continuing to supply a printed manual reduces his profit
margin below a sustainable level...
So he sees a solution as being either a CD or preferably a web site
with a down load PDF... But then, he laments that his customers are
'technotards' who aren't lining up in droves to save him money...
uummm,welcome to the real world, Jim

OK, I could on on for half of a thick book with trendline analysis,
similar product studies, etc., etc... But I don't see many of you as
being willing to read it...

The readers digest version is that Jim needs to change to a web based
site with download PDF files.... Make it clear in the sales literature
that the schematics, board photos, and the step by step instructions
are only available that way... For those who are total technotards,
also have a mechanism where they can call up InstyPrint, et. al. and
buy a manual shipped by express mail... Yes, this will impact your
sales, but not as much as a 15% or 20% increase in selling price....

denny

Much to the contrary. Our customers are techies who probably know the color
code by heart and certainly know which end of the soldering iron gets hot.
Otherwise they couldn't put the product together.

Jim

--
"If you think you can, or think you can't, you're right."
--Henry Ford



But then, he laments that his customers are
'technotards'