Owner's Manual Format

RST Engineering wrote:
We've been absorbing costs for about five years and just can't afford
to do it any longer. Two choices. Increase price or decrease costs.

For those that require a manual in the airplane, it is cheaper for
you to print it out on your inkjet than for us to use a copy service.

Jim



Jim, and I say this from a publishing background and the owner of laser and
inkjet printers, Bull****.

I can not print off a copy with an ink-jet or even laser printer cheaper
than you can have them printed. If I can you really need to find another
printer because you are getting screwed. And after you find a printer that
isn't bending you over you still need to increase the price do so.

"Gig 601XL Builder" wrote:
RST Engineering wrote:
We've been absorbing costs for about five years and just can't afford
to do it any longer. Two choices. Increase price or decrease costs.

For those that require a manual in the airplane, it is cheaper for
you to print it out on your inkjet than for us to use a copy service.

Jim

Jim, and I say this from a publishing background and the owner of
laser and inkjet printers, Bull****.

I can not print off a copy with an ink-jet or even laser printer
cheaper than you can have them printed. If I can you really need to
find another printer because you are getting screwed. And after you
find a printer that isn't bending you over you still need to increase
the price do so.

A "copy service" isn't for oneses or twoses, you do a run. To do that
you have to anticipate the future market for your kits. Parts have to be
bulk ordered, circuit boards made. Its alot to ask of 2 people who
already have their @sses on the line and are trying to save you a few
bucks. Plus you have to store all of the above, printed materials
included...

Apparently you have no concept of what postage costs either. That gets
factored in when you add weight and still want to be competitive with
the same widget thats already put together...

And since he's providing the circuit diagrams in .pdf format, that
allows others to simply roll-their-own, with no need to buy anything
from RST at all...

There may be a middle option ... separate the operator's manual from
the installation / maint / troubleshooting / detailed / programming
guide or whatever you want to call it.

If a one page describes how to perform most functions (I have seen
'howto' lists and tree navigation diagrams work well) then THIS
becomes the operators manual. This would keep the spirit of the
requirement.

When I am flying I do not want to have a large manual or navigate a CD
to learn how to perform an operation. It is probable that if I am in
this situation (learning equipment whilst airborne) then I may have
other issues to deal with and I am just increasing my workload.
Scanning a tree diagram (sorry, operations manual) is an acceptable
workload and the sign of well designed equipment. Anything else is
either because (i) I am playing with details of a non-critical
component or activity and should probably stop (ii) I have failed to
be familiar with a critical operation / equipment - this is poor
planning / decision making and I should not be flying this
configuration or (iii) the equipment is not suitably designed for
cockpit operations. Jim - your equipment does not fall into category
(iii).

Construction, learning capabilities, detailed programming,
configuration &c. should be ground operations - PDF / CD / print the
sections that you need should all work well. I use this criteria for
purchasing equipment and in my own construction.

A one pager for operations would be great. I'd hate to see great
products suffer because of the need to have trees fly instead of
letting them continue to produce oxygen and fuel.

Best Regards
Steve

Because a lot of our customers are technotards.

Jim

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


"Richard Riley" wrote in message
...

Why bother with the CD? Just post PDFs on your website. Your cost
for the bandwidth of one customer downloading is cheaper than the cost
of duplicating, handling and shipping a CD (not that it's high either
way)

? They can build kit avionics but they can't open a pdf file and print
it (if they so desire)? I think having manuals on a company website is
a real bonus. CDs can get misplaced or lost in moves, etc. It's always
nice to know you can always go to the "manufacturer" via their website
and retrieve a lost manual quickly...


RST Engineering wrote:
Because a lot of our customers are technotards.

Jim


--
Scott
http://corbenflyer.tripod.com/
Gotta Fly or Gonna Die
Building RV-4 (Super Slow Build Version)

RST Engineering wrote:
Because a lot of our customers are technotards.


So they are going to have trouble printing out a copy on their inkjet
printer.

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

denny

Hi Jim I've built 3 of your kits (intercom + 2 headsets ) and having
the printed instructions on my workbench while building is absoltely
neccessary. I don't think that many people are going to drag their
computer out to the shop so they can reference a CD directly. However
it doesn't really mater if I have to print it myself and it would be a
good opourtunityfor you to add some extra content to the manual. I'm
thinking of some quality colour pictures illistrating the process.
One satisfied customers opinion.

"Richard Riley" wrote in message ...
On Tue, 4 Dec 2007 22:59:48 -0800, "RST Engineering"
wrote:

Because a lot of our customers are technotards.

Jim

1) If they can't download and print a PDF - are they going to be able
to print a PDF from the CD? I mean, most of the equipment is the same
- computer, PDF reader, printer. One you have to have a CD drive -
and everyone with a computer has one, I think that's a safe
assumption. The other, they have to have an internet connection - and
I think that's a safe assumption these days too.

2) Given the choice, I'd rather have the PDF on the website. I can't
keep track of a CD to save my life, there are stacks of them around
here. They get damaged. They get thrown out. They get lost. I can
always get back to RSTengineering.com.

But if you go to the work of putting it on CD, it's only a few minutes
work to put the same data on your server, so I suspect it's not going
to be an either/or choice.

I say chuck the printed manual, do CD and host.

YMMV

Another bonus of the web based solution is that you can keep it up to date...

I would LOVE to have a digital copy of the manuals to your products.
That was something that was not provided according to the webpage or the
manuals themselves, even though they clearly were .doc word documents.

You do it, I will buy one for the products of yours I already have.

I am already compiling a complete electronic maintenance and operating
manual for our plane if we ever have to repair it away from home. Carry
it all on a thumbdrive.

Dave

RST Engineering wrote:
Printing costs have been on a steady exponential increase, following right
along with energy costs associated with creating paper from trees, soybean
prices for ink, and all the rest of the process involved with creating paper
manuals.

On the other hand, the price of optical media (DVD and CDROM) is plummeting.
Anybody that has bought any computer electronic device recently soon
discovers that other than the single sheet "quick start" guide, all the rest
of the owner's manual is on CDROM.

I guess the real question is whether a 10-20% bump in the cost of an
aviation electronic product to provide a printed black and white product
manual versus 0% increase for a CDROM that can be done in full living color
is worth it.

(BTW, we can do ALL our manuals on a single CDROM, so you get much more
information on the whole product line than with a single manual.)

Jim