Do you read the instructions?

[Vacceo]

Different manufacturers typically give the same function different names (CEC is a good example), so taking a look beforehand helps a lot. Diagrams of what goes where also help.

 

[TSB]

no, unless I can't figure something out or am very bored

 

[mhardy6647]

I can feel my IQ drop with every page of most consumer electronics manuals as I "read" them. I use the word read in the most abstract sense of the word, since the manuals today are typically graphic novels -- and even more abstruse, at best.

Oh, yah -- I'm an old guy, all righty.

(as an aside: Isn't it ironic to see ol' Clint holdin' a hipster brewski in that image?)

I am an empiricist and inveterate button pusher (yes, to a fault).

The Difference

xkcd.com

 

[mhardy6647]

Two ancillary comments, if I may

1) Anyone who's been perusing ASR for more than a week or so should be able to devise an experimental protocol to test the scientist's hypothesis in the XKCD cartoon above.

2) Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance* left one durable lesson with me. Pirsig's narrator goes off on a diatribe about instruction manuals. Based, presumably on his own experience, he muses any company serious about its products would never waste the time of their "good" engineers with the low-value task of writing the instruction manual. Rather, the biggest waste of space, goldbricking engineer on the payroll gets that task.

Come to think of it -- I did actually write the manual (more to the point, a series of protocols) for a turnkey glycoprotein analytical workstation that was developed under the aegis of my first RFT employer 'way back in the very early 1990s. The manual was pretty good, though, if I do say so myself.

________________
* It was required reading for a molecular biology laboratory class when I was an UG. Why, yes, the professor was insane (or, at the least, very, very maladjusted) -- but that's another story for another time. Not the worst book I've ever read, but it's probably on the spectrum, so to speak. Intro to philosophy, the hard way.

 

[JSmith]

I always read the instructions with anticipation... but they're mostly disappointing, lacking detail or generally or pointless.


JSmith

 

[mhardy6647]

Couple of randomly chosen pages. Names withheld to protect the guilty.

 

[mhardy6647]

In their glory years (pre-Harman), Crown International (Elkhart, Indiana) produced truly wry and entertaining instruction manuals.
"Built Missionary Tough"

I have a DUAL 1019 record player (from the days when United Audio was the US importer/distributor for DUAL products) that has some fun baked into its manual.



File this under Record Player Party Tricks.

 

[JSmith]

JSmith

 

[egellings]

When all else fails, read the pustructions!

 

[mglobe]

I mostly look at the pictures.

 

[Peluvius]

JSmith

Everyone knows if you fart into your hat it should be facing up.....how silly.

 

[G|force]

In their glory years (pre-Harman), Crown International (Elkhart, Indiana) produced truly wry and entertaining instruction manuals

In those days producing a literate and informative user manual meant the busy folks working in Indiana on real problems with touring companies had it covered.

They made 136 page manuals in English and Spanish for Macro Reference and Studio Reference models with carefully arranged sentences, graphs and examples so you won't have a need to ask. It is in the manual. By gone era.

 

[Berwhale]

I often download instructions before a purchase and almost always before an item is delivered. It saves time once the item arrives and the PDFs are easy to locate on my NAS at a later date.

 

[G|force]

Oh I believe those Macro Reference and Studio Reference amplifiers are the most over blown rated power ratings, 700- 800WPC 8 ohm stereo but I used them.
Open one up, it is mostly air upstairs and downstairs in those 5 space tall boxes with apologies to the power supplies. Puff. Low distortion though.

 

[mhardy6647]

I'm actually referring to the D-150/IC-150 days. Those components (and their ilk) had amusing yet impressively thorough manuals.
To wit, the following discussion of the panorama control found in the IC-150 preamp manual:
(source: https://www.hifiengine.com/manual_library/crown/ic-150.shtml)

 

[G|force]

@mhardy6647 thanks for that shot, saved.
The helpful folks gave a basic mixing class in the manual for a power amplifier. Mic and pan this, mic and pan that. Holistic. ::thumbsup::

 

[RayDunzl]

This might be the most recent manual I've read closely:

https://tbss.us/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/SGS-1-35-POH.pdf

For the white one below I bought last year...

:

I'll have to read it some more, as its 42nd Annual Inspection is due as of 8/31/22, and I'll be there to do some of the work of disassembly/lubrication/reassembly, since the person who will likely sign it off is 83 years old.


FAA Regulations:

14 CFR § 91.409 - Inspections.

§ 91.409 Inspections.

(a) Except as provided in paragraph (c) of this section, no person may operate an aircraft unless, within the preceding 12 calendar months, it has had -

(1) An annual inspection in accordance with part 43 of this chapter and has been approved for return to service by a person authorized by § 43.7 of this chapter; or

(2) An inspection for the issuance of an airworthiness certificate in accordance with part 21 of this chapter.

No inspection performed under paragraph (b) of this section may be substituted for any inspection required by this paragraph unless it is performed by a person authorized to perform annual inspections and is entered as an “annual” inspection in the required maintenance records.

 

[G|force]

Scuba and aircraft, one better bone up on the instructions.