Transliterating Japanese or Chinese Datasheets into English

[jonovid]

You have to see just how many components are now Exclusive to Asia. so No English datasheets are made. your comments please, so is a translated datasheet trustworthy? or do you need both on the one PDF. for cross checking? And also with a new PDF you can add more data, if you have Lab tested the component your self. here is my 1st sample of transliterating Japanese PDF datasheet into a English datasheet,  its a Japanese PDF datasheet for the cheap Solar Garden Driver chip YX8018 that is now in English. a simple PDF transliterating test. using text swapping with a translating website . it all started with first having a datasheet Not in English.  but unable to find an online translation of the same PDF datasheet,    so using the NON English datasheet I had. Did the work Myself. 
using a text to text translating website.  then added the three parts the Text, Tadle box's & embedded images into a all New PDF datasheet.
sample of work  3 images & one PDF.
text of translation before making the new PDF
Japanese PDF datasheet for Solar Garden Driver  YX8018
Now in English. PDF datasheet for Solar Garden Driver  YX8018
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwZTKiltzKYzcE9qYUdkVUgxX2c/view?usp=sharing

[Audioguru]

The translation for the solar garden light driver IC is awful. Why use this IC when there are other solar garden light driver ICs with excellent English.
Here is one of them:

[edavid]

The translation for the solar garden light driver IC is awful. Why use this IC when there are other solar garden light driver ICs with excellent English.
Here is one of them:

PR4403 seems expensive ($0.50) and hard to find.  Do you have a good source?

YX8018 and QX5252 are much cheaper ($0.05), and readily available on eBay and Aliexpress.

[sleemanj]

Note that transliteration and translation are two different things.  What you are doing is translation.

To the subject, usually I can get by with shoving a PDF into google docs and having it translate, especially if I'm familiar with the type of product and therefore know what sort of numbers and things might be expected.

[_Andrew_]

Something that does make translation of Chinese, Japanese ect is that there is no direct translation so it is reliant on interpretation.

This is often why cheep products literature is often so bad as the manufacturer has skipped on the cost of using a technical interpreter.

[jonovid]

The translation for the solar garden light driver IC is awful. Why use this IC when there are other solar garden light driver ICs with excellent English.
Here is one of them:

   Note that transliteration and translation are two different things.  What you are doing is translation.

Something that does make translation of Chinese, Japanese ect is that there is no direct translation so it is reliant on interpretation.

This is often why cheep products literature is often so bad as the manufacturer has skipped on the cost of using a technical interpreter.

first time learning experience, picked the YX8018 as it looked so easy with just 4 pins. 
as others like 40 pin microcontroller,s look hard to me,    a reason for everything   

Why I did this?  with most of my teardowns I then go looking for the manufacturer's datasheet to see if I can salvage the components for re-use

[fanOfeeDIY]

Hi

This datasheet for YX8018 is definitely Japanese and not Chinese.

I am Japanese and only could use or understand Japanese and English.

Based on my experience, I never had a good translation from any kind of computer translation such as google translate between Japanese and English.
I can not read Chinese, so I use Google translate often from Chinese to English and not Chinese to Japanese since the latter never able have reasonable translation even Japanese is my mother language.

For my personal point of view, if the company do not provide English documentation, forget about it.


Japanese grammar have no similarity with English or Chinese so it should be the company to provide English documentation if they are serous about selling the product in the market.

[jonovid]

I made up a second YX8018 PDF Datasheet and swapped out the bad Transliterating added a second PDF to the first. here is a link to it  https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwZTKiltzKYzTDJQYjdQMzhNVEU/view?usp=sharing  i have a number of used YX8018 to test in the search for a better emergency flashlight circuits  but do not have any type PR4403

[fanOfeeDIY]

Great translation blueskull 

Now my translation of the datasheet's first paragraph:

Summary:
YX8019 can drive LEDs (implied plural) stably with single or two 1.25V rechargeable battery cells. Using batteries charged from energy harvested with a solar cell, it lights LEDs (implied plural) during the night and turns off during the day automatically.

Special features:

"??" is frequently used in many brochures and data sheet in Japan,
Commonly translated as "distinctive feature".
It has more similar nuance as "selling point" in English. 

High efficiency: 80~90%
Minimal components: only one inductor

The company wants to imply "It requires adding only one inductor to use this component".

Low battery voltage protection
Adjusts current using inductor (SMPS implied?)

This is the problem of Japanese grammar that "it is possible" is missing in the original sentence, so it would be:
"Possible to adjust current by inductor"

Package: TO-94

Great thread jonovid!

[tautech]

I've found Google Translate to be quite good for Chinese to English although results can be a little Chinglish (sorry blueskull) and need some correction for mainly grammar.
Some of the early Siglent manuals I'm sure Siglent used a proxy server to access Google Translate as their manuals used to be quite bad.

I've also found products that have not be destined for western markets that documentation was only in Chinese and while many technical specs use the same units as the west you can sort of work out what you want to know then Google fills in the bits that look like gobbly goock (to me).
A buddy used to swear by Babelfish for translation needs but Google Translate is the one for me. 

[jonovid]

Now have a New PDF ,of the Chinese Dual Digital DC 100V 10A Panel Meter Blue & Red LED in English. no pcb schematic or datasheet for the 01NQ402  ic. as I did not completely tear down the Chinese Panel Meter, but do have pin-outs and did run some tests to see how low the Vcc can go. its 3.98V . Update- because of a typeo error I have reposted the PDF.  reads as follows  3 pin Measuring  4 to 30V . on the PDF 
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwZTKiltzKYzTTN0YzB2RjYybGc/view?usp=sharing

[tooki]

As someone who worked for years doing technical writing and technical translation: A good translation needs to be created by a translator whose native language is the target language. (I am a native English speaker, and speak German at near-native level, but nonetheless I avoid doing translations into German, and if I do, only under the condition that a native German speaker proofread it afterward.)

The sample translations shown here clearly are not translated by native speakers (or even moderately skilled non-native speakers). I don't mean to be rude in any way, jonovid, but your English writing skills simply aren't good enough at this point to be attempting to do translations. (The English in your forum posts themselves is often extremely difficult to understand, with bizarre punctuation and capitalization, and unclear "flow".)

[tooki]

Note that transliteration and translation are two different things.

Absolutely.

What you are doing is translation.

Not so much! As a professional technical writer/translator, this is practically a textbook example of transliteration.

[sleemanj]

What you are doing is translation.

Not so much! As a professional technical writer/translator, this is practically a textbook example of transliteration.

Err, no, it's not.  Transliteration is effectively a character set or writing system transformation.  It does not in any way convey meaning.

The second you take meaning into account you have translated, not transliterated.

To steal an example from Wikipedia

  Greek: [characters that can't be represented because this forum doesn't handle utf-8]
  English Transliteration (characters): Eleutheria
  English Translation (meanings): Freedom
  English Transcription (sounds): Eleftheria

As you can see, if you provided a Transliterated greek document to an english speaker, they would be no better off.

Of course, the fact that translations are bad, doesn't make them transliterations, it just makes them bad translations.

[JacquesBBB]

Totally agree.

Transliteration is used when the alphabet is different. Like russian, greek, for libraries for example, in order to be able to type the title of a book.

There is no translation. Just writing the word in the other alphabet.

[jonovid]

The English in your forum posts themselves is often extremely difficult to understand, with bizarre punctuation and capitalization, and unclear "flow".

  some people with disability may have very specific need to use a computer for all communications. not all software will work with all text or app,s  the assembly of all text posted on the internet here is very time consuming. like programming a computer, so likewise the transliterating of datasheets into english shown here as PDF is for my own use. its also posted as an example. if you can do better then do so. I will be the first to grab a copy of your work if its free.