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Datasheet and manuals: paper or tablet?

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station240:
I just have an LCD monitor with a Raspberry PI literally bolted to the back of it.
Short HDMI and USB cables from the PI to the monitor, then plug the keyboard/mouse into the side of the monitor.

A touch screen monitor would be even better, but as if I ever find something like that.

Doctorandus_P:
One of the big advantages in datasheets in some electronic format is that they are searchable. And usually also have an index to quickly jump to (sub) chapters.

I find E-ink / unusable for datasheets.
First the processors are too slow, and combined with the slow update rate of the screen it makes searching through a datasheet a nuisance.

Datasheets are usually also in .PDF format (letter?) and they do not scale well to small screens. Especially when they have multiple columns with text intermixed with pictures, my E-book (Pocketbook Lux -something) can not reflow them properly.

My current setup for reading (and searching through) datasheets is my PC. I have a dual monitor setup (second hand HP-LP2465 monitors) and have one in portrait, and the other in landscape. With such a monitor you can view a wole page without scrolling and without glasses easily from a meter distance, so it's easy to peek while soldering etc.

I find a monitor in portrait mode perfect for anything with text. From viewing web pages, datasheets and writing software (I can have about 120 lines readable without scrolling). The other monitor in landscape mode is good for video, Pulseview / Sigrok, graphical applications such as FreeCAD & KiCad.

I do have some interest in a tablet for reading datasheets, but it would have to be pretty big (preferably 12" or bigger) and a resolution of 1920 x 1280 or more, and those cost more then I'm willing to spend on them. The reason I only find that size / resolution acceptable is because a whole A4 sized page must be readable without scrolling or re-formatting.

Moriambar:
Hi all,
I'm just answering generally.

I use my pc for work around 12 hours per day and my eyesight is not what it used to be. I feel the strain when I use my pc extensivley also for my electronics hobby, that's why I try and constrain myself on weekends for projects (laying out boards, using the arduino) and searches/buying components.
Usually in the lab I mainly use datasheet and some notes. Ofc when I have to use the arduino sometimes I have to use the pc too, but (as I told) I try and limit this to weekends.

Personally I feel that the pdf searchability is awesome but having two or three pages, possibily for different components, laying side by side is something that I could never do with electronics display (e-ink or lcd).

I also don't mind the sluggishness of e-ink since I'm not in a hurry: work=hurry, hobby=relax.

That's why I'm thinking of the e-ink megatablet

amishasingh:
I personally use kindle, but as an electronics engineer I never use the kindle for data sheets. Although I gave gave trail in the beginning  for this but my eyes were strained. Better to go on the large screen or as an enthusiastic paper print for data sheets is really a good option as I feel

AndrewNorman:
I personally have an old iPad that sits on the side of my bench permanently plugged in (it was retired due to speed and dying battery life). I have a DropBox account that has all my various datasheets sorted like I want them.

The combination of those two allows me to access the sheets as I need. It gives me a touch screen interface without taking up a huge amount of space.

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