Better user manuals

[copper dog]

Everyone likes the value available in some Asian built electronic test equipment such as the Rigol line of oscilloscopes however everyone complains about the terrible instruction guides. Has anyone ever rewritten any of these guides to provide a more intelligible version? There a large number of very experienced engineers out there with a firm grasp of these devices who could supply excellent guides. They wouldn't even need to be extensive, just following the existing manual with slightly expanded descriptions of the various functions using proper grammar would be a great help. A bonus would be expanding slightly on some of the more obscure explanations found in a manual. I personally would help crowd fund something like that. If something like this has already been done I would appreciate a point in the right direction.


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[aargee]

It's been done with some gear, here's the manuals for a Baofeng UHF Amateur radio  http://www.miklor.com/uv5r/UV5R-Manuals.html it really needs a keen personal/community interest.
Having said that, it is a great idea.

[Matchless]

Have a look here (post 574) :https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/hantek-6022be-20mhz-usb-dso/574/

I have to agree with you, but most people never read the user manuals anyway!

[FrankenPC]

This is how sad the state of affairs is with Chinese user manuals...  I found an online copy of the Siglent SDS2000 series manual and was glossing through it and I was shocked to see that the text has been proofread.  The manual is nothing exceptional.  It's 10,000 miles away from an HP or Tektronix manual.  But the grammar and spelling is not bad. 

That's right.  I was impressed and amazed that they made an actual effort to proof their material.  That is unbelievably sad.

The manual: http://gigaplus.makeshop.jp/labros/pdf/SDS2000UserManual_V1.0.pdf

[copper dog]

I'm sorely tempted to try re-writing the Owon Oscilloscope manual I have just to see what kind of reception it would get.  (Yeah yeah I know its a crappy scope but it's one purchased often by hobbiests.) I wonder if there would be a way to crowd source something like this? A Wikipedia sort of thing where users supply the corrections to poorly written and obscure product manuals? A manual is posted and areas requiring better descriptions are highlighted for user input. The new procedures/descriptions are vetted and posted until a better one is submitted. I would suspect that, if it caught on, even the manufacturers would begin to use the 'corrected' versions of their own manuals hopefully making the site obsolete sometime in the future.


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