Instruction Manual
 

How many would prefer to have the instruction manual that comes inside the Kit be on a CD rather than printed?

The pix would be in color, therefore better than the B & W printed manual, and of course it would take up far less room.

Of course, the only way to take the manual to the track would be with your netbook or laptop.

We could sell a printed version as an option.

We've been able to build RC cars with black and white manuals for many years, we will continue to do so. A laptop with an instruction manual and dirty fingers is not as handy as a couple of ordinary sheets of paper that don't mind getting greasy.

and not everybody has a laptop =)

Agree with it,

too much hightech does not give advantages than the good old cellulose.

So please be ortodox.... Paper Manual :)

the tipical manual...

bacause the reasons that was said:)

I just put this up on RCTech in response to a post there, and though it might pertain here. I do want lots of comment from all, not just the Family.

We do the printed manual as a succession of Word documents, one for each bag. The main reason we do it that way is to keep the file size small so the comp can more easily manipulate the pix & arrows. If you keep it all one document, by the time you get to Bag D the comp takes a second or two every time you hit "save," and you do that with every change/addition. So, for the Kit manual, we will send the printer 12 Word documents.

That's what we would put on the CD -- 12 Word documents, one for each bag, the Tuning Section, etc.

B.T.W., Paul is completely re-writing the Tuning Section, adding many things and revising most of the rest. It will be much larger and far more comprehensive, full of pro building and set-up stuph.

I'm sort of surprised at the relative lack of comments to this question. I expected/hoped for much discussion, including from non-Family people. I think manuals on CD are the thing of the future.

Printed! No CD! Old school!!! :thumbsup:

Printed for the manual...no doubt...I do have a laptop, but desk/worktop space and dirt...oil/grease...combined with laptop can be an issue...paper everytime!

Being given it on CD feels like the cheap option to me, modern maybe, and I understand saving cost for you guys as well...but I don't carry a laptop around to clubs/races, but I do carry the paper manual around with me everywhere...might not use it much, but it's that moment of desparation/highest stress that you want it to hand the most!

Feels like higher quality / better value, and infinately more convenient!!!

Sounds as though your printing them yourselves?

You mould in large batches, can't you print in the same way and get it done by a print shop...there are loads about resulting in really competitive pricing these days?

I know XF is only a relatively small business, but in my experience it proves to be much cheaper overall and less hastle than running a laser printer, the materials and consumables and your time for printing anything more than 10's of anything! Spend more time developing than printing....it's much more fun for you and us :thumbsup:

Or is the cost actually not that low?

Splitted manual - good for internet, for print or general search (as I do sometimes for some drivers to help with their cars) - definitely not.
Schumacher has it this way and honestly I hate it.

Definitely also offer whole manual in one file for download as it's easier to print and work with.

Electronic form vs paper - it's the same with books. You can get them also in electronic form it's just not the same, but it's true that you can print it yourself.
Another thing is that there are still quite many people that don't bring their laptops/netbooks to race.

So only electronic manual is really thing of future (and will spread when eletronic paper will be affordable for everyone).

Yeap, if the manual will be possible to print, its not a big deal, than E-form is also good.
Anyway upload on the official website should be OK, or maybe here in the X6 topic.
It will be great to get the re- writted Tuning Section here.
Maybe to complet it regarding the setup of the front of the car is an advantage.
For beginners easier....some explanation of the shock position change, anti roll bar thickness reaction, wing position, wing shape, roll center adjusting etc. etc. etc......lot of work
something like the Hudy setup book is....but not a Bible:bored:

thanx

ps. the X6sq is my first E-buggy, but its unbelivable, how reacts in case of change the setup:thumbsup:

Im lovin it!!!!!!!!!

I don't have an x factory car, but I think both would be nice, a hard copy for when your wrenching and have an e version on you computer so you can easyly look up part numbers etc, and have it so you can type comments for future referance

WE have never printed manuals ourselves -- always use a local print shop. Switched about 18 months ago to a new, very good and efficient place. Their first work was the 60 & Squared manuals and box labels.

There are a number of things we never thought we would become when we started this business, and one of them was to become a publisher! We print thousands of pages with every order to get best pricing.

Even so, the printed manual will be the fourth most costly item in the box...

Yes, we are trying to save money, to earn a decent profit with the lowest possible retail price. CD manuals will save a bunch, and we know the images will be better there.

Chazz,

Personally, i prefer to read the information on paper, even at work, when i have to comment on documents i will always print it off and go through it with my red pen rather than add the comments on screen, i just find it easier and i don't miss where i am up to when i get distracted. Having said that, having a file on the computer is very handy if you need to search for something or zoom in on a diagram.

So for me, by all means send us a CD, but i will print off my own manual for the build and to have trackside.

I do like the innovative thinking though, people can't fault you for your efforts :thumbsup:

I guess even a cd and have a print option so you could print it off in black and white and toss it in a duotag or binder, just so you can have a trackside copy (even though I barely lookat my printed version for any of my cars) and look it up online, I spend more time on the manufactures website version then my printed version, but both are nice

If it lowers retail price, not too bothered about your profits lol (sorry Chazz;)) then put neither in, just put a web address in with a simple download for viewing or printing, giving the consumer the option. That way we all save, as does the enviroment! :thumbsup:

And Scooby, you've brought up something else to consider. We're not totally through with the manual as I write. The words are all written and the pix all taken and PhotoChopped so now we are integrating pix into words -- about half done as I write this -- and for the first time we are beginning to see how long the manual will really be.

80 - 85 pages!!!!!

That's an 8 1/2" X 11" book about 1 1/2" thick weighing over a pound.

Now do you want to lug it around everywhere? Not to mention the amount of paper.

Paul has written an encyclopedia of a Tuning Section -- 12 pages telling you exactly how a pro sets up his car, why he makes each adjustment, and what you can expect from each one.

We think most people take the manual to the track for the tuning and set-up stuff in the back. Most people, having built the car at home, don't need the manual to replace a broken caster block.

Therefore, the CD in the box is used at home. We are thinking of making the Tuning Section and parts list a separate book and selling just that for $6.99 so you could take what you need to the track. We would also sell the full manual with Tuning Section, and the full manual would be on the web site so you can download and/or print for free.

Those who want the full printed manual with their Kits would buy both the Kit and the manual.

This thing is going to the printer Monday morning, and the way your comments are running so far, we plan to put the full manual in every Kit. Unless a lot of people post this weekend that we should save the forest, it's full blast with the printed books. You get to lug them around. I won't...

so you would have to buy the kit and then buy the manual?

.

If you want a printed manual right when you open the box, yes. The Kit would come with a CD in it with all the instructions and the Tuning Section too.

You could print what you want from your CD. Each part of the manual is its own Word document, so you could print the whole thing, or sections, or individual pages.

Or, you could download and print what you want from our web site.

It's not like we don't want you to have a printed manual. If you are familiar with X Factory manuals, you know they take you through the build as though Paul and I were standing right there with you. This is the biggest Kit we've made so far, and the manual is massive.

As with so many things we have done, this is different, and I think everybody agrees it's the way of the future. The question is: are we ready for it now?

chazz
in my opinion for what its worth, if you have it online somone somewhere will make it public or share it

i would produce a basic build manual, (black and white paper) then offer the colour version set up etc as a download for free. ( after all the owner has bought your product and is now a family member, is it fair for them to pay out for the info to run it?

i have built many kits and never had a "online cd/manual" i find the ones that come with pc software etc a royal pain in the arse to read, go back to another step etc.

i believe xray have the best manuals and downloads have a look here http://www.teamxray.com/teamxray/new...d942c48172b6b7

just my thoughts

when i pay money for a kit, a conversion of a kit or whatever, i expect to see a printed manual inside. i would not be particularly pleased if i bought a kit that had a cd in there so i would have to print the manual out.

i can understand, although may not appreciate, having to buy the tuning book for example but i would expect to see some hints and tips in the build manual to get going with.

hi Chazz

regarding the Tuning Section I think it will be much better to have it free of charge downloadable from the X Factory site.
I know guys the profit is soo important, but come on,,,to pay for the pro guys tuning experiences????
We all- you call us Family- advertize the X Factory company around the world free of charge, so to kick the a...es of other guys uses other products,,, it will be much more helpfull.

ps. and be sure, in the age of hightech somebody will upload the Tuning Section on the net,,, so...

sorry for critique

Peter

Guys, Chazz'z "proposal" for the future is to have the manual on CD included in "future" kits, his comment I have highlighted here (above) is what IS happening for the new X6 Sq EC kits, the people have all said at present they still prefer a printed manual and rest assured the UK kits that are leaving the USA for us this weekend WILL have a full printed manual inside each and every one of them when you all get them.

The CD and download idea is somthing they are considering for the future as having a laptop with you at the track increases in popularity (with more and more people taking their laptops now for things like keeping an eye on the results as they are running etc already)

cd and download is a good idea in my mind, as I always loose the printed ones, and end up searching the net for dowloadable anyways. That way I can print them myself any quality I like.

Sometimes we come up with ideas for the oddest reasons. The CD idea occurred because the printer won't have manuals ready until the end of next week, but we can have CDs tomorrow.

When we started thinking about costs (and trees) we said, "Wow!" So then it was, "What the hey. Let's see if the Family really wants that massive paper book or if they might prefer the CD." We're not sure you've ever had that option before.

Darren is correct: Because of your response, we continue to plan to put a gigantic printed manual, with the full 12-page Tuning Section and a complete list of the parts numbers for every X Factory and AE part into every Kit.

Some of you sound quite unhappy, and the opposite should be true. At X Factory, we value your input. When we have a question or a proposal, we put it out there for Family comments and try to do as you wish.

Thanks for your help with this. You defo want paper and ink, and that's what you will have.

In fact, we PhotoChopped all the color pix into excellent B & W pix, changing backgrounds, getting rid of some glare, etc so these B & W pix will be, by far, the best we've ever printed. The result is that the manual exists now only in B & W. We will have to go through the entire thing and one-by-one replace all the Chopped B & W with the original color pix to put it on the site. That will not be done tomorrow...

Thanks for confirming the situation for everyone Chazz :thumbsup:

Chazz manual on CDs is definitely good idea, it's simply not the right time, but I belive we will see manuals distributed this way very soon.

As I'm thinking about it - if someone has laptop it's highly probable that he has also internet, so he can download it. CD's have one big flaw - they can be easily damaged. I would download all files to my PC from CD anyway.

Exactly, Nessie, you only need the CD once, then it's on your comp and all is good. We actually thought about putting it on the web and providing no manual of any sort in the Kit. Let everybody get it and download/print out what they want.

Bad plan...

We constantly struggle with ideas. Everybody has lots of ideas -- ideas are a dime a dozen. What counts is separating the good one from the zillions of not-so-good ones, then actually doing the good one in a way people want.

Therefore X Factory can not have a monopoly on ideas and usually won't know which is the good one. We have no more ideas than anyone else, and no more clue of which is the good one than anyone else.

That's where The Family comes in. The Family contributes ideas constantly. We come up with ideas too, and often that is the result of Family input. We select what we think are the best ones, then run them by you and try to listen. We think that makes X Factory the car you want to drive.

And that's what this CD/paper question is all about. We faced a problem and came up with a possible solution. We ran that idea past the Family and are accepting your input. Collectively you know more than we ever will.

Show me another company which thinks that way...

As a compromise if you have managed to improve the image quality how about printing in A5 instead, that would reduce the cost and still provide people with a manual. As like most of the guys here i would be lost without a manual, although it is a bit wasteful as i only ever use them for the build then they go in a pile somewhere. A bit like a composting history of car ownership, i believe i have a thundershot manual at the bottom of the pile last time i looked...

Maybe having splitted manual into build part and tuning part directly in the kit would be good idea.
You won't have to bring whole manual to track, just part of it.

Not a bad idea, Nessie. It means we have to have two manual bins on the Kit production line.

The manual bin is big and cumbersome compared to the bag bins.
Less bins in general = better.

But if the Family thinks it's better...


If we can do it at no additional cost, we'll look at it. Remember it makes an extra stitching operation at the print shop, and they will likely charge for that.


Strange, Pro4nut, Paul's very first R/C car was a Thundershot, and I think he still has the manual!

Well, you said that you'll might sell both sections separately, this will help you do so, otherwise you have full manual, build manual and tuning manual to make and that would probably cost even more.

It's Here
 

Well it's up on the web site, in full color -- all 86 pages! Check it out in the Tech Section. Paul's put a link right on the front page. You can look at it all, download all or any part to your comp, or print out all or any part.

On another forum, the first comment was about Paul's Race Prep and Tuning sections. The guy said that, although he does not have an X-Car, he wants those sections, because they apply to any car. I said that if enough people want it, we would print them as a separate book to sell for about $6.99.

We want to get an idea of how many, if any, to print. So who wants that book?

WANDERFUL!!!!

The best manual incl. TS ever seen.

Great great job.

Thanx X Factory:thumbsup:

Thanks for the props Peter.

Cool manual! I especially liked the arrows for Paul and his car :D

The tuning sections gave me a couple of ideas for stuff to try too.

This is one more reason why I like my X6. That and that you can chat to the guy who develops it to bounce ideas and get explanations!

Oh yeah and it goes like stink :thumbsup:



Edit: Just reread and sound like a total fanboy. Not bad considering I hated the car with a vengeance for the first 3-4 races I ran it :lol:

Indeed,

in comparison with the Hudy Bible, the TS feels more made by feedbacks of the X pro drivers.
Simply says, easy to read to understand the philosophy to feel the phenomenons and easy to apply the changes.

This day is in charge of X Factory:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

Chazz - What are you doing up at this time, it must be like 5am your time?

Paul - The TS is really great, nice one Boss!

What do I do for a living, Dan? I must be crazy...

You, on the other hand, have a "civilized" job. LOL