Instruction Manual

[Darren Boyle]

Originally Posted by YoungChazz

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...

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)

[grelland]

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.

[YoungChazz]

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...

[Darren Boyle]

Thanks for confirming the situation for everyone Chazz

[lochness42]

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.

[YoungChazz]

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...

[pro4nut]

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...

[lochness42]

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.

[YoungChazz]

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!

[lochness42]

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.

[YoungChazz]

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?

[RS Concept]

WANDERFUL!!!!

The best manual incl. TS ever seen.

Great great job.

Thanx X Factory

[YoungChazz]

Thanks for the props Peter.

[sparrow.2]

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

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



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

[RS Concept]

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

[super__dan]

Originally Posted by YoungChazz

Thanks for the props Peter.

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!

[YoungChazz]

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

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