Question

In article , snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com (known to some as Myauk) scribed...

I will freely admit to being biased because I've been spoiled by the excellent service manuals put out by Matsushita (Panasonic and Technics names), the 'old' Tektronix, and others.

With that said, I expect the following from ANY electrical or electronic equipment service manual, no matter if it's for consumer electronics or high-end industrial test gear.

--A FULL set of detailed schematics, PC board layouts, and parts lists, including cross-references to generic components for any house- numbered parts.

--A WELL-WRITTEN section for 'Theory of Operation,' and at least a set of troubleshooting flowcharts if not detailed troubleshooting guides.

--Readily available at a fair price (as in you don't have to be a super-service center for a specific manufacturer to buy the thing). A truly high-quality service manual can run anywhere from $35 to $250, and it had bloody well better be a literary work of art at the higher price tiers.

Unfortunately, with the current attitudes of "instant gratification" and "don't-repair-it-throw-it-out" that are infecting the entire electronics industry, I doubt we'll ever see high-quality service documentation again outside of military hardware.

Keep the peace(es).

Thank you for your comments Dr. Anton

Anybody else??

Regards

Dr. Ant> In article ,

It depends a lot on the manufacturer. Many modern service manuals for DVD players, have little more than a block diagram, and some virtually unreadable schematics. Others, such as Sony and even Daewoo, have good schematics, layout diagrams, IC internals and pinouts, and use of internal diagnostics notes. The days of " theory of operation " notes are long gone, except perhaps with the likes of Bose, whose audio equipment manuals still contain detailed descriptions of how the circuitry works. From a commercial point of view, I tend to find these days that unless a problem on a DVD player is a known one, or an obvious 10 minute fix like a power supply cap, or a laser that's actually worth changing for its cost, then the things are not worth fixing, so what's in the service manual is largely immaterial.

Can I ask that when you reply to replies, that you don't top post please ? It works ok with e-mails where it's one on one, and each of you knows what the other is replying to, but not so well on usenet, where a thread needs to be followed in a logical order by many individuals. In this case, it's much better that the new comments follow the last ones. A reply can always be shortened by removing all of the replies above about say 3 up. Thanks.

Arfa

I expect they'll be cut down to just the simplest fixes in future.

...

I do not understand what you are saying.

Can you explain more??

Excellent Homy, thanks ! That's a perfect description. Does that help you Myauk ? It's not that you are doing anything "wrong" by top posting - it's just that it's against the common convention, and can make for difficult following of a thread. If a thread starts getting unmanageably long, and nothing more than say three posts back has got any relevance to what you want to comment on, you can just cut them off the top of your reply. If anyone really wants to know what was said prior to that, they can always move back up the thread, and pick a post, knowing that as they scroll down it, the entries to that post will be getting newer. Does that make sense ?

Arfa