Planning on buying a service manual soon for my 311B. What are the major pros and cons of getting a paper one vs getting one on CD? It seems like it'd be annoying to have to print something every time I went to do something, but on the other hand it would also suck to get an expensive paper manual all dirty and greasy from using it in the shop.
I prefer the computer version myself. Take an electrical problem, heater fan not working. I can print off the schematic. Once that's done I can use the computer PDF version to expand the diagram to look at the circuit that controls the heat fan motor, and using that I can map out those circuits on the paper print out with colored hi lite pens. Makes it easier when you get in the cab tracing those circuits. That's just one good use of the PDF version. I just find it better than the hard manual. But that's just me
paper its always sitting on the shelf easier to flip though and it always works and dont have to get the computer all greasy pdf can be cheaper and faster to get
I've been thinking about getting it on CD and printing it all out, that way I can keep a full hard copy at the shop, but I can also look at it at home and reprint pages as needed.
PDF you can search for a word or phrase that you thought you had read once before. Paper you can dog-ear it, stick your fingers in it and flip back and forth, put post-it notes in it, write all over it, do not need electricity to make it work.
That's what I've been doing. Our local print stop ladies love doing manuals for me, recently printed out 1800 pages for $125.00 and did it in a little over an hour.
I prefer PDF to paper for my machines. I keep the PDFs in my drop box. If I'm working on something, I'll print out the pages I need and throw them away when I'm done.
I much prefer PDF's...can print what you need, when you need it....& the ability to search for word or phrase is invaluable.
Electronic but not the biggest fan of pdfs...kind of aggravating to use sometimes Electronic manuals don’t get greasy and a laptop is suprisingly durable in a shop environment...mine has survived three hard years of service in one and before that a field tech had it
One advatage not mentioned or I just missed it is the space needed to store the paper manuals. At least some of the latest ones for some Cat Equipment, A full set for something like a 988H could take up a foot of shelf space were having the same information on a DVD would take up about 1/4 inch and if you have a laptop with enough memory you can carry it with you in the service truck with no extra space needed. That said I did like having a paper copy to flip through pages at times while taking a break sometime you find things you might otherwise have missed. Then again the "Find" option can be handy with a digital version. At least with some of the Cat manuals where they number wires you can just type in say "734" and it will walk you through every place the "734" wire goes to help you figure out which plug or sender it is connected to on the machine. Well I'm not sure why but while viewing a 988H wiring diagram in SIS I could not get the search to work, but if I downloaded it and opened in Adobe it works just fine. Next thing is I looked for fun to see where that arbitrary wire number 734 showed up and wouldn't you know there is only one such wire in that whole schematic! And it is a short wire in the STIC control for the neutral switch!
Kshansen Like you said I find that downloading the schematic and opening in Adobe is the best method. Using the in SIS view function kind of sucks
I always download schematics from SIS to the computer then use the Adobe search function if need be. I'm so used to pdf or online manuals by now that the only time I ever use a book is when for some reason there's no power.
I have downloaded PDF manuals to my phone (it has the micro SD card for space) and I am able to search for things easily. However it does get a little difficult to keep context trying to read and refer to a diagram with a small screen. My son and I just bought a John Deere 690E-LC so I plan on buying the PDF manuals and printing them out as well as putting them on my phone. That way we have the best of both worlds...
I have tried manuals on the phone but it just makes me angry and want to throw the phone and I don't want to do that because I like the phone for other reasons. My colleague uses a tablet instead. Can any of you suggest a particular model of tablet (Android) that might be nice? Larger is better, I think.
My wife has a Sony Xperia Z4 tablet (10" screen) and I'm very impressed with it.