I have been working on documentation for the fucking Machine. There are plenty of details to finish but I have a good start on a manual. Any suggestions are welcome especially with respect to any areas that are difficult to understand. This is a preliminary manual and should not be used to assemble a machine. For example, the template for drilling is probably not to scale.The manual can be downloaded form the following URL
Please provide any feedback you can. I would like to know if the instructions seem like they could be followed to make this machine. A highly skilled craftsman could make the machine from the drawings and parts list alone but I need to provide detailed information for those who have less experience building machines so there is probably a lot of redundant and unnecessary information. Please try to consider this when criticizing the manual.
I am trying to figure out what should be included in kit, what is easy to obtain locally and what needs to be provided in the kit. Parts that need to be made or that are much cheaper when bought in quantity, should be in the kit. Stuff that you can get from Home Depot or from McMaster Carr with low shipping should not be in the kit. I also need to consider builders outside ot the US who might not have access to US suppliers. Again, all comments and criticisms are welcome.
The manual is a first draft so do not give up too soon 🙂 There are some hints and techniques that show up late in the manual.
Wanted to give you some feedback. I’ll start by saying I really appreciate the work you have put in here and your design sounds awesome. What follows will just be fairly blunt feedback; please don’t take offense. Hoping it will help. And, I recognize you indicated its a preliminary manual and should not be used to assemble the machine. I’m providing feedback as if it was a final manual including assemble since I am sure that is your end goal and feedback on what someone else sees as gaps would help as you move in that direction.
To preface, I am moderately technical person. Any tech speak in the guide will make more sense to me, but electrical isn’t my strong suit, though I know basics. I’ve built a fucking machine myself, though it was just a prototype and I am preparing to improve it. Just wanted you to know my knowledge level in advance.
* Your intro has a lot of superfluous information. This really only needs to be one paragraph. Describe current fucking machines on the market in one sentence. Then, describe how yours is different in one or two sentences. If you want to include a full history, dump it at the end in an appendix.
* Recommended Materials – Rename to ‘Materials/Parts’ and just list the specific materials required including quantity. Add a footnote to indicate which part are better 3D printed and onthe wood to describe the specific wood recommendations. You can then still go into more detail during the build steps. *Just found the part list all the way down on page sixteen. Notes on that down below in my comments. Still add footnotes instead of this recommended materials section.
* Base Board – Since there is not a material description, I was at a lose to what I was cutting to the specified size.
* Be nice if there was a picture of the completed machine with labels for each of the build sections you have created. In just looking at the bearing post, it’s tough to bring the whole picture together without that.
*the images next to the build sections should also be labeled so there is no question what belongs to what. The bearing post image is also next to the protruding arm. For someone that may have a harder time visualizing, this could be questionable.
* Every build step should have an image (you may already be planning this) and it would be awesome if the parts were slightly separated and then a completed image was also present. This would also be a good place to show the build step piece highlighted on the completed build image, maybe gray scale the whole image but the section that is being built. I am really having a hard time visualizing where the pieces are going to go or their purpose, especially with the steps missing images.
* Overall, I feel the old adage applies here, “show don’t tell”. There is a lot of telling with big fat paragraphs that could be significantly reduced with more images.
* Microcontroller board – There is a lot of explanation of what to do, but not what it does for the machine. For the electronics/electrical, it would be good to have what each parts main purpose is and where it usually comes from. Again, a place photos of the steps would be helpful. The diagram is nice, but photos of each connection and where its coming from would help those less savvy.
* “Drill a 1/4″ hole in the pipe cap being careful to center it. Squeeze the short length of PVC pipe on one end with pliers or a vise to distort it into an oval shape to allow the insertion of the RJ 11 socket.”
This is just another area where I can’t really follow without photos.
* Wow, just got to the part list. Put those at the top under the intro. No need for it to be at the bottom and need to be hunted. Why not host the file in a googledoc spreadsheet and link to it in the file. Keep the image, but also provide the link to the googledoc so the links in the part list are clickable.
* You mention 3D printing parts, but the actual parts are never mentioned and they are note noted in the part list.
Overall, I think you are on the right track, but without an actually step by step build and guide on interfacing with the machine, the average joe (your target audience) would never be able to follow this.
Wow!!! You put a lot of effort into your criticism. Much appreciated. The manual was definitely a rough draft although it might never make it beyond that stage without comments such as yours. Not sure when I will get time to finish the design (the new board with audio record and playback) but really hope to get it done this Spring. If so, I will make all the changes to the plan and improve the manual. I am really compulsive and would like to dive right in and follow your suggestions but this will not happen for a while especially since a lot has changed. I will post a blog entry when I have made any significant progress,
Thanks for the suggestions and please feel free to make any more. I am not one of those who can not handle criticism.