Vitaliy wrote:
> This is how it plugs in (the pic shows the first prototype board w/o
> the red test points):
>
> http://tinyurl.com/qc6eao
>
> You suggested adding instructions on how to plug it in, and including
> a photograph (top view?). Would that be sufficient?

No.  Since the main unit has a front panel, I assume it also normally has a
box around it.  There are probably more things the average idiot can screw
up in opening the box, plugging in the board, possibly verifying operation,
and closing the box again than you think.  The instructions should explain
exactly which screws to undo, order to do things in, orientation of the
module in words without relying on the picture, how to close the box again,
and how to verify the PIM is installed right and working.  You have to
include things like telling people to disconnect power before opening the
box, and perhaps how to avoid zapping the sensitive electronics inside once
it's open.  There is a lot more to say than you think.  I expect this would
be about a page, including a 1/4 page picture that shows a closeup of the
PIM properly installed.

> I assume you mean inkject printers? I'd think the printer driver
> would be smart enough to know that black is black, even if blue is
> present.

You may think that, but that doesn't make it correct.  I've seen printers
slow down by a factor of 3 on any page that contained color.  That would
also cause the black to be muddy because it was now created by mixing C, M,
and Y instead of using black.  Yes, you could get around this when printing,
but you'd have to think about it ahead of time and not do the default thing.
The mostly likely result is someone just prints it normally, then mutters to
themselves "why did these ---holes have to use color!!?".

One of my customers leases their office laser printer.  They get charged per
page.  The cost of a page with color on it is 60 times (yes, sixty) more
than a black and white page.  Despite repeated pleas to only use color when
you need it and to make B+W your default, some people just won't do it.  The
other day the operations guy was mentioning to me how he gets pissed off
when someone prints a email message in color, with only the heading or email
address in color and the rest in black.  It would have been just as readable
in B+W, but some bozos either don't care or think it's cool to see the
heading in color.

If people ever print your manaul on a laser printer, there is a good chance
that it will be in B+W.  That could be either because the office laser
printer is B+W only, as many are, or because they used the cheaper default
of B+W because they figured (correctly in my opinion), that anything called
a manual or datasheet should be just as readable in B+W.

In your case I would use color for the photographs only.  No real
information will be lost if they get printed or otherwise viewed in B+W.  If
you want to mark some protocol commands as special, do it with normal black
markings, like bold font, a asterisk, arrow, in a separate section, etc.
However, in all cases you must explain what the extra marking means and why
someone might care about the distinction.


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