Being Eco Friendly with User Manuals

My wife and I recently bought a digital piano - a decent one - you know the kind that comes packed and needs someone competent to assemble as a piece of furniture.  It plays well, and does MIDI in and out as well as turn somersaults at the flick of a USB port. All that in addition to having a nice keyboard and music stand.  "Grand Piano" is really grand. All the features and functions seem to work brilliantly. I started reading the handbook - pictures - graphics - nice step by step instructions.  Now if only we could make handbooks like that - with all the options described in an easy to use way.  I feel inspired to make some improvements.

I read further through the manual.  I mean - how easy is it to connect a USB cable, and select from an easy to read menu.  Probably didn't even need the manual.  Nevertheless - I read further - .. Suddenly it caught my eye - There is a section in the manual with a "WARNING - Be careful not to open the lid with a small animal sitting on the piano", or something like that. "... or else the animal may be trapped inside".  Then very helpfully the manual goes on to say, as all good manuals do.. "If this happens, call our customer support line for advice on what to do".

Perhaps in my next improved version of the SCD5200 RTU manual.. reading "Be careful that there are no animals/critters waiting at the cabinet door before you open it, in case they get trapped inside".  Oops - I can just imagine the call to the well known call centre.  I rest comfortable in the knowledge that probably only a gecko could get trapped inside, and with no fans, and it being not too hot inside normally - comfy really - the gecko would survive long enough to be able to get out again.  Lets hope it has a security tag.
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Seriously, If you would like to get access to any of our product technology manuals in .PDF form, you should register at our Global Customer Support site.  Registration if free and open to bona fide users, contractors, and Invensys employees.  You can quickly navigate to the SCADA support manuals on the "OUR SUPPORT SERVICES" page link at the side of this post.



Original Photo - Gecko Glasanhanger - flickr - Greentarade - Modified for use under creative commons licence.

Keeping the lights on - Upgrade or Expand

Invensys supports a large number of SCADA systems products supporting the supervisory control of many large infrastructure projects. The products themselves have extended life-cycle support.  These products are supported through last time buys, re-design and other means of functional replacement to make sure end of life components are available to enable manufacture to proceed throughout the service life of the products. 


This post is a fictionalized story of the kind of issues that are considered when doing upgrades for systems installations. Any resemblance to a particular site, people or customer is purely coincidental and the story could be set anywhere and in reality might result in a totally different outcome.