Maintenance and... Maintenance??? (Slight rant)

[Brulti 177]

Hello,

 

This will be a bit of a rant because, well, I think it deserves it because it was quite frustrating looking for resources that should have been more easily findable.

 

I've had my UM3E for about nine months now, and, after a host of troubles and trying out solutions given through the forums (Thanks to all who helped me), I think it may be time to do a maintenance on the printer, and especially check the axles and the tension of the belts.

 

First thing: there's no mention of how to do that in the pdf manual that you can download from the UM.com website. The 'Maintenance' chapter doesn't even mention that you should check it from time to time or links to the relevant pages on the website.

 

While I can understand that one would make printed manual light to save on cost, on paper and on weight for shipping, I'm always amazed when pdf manuals are paper thin, given that mostly everyone has hard drives with storage capacity in the terabytes, and internet speed can usually handle downloading a book sized manual with many pictures and diagrams to explain and clearly show things to the reader.

 

Second thing: I've found the 'Maintenance' page on the website, then I found another 'Maintenance' page, much to my surprise and confusion.

 

The first one is on Resources -> Manuals -> 3D Printers -> Ultimaker 3 -> Maintenance

The second one is on Resources -> Manuals -> Add-ons -> Ultimaker 3 Maintenance Kit -> Maintenance

 

The first one has summaries, very short and brief, at least when it comes to the 'Check for play on axles' and 'Check the tension of the short belt', while the second is much more clear, easy to read, and with more pictures to show you what to do and how.

 

Why aren't those explanations directly into the manual? They should be, along with the suggested maintenance schedule, and all the pictures, and links towards the website.

 

I'm among the few people who still read manuals; I know it's going out of fashion; and it frustrates me to no end when such useful, I'd say even critical, information is not on the manual. 

 

So, I'd like to understand why there is two 'Maintenance' pages, and why the detailed information is on the 'Add-ons' section and not on the 'Ultimaker 3' section.

 

And also suggest that updating the current manuals with this information would be good, or even just a link to the relevant pages on the website, and that this gets included in the manual for the UM4, when it comes out.

 

Thank you, and sorry for the rant, I really hate when information is spread out everywhere.