A huge number of various electronic devices are being developed and produced in our country. There are several dozen manufacturers of security and fire alarms alone. Alas, many of these devices have the same problems.
Many modern complex devices are made so intuitive that they do not need instructions. For a long time, no one is surprised by the lack of a full-fledged manual for smartphones. Yesterday I set up the Xiaomi smart home for the first time, the instructions for which were only in Chinese, and there were no problems with the setup. Of course, there are devices where you can't do without instructions.
It was not for nothing that I mentioned the Russian security alarms - for the second day I study one of them and never cease to be surprised.
On the one hand, it is practically a masterpiece of engineering thought: everything that is possible is "heaped up". There are a huge number of fine settings, many ports (including COM and RS485), such ways of interacting with the signaling have been made that such a thing does not even occur to comes (for example, setting via FTP - put a file with settings on any FTP and send alarms an SMS with the address of this FTP, from where it takes the settings).
On the other hand, I have no idea how an ordinary buyer can figure out this thing.
The instructions, which must be downloaded from the manufacturer's website, do not contain the most important thing - where to start and what to do. It turns out that you need to start by installing the program on your computer and connecting the alarm with a USB cable that is not included in the kit.
In the kit there is some kind of stick, on top of the body there is a hole of a suitable diameter. Perhaps this is an antenna, but there is not a word about it in the instructions.
The kit includes a remote control, but the purpose of its buttons can only be determined by typing. It turned out that the fourth button of the remote control turns on the third output, and the third, when pressed for a long time, turns on the SOS mode.
The alarm can be controlled by a mobile application, but there is not a word about it in the instructions. I realized how to make it work only on the second day - it turns out that you need to go into the setup program on the computer and switch the mode to the menu in a certain place. On the alarm page on the manufacturer's website there is not a word about this, but on the main page of the site there is a banner about a mobile application, which you need to poke into and there will be instructions. :)
Most of the functions are configured in the program on the computer, but wireless sensors and remotes are added by pressing the internal button, and TM keys by switching the jumper. As they say, you can't figure it out without a glass.
I will not name the brand of this alarm, because all this is very typical for Russian electronics. Most likely, the developers themselves write instructions and come up with interfaces, to whom everything seems obvious, but the problem is that the user thinks differently from the developer. The user must first of all explain how to use it all, and not go into technical details on fifty pages of instructions in small print.
© 2020, Alexey Nadezhin
The main topic of my blog is technology in human life. I write reviews, share experiences, talk about all sorts of interesting things. My second project - lamptest.ru. I test LED bulbs and help figure out which ones are good and which are not so good.