jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I'm about to set up a TP-Link Deco mesh router. I removed the tiny book of directions from the box and opened to the first page. English! Great! Unfortunately, the type is about half a mm high, and it's printed light gray. I had to scan it, enlarge it, and print it in order to read the text.

Unfortunately, it tells me to scan a blob of ink on the page or go online using my phone. Then I will have to download the directions from the Google site. They couldn't include a simple sheet of directions? All the booklet tells me is what the different lights mean. I have no lights because I can't connect it. I'm going to bypass the Google store and look on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=connect+tp-link+deco

RiJoRi Loc: Sandy Ridge, NC

Anything to save a penny! 🤑 (Who needs customers' good will?) 🤮

--Rich

therwol Loc: USA

I have a "high tech" magnifying glass for such situations.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I have one, too. Do you know where it is? 😂

therwol Loc: USA

Do I know where your magnifying glass is? No. (Was that the question?) Do I know where mine is? Yes. Right here. It comes with another "high tech" tool called a letter opener.

(Download)

Plieku69 Loc: The Gopher State, south end

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Very nice, and I found both magnifying glasses!

chachie27

Jerry....I have the same system....I plug it in, set up and user name and pw...once the green light came on my tv, phone, cameras syn'd up. Very simple for ME....

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I have the app on my phone. I'm waiting for new Cat6 cables to be delivered today. Then I'll re-wire the system.

Soul Dr. Loc: Beautiful Shenandoah Valley

Best thing to do is see if owner manual is online.

Will

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Yes, I did. Their online User Guide is about half the size of the small guide in the booklet. The booklet contains 65 pages, with one in English. 🤣

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

So few people actually read instruction manuals that manufacturers get very cynical about writing them, let alone putting hard copies in the box. Manuals EXIST both to guide you to getting your money's worth, AND to prove to a company that its products work as advertised.

In 2010, after 18 years of wheel spinning and false starts, IT was supposedly ready to reveal the efforts of a systems migration and automation project for our business. As the training content developer, I had the job of writing the most important software manuals and producing software training videos and class curricula for our key customer-facing applications.

I used to remind the IT staff at my company, "If I can't write a coherent training manual for your software, it just doesn't work!" My statement was proven true all too often. In 2010, in a fit of frustration, I threw my hands up. I had the unpleasant and stressful job of demonstrating to senior managers of our division — and the corporate folks they reported to (also involved in the project) — that the mission-critical applications they were counting on to, "save our division from being sold," just didn't work.

So I wrote an 18-page paper detailing and documenting all the issues I found. When the lead programmer and the systems project manager couldn't make it work during the live demo I conducted to demonstrate my findings to the top brass, all hell broke loose after the meeting. It took IT several months to fix all the problems. Several months after that, our division was sold. We got to use the new multimillion dollar system for one year before our buyers turned it off...

If there's no manual available, how do we know a product functions as advertised?

PhotogHobbyist Loc: Bradford, PA

I like your magnifying glass and letter opener. Fortunately for me I have a letter opener with me all the time, it's a pocket knife. Unfortunately I do not have quick access to a magnifier. (sigh)

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

And if there's no manual available, how do we know how to set up the device?

Some of the "How To" videos on YouTube are worthless.