I have owned my Shapeoko Pro for 3 months and have gone through 2 breakdowns which were resolved by the customer service staff over several days with multiple back and forth emails (great staff but probably very busy). From their advice and from online posts, I have slowly learned how to narrow down the problems and even just how to provide the correct diagnostic information to the staff to get to the solution as quickly as possible. I could have learned this much more quickly if there would have been a troubleshooting flowchart and guide that I could have followed. For example, it took me quite awhile to figure out from the staff how to test proximity switches, use the MDI mode (g28.3), exchange wire harness, etc. to diagnose the problems. An online troubleshooting flowchart would have saved me quite a bit of time and allowed me to provide better information to customer service.
I worked for a company that created a flow chart for the customer. When they clicked on a problem thru the tree it took them to a video. It solved some minor issues for the customer and created some major problems for the company. Such is their industry.
The idea here, would solve issues in the short term. Mechanically speaking, the machine once designed and sold do not change. Building the data base would be expensive with minor modifications as equipment is upgraded. (Add ons, design changes)
One thing I see, Some People Need Their Hand Held. I am not picking on anyone, we all learn and work differently. I need the crayon version, you can do it with a suggestion. So, if a video type of system/Troubleshooting guide is developed it would need to be detailed, thus very expensive.
So I agree with your idea
I think troubleshooting flowcharts are a great idea.
They were essential when troubleshooting advanced vehicle systems where I worked. Downtime was minimized and a huge cost savings was realized when mechanics were pointed the right direction for a repair. Before flowcharts and guided diagnostics came about I saw a lot of expensive control modules get replaced where a simple reflash of firmware or a high resistance connector was the only problem.