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A self-paced introduction to diagnostic reasoning for circuit-card repair: understand the circuit, choose a discriminating measurement, and document what the evidence supports. It is not a complete technician qualification or a replacement for supervised training.
What's in this program
| File | What it covers |
|---|---|
| 01 — Electronics Foundations | Voltage, current, resistance, Ohm's law, AC/DC, series/parallel — the physics everything else stands on |
| 02 — Reading Schematics | How to read a schematic end-to-end: symbols, reference designators, nets, buses, sheets |
| 03 — Component Identification & How Each Part Fails | Every component you'll see on a board, how to identify it, and how each one fails |
| 04 — DMM Mastery | Every DMM mode, in-circuit measurement traps, and short-finding techniques |
| 05 — Oscilloscope Mastery | Setup, probing, triggering, and reading real waveforms |
| 06 — Troubleshooting Methodology | The universal fault-finding process: the order of operations that makes you fast AND accurate |
| 07 — Digital Board Troubleshooting | Logic levels, clocks, resets, buses (I2C/SPI/UART), and digital failure patterns |
| 08 — Analog Board Troubleshooting | Power supplies, op-amps, filters, and analog failure patterns |
| 09 — Teradyne Machines & Automated Test (ATE) | What in-circuit test actually does, how to read failure tickets, and how to turn them into repairs |
| 10 — Aerospace Standards, ESD, and Workmanship | IPC-A-610 Class 3, J-STD-001, IPC-7711/7721 rework, ESD, FOD, conformal coating, traceability |
| visuals/01-schematic-symbols.html ↗ | Picture reference — every schematic symbol, drawn and annotated (open in a browser) |
| visuals/02-component-gallery.html ↗ | Picture reference — what every component physically looks like, color codes, polarity marks |
| visuals/03-test-equipment.html ↗ | Picture reference — annotated DMM, oscilloscope, probes, waveform gallery, ICT fixture |
Use the linked visual guides while reading. Start with the course in your browser; downloaded packages need a local web server, not file URLs.
How to use this program
- Read in order the first time. Each module builds on the last.
- Practice in short sessions. Revisit unfamiliar concepts, explain your reasoning aloud and use reference tables when needed. Speed follows accurate, repeatable reasoning.
- Start with the guided passive-circuit labs. They define the hardware and energy limits. Do not power an unknown salvage board, open mains equipment or attempt the supervised shop procedures independently. Read Scope & Sources before any physical practice.
- Quiz yourself out loud. After each module, close it and explain the topic to an empty room. If you can't, reread.
12-Week Plan
Phase 1 — Foundations (Weeks 1–3)
- Week 1: Module 01. Daily drill: Ohm's law mental math (given 2 of V/I/R, find the third). Build series and parallel resistor calculations until instant.
- Week 2: Module 02 + symbols HTML. Daily drill: flashcard every symbol and reference designator letter. Goal: name any symbol in under 2 seconds.
- Week 3: Module 03 + component gallery HTML. Daily drill: resistor color code — decode 10 random codes per day. Memorize the polarity table cold (tantalum stripe = positive, electrolytic stripe = negative).
Phase 2 — Instruments (Weeks 4–6)
- Week 4: Module 04. Hands-on: measure every resistor in your kit, test every diode junction, find continuity through wires, measure a battery under load.
- Week 5: Module 05 and the measurement-setup drill. If supervised scope access is available, practice probe compensation and capture the instrument's specified low-energy reference signal.
- Week 6: Module 06. Memorize the troubleshooting sequence (Look → Power-off checks → Rails → Clock/Reset → Half-split → Compare → Stress). Practice writing fault narratives: symptom → hypothesis → test → result.
Phase 3 — Boards (Weeks 7–9)
- Week 7: Module 07. Drill logic levels and bus signatures. Sketch a UART byte and an I2C transaction from memory.
- Week 8: Module 08. Drill the linear and switching power-supply signal chains. Given "output is 0V," list the checks in order without notes.
- Week 9: Module 09. Learn the ICT vocabulary (guarding, bed-of-nails, vectors, boundary scan). Practice translating sample failure tickets into bench actions.
Phase 4 — Aerospace Discipline (Weeks 10–12)
- Week 10: Module 10. ESD, FOD, conformal coat, IPC classes. These are pass/fail topics in aerospace — treat them as seriously as the electronics.
- Week 11: Read the case files progressively. Write a next-test prediction before revealing the investigation; revisit any incorrect quiz or unsupported drill result.
- Week 12: Integrate the method: complete a new simulated fault, explain rejected hypotheses and export your evidence record. Review practical skills separately with an authorized supervisor.
The mindset that makes a great repair tech
- The board is innocent until measured. Never swap a part on a hunch; prove it bad first. Shotgunning parts destroys aerospace boards (every rework cycle is thermal stress) and destroys your credibility.
- Most failures are boring. Start with accessible, reversible checks of connections, workmanship, supply conditions and passive parts. Rank hypotheses using evidence from the specific assembly rather than an industry-wide failure ranking.
- Document as you go. In aerospace, the paper trail is the product. A repair you can't show your work on didn't happen.
- Slow is smooth, smooth is fast. Efficiency comes from avoiding needless repeated measurements while repeating those needed to verify a result and never skipping the visual inspection — not from rushing.