Electrical Technician Experience Lessons for Efficiency

Tips from experience for troubleshooting large industrial machines, PLC systems.
Controls troubleshooting is a fun & exciting job. Check out my other videos
Engineering & industrial maintenance
Tricks learned on the job to repair and diagnose automation issues. How to find operator errors, resolve and repair machinery issues quickly and efficiently. Topics include blown fuses and power issue, understanding processes and reducing downtime on production equipment. Day in the life fixing mechanical, electrical, & instrumentation technician level faults
check out my channel I discuss instrumentation and controls as a career path as well as a few basic level tutorials.
** I currently have zero sales on my Amazon affiliate links. Help me keep my membership by checking out these items. My cut comes from Amazon's profits NOT your price
*********
Klein clamp meter, good rugged mulitmeter
amzn.to/4cdQHow
My favorite electronics screwdriver
amzn.to/3XfH1pw
My personal use insulated screwdriver kit
amzn.to/3XmLtCT
My favorite wire stripper by far for use in controls & maintenance
amzn.to/4aVtneo
Get full industrial utility including 4-20mA & Megger and testing for 27$ with this multimeter & clamp meter (hobby grade)(no simulation)
amzn.to/4dXjlwb
PLC (Allen Bradley/ Rockwell) Studio 5000 programming guide
amzn.to/3Kalo1S
Arduino uno starter kit (27$)
amzn.to/3V2tGPH

Пікірлер: 59

  • @Drillomasta
    @Drillomasta Жыл бұрын

    I just got my degree on December 9th 22' and already on February 9th I got a job as an IC&E Tech apprentice at a ginormous power plant. They're starting me at $34/hr but after 3 years I'll be journeyman making $48/hr. Definitely life changing man. I've been keeping up with your videos for awhile now and just wanna say keep it up brother I appreciate the insight. For new guys to the trade like me your videos have been crucial. Thanks

  • @gregroche7323

    @gregroche7323

    Жыл бұрын

    Hell yea glad to hear it. Do you have any suggestions for videos

  • @Drillomasta

    @Drillomasta

    Жыл бұрын

    @@gregroche7323you could do a day in the life video. Just talk about what you do from start to finish throughout the day. What tools you mostly carry with you. How your work orders are processed and stuff like that. I'd watch that

  • @gregroche7323

    @gregroche7323

    Жыл бұрын

    Great idea I appreciate that I'll do this weekend

  • @gregroche7323

    @gregroche7323

    Жыл бұрын

    @@Drillomasta never got around to the video maybe today

  • @bubbamac187

    @bubbamac187

    Жыл бұрын

    @stephend.4126 What does IC&E stand for? I just now started school for industrial electrician, industrial maintenance, and industrial mechanics. I need all the help I can get lol thanks in advance!

  • @brito809
    @brito809 Жыл бұрын

    I like that comment about how loud people know less than what they think they know. Introvert people are always observing and learning and they accept corrections and extrovert are the opposite in most cases.

  • @gregroche7323

    @gregroche7323

    Жыл бұрын

    Yeah that's like one of the tricky parts of the job is navigating that stuff. For example say you're working on a project and an engineer who's been there for awhile come to help you are you starts going down a path that you know is wrong... now he's explaining a bunch of incorrect stuff to a group of people that don't know any better... do you correct him for the benefit of the team and make an enemy or do you just let him figure it out and correct it himself, causing no political issues. That stuff can be very stressful

  • @brito809

    @brito809

    Жыл бұрын

    @@gregroche7323 Yes, I agree with you. A lot of engineers just do the bare minimum to maintain the job and create problems for the technicians and the assemblers.

  • @gregroche7323

    @gregroche7323

    Жыл бұрын

    Also I'm not one of those people that always has something bad to say about engineer's... my last job was at a Nestle factory and I got to say most of the engineers there were very knowledgeable. There's just so many factors to everything mechanical PLC logic instrumentation wiring issues electrical noise Etc no one person is going to be able to figure everything out you need a team to look at everything as a big picture, problems come in when one person thinks they know more than everyone else combined

  • @gregroche7323

    @gregroche7323

    Жыл бұрын

    That Nestle factory was different than most other places though all them a that were really good like started out as maintenance technician summer school

  • @brito809

    @brito809

    Жыл бұрын

    @@gregroche7323 yes, the how people should be. I’m currently an assembler but I have some maintenance responsibilities. The company where I work has a very good culture we get along very well. My complaint is when someone submit a change to avoid a problem and the engineers delay or don’t do it until something goes wrong and then try to blame the people on the floor. It does happen often but it happens.

  • @anonymoususer4356
    @anonymoususer435610 күн бұрын

    Great video. Thank you!

  • @aiyubpatel9165
    @aiyubpatel91653 ай бұрын

    Fantastic video mate. Good advice. I have been in maintenance for 10 years and that's great wisdom.

  • @flossyht6632
    @flossyht6632 Жыл бұрын

    perfect explanation and correct never trust what the operator tells you and it's a high sense of urgency and high demanding job be a hero keeping the plant running

  • @siah147
    @siah1476 ай бұрын

    I am enjoying your videos thus far. I live in Barbados, I am an Instrument technician at the last remaining cane sugar factory. I was introduced to instrumentation 25yrs ago and I'm still learning. What you said about when approaching any task is to seek information before going in hands first. I believe its always head first. I always wonder how it would be like working at one of those large industrial plants in the US. You are doing a great job with these videos.

  • @anonymoususer4356
    @anonymoususer435611 ай бұрын

    Great information, thank you.

  • @VitalAntics
    @VitalAntics5 ай бұрын

    You are so helpful thank you sir 🙏🏼

  • @andrevaca6700
    @andrevaca6700 Жыл бұрын

    13 miles, I'm right there with you 🤣 I very much agree with the observation of quiet people usually being more skilled. And I do wish more people would try to get an idea of a machine's repair history before diving right in. If you know someone installed a non-OEM part to "make it work" yesterday, then you should probably check to see if it failed.

  • @gregroche7323

    @gregroche7323

    Жыл бұрын

    I appreciate the comment, i think comments really drive up traffic. We do shift reports each shift... I'm not sure if that standard practice or not We didn't do it at any other place I worked. It's definitely helpful I might get an email that says exactly what someone did on 3rd shift so I got a shortcut for my failure.

  • @anonymoususer4356
    @anonymoususer43562 ай бұрын

    Good video. Thank you

  • @gregroche7323

    @gregroche7323

    2 ай бұрын

    Appreciate the comment. I’m always looking for feedback and video ideas. Thanks for watching.

  • @jeremiahgrant4399
    @jeremiahgrant4399 Жыл бұрын

    I am 22 and looking into programs that offer instrumentation technician or engineer. Where I'm from it's difficult but I'm willing to take the long way. Looking at your video gave me some insight for my future and reinforced why I'm so interested in this career.

  • @gregroche7323

    @gregroche7323

    Жыл бұрын

    Yeah do it man If you can get your bachelors an engineering do it. If you have bills to pay You get that technician degree. The job hunt should start the moment you start classes Good luck to you

  • @Maintenance_Mark
    @Maintenance_Mark10 ай бұрын

    I don't know that the quiet guy is necessarily more skilled by default but I do understand what you mean. The old timers do stand quite while the new guy tries to figure it out. 😂 Sometimes the guys are just quiet because they don't know whats wrong either and they dont want to speak up and be proven wrong. The loud guy can definitely be a talker thats full of BS but sometimes people just work problems out through speaking and talking their thought processes out loud which can be helpful but you can put your foot in your mouth if you are not careful about speaking off the top of your head. Filtered thoughts are much better than just talking off the top of your head.

  • @gregroche7323

    @gregroche7323

    10 ай бұрын

    Yeah I feel that bro and honestly there's a better way to word that statement.. about 25% of the people in industrial maintenance don't know s*** and all they do is figure out what you don't know and talk about different stuff so they sound smarter than they are.. I guess it was a warning to watch out for those people

  • @Maintenance_Mark

    @Maintenance_Mark

    10 ай бұрын

    @@gregroche7323 @gregroche7323 you are absolutely correct. Some people don't know anything and they just skate along on the backs of others. I work with a guy that is 70 years old who started off as the p.m. guy 15 years ago. He would clean and grease up the all the machines and help with maintenance tasks when needed but more importantly he is willing to do half of my boss's job such as ordering parts so the boss just loves him. He's a real opinionated a hole that is super abrasive. He can't stand to disagree with someone without getting spittin mad even though he is often wrong about pretty much everything. He's a terrible troubleshooter that can't read schematics and refuses to look at manuals. His go-to is to email the manufacturer for support which normally isn't a bad thing but he does that before trying even the basics. Basically this guy just does not possess the intellectual curiosity that is a requirement for solid successful troubleshooting. When troubleshooting out loud he will never have good input yet he will often insult his co-workers ideas while they are brainstorming which can never help anything. This guy tried to "teach" me how to roll up an air line on my first day at the factory... I have 11 years of experience as an industrial maintenance technician and I've been an auto mechanic before that as well as working for a mobile repair outfit. He knows all of that but still he choose to attempt to teach me how to roll up an air line as a 34 year old man... SMFH. He's such a bad person that over the years he ran off about 6 other solid maintenance guys that were far better than him but they couldn't stand working with him. He got the lead maintenance position by default and he learned these machines over time so now he has tribal knowledge. He has no training no experience whatsoever and it shows in his work. Loves to use duct tape zip ties and JB weld pretty much everywhere. Never wants to solder or weld or use the mill cuz he prefers his hand drill and the vise. He always wants to butt splice wiring and do stuff the cheap quick way. Some of the robot wiring is such a rat nest I've had to completely rewire three different Yushin robots because of years of his "work".

  • @chargrave3792
    @chargrave37924 ай бұрын

    i dont know if you read these often but im looking for a trade. My school offers Industrial systems- mechanical specialization, it also as industrumentation technology. I personally dont know what to pick do you have any information for each of these options, because i cannot decide.

  • @gregroche7323

    @gregroche7323

    2 ай бұрын

    Hey thank you for commenting I really apologize for not reading this sooner. Personally I prefer instrumentation just because it's sort of a higher level job than mechanical. That being said it would probably be a little bit easier to get the first mechanical job with the degree and no experience, the pay for mechanical industrial maintenance is slightly lower than instrumentation but you can expect to make between 60 to 100K in either of them. I enjoy instrumentation and controls because there's a little bit more technology and it can be a little bit more challenging mentally than mechanical. I would push the issue a little bit with the people that run your degree specifically some of the professors or maybe the program share and see what they can do about helping you find a job or if they can get you placed into some sort of training program that's very important to get a little bit of experience to pair with your degree. All that being said I would go for instrumentation all day it's a super awesome career find me on LinkedIn if you have any questions

  • @Foodjunkie1738
    @Foodjunkie173811 ай бұрын

    how does one get a job ? i’ve seen all the job posting in my area houston, and they all say experience required or preferred and i have a friend that has his degree but they always prefer other candidates with experience.

  • @gregroche7323

    @gregroche7323

    11 ай бұрын

    It can be a little tricky Landing a job without experience that's the catch.. I have a whole video on what to do check it out

  • @gregroche7323

    @gregroche7323

    11 ай бұрын

    The short answer is this you got to find jobs that are a bit lower paying that they can't fill. Find the jobs that been posted for 3 months plus they're definitely out there

  • @grandsea2
    @grandsea2 Жыл бұрын

    Check E-stops!

  • @gregroche7323

    @gregroche7323

    Жыл бұрын

    Lol yes about 1/3 of the calls forgot that one

  • @meme-bj1pe

    @meme-bj1pe

    Жыл бұрын

    Lol, yup

  • @jimechols4347
    @jimechols4347 Жыл бұрын

    Which one of these jobs has the most time in the shop for petrochemical? Analyzer, I&E, automation, measurement tech?

  • @gregroche7323

    @gregroche7323

    Жыл бұрын

    What do you mean by time in the shop like working in a lab. I'm happy to answer the best of my knowledge I've never worked and petrochemical

  • @jimechols4347

    @jimechols4347

    Жыл бұрын

    @@gregroche7323 yeah I was just talking about working in the air condition lab/shop. Petrochemical plants are mainly outdoor structures made of pipes and towers. But they do have air-conditioned rooms for the workers and I was just wanting to know how long they work inside versus outside. If it's mainly outside work, then yeah that would be tough because you would have to wear fire-proof clothing with goggles and hard hats.

  • @gregroche7323

    @gregroche7323

    Жыл бұрын

    @@jimechols4347 I understand I guess I'll tell you what I know. At my current job which is manufacturing I'm about 50-50 out in the field. My position is Automation and electrical but realistically it's instrumentation and electrical. Instrumentation Tech you'll do some of your calibrations in the lab but a lot of them around the field I would say at least half. If you're working on control troubleshooting obviously that's out in the field but the good news is is generally speaking your electrical panels are going to be on ground level and a lot of times will be in temperature-controlled environment especially if they have vfds or electronics that you can't really exposed to the elements. I actually had a nice conversation with the guy on here who's an analyzer Tech and I actually didn't know what that was until I talk to him about it. My understanding is he spends pretty much all of his time in the lab maybe 80/20. He may have to go out and switch available for pull a piece of equipment out of the field into the lab but that's about it. Personally I prefer spending time in the field but it does wear your body down a little bit. Measurement or calibration Tech is basically instrumentation solo which would be less physically active than i&c or i&e ... same job minus the controls troubleshooting. Again I find that a little bit boring but some people love it depends what kind of personality you have. If you are very organized and enjoy having your day planned out and structured that's a great job. From what I've seen calibration or measurement techs pay a little bit less than the combo. Generally speaking calibration is easy and not to physically taxing even if you're out in the field because you are standing in one place taking readings and following a procedure. Automation technician PLC programmer it's going to kind of different it's kind of like a instrumentation and electrical. It all depends on where you work. I do automation controls troubleshooting and calibration at my job and it's different every day. I would say this if there's a lot of PLC work to be done and you're expected to do it that's obviously pretty easy on the body. If you have a PLC programming job you're going to be working in the office most of the time. Again my job is automation electrical and it is the most physically taxing job I've ever had I've lost a lot of weight I walk 10 miles a day I could probably do 20 pull-ups in a row and I don't go to the gym. That has more to do with the company Im at I don't think that's typical

  • @gregroche7323
    @gregroche7323 Жыл бұрын

    Great video🤣

  • @max-rd3bo

    @max-rd3bo

    Жыл бұрын

    Glad to see you back. Thanks for the tips.

  • @anonymoususer4356
    @anonymoususer435611 ай бұрын

    👍🏻

  • @stoneaged5064
    @stoneaged506411 ай бұрын

    Actually they do teach in school to check power supply fuses breakers first when troubleshooting and asking operators for the process of the machine. But everything else they do not teach. Office politics are big because companies always want to budget and save so theyll buy the cheap ebay part instead of OEM even though you strongly advise against it and they tell you to fuck off

  • @gregroche7323

    @gregroche7323

    11 ай бұрын

    Yeah I left all the politics information out of the video I'll leave that stuff to you guys to figure out

  • @user-gz2pf1wc6l
    @user-gz2pf1wc6l3 ай бұрын

    RTFM is very important lol

  • @foxbodygarageamerica9382
    @foxbodygarageamerica93829 ай бұрын

    Do not recycle the power if you have e a failed contact and it goes away because you recycle power you will be back there again ...