Technician capstone: your own repair bench lesson plan
Faulty units come in, and you send them back working: intake, a diagnosis plan, schematic reading, repair, verification, a repair log and a customer report, with the meter, the scope and the component tester.
Objectives and materials
By the end, students can
- Log the unit, test the parts, write a plan and read the schematic before you touch anything.
- Let the readings pick the part, change one thing, and prove the repair under load.
- As-found and as-left logs, a customer report in plain words, and your bench portfolio.
Materials for the whole unit
- Battery: AA, coin cell, LiPo
- Bench power supply
- Capacitor x 2
- Component tester x 2
- DC jack and adapter
- Diode x 2
- Full-size breadboard
- Half breadboard
- LED x 3
- LM317 regulator
- Mains transformer, 230 V or 120 V to 12 V
- Multimeter
- NE555 timer
- Oscilloscope
- Resistor x 3
- Signal generator
- Transistor (NPN or PNP)
- Voltage regulator
Every part is already on the simulator’s bench, so there is nothing to buy or hand out. The counts are the most any one lesson uses, if you build it on real breadboards too.
Intake and diagnosis
Log the unit, test the parts, write a plan and read the schematic before you touch anything.
| Lesson | Time | What students do |
|---|---|---|
| Intake: log the unit, test the partsYour bench opens for business. Take in a bag of loose parts the way a shop does: write the ticket, then let the component tester name each part, its legs and its numbers, and catch a wrong substitute before it goes in. | 55 min |
|
| Diagnosis plan: reproduce, then halve the problemA 5 V supply comes in with a dim light and a gadget that keeps resetting. Reproduce the complaint, write a plan that splits the circuit in half, measure in that order, and confirm the cause by substitution. | 55 min |
|
| Schematic reading: predict every nodeA reference divider reads high. Trace the meter onto the schematic, predict the healthy reading from the parts, find the drifted resistor, learn why one reading can point at two suspects, and close the chapter with a predict-the-reading quiz. | 55 min |
|
Materials
- Battery: AA, coin cell, LiPo
- Capacitor x 2
- Component tester x 2
- Full-size breadboard
- Half breadboard
- LED
- Multimeter
- Resistor x 3
- Transistor (NPN or PNP)
- Voltage regulator
Check for understanding
Each student finishes "Schematic reading: predict every node" on their own, without opening the hints. The simulator checks 6 of its 6 steps as they go.
Then ask each one to explain, in a sentence or two, the last thing it asked of them: "Milestone check: chapter one".
Repair and verify
Let the readings pick the part, change one thing, and prove the repair under load.
| Lesson | Time | What students do |
|---|---|---|
| Repair: one change, one reasonTwo 555 timer units come in running at the wrong rate. Use the meter's frequency and duty ranges and the scope to work out from the readings alone whether the capacitor or a resistor is wrong, then fix each with one change. | 55 min |
|
| Verification: prove it under loadA transformer power supply hums and sags. Find the dried-out smoothing capacitor with the meter and scope, replace it, then prove the repair: DC output, ripple on the AC range, a heavier load, and a predict-the-reading quiz to close the chapter. | 65 min |
|
Materials
- Capacitor
- Diode x 2
- Full-size breadboard
- Half breadboard
- Mains transformer, 230 V or 120 V to 12 V
- Multimeter
- NE555 timer
- Oscilloscope
- Resistor x 2
- Signal generator
Check for understanding
Each student finishes "Verification: prove it under load" on their own, without opening the hints. The simulator checks 7 of its 7 steps as they go.
Then ask each one to explain, in a sentence or two, the last thing it asked of them: "Chapter quiz: predict the reading".
Hand it back
As-found and as-left logs, a customer report in plain words, and your bench portfolio.
| Lesson | Time | What students do |
|---|---|---|
| Documentation: as found, as leftAn LED light bar comes in dim. Record every as-found reading before you touch it, fix the one wrong resistor, record the same readings as left, and write a repair log another tech could follow. | 55 min |
|
| Customer report: no fault found, and whyA bench supply "reads 10 V when set to 12". Measure it, find it is doing exactly what it was told, protect the customer's load, then write the report a customer can understand and finish your portfolio write-up. | 65 min |
|
Materials
- Bench power supply
- DC jack and adapter
- Full-size breadboard
- Half breadboard
- LED x 3
- LM317 regulator
- Multimeter
- Resistor
Check for understanding
Each student finishes "Customer report: no fault found, and why" on their own, without opening the hints. The simulator checks 7 of its 7 steps as they go.
Then ask each one to explain, in a sentence or two, the last thing it asked of them: "Your bench portfolio, and the road from here".
Teach this unit as a class
Start a class from this course and its 7 lessons are assigned in one go, in order. Students join with a six-character code or printed login cards, and each one’s work comes back to you.
The class tools are free for 30 days for one class of up to 20 students, with no card. The lessons themselves are free either way.