WK 1"finding open circuits, high resistent voltage drops and shorts"

Spring quarter just started and we are jumping right into Electrical. During the first week of instruction we began talking about current flow, had a nice discussion and exercise on electrons and how they flow. We also talked about resistance in which Jeff gave us nice demonstration by burning up some wires. It was a great beginning to the quarter. We also discussed Kirchhoff's law and said our prayer many times, "no current flow, no voltage drop!!!!"  Our assignments for the first week mostly had to do with determining whether or not we had open circuits or high resistance voltage drops on light and motor test boards.

Above is a picture of a light board with a HR/VD or high resistance voltage drop which I was able to located on the power side of the circuit. Below is two pictures of a similar test board which had an open circuit on the ground side that I was easily able to identify.

Apart from just doing light test boards we also worked on finding similar problems on motor test boards which a basically the same thing. how ever at the end of the week we were asked and shown how to locate short circuits on test boards both light and motor. At first I thought oh this will be much easier than the last time I had to do this and it was. I'm not saying that shorts are easy to find but going through similar motions with a better understanding made it much easier this time.

I think the highlight of my week was being able to help others understand the electrical we are studying a little better and maybe learn a little from the help I was able to provide to some of my peers. The main thing I learned during this week was that when some thing seems to be working just fine and you cant find the problem even though you know there is one, is to go back to the beginning/the basics. This came about when I had a problem with a motor test board, the problem was that everything seem to be just fine. My first though was oh this test board must just be a joke, I went and grabbed my instructor for some help. He came out asked what the problem was and I told him. He switched the first switch on the board that was supposed to open the circuit and it didn't. He simply looked at me and walked back to his office. I think he saw the look on my face, the duh look. I new right away what the problem was, me not starting out in the beginning/ the basics.

WK 1
Hours 18