I’m in college right now,1st year and unfortunately I do not have a lot of experiences about engines,motors,generators,etc. I joined because I was hoping to become an ETO officer but another colleague of mine is better at these things than me.(that is also because he is an olympic at electronics/electrotehnics and I am not)
He could guide me through my hard time of understanding these things but he doesn’t own a lab. He owns a few circuit componentes and some sources(cc or ac I guess).
Should I try to join as a mariner(crew member) or should I continue to get help from my colleague?
I was thinking that if I join as an unlicensed member(mariner) I could gain some knowledge from the officers around me in the engine room.
Anyone? I am in great despair.
You , in my opinion should stay in college until you get the concept/training/experience You seem to have a mentor that you should take advantage of his/her experience. Then perhaps, once you do get a feel for said concepts,take a look at maritme interests. Take advantage of your present situation first. You are challenged perhaps now, but will be incredibly difficult in a marine environment without finishing your first and actually pretty decent path if you stick it out.
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Comparison is the thief of joy.
Did you think that after one year of school you would’ve mastered everything? Relax bro.
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You are coming up against people that have been doing this stuff as a hobby since they were little. Not to worry, take advantage of your friend’s willingness to help. Also find ways to do this stuff on your own. There is probably a ham radio club, maker club, or something around most colleges. Maybe buy an old junker genset off Craigslist and make it work. Get your hands on SOMETHING.
I ran into this issue as a flight instructor. When I was young - walked uphill both ways to and from school, worked 27 hours a day in the mill. etc. etc. flight students were mostly gearheads of some kind who had there hands in engines since forever, and picked up on a lot of the basic mechanical stuff pretty quick.
I had to adjust my expectations to “they had a reliable modern car and probably never worked on it even once and have no real idea how it works”. Of course they learned what they needed to, they just had to start a bit farther back.
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You need to adjust your expectations (or increase your patience). It’s not unusual for a day or two to elapse before a response. These are working folks.
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Come on, dude waited like 20 whole minutes!!!
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What college? If it’s an academy you will have a commercial ship within the second year. You should learn enough to be a cadet. Only two things I expect a cadet to know when they get out here
- Be on time
2 know how to make coffee
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@yacht_sailor It would be harder to find some things and do these stuffs on my own because I do not have enough experience. My college colleague has that so I will try to understand most of the things from him and see If it’s possible for me to pass the test as a cadet.
Electronics/electrotehnics is not an easy subject!
I don’t know what school you are going to or how far along you are with your studies but below is a link of something that might help you visualize & grab ahold of the basics of electronics. I gave my two oldest kids one of these when they were 8 & 10 & they played with it for a couple of weeks straight. I also had a young, hard working QMED who wanted to improve his electronic skills & I gave him one as a gift. He thought it a joke at first but he learned a lot & had a good time in the lounge on his off time experimenting with a couple of the deck crew. The book that comes with it describes everything so simply a child can understand it if they go over it enough like mine did. The QMED & deckies didn’t even speak or read English & they figured it out by looking at the diagrams & with Google Translate. Christmas is around the corner, maybe you can get someone to buy one for you? Just a suggestion, laugh if you want. Good luck.
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Those things are fun! I had one when I was a kid.
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Yep, and they are still fun if you’re into nerdy stuff like this. What jarred my memory about them was the 5 day, USCG required MEECE gap closing course. It was 2.5 days death by powerpoint reviewing the basics of electronics & 2.5 day simulator for engineers. The instructor & school were very proud of their $50k electronics simulator but after about 15 minutes it dawned on me that it was nothing more than a fancied up version of the Electronic Playground that was bought for me from a thrift store when I was a kid. The kids version doesn’t have 110VAC or the PLC but other than that it was basically the same. When I gave one to the QMED I told him he could save $3,000US & 5 days of his life by memorizing everything in the kids book & going through all 130 projects. Before I posted it yesterday I read all the Q&A & apparently I’m not the only one who believes this can be good for adults too. The oldest boat I worked on was an ATB from the late 60’s & I’ve worked on countless 1980’s tugs & OSV’s & this kids toy covered almost all the electronics those dinosaurs had in the engineroom. Not a bad place for a newbie to start IMO.
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My latest version of this is the Raspberry Pi. See http://www.sailoog.com/openplotter, there is a lot you can do with these little things.
I didn’t mean to make light of the “100 in 1 Kit” and the current descendants of it, they really are fun and you really can learn a lot.
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This is perfect. Each year we have a couple of boats that sail over Christmas, and the HR department buys and wraps presents for the crew. Book and magazines and knives mainly, etc. Always a problem, to get something for them that they don’t already have. I think this makes the list; they’ll think it’s a joke first. Then I can see the QMEDs and wipers using it off watch.
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Awesome. It has been years & years since I seen crew setting in the lounge playing board games. Back before the time of WiFi & satellite phone. But I gave away that Electronic Playground during the internet age in '14-'15 & it was nice to hear the racket coming from the lounge with those guys in there goofing off. If the OP lives in a dorm, I can picture a couple of his classmates having a good time with it too for at least a little while.
The Q&A on Amazon said you can download a free pdf copy of the book from the site to see what you’ll be purchasing. Good luck.
That’s pretty awesome! I’ve never heard of a company doing that before.
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Electronics is tough to learn I would suggest the Navy to get the best hands on training and make some money too
After 4 years you would have a good handle on what stresses you out now
Starting out in a career is tough act like a sponge and soak up all you can
Good luck electronics is the future of the industry