Just a note. I took and passed the electrical module today for my Chief limited oceans. This was my second attempt for the electrical. I used hawsepipe software, advance mariner prep software, and books by marine education textbooks. As well as some books I bought at BAM and info on the web. All that being said…THE ELECTRICAL MODULE HAS CHANGED!!! I had not seen half that test in ANY of my study material. Learn boolean logic and differences between micro chips and vacuum tubes. Also half the illustrations used are not available yet so I went completely blind into them. I am not an electrician and will never claim to be one. That crap was HARD! Just be prepared and get all the info you can find. Maybe take it once as a sacrifice to see what It looks like. That strategy helped me a lot. Not the first question on Ohms law or types of circuits which is what the study material concentrates on. I hope this helps somebody
Our two QMEDS just failed that section also. They said they can’t find the diagrams either.
I have one QMED who just passed the electrical module for third motor. He had the same issues like a dozen logic questions and questions referring to drawings that didn’t exist. He protested and was not penalized for that try based on the issue with drawings. His fourth try he finally passed. He kept failing by one or two questions which never appeared in the study material. He too had to teach him self logic. The other QMED passed his months ago on the first try. His test had all questions appearing in the study material. Now that the question bank has been made public again I imagine all the software will be updated.
Not to beat a dead horse but it’s still better to know theory and be able to put it to practical use. Memorizing answers and passing a test dosen’t advance your skills.
With the modern HVAC, IG, cargo heaters, motor controler systems, ect, an engineer better have a good grasp of ladder logic and current loops. Though many PLCs have diagnostic screens, some just have input/output modules to follow for diagnostics.
It ain’t rocket science. I never had any classroom training but i had a good understanding of electrical theory going in. There’s plenty of books and info on line to learn logic.
I was flown to West Africa and South America a couple of times to push reset buttons.
I agree with you 100% injunear, I try to encourage everyone to become better at there chosen career. Everyone of my assistant’s and qmeds I try to teach them as much as I can, if they are willing to learn. That seems to be a lost art now days, but I still get one or two that are eager to learn, every now and then, not just collect a check. I figure that is just less they have to wake me up.
a couple books I recomend for anyone wanting to learn a little about electricity. Three from Ugly’s, Ugly’s electrical reference book, Ugly’s electrical diagrams, and Ugly’s electrical motors and controlers. Some of the material is for house hold, and land based stuff, but still very good learing material.
Also a couple that can be picked up at Baker-lyman or Amazon. Marine electrical and electronic bible volumes 1 and 2. also marine electrical equipment and practice. some of this material is a little dated but it does give you a very good base to start from anyway.
I’ve carried an Ugly’s with me just about my entire career. Preventitive Maint.of Electrical Equip by Hubert is a good book. Dollar for dollar, the navy pubs, Basic Electricity and Basic Electronics can’t be beat at about $15 each.
I was privileged to sail with some of the best engineers when I was a kid. Better than any classroom.
When I took it last year about half the drawings were straight out of Hubert. It’s good for some of the old school stuff too … REALLY old school.
When i needed to brush up on some of my theory between my fail and pass I went to the Navy TRAMANs that are the the backup material on the hawsepipe.net CDs. I went from 50s to 80s in 21 days.
Having some insight of what to study when going back for a retest makes things a little easier for sure. I took 13 modules in 3 days and failed 3 (2 elec. and 1 gen). I passed 1 elec the gen 3 days later with minimal study because I was able to target just a couple things that I saw a fair amount of previously.
Most of what you just said is completely Greek to me. If it gets past a multi meter I call a technical in. Don’t have the parts or equipment to work on it anyway. Shoot I don’t even have the laptop to work on the main engine. Only reason I got this license was so I can sail as a chief on a 100 foot tug in Canada. A big ole whopping 60 miles across a line on the map. I just don’t deal with 3/4 of the stuff on that test. I’ve never even seen a water distiller but I memorized a picture for the test.
Uglys is awesome and I now have it in my bag. Unfortunately my test had ZERO math on it which is most of the reference book. But I now know Ohms law and might use some of it in the future
[QUOTE=tugboat95;86628]Most of what you just said is completely Greek to me. If it gets past a multi meter I call a technical in. Don’t have the parts or equipment to work on it anyway. Shoot I don’t even have the laptop to work on the main engine. Only reason I got this license was so I can sail as a chief on a 100 foot tug in Canada. A big ole whopping 60 miles across a line on the map. I just don’t deal with 3/4 of the stuff on that test. I’ve never even seen a water distiller but I memorized a picture for the test.[/QUOTE]
A lot of it was Greek to me when I started off in this business. Don’t let that slow you down in advancing. The key is to keep studying the material and applying what you learned in your daily rounds. Most of it is high school physics with your “distiller” boiling seawater at 180 degrees in a vacuum making fresh water or the hot extension cord that the deckhand used while grinding was caused by the current squared X the resistance in the wire.
Don’t just quit with an entry level license. Advance, gain experience, make more money and retire early enough to enjoy it!
I have advanced as far as I want. Been doing this for 25 years. Im too old to go through this crap and hassle again. Money is decent. This is my second level had a DDE 4000. I have no intention of working anything bigger. This whole thing was to get my stcw to sail as a chief across that line. Only did it cause office talked me in to it. Small tug just doesn’t carry any of that type of equipment. I could care less what the resistance is in a power drill. If it don’t work it gets replaced. It no power at outlet it gets replaced. Not power at breaker it gets replaced. We don’t go much further into it than that. If it does then the electrcian gets a phone call. I appreciate the PDF on logic and it helped a lot but I will probably never see or use it again