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Dang, that’s a good question and be honest I’m not exactly sure. Personally ive done a fair amount of PLC programming professionally but never “from scratch”, always modifying existing programs or upgrading old PLC programs to new software and hardware versions. A PLC programmer position would generally be called systems integrator, automation engineer, controls engineer or of course “PLC programmer”. The demand is high and there aren’t a lot of skilled younger people in this area. I have eight years of experience and I’m pretty sure I would be able to get one of those titles… im not certain though ive never tried. If I had to guess I would say an A.S. Degree + some experience is enough but im not certain. If you get the AS you are looking at 80-100k base woth some difficulty getting a foot in the door. With an engineering bachelor’s I would say 100-130 base with less difficulty. Beyond that i cant really answer the question

Also I would say a b.s. in computer science would be slightly less effective that an engineering degree that focuses on industrial automation. When candidates have a bachelor’s in any engineering discipline it is easier to get an interview for engineering roles. Realistically I would be a lot better than a very large portion of engineering graduates but I am not sure if big companies think like that

You will still be younger than 80% of the techs😂 i am the youngest electrical tech at my company by over 20 years lol. Regardless in my opinion there is no such thing as too old for anything. When i went to school for electrical power engineering technology (A.S.) we were all working adults with the average age around 30 i say go for it

@gregroche7323 wow!! Thanks for the advice!! I really appreciate it!! I enjoy your content and it's really easy to understand!! 😎🤙🏻

Glad to hear that it helped

Yeah, I one hundred percent agree with everything you said you probably put it better than me. Second shift is OK but definitely not great. Kind of sucks but there’s parts of it that are a lot easier. I’m back on second shift again I was on 1st for a while. Definitely a work shift. I feel like that now but the same time it’s more relaxed. I don’t really feel like I’m going to work. I just feel like I’m going to hang out that makes sense. I do stay busy for most of the shift but i don’t get stressed at all

Thats a good question lol I don’t really know. I would assume an analyzer tech would be solely calibration and instrument repairs. Instrumentation tech means calibration but a lot of times they are expected to do some automation and controls troubleshooting as well. Honestly i dont really know onow the answer to your question we dont have analyzer techs in my area. Maybe someone will see this question and answer it

If you have electrician experience an ISA cert would certainly be helpful to transition to instrumentation & electrical. What is your background?

Im planning in it… unfortunately i do not own the equipment used for tc simulation etc but i can do a basic “insitu” calibration write up the cal sheets etc its all pretty straightforward. I will do that video withon a month my friend

@@no_one_from_nowhere No problem what’s your situation? Are you in school?

@ I’m on my final 2 classes right now and then I graduate. I’ve been feeling a bit nervous about how this is going to go, but honestly I really love my motors and controls class I’m in right now and I’d be happy doing it for the rest of my life. Being a Technician for a factory doesnt sound too bad.

@@no_one_from_nowhere yea its a chill job honestly, some places are super slow borderline boring. I would start applying if i were you… im happy to coach tou thru the process if you want its a hobby of mine you can find me on LinkedIn with any questions

@@Smessenger97 Like five years ago the company I was working out. Let me take away a control panel that they were gonna throw in the trash so that’s how I got some of the stuff and then I’ve just slowly acquired all the other stuff overtime… I don’t have much might buy a POC with the money I get for these videos if I can get a couple more traffic I’m making like 50 bucks a month right now.

I have a lot of hobby grade sensors that I used with an Arduino that I got off Amazon, but I would like to get a PLCE with analog inputs, and use some industrial sensors in the future

Yeah that’s what I got bro. I got my aas at a school that had some relationships with local industries. Some ppl did part time internships at water utilities during their 1st year(thats what i did) some ppl did the same with the power company (FPL) and some did it with sikorsky helicopters. Generally the requirement is an AAS degree but if you have some form of experience your odds at least double so I would say uea you are in a good position. I was able to land a “good” (shit pay, great experience) instrumentation and electrical tech job during my 2nd year of my AAS

​@@gregroche7323awesome, thanks so much! It's such a niche area of work I've had a hard time finding where to even start.

@gregroche7323 what specific area did you study?

Yea i hear you. Ill give you some tips. I studied electrical power technology in the school of engineering at a community college. You will have a very difficult time imo finding a part time internship for while you are in school unless someone at the school hooks you up so ask them about that. Job titles vary, if you want to research job outlook in your area start woth electrical technician in your search, automation, search the word plc. Electromechanical technician or maintenance technician is really like the other half of what we do. Doesn’t hurt to apply for those roles and see what they are all about. I would say less than half of the I& E technician jobs are called I&E technician if that makes sense. Make a linkedin profile and put some buzzwords in your profile/ resume & recruiters for jobs that aren’t posted will reach out to you. I know that was a bit of a rant, but you said you don’t know where to start that’s where you start set up a tour of the degree you want to get and talk to the professors about the career path. If you do all these things you will be golden my friend

@@gregroche7323 thank you so much!! I appreciate the help and the videos!

Have you been applying? It’s probably tough to get an interview but if you could get the interview you have a shot imo, I would suggest talking to recruiters on LinkedIn. If you send me your info on there I could forward your information

Oh thank you

I sensed 120volts after the coil on the relay, all of the voltage should have been consumed in the relay hence my tic-tracer would not have turned red. I caught it quickly just through experience, seen it before a few times. That 120v was hanging out in neutral territory. That will happen with coils (inductive load) and resistors if you open up their path back to neutral/ ground.

The bad connection wasn’t on the relay, it was after the relay where i connected to the neutral wire on my extension cord

@@gregroche7323 Thanks for the explanation.

Do you have any degree or anything? Or are you just gonna try to work your way up without a degree?

@@gregroche7323 Im still working on getting a i&e certificate, we are on the last instrumentation class and next year the electrical part starts, so i figured if i get the electrical helper at an I&E service place might give me a good chance of moving up.

@@leacole5583 those were 2017 rates

@@turok645 Man that’s a whole Lotta cheese, significantly better than where I’m at. Regardless Im grateful. I am considering getting my bachelors & ideally staying with this company doing automation work. Would you recommend transitioning or no? Basically it would bump my base up by 20-40k. If I stay here I will still do some OT most likely & land around 150-180/ yr for the same amount of work. What are your thoughts?

@@turok645 If I did that I would stay at the engineer level

Depends where you are, I’m in Ohio. There’s a lot of open positions up here that just never really get filled. Search electrical technician, instrumentation technician, automation technician & controls technician. They all mean the same thing. Also some jobs aren’t posted on job boards so making a LinkedIn profile and connecting with recruiters can be very helpful. If you feel like chatting about it, I’ll give you my insight based off what I’ve experienced. You can find me on LinkedIn just search my name Cleveland or my name plus automation.

@@gregroche7323 I’m in Texas.

Oh nice, I know some of the highest paying i&e jobs are in Texas, I believe in the refineries. I’m happy to give you some insight help you make an informed decision, you know where to find me

@@gregroche7323 yes sir thank you. That’s where my dad retired out of. So I’m hoping to get on at some point. He was an operator though, I’d like to get into I/E instead. Thank you!

@@Justinh1107 thats cool, if he has connections there thats a hige plus. IMO I&E is way way way cooler than being an operator, hope it works out for you. When you are ready to start applying reach out here or on linkedin i know a guy that recruits for a lot of different industrial jobs all over the country

Yea I think so, engineers do make a little more. There are pros and cons to each

@@gregroche7323 okay. I’m in my 3rd semester as a electro mechanic and 2 more years would seem more beneficial

Yeah, maybe like they’re both good honestly but they’re just a lot different. Electro mechanic is a little bit different than automation controls. It’s like more focused on the mechanic aspect, but expected to do both if that makes sense. I can’t really comment on if the demand for engineering candidates is as good as maintenance technicians and electrical technicians. The deal with electrical technician jobs is there basically like a lower level job but it still pays really good so that comes with less stress. There’s definitely really high demand for technicians, but you’re going to be working with your hands more big time. You’re gonna have to kind of figure out which one you want to do I guess is the bottom line.

Also, with the electro mechanic degree, you can kind of decide to veer towards controls and automation, once you get your degree and pick the jobs that you want and then you know your experience matters a lot, as well as the degree

Yeah, I get that. I would say There is some math while getting a degree but not like a 4 year engineering degree. Engineering you need 3 levels of calculus, usually with 2 year engineering technology, automation or electronics degrees you need algebra and trigonometry. Some of the classes also require path but I would say it’s all pretty repetitive. You are going to need to learn algebra (think solving for “X”. 2X+10=50, stuff like that. There are some exponents as well. Trig is like if some, cosine that stuff. None of that is complicated, you just have to learn it. It’s significantly less difficult math than engineering. On the job I don’t really use math, but a lot of stuff requires a sort of problem solving, math-like mindset. For example.. this conveyor won’t start. We checked all the sensors they are working but none of the lights on the panel are turning on. Then you look at the electrical schematics and try to figure out the solution with pieces of evidence or figure out what else you need to test to solve the problem. On the job I just use basic algebra for calibration, there is a lot of problem solving and learning how equipment works

@@gregroche7323 i appricate it, now when applying to college should i go ahead and do it I’m interested in I&E? Or should i wait? Cause the closet college that offers the 2 year degree is 35 mins from me, so the next time I can enroll is this up coming spring semester. What I’m really trying to ask is, i like to work with my hands, I like having problems and solving them, and I like not having 19,000 people next to me bothering me.

The degree doesn't require too much math mainly problem solving which is the best type because it is useful in your normal everyday life too not just your job

@@randomhelpI agreee

I would suggest a tour with the people that run the program you are thinking about joining. I actually went to achool woth randomhelp. The place we went was really good in my opinion a lot of fun labs, the guy that ran it was fun, he helped is all get part time jobs while we were in school. Try to figure out if they do that and see if its a good fit

Yeah, if you just search Greg roach Cleveland or automation I’ll pop right up on LinkedIn. I’m happy to chat

Yeah, I totally understand how you feel. I’ve never worked at Amazon, but I have an interviewed there. I also did quite a bit of research on Reddit forums about working at Amazon while I was deciding if I wanted to take the job… From my understanding, Amazon is highly standardized so while I will get you back in the controls that may not be as exciting as what you’re looking for in my opinion. My suggestion would be to look for a job as an engineer and you never know it doesn’t hurt to apply. That’s the next step if you want to be challenged every day.

Also, I want to man what I said you don’t have to be an engineer lol. Also, I appreciate the comment I don’t like when people, sister, can’t find a job with the degree. Everyone that ever reached out to me and ask for some guidance ended up with a full-time job, making good money to spend like a month or two.. I digress. You can go for the Amazon if you want my understanding of Amazon is it’s not the most fun place to work. If you feel like you’re gonna have trouble getting back into the field. I think that would be a good place to start but I think there’s better places to work for. I pretty much do the same thing at work in a heavy industrial environment so I get it, doesn’t bother me. Any manufacturing job or water utilities way less dirty and grime. Big companies pay more and are more boring, small companies pay less and are more exciting

That’s pretty cool if you haven’t already started, I would suggest start getting your name out there. Maybe make a profile on LinkedIn add all your skills and what not, If you’ve ever held a job for more than a year or so, throw that on there that’s really nice people like to see that you’re reliable. Do you want to find a job that no one else is applying for then reach out to a bunch of technical recruiters in your area. At least 50% of the open jobs out there aren’t posted on any job boards a lot of them go unfilled for years

You mean like a gold mine or something like where they dig for medals Metals?? I actually really don’t know if they have a lot of complex machinery, then yeah they would have that. Oil, mining operations use instrumentation and electrical technicians, and they actually pay a really high amount of money. I’ve been told that if if you get a couple years of experience as a instrumentation and electrical technician and you’re willing to relocate to remote locations, you can work on oil rigs for Really high wages. In some cases 200k$/ yr U.S. or more, I haven’t really personally looked into it that much though

I'm currently doing Industrial Physics and Instrumentation degree that's why I am asking, I haven't done enough research yet about the career

@GAMUCHIRAIWAYNEMAREWO-g8u what country? Those are really good choices in my opinion

Dang that sucks I near major city. Are you on LinkedIn yet? Find out if you make a lot of friends on LinkedIn that are recruiters People reach out to you about jobs that aren’t posted anywhere, at least that is my experience

@@gregroche7323 i’m going to try that

For sure, I think, robots and factories are becoming a lot more common. I would say at this point about half Or maybe even a little more factories at least 1 robot. Generally robot maintenance programming is lumped in with automation work… not sure if that’s what you’re getting at

@@gregroche7323 yes sirrr, I remember something called an aurdino board that we could upload a command through the program and it was basically robotics using C++

Yeah that’s usually what I do if you get To the point and you’re in a real pickle pickle and you can’t figure out what’s going on it’s better to go to the little junction box on the actual motor disconnect the three power wires in the conduit, and then measure the Wires going into the motor. The only reason for that is, there’s always a slight possibility that you have an issue with the wiring in the conduit going from your control panel to the motor so you wanna rule that out. Generally, I just do it in the panel though but if things seem really funky or if I’m gonna replace the motor, then I go ahead and redo all my tests in the junction box a.k.a. Peckerhead just to be sure

@@gregroche7323 right on . Thanks

Congratulations that’s a really big deal. Is that your first technical job? Tell us more I’m very happy for you.

@@gregroche7323thanks man ! And yes it is.. I Graduated back in 2021 with a 2 year degree in automation and controls and I’ve finally struck gold lol

That’s cool. Why do you think it took a while to find something? Really happy for you. Here is some unsolicited advice. Do your best, take it slow at first and be careful. Be confident but also ask questions. Figure out the bad apples and avoid them, find some good allies and just enjoy it. It takes a little bit of time to get really good so be patient with yourself.

@@gregroche7323 thanks man I really appreciate it! That means alot coming from someone who’s been in the trade for a while 💪🏾.. I think it took so long because lack of field experience im in Mississippi so I know it’s tougher down south at places like this to find a decent job that pays well

I have to second staying away from the bad apples! They may come off as confident and down to earth "we know how it really goes around" "only the a$$ kissers move up in the company" but they're just that - bad apples, they will hold you down to their level and keep you miserable. Lol that being said, they will probably have some good technical knowledge to teach if they're willing. But good luck, I'm in my 3rd year as a tech and I really love every day of it. And thanks for the great video! I'll definitely be perusing your content!

Yeah you can. Do you wanna kill the power first… if I check fuses I either leave it hot and measure voltage or kill the power and take them out of the circuit. You don’t really need to take it out but it’s just habit I guess. One time when I was a new technician I left the fuse in the circuit and tested it and it read good I but it was actually a bad fuse ever since that I always take them out. Reading continuity is like the same thing as reading resistance they just mean the opposite of each other

What do you do for work?

​@@gregroche7323 electro-mechanical industrial technician

@@Ml4zobass I’m uploading another one right now very similar check it out

Yeah that’s completely fine, if you do have your overload in the neutral and you’re using 120 V AC if your overload trips you’ll actually measure 120 V on the one side of the overload because the current is not being consumed in Coil . This is very important, it doesn’t matter if your overload contacts are positioned on the hot side of your control circuit, or on the neutral side, You just wanna make sure your control circuit only has one path to neutral, which is through the Coil (A1and A2), Make sure you don’t wire a hot to neutral without having to pass through something that will consume the power that is a short circuit

@@michealplater9007 Also, I probably need to expand on the question. I don’t know how much you know about electricity, so I’m just gonna cover the basics. Generally speaking, you use a contactir when you’re running three phase motors so on a three phase motor, there are three hots, and then a ground. All the power for the motor runs through the three hots and the ground is used just in case. The there hots run through the contactor (aka starter) and your control circuit makes the contactor turn on. I am discussing control circuits, meaning the power that you used to tell the pump to turn on, not the power that goes to the pump. I’m assuming your question is in regards to the control circuit and not the actual power going through the contactor, a.k.a. starter to the motor. Lmk if that’s what you’re asking or if you need more information.

Dang, that’s a good question… I don’t know I never had to try that hard personally you only know what you know. Some things that are important to employers are ability to read electrical schematics If you know how to work for PLC logic that is a big plus. Motor controls, testing motors, electrician skills are important. Being familiar with sensors and automation is pretty hard to find these days. If you have some skills I suggest being friendly with a positive attitude. I personally really enjoy automation and controls, I enjoy learning and working on machines, and I usually express that and that is more than enough generally. I don’t know what the job market is like in your area by where I’m at there’s almost no competition I’m usually I’m the only person interview, so generally pretty easy-to get an offer

@@gregroche7323 thanks for the comment back bro! I totally understand where you are coming from.. I’m familiar with taking all the courses from the beginning of simple resistor values all the way to bending conduit and PLC logic.. I’m from Mississippi so yes I’ve had to move around to find opportunities and the class was taken at the community college in my home town .. I’ve just never had the hands on experience/ on the job training so that’s what’s been making it difficult to obtain a job in the field

@@jayb1itz15 yea that’s tough that’s definitely the tricky part is just getting the 1st bit of experience what is the job? If you are really struggling I would suggest apple or like every industrial maintenance type job just to get a foot in the door

@@gregroche7323 yes sir and it’s an E and I technician position

@@Mahomes2222 I will… My next videos are gonna be testing at three phase motor, building a lift station with float, switches and relays, interview with the controls engineer, and eventually I want to rebuild the color sorting conveyor system that I made in school, but make it much better. Do you have any ideas for good videos?

@@gregroche7323those sound good man keep it up , in my 2nd semester in electro mechanics

Nice what area are you in?

@@gregroche7323 West Virginia/ Pittsburgh area

@@musakavalci9470 Any other good ideas for a video?

@@ranger178 yeah you don't see that as much but in my region that is not uncommon at the steel mills lot of guys doing 6 12s at 45+ per hour. Personally I'm not really built for it but I've been known to push it pretty hard from time to time. After a week or two I got to slow down though

@@ranger178 I actually know a few people that earn in the 200,000+ range due to O/T. It's funny I know a handful of high earners. The highest earning people I know are business owners with little to no education, the next few wealthiest people I know are people are doing industrial maintenance lol. Not a lot of people with bachelor's degrees pulling over 200

@@gregroche7323 yeah a few weeks of it and i need a day off I was fine with 40 hours a week we had some guys who did jobs 16 hours a day all week in mad rush to finish and get place up and running they would even just sleep in their cars in parking lot.

This is probably so dumb but I try not to give out really any information about how the place I work operates. I'm also completely anonymous about where I work at this current time it's not listed anywhere on the internet. I will say this, some places use it, some places don't. It really depends on the scale and size of the operation. Some places just have a bunch of machines with their own plc's and an HMI on each machine, some places have a scada system thay lets you know what's going on all over the plant. At the technician level scada modifications and HMI modifications are pretty uncommon, generally you just need to have a little bit of knowledge of network communication and at least some ability to troubleshoot using PLC logic

@@gregroche7323that’s fair, thanks for the info.

@@Don-kk7ou well Electrical Maintenance technician is usually doing maintenance on machines, repairing automation systems in a factory. Sometimes it's called instrumentation and electrical technician, automation & electrical technician. Usually there are calibrations, installing/ troubleshooting motor controls, looking at PLC logic etc Residential Electricians install wires, switches, lights, conduit breaker panels etc. They also do repairs of course.

My wife's sister painted those like 7 or 8 years ago. I look at it like this my TH-cam channel is still and it's very early stage and I'm experimenting with different formats and styles... Plenty of room for improvement and plenty of time to improve that's where I look at it

@@gregroche7323 nice keep at it see what you like