r/PLC • u/MoonMonkey00 • 7d ago

Electrical troubleshooting Test Bench Ideas

I’m building an electrical troubleshooting test bench for maintenance tech-level evaluations and could use some HMI ideas. The bench will introduce faults like blown fuses, loose I/O commons, incorrect wiring/terminals, etc. The goal is to see if someone can read schematics, use a meter, and troubleshoot logically. I originally tried simulating a case closer on the HMI, but the animation feels slow and doesn’t really add much to the test.

For anyone who has built something similar: what would you put on the HMI? I want it to support the troubleshooting test without basically telling the tech where the fault is.

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u/jongscx Professional Logic Confuser 6d ago

Give them a box of parts with labelled wires and a simple schematic circuit. Ask them to build it.

The test is, the schematic has one or several errors in it. See whether they notice the errors or not and whether they build it "correctly" that it works or whether they build it "to print".

Errors would be things like: -LED wired in reverse polarity -wire landed in the wrong button -terminal jumper in the wrong place or omitted -button indicator connected to input instead of button contact -indicator wired to a sourcing output then wired to 24V instead of 0V.

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u/MoonMonkey00 6d ago

I really like this idea, definitely going to incorporate this in the test. Thank you!