Learning path · Free · No card
Electrical and mechanical fundamentals
Before the PLC: motor control with contactors and starters, pneumatics and hydraulics, and the control panel that holds it all. The base every automation engineer stands on.
Step 1ElectricalBeginnerIndustrial Motor Control
The electrical foundation of every machine: contactors, relays, overloads and protection, switches, ladder logic and documentation, manual and magnetic starters, two-wire, three-wire and hand-off-auto circuits, pumping applications, jogging, reversing and interlocks, plugging and braking, reduced-voltage and soft starters, timers, and testing and troubleshooting on a real trainer board.
- Select contactors, relays, overloads, fuses, breakers and transformers
- Read and document motor control ladder diagrams
- Wire manual and magnetic starters with two-wire, three-wire and HOA control
Step 2Fluid powerBeginnerIndustrial Pneumatics and Hydraulics
Fluid power from first principles to electrical control: pneumatics versus hydraulics, air preparation, cylinders and vacuum, valves and symbols, pneumatic circuits and sequencing, FluidSIM exercises, Pascal's law and hydraulic maths, pumps and power units, hydraulic valves, circuits and schematics, design calculations and relay control of fluid power systems.
- Compare pneumatics and hydraulics and prepare air correctly
- Select and size cylinders, valves and vacuum
- Design direct, indirect, logic and sequencing circuits and simulate them
Step 3ElectricalBeginnerElectrical Control Panel Design, Building and Testing
What is inside a PLC panel and why, components, wiring diagrams, 2-wire and 3-wire control, sensors and commons, building a UL 508A panel step by step, workmanship, cooling and factory acceptance testing.
- Name every part of a PLC control panel and what UL 508A covers
- Choose relays, contactors, overloads, transformers and terminal blocks, and state the SCCR
- Read a PLC wiring diagram and wire 2-wire and 3-wire control
How the path works
Join the path and every course is added to your account at once, each with its own progress, notes, quizzes and final. Take them in the order shown: each assumes the one before. Module quizzes are five plain questions and the final is twenty, pass mark 50%, with unlimited retries, so the assessment checks that you followed the lessons rather than testing exam nerves.
Questions
- Is the Electrical and mechanical fundamentals free?
- Yes. Every course in the path is free in full: lessons, notes, practice tasks and assessments. Joining the path adds all of them to your account in one step. The only paid item is the optional EDWartens Certificate of Completion for each course.
- In what order should I take the courses?
- In the order listed: each course assumes the one before it. Every course keeps its own progress, quizzes and certificate, so you can also take one on its own.
- Do I get one certificate for the whole path?
- Certificates are per course, issued when you pass that course's final assessment and bought only if you want them. Finishing every course in a path gives you one certificate per course.