Inventory the bench you have, price the one you need, and write the safety card

short · 45 min

Task

Establish what can and cannot be proved with the equipment available to you, price the gap, and write the safety rules onto one card that every later lab points at. Do this first: several labs in this course state a requirement in their Environment section, and knowing now which you can run is cheaper than finding out halfway through one.

Steps

  1. Write lab/bench/have.csv with header item,have,condition,note covering: a working computer, a phone, a machine you may open, a multimeter, a cable tester, spare patch leads, a display cable of each type you own, screwdrivers, and anti-static protection.
  2. Write lab/bench/gap.csv with header item,price,proves,priority for everything marked absent. proves states what that item would let you demonstrate; an item that proves nothing does not belong on the list.
  3. Write lab/bench/virtual.csv with header topic,virtualisable,why covering at least eight topics from this course, deciding for each whether a virtual machine can stand in for it.
  4. Write lab/bench/safety.md containing the five rules from the lesson -- mains, capacitors, lithium cells, static, and lifting -- each in one sentence, in your own words.
  5. Write lab/bench/sources.txt listing at least three places you could obtain retired hardware without buying it.

Verify

awk -F, 'NR>1 && NF>=4 {n++} END {print n" item(s) inventoried"}' lab/bench/have.csv
awk -F, 'NR>1 && tolower($2)=="no" {n++} END {print n+0" gap(s)"}' lab/bench/have.csv
awk -F, 'NR>1 && NF>=4 {n++} END {print n" gap(s) priced"}' lab/bench/gap.csv
awk -F, 'NR>1 {print $2}' lab/bench/virtual.csv | sort -u | wc -l
grep -Eic 'mains|capacitor|lithium|static|lift' lab/bench/safety.md
grep -c . lab/bench/sources.txt

Nine or more items inventoried, every gap priced with what it proves, at least two distinct answers in the virtualisable column, five safety rules present, and three or more sources. If every topic is marked virtualisable you have not read the second list in the lesson.

Notes

Keep lab/bench/safety.md open on the bench. Every later lab in this course assumes it rather than repeating it, and a lab that asks you to do something it forbids is a lab with a mistake in it.

This is an independent study companion for CompTIA A+ Core 1 220-1201 and is not produced by or endorsed by CompTIA.