Robot repair center

The Robot repair center is a building in the Capital Wasteland, south-southwest of Canterbury Commons.

Background
Before the Great War, the building was a large robot repair center called Darren's Discount Electronics, which sold robots at discount prices. The primary purpose, however, was repairing robots for large clients, like DCTA Protectrons. It appears to have specialized in these robots. In 2277, the building becomes the base of the Mechanist.

Building
The building is divided into an office area, the Mechanist's forge (this can be accessed by picking a hard lock which will allow the player to reach the forge without fighting) and two repair sectors, sector A and sector B. Each sector is defended by leveled robots, ranging from protectrons up to sentry bots and a leveled automated turret.

Located opposite one of the turret arrays, on a high platform, is a security console, which allows the player to trigger an 'emergency pulse', essentially a massive EMP blast which will destroy any and all robots nearby. In order to use this pulse, the encryption key must be looted from the nearby easy locked safe.

There is an elevator near the entrance which can be lockpicked with a skill of 75 or above, allowing entrance to the Mechanist's forge. Otherwise, the facility is broken up into four sections: Office (left of entrance), two maintenance areas (sector A and B, which are connected by a control room on the upper level) and the forge (an upstairs area used by the Mechanist as a secret lair). Sector B is closest to the entrance, connected to the lobby by a metal door past the elevator, and the forge entrance is on the upper level of sector A.

Mechanist's Forge
To gain access to the Mechanist's office, go to the Mechanist's Forge entrance at the South-West corner of the second floor. Go through the door to find yourself in an office that contains, among other items, a Coffee Brewer. Activate this, and a rusty corrugated metal wall slides away revealing an intricate secret door which opens in elaborate style.

Vicinity
After the quest Waters of Life a small Enclave outpost will appear just south of this position guarded by one Enclave officer and four turrets. The officer holds a key card that if held by the player, will stop the turrets from targeting the player. There is a terminal in the center of the outpost that has information on why the camp is there.

Some steps further down the road radio mast Yankee Bravo is located.

Notable loot

 * Nikola Tesla and You book on the workshop floor in the west room just north of the door to the Mechanist's forge. It is near a conveyor belt. It is on a counter next to a toolbox and hidden by a wrench.
 * Lying, Congressional Style in the Mechanist's forge, on a desk. Note that you'll have to traverse your way through the center and enter from the door to the west in order to find it. You can not open the door to this room if you enter via the elevator.
 * Some 20 pieces of scrap metal can be found, as long as you search all the robots and all the containers.
 * There are also many crafting items here. (Conductors, Pilot Lights, etc.)
 * A locked metal box (average) in the room to the left of the entrance (in the last cubicle on the left side) contains 6 pulse grenades. A nearby terminal will point you towards the hidden key.
 * A single Nuka-grenade in the workbench where the Mechanist stands in the Mechanist's forge.

Appearances
The Robot repair center appears only in Fallout 3.

Behind the scenes

 * The Snake mentioned in the note from Frank on the desk terminal might be a reference to Solid Snake from the Metal Gear Solid series, as he is said to have smuggled some pulse grenades into the repair center undetected.
 * The door to the Mechanist's forge opens as the doors close at the end of each episode of "Get Smart".

Bugs

 * Closing the secret door using the door gear while standing in the middle of the doorway will cause the player to be stuck inside. One way to get out is to reload the game. Another way out is to go into third person mode and swirl the camera around. This allows you to sometimes reach the button, in the same way you loot Colonel Autumn when he 'dies' at Project Purity.
 * Sometimes when leaving the Mechanists' forge through the room with the coffee machine your follower will fall through the floor and get stuck on the conveyor belt. This can be fixed by leaving the factory.
 * One of the protectrons that you can activate from a pod in Sector B, after killing it at least once, will respawn after you leave the area, but will be dead. Only its body (depending how you killed it) will be floating in the air and can be killed again for a meager amount of exp.
 * The protectrons that are dead appear to fly around the room when approached.