Dumbest 'electronic' mistake you ever made

[TechGeek]

Re: Dumbest 'electronic' mistake you ever made

A while back, I was around a live electrical socket w/o a cover for the hole in the wall. I think I was poking around in there and I heard BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT. How I didn't get zapped, I have not a clue.

[LLLlllou]

Re: Dumbest 'electronic' mistake you ever made

Lets see, dumbest. . . I was 8 or 9, decided I needed to know what would happen if I put a hanger across the pins of a lamp plug before plugging it in. Hanger welded itself to the plug prongs. Luckily I didn't get electrocuted, and circuit breaker tripped before anything really bad happened.

One time I put my hand on a heat sink to feel if it was warm, got a nice 200+ volt DC shock.

Latest dumb thing, put a Panny FM 2200UF 16V cap in backwards. "pop-fissssss" scared the shit outta me when I hit the power switch. Cloud of magic smoke streamed into the air through the PSU air vents. Smelt like a skunk fucked a garlic clove.

[goontron]

Re: Dumbest 'electronic' mistake you ever made

Lets see, dumbest. . . I was 8 or 9, decided I needed to know what would happen if I put a hanger across the pins of a lamp plug before plugging it in. Hanger welded itself to the plug prongs. Luckily I didn't get electrocuted, and circuit breaker tripped before anything really bad happened.

One time I put my hand on a heat sink to feel if it was warm, got a nice 200+ volt DC shock.

Latest dumb thing, put a Panny FM 2200UF 16V cap in backwards. "pop-fissssss" scared the shit outta me when I hit the power switch. Cloud of magic smoke streamed into the air through the PSU air vents. Smelt like a skunk fucked a garlic clove.

[Uranium-235]

Re: Dumbest 'electronic' mistake you ever made

putting 9 caps on the output VRM on a Dell GX280 all backwards. 9 pops i a row very quickly

[TechGeek]

Re: Dumbest 'electronic' mistake you ever made

putting 9 caps on the output VRM on a Dell GX280 all backwards. 9 pops i a row very quickly

At least it didn't run and cook anything else.

[ben7]

Re: Dumbest 'electronic' mistake you ever made

Yeah, popped caps can really stink. It's interesting though, all the brands seem to have a different stink xD

[TechGeek]

Re: Dumbest 'electronic' mistake you ever made

Yeah, popped caps can really stink. It's interesting though, all the brands seem to have a different stink xD

Ever had a Rulycon blow up?

[TechGeek]

Re: Dumbest 'electronic' mistake you ever made

[ben7]

Re: Dumbest 'electronic' mistake you ever made

Ever had a Rulycon blow up?

Nope. I've found bad ones but never had one blow in my presence. What, do they have an interesting smell? xD

... snip...

[rhomanski]

Re: Dumbest 'electronic' mistake you ever made

You might need to get to a dentist Ben.

[ben7]

Re: Dumbest 'electronic' mistake you ever made

You might need to get to a dentist Ben.

So yeah, I didn't cause this (LOL), but I thought this is the best place to post this, so here goes:
Yesterday we had some power issues at school. Bathroom (that sucks, LOL) and some stairway lights didn't work. No tripped circuit breakers! We checked the incoming 3 phase supply. A to N = 119V, C to N = 122V, B to N = 7V!!!! Ruh-roh!
We went into the boiler room, which is separate from the electrical room (though, there are sub-panels in the boiler room). As soon as we opened the door, a bad burning smell hit us. One of the circulator pumps runs on 3 phase, and it didn't like being run on 2 phases!!! It was smoking! We quickly shut it off and it took quite a while to stop smoking.
There are no other 3 phase motors in the building besides the fans for the A/C system and it's compressor(s). We made sure everyone knew not to turn them on, lol.
An AC powered clock shows that the B phase failure happened at around 2:40 AM (If I recall correctly, lol). We called PSE&G (Public Service Electric and Gas) and they came out. A pole down the street had the B phase cutout blown. They opened a manhole cover, where some splices were (for the 13.8kV feeder lines) and there was water in there. Splices looked fine, according to the workers. They did pump out the water just to be sure. Well, here is the fun part. They put in a new fuse, to see if there was still a fault. Yep, there was, and it blew. DAMN! Quite a bang, and a flash of light from the bottom of the cutout! They sure put a good amount of explosives in those things! :P
So, it turns out, that the fault was actually on the pole. It was in the shroud that covers the HV wires, which are going to the bottom of the pole, and into the underground conduit that feeds the building.
Oh, and there are 3 underground transformers in a vault, each is 100kVa. Just thought you might want to know.
I might see if I can get the circulator motor when they replace it, and take a look to see how cooked it is inside. Then I'll just recycle it, or give it to the local motor repair shop, if they want to rewind it and sell it to someone else. I also think we should get some sort of protection contactor for the new motor, to prevent this from happening in the future, if we do loose a phase at some point in time. Those motors aren't cheap!

[goontron]

Re: Dumbest 'electronic' mistake you ever made

So yeah, I didn't cause this (LOL), but I thought this is the best place to post this, so here goes:
Yesterday we had some power issues at school. Bathroom (that sucks, LOL) and some stairway lights didn't work. No tripped circuit breakers! We checked the incoming 3 phase supply. A to N = 119V, C to N = 122V, B to N = 7V!!!! Ruh-roh!
We went into the boiler room, which is separate from the electrical room (though, there are sub-panels in the boiler room). As soon as we opened the door, a bad burning smell hit us. One of the circulator pumps runs on 3 phase, and it didn't like being run on 2 phases!!! It was smoking! We quickly shut it off and it took quite a while to stop smoking.
There are no other 3 phase motors in the building besides the fans for the A/C system and it's compressor(s). We made sure everyone knew not to turn them on, lol.
An AC powered clock shows that the B phase failure happened at around 2:40 AM (If I recall correctly, lol). We called PSE&G (Public Service Electric and Gas) and they came out. A pole down the street had the B phase cutout blown. They opened a manhole cover, where some splices were (for the 13.8kV feeder lines) and there was water in there. Splices looked fine, according to the workers. They did pump out the water just to be sure. Well, here is the fun part. They put in a new fuse, to see if there was still a fault. Yep, there was, and it blew. DAMN! Quite a bang, and a flash of light from the bottom of the cutout! They sure put a good amount of explosives in those things! :P
So, it turns out, that the fault was actually on the pole. It was in the shroud that covers the HV wires, which are going to the bottom of the pole, and into the underground conduit that feeds the building.
Oh, and there are 3 underground transformers in a vault, each is 100kVa. Just thought you might want to know.
I might see if I can get the circulator motor when they replace it, and take a look to see how cooked it is inside. Then I'll just recycle it, or give it to the local motor repair shop, if they want to rewind it and sell it to someone else. I also think we should get some sort of protection contactor for the new motor, to prevent this from happening in the future, if we do loose a phase at some point in time. Those motors aren't cheap!

we lost a phase at my HS and we lost the elevator, 3 phase circulatiors, cooling tower fan motors, 3 phase server PSU.... all of them burned up. yep, expensive.

[zx8401]

Re: Dumbest 'electronic' mistake you ever made

" I remember doing a funny kinda dance "

lol im so sorry but i could not stop laughing, imagination is so bad

[zx8401]

Re: Dumbest 'electronic' mistake you ever made

They heard "Switch it on" and flicked the switch..... I remember doing a funny kinda dance

Im so sorry newtothis but i could not stop laughing, a funny kinda dance, sorry lol

[Pentium4]

Re: Dumbest 'electronic' mistake you ever made

About 2 and a half years ago, I recapped an Allied PSU, one of those with the "clam shell" style casing. I was so excited to test it that I forgot to put the plastic cover under the solder side. Flipped the power switch, ka-BOOM!

[TechGeek]

Re: Dumbest 'electronic' mistake you ever made

About 2 and a half years ago, I recapped an Allied PSU, one of those with the "clam shell" style casing. I was so excited to test it that I forgot to put the plastic cover under the solder side. Flipped the power switch, ka-BOOM!

Ooooops.... ever lost B-phase power at home?

[Pentium4]

Re: Dumbest 'electronic' mistake you ever made

Nope

[ben7]

Re: Dumbest 'electronic' mistake you ever made

Ooooops.... ever lost B-phase power at home?

It's highly unlikely that he has 3 phase power unless he lives in an apartment building. (even then, some only have single phase power)

Nope

Unless this was supposed to be some sort of joke that I didn't get. :P

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Dumbest 'electronic' mistake you ever made

We were in high school, my friend Matt and I. Just learning about computers (even though, back then, we thought we knew everything! How wrong were we?). Anyway, I ordered a motherboard and a CPU. I was building my first PC from scratch and wanted his help (he knew more than I did at the time). We get it all together and it wouldn't POST. So we take the CPU (a 5x86 Cyrix I think) and started turning it 90 degrees and plopping it back in and trying again! Still nothing. Matt notices a little 2 pin header on the motherboard that doesn't have a jumper and then we notice a little two pin female cord coming from the power supply. Being the geniuses that we were, we figured that cord must plug into the motherboard. We plug it in, turn it on again and nothing...at first. Then all of a sudden Matt asks if I smell smoke. We look down, the motherboard is smoking. Turns out that little wire was to power a small numerical display on the front of the case that shows how fast the CPU is running.

Back then, motherboards didn't cost nearly what they cost today. I contacted the company and neglected to tell them what we did. I just said it wouldn't post. They were nice enough to let me RMA it and get another one.

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Dumbest 'electronic' mistake you ever made

When I was really young, I went to Toys R US and saw that they had a gameboy hooked up to a TV screen through an NES. I didn't realize they had a cart that the gameboy game plugged into. I went home, cracked open the NES and gameboy and grabbed a jumper wire. I started touching it to places on the gameboy with one hand and to another place on the NES thinking if I found the magical place, I'd see the gameboy screen on the TV! All of a sudden, a nice spark and the wire starts getting real hot. I ruined the NES and the gameboy. That was pretty stupid.