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Artist seeking to tinker with electronics safely

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    Artist seeking to tinker with electronics safely

    Howdy folks! I'm an artist in the video game industry, and my job entails making a lot of mechanical and sci fi assets. I thought it might be a good practice to start disassembling some electronics to be more familiar with how real electronics are manufactured and assembled, which is how i found my way to these forums.

    When I started researching what tools I might need, I quickly encountered the warning "Some devices can maintain a potentially lethal charge in their capacitors, even up to years after last being powered on", which was enough of a scary thought for me to slam on the breaks and seek some education before actually taking anything apart.

    My electronics knowledge is quite novice- I know the words 'capacitor', 'resistor', and a handful of others, but i'd struggle to give a definition of what those things do.

    I've been seeking out youtube videos on this subject for a while, but have yet to reach a level of knowledge where I feel safe poking around electronics. I bought a couple of old VCRs at my local goodwill that I thought would be interesting to look inside of, and I also have a blender that recently died- What is the danger level of capacitors inside of devices like these?

    At the suggestion of a friend, I purchased a multimeter, but I haven't yet learned which of its functions I should be using, or where I would I apply the probes to safely navigate around the guts of these electronics. I also ordered a capacitor discharging pen tool that I'm hoping will be useful.

    If any one has any words of wisdom or useful resources on these safety concerns I would greatly appreciate it, thanks for your time!

    #2
    Re: Artist seeking to tinker with electronics safely

    If the VCRs have been unplugged for a while, you should be fine. However, it's always a good idea to take a look at the voltage rating of the capacitors. For example, 50V=safe, 400v=stay away. You can use gloves to avoid touching both pins of the 400V capacitors. If you want to check how charged the capacitors are, put your multimeter on 500V DC (the V with one straight line and one dotted line) and put the probes on both sides of the capacitor (being careful not to touch the metal parts of the probe or to touch one probe to both sides of the capacitor).
    If you want to get a hang of the function of electronic components, I'd recommend some YouTube videos like Bigclivedotcom's Simple guide to electronic components or The Defpom's Electronics Basics Series .

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      #3
      Re: Artist seeking to tinker with electronics safely

      Thanks for that info! Any particular kind of gloves I should be using? When I tried to google that question the results I was seeing were like $500 gloves for high voltage work...

      And as far as the machines i'm going to disassemble, Goodwill keeps them on a shelf with electrical outlets nearby so people can test them before purchasing, so they could have been powered on as recently as i purchased them, but they've been sitting on my garage workbench unpowered for a month.

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        #4
        Re: Artist seeking to tinker with electronics safely

        you dont need gloves,
        just dont touch high voltage capacitor pins until you meter them

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          #5
          Re: Artist seeking to tinker with electronics safely

          The most important advice I can give is to just NOT open electronics WHILE they are plugged it. Should be obvious really... and in your case, that probably won't happen either, since you're not looking to repair/troubleshoot these, but just to open them for fun / learning purposes. So you should be relatively safe. Most consumer / household electronics (except for Microwaves) don't usually have big enough caps to store enough energy to kill. Jolt / shake you up / give you a scare? - YES. The worst, IME, is a fully (or nearly full) charged 450V capacitor from a PC PSU or TV, going from one hand on the circuit board, through the body, then out the other hand and back to the circuit board. Perhaps a charged CRT TV/monitor tube might be worse than that, though I haven't had the "pleasure" of experiencing one of those yet.

          Actually, what's more dangerous if you get shocked is that you might yank your hand back... and if you have it near any kind of sharp metal piece, you can get a nasty cut... or hit the back of your hand (elbow) in whatever is behind it. That's about it, though.

          Really, just don't take apart microwave ovens quite yet. Or fridges (high pressure freon.) Or very VERY old CRT TVs that don't have tube implosion protection (so anything older than a 60's or 70's TV set, I think... maybe even 80's??)

          *EDIT*
          Watching the early videos on Electroboom's channel on Youtube can also be educational... and funny. Highly recommended if you've never seen them or that channel. He also has 1 or 2 videos on what is/could be and what isn't a dangerous / lethal shock & electrocution. A lot of people *everywhere* say and think, it's the current that kills, not the voltage... but it's actually a lot more complicated than that. It's more about the energy and the time it can be delivered in... which turns us back full circle in that most consumer electronics simply don't have large enough capacitors to be that dangerous.
          Last edited by momaka; 10-22-2023, 08:27 PM.

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            #6
            Re: Artist seeking to tinker with electronics safely

            Thanks for the words of advice. I dont see myself graduating to larger devices, I'm only looking for artistic inspiration afterall. I'm also looking for things that haver interesting moving internal parts, not just circuit boards- that's why I went with VCRs to start.

            I'll check out electroboom, thanks!

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              #7
              Re: Artist seeking to tinker with electronics safely

              Maybe look into automotive if you want to see electronics working together with moving parts. There is ABS breaks, power steering, fuel injection and many others.

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                #8
                Re: Artist seeking to tinker with electronics safely

                Inkjet printers too, and those should be both plentiful and cheap/free to find.

                Craigslist FREE section is a good source for them, at least in my area. This is how I also got some of my broken electronics that I fixed.

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                  #9
                  Originally posted by andrewsawesomr View Post
                  Re: Artist seeking to tinker with electronics safely
                  ... If you want to check how charged the capacitors are, put your multimeter on 500V DC (the V with one straight line and one dotted line)...
                  The multimeter I bought doesn't appear to have a 500V DC setting. Should I assume the 600V is the one I should use?

                  Also, does it matter which probe is connected to which side of the capacitor, or is it interchangeable?

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                  Last edited by SMDFlea; 12-02-2023, 05:50 PM.

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                    #10
                    600 setting,
                    leads will work both ways - not that it matters but if you get them the wrong way it just puts a "-" sign infront of the reading

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                      #11
                      Your approach of getting a multimeter and a capacitor discharging pen tool is a great start. When using the multimeter, focus on functions like resistance and voltage. Before poking around, make sure to discharge capacitors using the pen tool.

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