[Bensa]

I was doing a "scientific" experiment. I noticed that if I hold a cat5 cable in one hand touch my steel case with the other, my hand will feel pretty funny for a while I've also noticed if I stick my thumb into a 40W light bulb socket, it will tingle, then turn warm .

So, has anyone else except ncballer had encounters with this strange and mystical power we call electricity? (For the simple minded, post your electric mishaps.)

[KaHNZa]

One time when I took the cover off my PSX, I touched one of the bigger capacitors. It made my arm up to my elbow kinda tingly and numb.

[cack01]

Grabbed a live 12V and ground wire in my truck. A huge pop, and a bright spark caused my hand to be thrown back into my face. All I got was a nice burn mark.

[star882]

I have been working on a Britney machine(which is for my friend Caitlin Williams), and as I reached inside the case to check to make sure the front fan is working, ZAP.
It turned out that the front panel display(which is a 2.5" TFT that displays system stats(e.g. RAM usage, CPU usage, CPU temp, fan RPM, etc.)) has a high voltage DC/DC converter to generate the high voltage for the backlight bulb(which is about 1.5" long and about as thick as one of the PSU wires).

[CamH]

Originally posted by star882
I have been working on a Britney machine(which is for my friend Caitlin Williams), and as I reached inside the case to check to make sure the front fan is working, ZAP.
It turned out that the front panel display(which is a 2.5" TFT that displays system stats(e.g. RAM usage, CPU usage, CPU temp, fan RPM, etc.)) has a high voltage DC/DC converter to generate the high voltage for the backlight bulb(which is about 1.5" long and about as thick as one of the PSU wires).

Britney... Opteron. Let's use the proper names, shall we?

Having said that, when I was a kid, I used to lick 9 volt batteries. Just a little tingle, but I got a kick out of it!

[JigPu]

Here's a classic... Electric Fence

Now, if you hold on to a grass blade, and let it touch an electric fence, you'll feel the pulses it sends out. As you decrease the ammount of grass between you and the fence, the pulses will get stronger, and start to make your hand hurt.

After a while though, you'll quickly learn that if you touch somebody else while doing the 'grass blade trick', you'll get a much larger jolt, and a spark sent from your hand to them. Because of the additional grounding provided by your friend, the electricity travels through you much easier, and so more will come on through.

If, however, you have 6 or 7 friends along all holding hands... Well, that's what I ended up doing And stupidly, the end person (me) was holding onto a metal fence beaten a few feet into the ground. Well, the amount of grounding increased a couple hundred fold, and when the guy with the grass blade touched the fence, we all flew back about 3 feet.

Please remind me to never do that again
JigPu

[KaHNZa]

Well thats nothing. When I was in 6th grade I would hook 3 9 volt batteries together in series to make 27 volts. I would hookup a bread twister to it (which would get red hot) and burn things. Or I would over-volt a small electric motor and think of cool things to do with it. I made the mistake one time of touching all 3 batteries to my tongue. Let me tell ya, it was more than just a tingle!

[Ajent]

Ah yes but dont forget the fun sensation you get when you accidentally touch the wonderful unit we call the sparkplug wire on a running vehicle. Ode to the numbness~!


And KaHNZa.. I still to this day overvolt small motors and use em to melt/drill through random bits of plastic

[star882]

I have performed a trick(a "power transfer over one wire" magic trick) where you hold onto the glass of a flourescent light bulb, then touch one end of the bulb to the heatsink in a working PSU.
I performed the trick without being zapped, but then, my friend Jonathan Reider decided to try it, he accidentally touched the heatsink, and he got a RF burn.

[JDXNC]

I've had my share of encounters with electricity...

Let me beging by saying... when people warn you about poking around inside a monitor or TV... they are serious... I found that out the hard way!

Another electric fence victom here...being a farmer I deal with it all the time, and now have gotten so I can hange on the wire to "test" if it has power in it... wanna impress someone? Show them you can hold on an electric fence as they watch your arm twitch to the pulses it puts out

Zapped myself with 240V running new lines into the panel box at my parents house for the addition they put on the house... stupid bare ground wire touched the center pole in the panel while I was pulling it through the openings on the side..... mental note... strip rubber sheeth off outside of cable AFTER it is in the box! That one real hurt, I had twitches all over my body for the rest of the day on that one.

Hmm... cut an extention cord while it was plugged in.... not one of my brightest moments... I have a pic of the pliers I used somehwhre... will post that... looks neat.

And variouse other little jolts here and there

EDIT:



I have big hands and there is just not enough rubber on those things.

[n17ikh]

I made a 4-amp, 12/24 volt AC/DC transformer for overvolting my small motors professionally.... It also works well for making hydrogen (fun to completely fill a plastic drink bottle and then ignite it and feel the bottle get warm from the flash explosion) and making pencil graphite glow (the .5MM kind, usually 3-5 bundled together for longer life) It generates a very bright, atcnic (sp?) light till it fizzes out in a large spark after 30 seconds-it completely burns through.... It's fun to make a cheap MP3 CD player spazz by shorting various pins of the ICs to ground... I even got mine to go into "programming mode" once.... Also, flyback transformers from old TVs are fun...

Here's a pic of the aforementioned transformer....



The paper in the middle is covering up the hole where I had a fan to cool the power regulator.... But, despite my efforts, the 1.5-amp regulator blew while drawing the full 4 amps, sending the full 24V to the fan, causing it to die a quick death... Now it is unregulated DC/AC... But it works good for anything requiring low voltage, high current... That same high current is also VERY painful when applied to make a spark, which burns badly...

[Borisw37]

taking a part a 1-time use camera, i found that that capacitor holds a pretty nice charge.

[Dc5e]

Originally posted by Borisw37
taking a part a 1-time use camera, i found that that capacitor holds a pretty nice charge.

haha i did the same thing twice on the same camera by mistake.

[ThePerfectCore]

When I was still in elementary, I rigged up a bunch of 9 volt batteries to make myself a 120 volt "super cell". I hooked it up to a lamp, which lit brightly... then a fan, which spun nicely... then a VCR, that promptly buzzed and blew up. :S

Turns out that little label that says "AC ONLY" really meant something.

[KaHNZa]

Bahahahaha!!!1 This thread is evil. It makes me want to play with electricity. But I'd probably end up hurting myself, so I must resist the urge.

[cack01]

Well in two weeks I plan on working on my arcade cabinet's monitor. Thus I must dischage it first. I'm really worried about it, but I have already bought some rubber gloves and screwdriver. So I feel confident in saying I will be here is two weeks.

[TLhead]

You can use the 120V to 15kV neon light transformers to make a Jacob's ladder....You know the machine in old Frankenstein movies where sparks walk up the wire.....

Well, I made one, but when I was adjusting one of the bare wires that the sparks walk up, it turned out that it was the hot leg instead of ground as I painfully found out.....I got a nice 3 inch arc to my finger that really stung.....Ahh the good old days!

[Andy101]

I still test the 9v batteries with my tongue... The worst electricity experiment i've had is with a TV, and a camera flash circuit, i heard that they can actually kill you...

Andrew

[Bensa]

Whoah, just woke up a while ago. Lots of reponses, maybe its not a good thing
I have these 9 volt batteries used by the Swiss Army to power flashlights, and their meant to last a long time. I plugged a LED in and it was pretty bright, until it popped.

[n17ikh]

Originally posted by Borisw37
taking a part a 1-time use camera, i found that that capacitor holds a pretty nice charge.

Heh.... I turned one of those into a sort of taser by soldering on permanent wires and a battery pack.. It can reach 360V and is pretty painful...