Re: Re: Re: Creativity
Speaking personally, I've found that the process of designing speakers has been one of the most intensely creative activities that I have indulged in.
For the months required I become almost obsessive (what am I saying "almost"). I live and breathe speaker designs and this permeates not only my waking hours but also my dreams. Often I go to bed with a problem and wake up with a solution. I guess this could be called 'right-brained'.
I don't mean to imply that my designs are a great work; they must stand or fall on people's listening impressions. I'm just describing some of the process that I go through.
And so to sleep, perchance to dream and, hopefully, not of more bl@@dy speakers.
Steve
Christer said:
Speaking personally, I've found that the process of designing speakers has been one of the most intensely creative activities that I have indulged in.
For the months required I become almost obsessive (what am I saying "almost"). I live and breathe speaker designs and this permeates not only my waking hours but also my dreams. Often I go to bed with a problem and wake up with a solution. I guess this could be called 'right-brained'.
I don't mean to imply that my designs are a great work; they must stand or fall on people's listening impressions. I'm just describing some of the process that I go through.
And so to sleep, perchance to dream and, hopefully, not of more bl@@dy speakers.
Steve
Back when I was 13 or so, I began playing with electrolysis.. nothing fancy, just some Salt in water and watched the anode (or was it cathode..?) Slowly dissolve... well needless to say 15v was not enough for me and 20 minutes of watching metal develop holes was too long .....
So I reach for a BBQ skewer and the mains line. You can imagine what a Plastic bucket filled with Brine with 2 beef skewers sticking out tied to a 240v mains looked like.....
As soon as I opened the mains line and fed it some juice, ..... I heard such a loud buzz.... I never imagined that 8 gauge powerline embedded in concrete (feeding the socket I was using) could rattle so loud
The brine around the electrodes began vaporizing, and the skewers dancing around , I was lucky enough to shut the whole thing down before something happened....
To this day, Mommy does not know why she is short of 2 skewers in her collection.
So I reach for a BBQ skewer and the mains line. You can imagine what a Plastic bucket filled with Brine with 2 beef skewers sticking out tied to a 240v mains looked like.....
As soon as I opened the mains line and fed it some juice, ..... I heard such a loud buzz.... I never imagined that 8 gauge powerline embedded in concrete (feeding the socket I was using) could rattle so loud
The brine around the electrodes began vaporizing, and the skewers dancing around , I was lucky enough to shut the whole thing down before something happened....
To this day, Mommy does not know why she is short of 2 skewers in her collection.
Heh, I skimmed through this thread and was reminded of some of my screw-ups...I planned on listing a couple but as I was reading this my friend called me;
"What are you doing?"
"reading a thread about failed projects on the forum, good for a chuckle"
"I got a failed DIY project for em'. That damned kid of mine!!...he dented the f'n car today!!"
...so here it is.
"What are you doing?"
"reading a thread about failed projects on the forum, good for a chuckle"
"I got a failed DIY project for em'. That damned kid of mine!!...he dented the f'n car today!!"
...so here it is.
Ha Ha..good thread.
I learned early on that a speaker cabinet needs to be well damped....
I was about 8 years old and used all of my birthday money for a new demo model technics reciever at a local shop. I got it home and immediately hooked it up to my 'wonderful' diy 3-ways. I watched in horror as my 12" drivers stolen from dad's console literally went up in flames
My parents and I took the reciever back and the salesman subsequently toasted one of thier Jamo's with the technics. My mother insisted they compensate me for my speakers. The shop owner insisted he see the speaker..we went home to get it. The shop owner removed the 12" driver to see the type.
Just picture the look on mom's face when the salesman removed the damping from the cabinet in the crowded store...no polyfill here..it was underwear...all underwear. Yes, mom's, dad's, sis's...and some of mine!
I got a new pair of Fisher's that day.. and a new reciever.
I learned early on that a speaker cabinet needs to be well damped....
I was about 8 years old and used all of my birthday money for a new demo model technics reciever at a local shop. I got it home and immediately hooked it up to my 'wonderful' diy 3-ways. I watched in horror as my 12" drivers stolen from dad's console literally went up in flames
My parents and I took the reciever back and the salesman subsequently toasted one of thier Jamo's with the technics. My mother insisted they compensate me for my speakers. The shop owner insisted he see the speaker..we went home to get it. The shop owner removed the 12" driver to see the type.
Just picture the look on mom's face when the salesman removed the damping from the cabinet in the crowded store...no polyfill here..it was underwear...all underwear. Yes, mom's, dad's, sis's...and some of mine!
I got a new pair of Fisher's that day.. and a new reciever.
LOL!
I once did nearly the exact same thing as the OP,except I used a Ne-2 neon bulb..(nope,no resistor)
Held in in my fingers,slid the wires in the socket and *BAM*..
nothing left except a purplish spot in my vision,and a big black mark on the wall around the outlet....I was probably 8-9 years old?
(nope,didn't even burn my fingers!)
Ohh,even better..I once "fiddled" moms radio for better reception,while she was sunbathing one day..
Got some magnet wire,and wrapped it around the antenna....and unplugged the radio,wrapped it around the prongs,and plugged it back in,thinking it would recieve everything perfectly!
*BAM*
Nope,just a scared 6 year old,and a big black mark on the wall (Radio still worked!) I don't think the breaker even tripped,the small magnet wire just vaporized.
Humm... I was once playing with an old tubed O-scope,after coming back from a "shindig"..I was a little tipsy,and well aware of it,and was trying to be damn careful not to get shocked....when all of a sudden I got "bit"...bad!
The HV (~12kv?) from the focus/brightness pot jumped to the side of my thumb..probably a good 3 inch gap..!
I had a black hole in the side of my thumb,and a sore arm.
Almost as good as the time I got an RF burn from a 100W CB amplifier...(a perfect black "O" in my thumb,from the exposed end of the copper tube in the fiberglass whip antenna.) That sucked..
I hate the smell of seared flesh.
Humm,I once picked up what I *thought* was a discharged HV capacitor,and was gonna toss it at one of my buddies,as a joke...ya know.. "think fast"....little did i know it was still charged..
The joke backfired on me....
But I guess I deserved that one..
And I once got my arms across a HV laser power supply..
It was unplugged,but the caps were still *plenty* charged up.
That was by far THE most scary thing ever..
The rest of them hurt,but I literally thought I was a goner after this one.
Dunno WTF I was thinking,but I managed to get the full brunt of the voltage muiltiplier's caps.... It felt like a baseball bat across the chest,my arms flung back,and my whole body jumped.
I *immediately* checked myself for a pulse,and thankfully found one.. A large jolt across your chest is seriously scary. 
Ohh yea,I almost burned the house down once with a ******* tantalum capacitor (I HATE those bastard things now)..
I was working on a small CCFL inverter,and was powering it with 12V,as usual.. except the "enable" pin was expecting a 5V signal...
and so was it's capacitor...
*BANG*
the small cap goes sailing across the room,lands on a stack of papers,and the flames instantly shot up the wall,and scared the crap out of me..
I F'n HATE tantalum caps.
Burned up a bunch a notes,schematics (some which were irreplaceable.) Bank statments...whatever was in the "paper pile" on the desk that day.. There's still some black soot on the wall..
Ever seen Back To The Future,2-I think it was? when the flaming model car goes sailing off the table,and into a pile of rags soaked in solvent,they burst into flames,and Doc Brown goes "UUUHH!!!" in response...?
Thats exactly what I did...
ohh,and I was once experimenting with a small stereo SE 6V6 amp..and had it sitting on my bed while I was testing..well,one my dropping resistors in the PSU was just a tad under-rated,and got *REALLY* hot......
Melted through my comforter,sheets,and clear to the matress..
Ohh,and one summer I was at my g/f's house,and her phone line was acting wierd..so I went out,on the wet concrete(she just watered the flowers.),in my socks,with my un-insulated "Leatherman" tool to tighten the nuts that hold the wires down.....
and someone called..right when I started tightening...
Ugh.. phones can suck just as much as AC mains...
Oh well,atleast the phone's been fine ever since!
Uhh...Think thats about all of my stupid mistakes.
I once did nearly the exact same thing as the OP,except I used a Ne-2 neon bulb..(nope,no resistor)
Held in in my fingers,slid the wires in the socket and *BAM*..
nothing left except a purplish spot in my vision,and a big black mark on the wall around the outlet....I was probably 8-9 years old?
(nope,didn't even burn my fingers!)
Ohh,even better..I once "fiddled" moms radio for better reception,while she was sunbathing one day..
Got some magnet wire,and wrapped it around the antenna....and unplugged the radio,wrapped it around the prongs,and plugged it back in,thinking it would recieve everything perfectly!
*BAM*
Nope,just a scared 6 year old,and a big black mark on the wall (Radio still worked!) I don't think the breaker even tripped,the small magnet wire just vaporized.
Humm... I was once playing with an old tubed O-scope,after coming back from a "shindig"..I was a little tipsy,and well aware of it,and was trying to be damn careful not to get shocked....when all of a sudden I got "bit"...bad!
The HV (~12kv?) from the focus/brightness pot jumped to the side of my thumb..probably a good 3 inch gap..!
I had a black hole in the side of my thumb,and a sore arm.
Almost as good as the time I got an RF burn from a 100W CB amplifier...(a perfect black "O" in my thumb,from the exposed end of the copper tube in the fiberglass whip antenna.) That sucked..
I hate the smell of seared flesh.
Humm,I once picked up what I *thought* was a discharged HV capacitor,and was gonna toss it at one of my buddies,as a joke...ya know.. "think fast"....little did i know it was still charged..
The joke backfired on me....
But I guess I deserved that one..
And I once got my arms across a HV laser power supply..
It was unplugged,but the caps were still *plenty* charged up.
That was by far THE most scary thing ever..
The rest of them hurt,but I literally thought I was a goner after this one.
Dunno WTF I was thinking,but I managed to get the full brunt of the voltage muiltiplier's caps.... It felt like a baseball bat across the chest,my arms flung back,and my whole body jumped.
I *immediately* checked myself for a pulse,and thankfully found one.. A large jolt across your chest is seriously scary.
Ohh yea,I almost burned the house down once with a ******* tantalum capacitor (I HATE those bastard things now)..
I was working on a small CCFL inverter,and was powering it with 12V,as usual.. except the "enable" pin was expecting a 5V signal...
and so was it's capacitor...
*BANG*
the small cap goes sailing across the room,lands on a stack of papers,and the flames instantly shot up the wall,and scared the crap out of me..
I F'n HATE tantalum caps.
Burned up a bunch a notes,schematics (some which were irreplaceable.) Bank statments...whatever was in the "paper pile" on the desk that day.. There's still some black soot on the wall..
Ever seen Back To The Future,2-I think it was? when the flaming model car goes sailing off the table,and into a pile of rags soaked in solvent,they burst into flames,and Doc Brown goes "UUUHH!!!" in response...?
Thats exactly what I did...
ohh,and I was once experimenting with a small stereo SE 6V6 amp..and had it sitting on my bed while I was testing..well,one my dropping resistors in the PSU was just a tad under-rated,and got *REALLY* hot......
Melted through my comforter,sheets,and clear to the matress..
Ohh,and one summer I was at my g/f's house,and her phone line was acting wierd..so I went out,on the wet concrete(she just watered the flowers.),in my socks,with my un-insulated "Leatherman" tool to tighten the nuts that hold the wires down.....
and someone called..right when I started tightening...
Ugh.. phones can suck just as much as AC mains...
Oh well,atleast the phone's been fine ever since!
Uhh...Think thats about all of my stupid mistakes.
well, this is sadly a school project. and there is still time to save it.
imagine this. you have 2 arbitrary voltages -- V and V+9.
now you have a BNC jack. the sheild is at an arbitrary voltage...
obviously this is not the safest thing to do -- to hook 120-200V to the sheild of a BNC cable whereby the user is forced to shock themselves to plug in modules...
my teammate who brought this up argued that it was unlikely to kill anyone.
imagine this. you have 2 arbitrary voltages -- V and V+9.
now you have a BNC jack. the sheild is at an arbitrary voltage...
obviously this is not the safest thing to do -- to hook 120-200V to the sheild of a BNC cable whereby the user is forced to shock themselves to plug in modules...
my teammate who brought this up argued that it was unlikely to kill anyone.
My worst DIY project
My worst DIY project was undoubtedly the TV set I tried to build when I was 10. This was in South Africa in the late '60's and there were no TV broadcasts at that time in any case, but I was undeterrred by this.
According to my 'Encyclopaedia of Modern Knowledge' (1965 edition), the key to a succesful TV set was the Cathode Ray Tube. I started with an old 5 litre paint tin (didn't think it was important that it be glass) and stretched over the open end of it a piece of tracing paper, the back of which I'd painted with reflective paint of the type used for street chevrons. (It shines in the dark when light hits it - what's the problem?) As a filament I used a small coil of resistance wire which was energised by my 1.5V GPO telephone battery (so it's not red hot; it's hot enough if it burns me). I fitted an 'anode' to this 'tube' which consisted of a piece of cabtyre mains cable fed into the tin via a putty-sealed hole. The live conductor was left exposed and sort of 'suspended' in the centre of the tin, while the earth conductor was connected to the pain tin itself. My book mentioned that CRTs required several thousand volts to operate, but I felt sure this was a needless exaggeration and that I'd see at least some sort of picture if I connected the other end of this cable to a 3-pin plug and plugged it into the mains.
Finally, in order to approximate an 'evacuated tube', I sucked as much air out of this Paint Tin Tube by means of a drinking straw before plugging my 'HT' into the mains and peering very, very, intently at the front, looking for 'pictures' Didn't see any. I called my mother to check; she didn't see any either. I called my father to come check; he didn't say anything about pictures but he became very aggitated, shouted a lot and took my 'CRT' away.
Compared to my crystal wireless set built at about the same time, my 'TV set' was a huge failure and this is why I have no time for video today. Video is intolerant of approximations, and I don't know what people see in it.
Cheers
John
My worst DIY project was undoubtedly the TV set I tried to build when I was 10. This was in South Africa in the late '60's and there were no TV broadcasts at that time in any case, but I was undeterrred by this.
According to my 'Encyclopaedia of Modern Knowledge' (1965 edition), the key to a succesful TV set was the Cathode Ray Tube. I started with an old 5 litre paint tin (didn't think it was important that it be glass) and stretched over the open end of it a piece of tracing paper, the back of which I'd painted with reflective paint of the type used for street chevrons. (It shines in the dark when light hits it - what's the problem?) As a filament I used a small coil of resistance wire which was energised by my 1.5V GPO telephone battery (so it's not red hot; it's hot enough if it burns me). I fitted an 'anode' to this 'tube' which consisted of a piece of cabtyre mains cable fed into the tin via a putty-sealed hole. The live conductor was left exposed and sort of 'suspended' in the centre of the tin, while the earth conductor was connected to the pain tin itself. My book mentioned that CRTs required several thousand volts to operate, but I felt sure this was a needless exaggeration and that I'd see at least some sort of picture if I connected the other end of this cable to a 3-pin plug and plugged it into the mains.
Finally, in order to approximate an 'evacuated tube', I sucked as much air out of this Paint Tin Tube by means of a drinking straw before plugging my 'HT' into the mains and peering very, very, intently at the front, looking for 'pictures' Didn't see any. I called my mother to check; she didn't see any either. I called my father to come check; he didn't say anything about pictures but he became very aggitated, shouted a lot and took my 'CRT' away.
Compared to my crystal wireless set built at about the same time, my 'TV set' was a huge failure and this is why I have no time for video today. Video is intolerant of approximations, and I don't know what people see in it.
Cheers
John
Let's see...
1. Connecting a 3V light bulb to 220 mains (somewhere between 7-10 years)
2. I was fixing the doorbell, thought about shorting those bars that hold the fuses to each other with te screwdriver. Screwdriver broke before I succeeded removing it from the bar afterwards... I was on a ladder when doing this.
3. Thought about connecting a wristwatch cell to the secondary 24V transformer, blew in about 1/2 second, age 14. I'm wondering what would've happened if I had done that with 220V.
4. Re-did point 3 with AA batteries, don't remember age.
5. I was fixing an amp, when some boiling liquid-like sound started... Well I connected the filtering cap in reverse polarity.
6. Fixing an amp, while powered. Now and then I was touching something very sharp with my elbow. I didn't take the trouble to see what it is. It was the connectors of the mains switch, and it didn't sting because it was sharp...
1. Connecting a 3V light bulb to 220 mains (somewhere between 7-10 years)
2. I was fixing the doorbell, thought about shorting those bars that hold the fuses to each other with te screwdriver. Screwdriver broke before I succeeded removing it from the bar afterwards... I was on a ladder when doing this.
3. Thought about connecting a wristwatch cell to the secondary 24V transformer, blew in about 1/2 second, age 14. I'm wondering what would've happened if I had done that with 220V.
4. Re-did point 3 with AA batteries, don't remember age.
5. I was fixing an amp, when some boiling liquid-like sound started... Well I connected the filtering cap in reverse polarity.
6. Fixing an amp, while powered. Now and then I was touching something very sharp with my elbow. I didn't take the trouble to see what it is. It was the connectors of the mains switch, and it didn't sting because it was sharp...
Not a DIY project, but electrical and painful all the same... About 4 years ago I was changing out the fluorescent tubes in a light fixture when my mother came downstairs to see what I was up to and preceeded to flip on the light switch. This would have been a complete non-event, but I just happened to have my index finger of either hand touching one of the two posts on the tube and each of the other two posts were already in contact with the terminals on the fixture. That gave me a good hit straight acrossed the chest.
While not project my "incidents" invlove pian and stupidity so here goes.
1) While working at a company that sold industrial sewing machines a co-worker and I were moving a large metal cabinet across the assembly floor. At the top of the cabinet was a screw that protruded out a few inches. That little small screw somehow managed to find its way into the 208V 20A feedrail running overhead. Lucky a manager got us to drop it before it made contact with one of the copper rails inside the feedrail, would have been instant death.
2) While working in my shop class building some silly metal box i had to drill a few holes inside some sheet steel. Being rushed for time i didnt want to clamp the steel metal to the drill press table. I decided to hold the steel metal in place with one hand and drill with the other. Figuring that was asking for trouble i decided to hold it with two hands and have a buddy pull the drill press down. We'll my buddy started to pull the press down and it kinda jerked down onto the sheet metal causing it to catch and spin the steel metal in place. Well the steel metal cut 1-2" long flaps in all of my fingers tips. A few mm more and i could have lead a very successful life of crime
3) the usual electrocution and solder iron dances
What have i learned from all this ?? That my future career will involve ASIC design. I doubt anyone can be killed by 1.8V
1) While working at a company that sold industrial sewing machines a co-worker and I were moving a large metal cabinet across the assembly floor. At the top of the cabinet was a screw that protruded out a few inches. That little small screw somehow managed to find its way into the 208V 20A feedrail running overhead. Lucky a manager got us to drop it before it made contact with one of the copper rails inside the feedrail, would have been instant death.
2) While working in my shop class building some silly metal box i had to drill a few holes inside some sheet steel. Being rushed for time i didnt want to clamp the steel metal to the drill press table. I decided to hold the steel metal in place with one hand and drill with the other. Figuring that was asking for trouble i decided to hold it with two hands and have a buddy pull the drill press down. We'll my buddy started to pull the press down and it kinda jerked down onto the sheet metal causing it to catch and spin the steel metal in place. Well the steel metal cut 1-2" long flaps in all of my fingers tips. A few mm more and i could have lead a very successful life of crime
3) the usual electrocution and solder iron dances
What have i learned from all this ?? That my future career will involve ASIC design. I doubt anyone can be killed by 1.8V
Hmmm
When I was a young kid I used to try to make circuitboards out of tacks, nails, and wire nailed to a piece of plywood. My dad was an electrician so he had plenty of stuff hanging around... Blew more than a few circuits, and the outlet looked like burned bacon after a while...
Oh yeah, never strip wires with your teeth like I used to. I wired up 8 Fairchild mic pres and 8 API mic pres with 20db pads etc into a box and stripped all of the wires with my front tooth... Now I have a nice little groove in my front tooth the exact size of that audio wire... Sucks...
Electricity is fun, and it's actually not too dangerous once you know what you're doing.........................
When I was a young kid I used to try to make circuitboards out of tacks, nails, and wire nailed to a piece of plywood. My dad was an electrician so he had plenty of stuff hanging around... Blew more than a few circuits, and the outlet looked like burned bacon after a while...
Oh yeah, never strip wires with your teeth like I used to. I wired up 8 Fairchild mic pres and 8 API mic pres with 20db pads etc into a box and stripped all of the wires with my front tooth... Now I have a nice little groove in my front tooth the exact size of that audio wire... Sucks...
Electricity is fun, and it's actually not too dangerous once you know what you're doing.........................
No, it's still dangerous. You can work with it safely, but it's still dangerous.
Dentists in fishing towns may be able to install an appliance into your tooth like they do some of their 'hard core' fishermen clients: get a little titanium blade installed in your tooth, you will have no more problems splitting wire insulation (or lead
fishing weights).
Dentists in fishing towns may be able to install an appliance into your tooth like they do some of their 'hard core' fishermen clients: get a little titanium blade installed in your tooth, you will have no more problems splitting wire insulation (or lead
fishing weights).Stocker said:No, it's still dangerous. You can work with it safely, but it's still dangerous.
Dentists in fishing towns may be able to install an appliance into your tooth like they do some of their 'hard core' fishermen clients: get a little titanium blade installed in your tooth, you will have no more problems splitting wire insulation (or lead
Get a few more and expect to get employment offers from Evil Billionaires. Job security isn't the best; some British guy with a penchant for vodka martinis keeps on killing your bosses.
Francois, "shaken not stirred".
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