"Lux vita" banished from laboratory

[jackinnj]

Amusing story from "Tales from the Cubicle" -- how an engineer discovered that lights sometimes mix too well with your design:

http://www.edn.com/article/CA6378105.html?spacedesc=TalesFromTheCube

How many others have seen a design modulated because some clear 1N4148's were modulated?

 

[Pano]

That's great!

I've cut the top off of metal can transistors to get the effect he didn't want.

I have a fluorescent light on my workbench. So far no light leak problems, but the HF ballast does induct noise into everything. A very good test for shielding.

 

[ReidK]

There was an EE course given at my alma mater which entailed designing and building circuits from a standard (and fairly small) parts kit. There was one project that could not be built unless the student realized that a photocell could be used as an oscillator (at least in the lab). I think the professor subsequently decided that while this did encourage (or at least test) ingenuity and "thinking outside the box", it really wasn't teaching good engineering, and the kit was upgraded, probably with a 555. Or maybe with two extra transistors...

Reid