Probably wondered why you didn’t just put it in neutral and push it 20 feet. He’s going to have to do that anyway….
I had to get a skid steer to pull my truck out of a ditch a couple years back. That was more expensive than a suck-up-truck. My place was still under construction and I managed to get buried to the axle in the trench the utility company dug for the feed to the transformer. And we were having one of the wettest years EVER. So what did I do? Went back later that week to finish what I started, and got stuck off the end of the driveway again. It wasn’t as badly stuck, but not going anywhere in the rain either. Had to wait a month till things dried out, jacked it up on boards, and pulled it right out with the other truck.
Dumbest DIY mistake of my life: using a table saw with gloves on.
The result? A nasty accident. Blood everywhere, walls splattered, and my poor niece watching it all unfold. Three fingers injured, few months of recovery.
I got lucky—almost a full recovery. All fingers are still attached, but one doesn’t move past the last joint anymore.
Had to sell my guitar…
The result? A nasty accident. Blood everywhere, walls splattered, and my poor niece watching it all unfold. Three fingers injured, few months of recovery.
I got lucky—almost a full recovery. All fingers are still attached, but one doesn’t move past the last joint anymore.
Had to sell my guitar…
A few of mine have a similar theme -
Humble Cautious, Careful, and methodical => Lots of success with no smoke => overconfidence => dodo error => back to being humble, cautious, careful, and methodical .... wash, rinse... repeat
One was particularly annoying similar to @mbrennwa ... I can't have done it wrong!
As I was "learning", I used current limiting / voltage control for every-single power up with DMMs hanging off every part (as appropriate) during a build sequence until the lid was securely fastened. Then I got cocky a few times... bad idea. Now, I'm back to taking the extra 20s to perhaps save hours and $$. It's not IF, but WHEN I goof.
One example -
I had / have 4 identical PSUs. They were all in use for 4+ years. I was in the process of "updating them". So, I made identical changes to all 4. These changes were 'small' - an LED change, a ground configuration change, and a mounting change to allow some versatility for moving them between projects and using one as a test bench PSU. This was nothing to be concerned with for a 'veteran DIYer'
like myself, right?
I powered one of them up... sparks and smoke. Noooooo, I couldn't possibly be bothered to check for root cause or grab a DBT or a Variable trasnsformer. I was 'in a hurry', and I had 3 more power supplies. They all worked flawlessly for years, and all I had done was make tiny changes; nothing that would cause this problem. Second PSU swapped into the project => smoke and sparks.
tl;dr - the new mounting bolts had cut through the solder mask shorting the negative rail to the chassis through the mount on the bottom of the board.
I repaired them, but... 3 hours of work + cost for trying to save 20s.
Edited to add - One of my favorite quotes on the subject.
Humble Cautious, Careful, and methodical => Lots of success with no smoke => overconfidence => dodo error => back to being humble, cautious, careful, and methodical .... wash, rinse... repeat
One was particularly annoying similar to @mbrennwa ... I can't have done it wrong!
As I was "learning", I used current limiting / voltage control for every-single power up with DMMs hanging off every part (as appropriate) during a build sequence until the lid was securely fastened. Then I got cocky a few times... bad idea. Now, I'm back to taking the extra 20s to perhaps save hours and $$. It's not IF, but WHEN I goof.
One example -
I had / have 4 identical PSUs. They were all in use for 4+ years. I was in the process of "updating them". So, I made identical changes to all 4. These changes were 'small' - an LED change, a ground configuration change, and a mounting change to allow some versatility for moving them between projects and using one as a test bench PSU. This was nothing to be concerned with for a 'veteran DIYer'
like myself, right?I powered one of them up... sparks and smoke. Noooooo, I couldn't possibly be bothered to check for root cause or grab a DBT or a Variable trasnsformer. I was 'in a hurry', and I had 3 more power supplies. They all worked flawlessly for years, and all I had done was make tiny changes; nothing that would cause this problem. Second PSU swapped into the project => smoke and sparks.
tl;dr - the new mounting bolts had cut through the solder mask shorting the negative rail to the chassis through the mount on the bottom of the board.
I repaired them, but... 3 hours of work + cost for trying to save 20s.
Edited to add - One of my favorite quotes on the subject.
“Learn from the mistakes of others. You can't live long enough to make them all yourself.”
― Eleanor Roosevelt
I don't make mistakes.
Everything happens for a reason and sometimes that reason is that I made a stupid decision. 😊
Everything happens for a reason and sometimes that reason is that I made a stupid decision. 😊
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One old mistake of me it happens years ago i want to swap speakers or cables and i have left running my c-audio st400 and my technics su v500 touch the speaker cables on booth amps together and booom blow the technics amp output module.
I did exactly this to the finger of a friend in school. It may have been his right hand, though. 🙄
^ I'm trying to visualize how you could run someone else's finger through a table saw unintentionally. Was the finger still attached to their hand when it happened?
Was it done intentionally, and then you realized it was a mistake, and they were no longer your friend?
I must use levity to lighten what must have been traumatic for both of you.
Will add one case - not dumb, but educational.
Company was designing hand-held measuring instrument - imagine a good size hair drier shape.
You point the instrument on the object, electronic board is processing the measurement and
send it to the needle meter conveniently mounted on the back of the case for the operator
to see. They even smartly decided to mount the board on the meter' screw terminals with
the copper pads for the electric connections.
The board was tested on the bench with the simulated signals, everything was working fine -
time to assemble the instrument. Surprise - the instrument is not working anymore.
The investigation has revealed that the board contained a reed relay which, being mounted in
the proximity of the magnet inside the meter, has stopped working properly because of his
magnetic field...
Company was designing hand-held measuring instrument - imagine a good size hair drier shape.
You point the instrument on the object, electronic board is processing the measurement and
send it to the needle meter conveniently mounted on the back of the case for the operator
to see. They even smartly decided to mount the board on the meter' screw terminals with
the copper pads for the electric connections.
The board was tested on the bench with the simulated signals, everything was working fine -
time to assemble the instrument. Surprise - the instrument is not working anymore.
The investigation has revealed that the board contained a reed relay which, being mounted in
the proximity of the magnet inside the meter, has stopped working properly because of his
magnetic field...
I can only give one advise to DIY electronics: never try to catch a falling soldering iron. It hurts a lot when you catch it.
The Kenwoods were/are unfortunately notorious for failing if encountering a speaker short.
The equipment involved will date this error of mine. For some reason I wanted to use the front-panel AUX inputs on my VCR, which was mounted on a shelf above the CRT television. I connected one end of the cable to the VCR inputs, and then absent-mindedly allowed the other end of the cable to swing free across the screen of the powered-on TV. CRTs are great sources of static electricity, and I ended up frying the input selector chip in the VCR. Fortunately, a replacement chip was easy to find and replace.
Another time, as a kid, I had a bracelet made of bead-chain (hey...it was the 60s). I made the mistake of laying my wrist across my brother's powered Lionel train track. That bracelet quickly turned into a heating element, and let me assure you, it heated up a lot faster than it cooled down! Left a series of polka-dot burns around my wrist.
Another time, as a kid, I had a bracelet made of bead-chain (hey...it was the 60s). I made the mistake of laying my wrist across my brother's powered Lionel train track. That bracelet quickly turned into a heating element, and let me assure you, it heated up a lot faster than it cooled down! Left a series of polka-dot burns around my wrist.
Someone put nails in his hands. Not sure he's you're best bet here.
(sorry, couldn't help it.)
The greatest fail I've probably made was servicing two Crest Peavey CC1800s. Just cleaning, replacing blown LEDs, basic measuring. After successful procedure of the first I was looking forward that the second will be done in less than a hour when now I already knew the construction of the thing. To be sure that everything worked I connected resistive load and my new scope, which I believed were isolated like the old Russian I was using before. Accidentally connected the scope with ground to the + output. Had the scope powered form same socket.... phew lots of errors. I learned hard that the protection circuit it those amps was no good. Or the loop impedance was just "spot on".
Thing I really hate about those amps is that when they blow up, they blow up completely. I took many notes from this tragedy. At least still have all my fingers (to slap myself).
Thing I really hate about those amps is that when they blow up, they blow up completely. I took many notes from this tragedy. At least still have all my fingers (to slap myself).
I just finished a PM on a big Reliance DC motor.
I wire the 240 motor to a 480 Volt source and closed the disconnect in front of 4 of my bosses.
I wire the 240 motor to a 480 Volt source and closed the disconnect in front of 4 of my bosses.
I bought 200K of NV right before today's historic 18% crash. I excelled at stupidity this time.
Oh I've got a good one! When I was younger I had a big Hitachi boom box. I don't remember the model name but it had detachable speakers and twin cassettes. I bought it in 1990 cos it had the highest advertised power output. I upgraded bits of it in various dubious ways, like increasing the capacitors in the PSU, and fitting schottky diodes. Also I changed the speaker drivers (6.5") and fitted actual tweeters and crossovers. It did sound better after the mods so it's all good!
Anyway one day I was messing around with a microphone, and plugged it into one of the line-in inputs on the boom box. But it was too quiet. Then I had a genius idea! I would use one stereo half of the system as a pre-amp for the other half. So I was very pleased with myself for being so clever and connected the speaker output from one side into the line-in phono connector of the other. Of course, that's when it popped and the smoke came out.
Pro-tip - don't short bridge mode amplifiers to ground!
Anyway a friend's dad worked as a repair guy, and he replaced the blown chip - AN7161NFP. Funny I still remember that. He was very curious about how I blew it up (I guess those chips have overload and short-circuit protection) but I was too embarrassed to tell.
Anyway one day I was messing around with a microphone, and plugged it into one of the line-in inputs on the boom box. But it was too quiet. Then I had a genius idea! I would use one stereo half of the system as a pre-amp for the other half. So I was very pleased with myself for being so clever and connected the speaker output from one side into the line-in phono connector of the other. Of course, that's when it popped and the smoke came out.
Pro-tip - don't short bridge mode amplifiers to ground!
Anyway a friend's dad worked as a repair guy, and he replaced the blown chip - AN7161NFP. Funny I still remember that. He was very curious about how I blew it up (I guess those chips have overload and short-circuit protection) but I was too embarrassed to tell.
