Dumbest thing you've done? (in electronics)
Ugha
Posts: 543
The other day I was testing a board I made that had IR transmitters, IR receivers
and an LED bank (controlled by a transistor) all on it.
The board was running fine... except every time I pulsed the IR LEDs the normal LEDs
would fade on. I was about ready to scrap the whole thing and start with a fresh perf
board.
It took me over an hour to realize that every time I tested the thing, I had bridged
the IR signal to the transistor's base with my finger!
Just curious... what is·the dumbest mistake you've ever made with electronics?
and an LED bank (controlled by a transistor) all on it.
The board was running fine... except every time I pulsed the IR LEDs the normal LEDs
would fade on. I was about ready to scrap the whole thing and start with a fresh perf
board.
It took me over an hour to realize that every time I tested the thing, I had bridged
the IR signal to the transistor's base with my finger!
Just curious... what is·the dumbest mistake you've ever made with electronics?
Comments
To make a long story short, the circuit stopped working after setting several propeller inputs to 12v. Yes, the proto board was fried
The really stupid part is after a detailed code/circuit review, I couldn't find anything wrong, and then fried another proto board!
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This post is a work of art. Variations in spelling and grammar are intentional, artistic endeavors that add value to all of mankind.
http://forums.parallax.com/forums/pr.aspx?f=21&m=151769
Insisting that it would be much easier to diagnose and debug a small running engine on my desk rather than outside, I blew up a voltage/current regulator and it erupted in flames.
I'm in the middle of another stupid problem I can't resolve, so I'll be taking the whole circuit to Chris Savage tomorrow morning. Eight hours of work and I still can't figure out why the project "sorta" works.
Ken Gracey
Parallax, Inc.
Years ago I was over at a friends house and I caught the HOT end of a micro-wave oven transformer. Don't ask what we were doing with that potentially fatal "experiment" ... The next thing I knew was that my friend and I were picking ourselves up off the floor after I accidentally touched the wrong leads. As best as we can both figure, is that I backhanded him so hard (electrical involuntary muscle reaction) that it knocked BOTH of us off and out of our chairs.
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Beau Schwabe
IC Layout Engineer
Parallax, Inc.
Post Edited (Beau Schwabe (Parallax)) : 10/6/2008 2:57:15 AM GMT
Anyway, I'm sure I'll have many of those "moments" with this project, but the last actual one I can remember was probably when I burned out my BS2 using a transistor. Infact, I did it twise! The first time I burned out pin zero, and the second...well, lets just say no more BS2. It can still do one thing though. Although I don't remember why, if you turn it on and connect a pizo speeker to pin 15, you can very silently play a song I programmed it to do before I ran the transistor. Kinda strange, never figured out why. I tried changing the song once, but the BS2 is now incapable of being reprogrammed.
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The Pi Guy
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I recently ordered the discounted Propeller PDB, but forgot to order a 40 pin DIP propeller chip.
So now, I'll either need to cannibalize a previous project, or place another order.
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This post is a work of art. Variations in spelling and grammar are intentional, artistic endeavors that add value to all of mankind.
Thank you. I no longer feel so stupid for having done exactly the same thing.
-Phil
Although I must also agree with Phil that I also hate it when I forget the backshell!
When I·was working on this last project all of this happen to this one project
Basic Stamp Current Controller..For My Milling Machine ..That I keep Blowing Fuses on the controller
http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?p=746467
There is allot more to the story than what I posted
Lets start by saying· like it says in this post that i had bought a lot 50 of the 2N2222A and want to use them in this project at Frost· I only had the transistor hook to the Basic Stamp with a 220 ohm resister to the pin
and it seem to work but some time when the relay would come on the debug would to gobble DE gook so I try ed a 560 ohm resister and still did the same thing so i when to a 1K ohm resister it still was doing it so I went to
2 K ohm resister and then the relay would not pull in then used a Optic Sensor which seem to work
Burn In Test using a Relay and a Basic Stamp and using Hyper Terminal
Here is the link to it
http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?p=748879
Lets start by saying that the first board reworked so many time·that some traces are·jump that I had to ·start·the project over
Well this is what happen to the second board
Well you think that I had all the problem work out and it should have been easy it was at first until·I hook up the current transformer to the wrong input and could not understand why it was not working·right once i got that part working then the next thing happen was i was using a 450 milliamp transformer that for some reason when into thermo over load
Here Is the load on the transformer···· ·80 milliamp for LCD Back light 75 milliamp for the relay 10 milliamp for the Basic Stamp 40 milliamp for two·green LEDs light that add·up to 220 milliamp
I have not finished this project yet because·I thought I had used the same size board i did not I used a bigger board so now·I have to cut out a another case for this project
I thinking that all of the problem that I am having with this and some of it has been dumb mistakes can it get any worse
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··Thanks for any·
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Sam
Post Edited (sam_sam_sam) : 10/6/2008 1:04:44 AM GMT
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I am 1011, so be surprised!
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·
· Luckily, my folks never found out what really happened (they'd have taken away all my military surplus electronics for sure) and While I still have a penchant for tesla coils and high voltage experimenting, I've never forgotten that lesson.
·· Darlene
I've done that, or similar, quite a few times,
Here's a pict of something similar.
The idea was to run the ribbon cable through the slot on the top of the project box BEFORE soldering...
FYI...the picture is an "ESD damage simulator" I use this at work when I teach ESD (currently one of my job titles is 'ESD Coordinator")
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This post is a work of art. Variations in spelling and grammar are intentional, artistic endeavors that add value to all of mankind.
Post Edited (Brian218) : 10/6/2008 6:52:13 AM GMT
on my telephone line. For about a day I was happily talking to my friends on this
huge wireless radio. Unbeknown to me at the time, the hum I was talking over was
60 cycle AC feeding back into the phone system. I woke up the next morning to
my phone being disconnected. The repair guys said that they had blown repeated
circuit boards at one of their junction points until they found where the voltage was
coming from. The company refused to reconnect the line until my father promised
them I would never connect unauthorized equipment again. Gotta love that military
surplus stuff. [noparse]:)[/noparse]
OBC
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Robert
Some what like what you see on that video of Chip in Parallax that came up recently but a thousand time bigger. I've rarely managed to get back into that kind of environment since.
My respect for electricity started when I was about eight years old when I bravely grabbed hold of am electric cattle fence. I was convinced my friend behind me had just hit me in the elbow with a cricket bat.
That's just as well as I spent a lot of time building tube gear as a teenager.
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For me, the past is not over yet.
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Shawn Lowe
When all else fails.....procrastinate!
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Chris Savage
Parallax Engineering
How many times have we had to re-solder a wire connection because·we forgot to slip·a piece of heat shrink tubing onto the wire that we are soldering?
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Beau Schwabe
IC Layout Engineer
Parallax, Inc.
How many times have we had to re-solder a wire connection because·we forgot to slip·a piece of heat shrink tubing onto the wire that we are soldering?
Too many to count Now I do not feel so bad
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··Thanks for any·
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Sam
humanoido
Where I once worked, before I joined the group, one of my colleagues needed to build an interface to one of the computers. Our daft manager wouldn't let him order the components, so he had to remove the wire-wrap sockets and other parts he needed from existing prototype boards, and use those to construct his interface. I think he found a new board to put them on. The company was British Aerospace, one of the biggest firms in the UK.
Leon
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Amateur radio callsign: G1HSM
Suzuki SV1000S motorcycle
i was fully aware the resistor was required, but it was only when i got to #10 it actually dawned on me that it was absent.
sometimes, i never learn...