Let's answer Joe's questions

Thread Starter

Motanache

Joined Mar 2, 2015
540
Did you ever cause a component to explode?

Did you ever incorrectly connect a DMM blowing a fuse?

Did you ever get shocked?

Did you ever disobey your mother and put your hand on a hot stove or pan?



One could say the hot stove/pan event created a significant emotional tie because of the pain you felt.



On the positive side:



Remember the first time your calculation and the lab were the same results, within the tolerances of the components?

Remember the first time you analyzed and troubleshot the circuit within minutes?

Remember the first time your breadboard was wired properly and you didn't have to troubleshoot?
I ask an extra question- At what age did you start with electronics? What was your first assembley?
 
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Thread Starter

Motanache

Joined Mar 2, 2015
540
I start


Did you ever cause a component to explode?
2 weeks ago I bought a MOSFET driver. Because it was not the same IC as the one replaced, I also bought a 12V soldering iron.

After making the changes I started to measure.I had a multimeter.
While I measure the voltage, the wires remain connected to the amper position.............
Smoke started to get out of it......................



Remember the first time your calculation and the lab were the same results, within the tolerances of the components?
At the college at electronics lab they did not ask us to do that.
At the electronics-exam, the teacher gave us the oral exam.
He told us that he wants us to see all the disaster.

The teacher told a colleague that he did not give him the ohmmeter. He want to measure a resistor only with the ammeter and a known voltage source.My colleague did not know.

Another problem was with BC107.
He told us that if the collector current gave us 1000A and we did not realize that we did wrong in the calculations is very serious.
 

wayneh

Joined Sep 9, 2010
17,496
I ask an extra question- At what age did you start with electronics? What was your first assembley?
I don't know if it counts as an "assembly" but I distinctly remember - how could I forget? - pushing a pair of metal tweezers into a wall outlet. I vaguely recall being perplexed that either prong alone was almost inert, but touching them together...
 

GopherT

Joined Nov 23, 2012
8,009
First project was crystal radio (germanium diode).

I made a 9V battery explode when a breadboard project was pulled off of the workbench and caught. Two wires shorted and put the + and - together. I smelled something and before I could pull the battery out, it popped. The bottom blew out of the battery.

I've smoked several pieces of silicon but no "explosion".

I've blown a fuse in a DMM - going back to volts from amps without resetting the function back to voltage.

I've shocked myself when I was about 7-years old. My lamp didn't work so I was troubleshooting. The little tab on the bottom of the bulb socket looked like it was pushed in so I just went in with my finger to pull the tab up and my first knuckle hut the ring. I had a black line under my fingernail for about two years.
 

Reloadron

Joined Jan 15, 2015
7,501
Did you ever cause a component to explode?
Yes and after about 50 years of electricity I likely had several explode.
Did you ever incorrectly connect a DMM blowing a fuse?
Yes, maybe even a few.
Did you ever get shocked?
Oh Yeah, again several times. Obviously none were fatal. :)
Did you ever disobey your mother and put your hand on a hot stove or pan?
No, honestly no. But I did shove a butter knife in a Proctor Silex toaster and in my haste to cover my crime I put the plastic cover on too soon and it melted to the hot toaster. Busted!
One could say the hot stove/pan event created a significant emotional tie because of the pain you felt.
No, but I never screwed with the toaster again.
On the positive side:

Remember the first time your calculation and the lab were the same results, within the tolerances of the components?
No, only because while it happened it was a long time ago.
Remember the first time you analyzed and troubleshot the circuit within minutes?
No, see above response.
Remember the first time your breadboard was wired properly and you didn't have to troubleshoot?
Actually it was a wire wrap board but yeah, I sort of remember.
I ask an extra question- At what age did you start with electronics? What was your first assembley?
First assembly project was a crystal radio using a 1N34 Diode. My dad was an EE so I started early but remember getting my first novice Ham Radio ticket at age 13 in 1963. I likely was doing small learning projects at about maybe 10 years old.

Ron
 

Glenn Holland

Joined Dec 26, 2014
703
On the subject of child hood electrical/electronics experiments, when I was around 8 years old, I thought I could use a transformer to change the voltage of a 1-1/2 volt battery.

Obviously, I didn't work. However when I removed the wire from the battery (while holding it with my bare fingers) I discovered the property of INDUCTANCE and I got bitten!!! :eek:
 
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boatsman

Joined Jan 17, 2008
187
My first project was building a crystal set from scratch. I wound enamelled copper wire on the cardboard tube from a roll of toilet paper. The variable capacitor was a bought one and the detector was a piece of some sort of crystal over which I moved a thin wire until I had reception in the headphones. The earth connection was to the ground and the aerial was joined on to the long overhead wire we used for the family radio. Reception varied depending on the weather.
 

JoeJester

Joined Apr 26, 2005
4,390
The context of my questions was that you remember things without repetition when you have an emotional event.

Here is a story that shaped my attitude and willingness to tell anyone what I thought.

The was a time back in 1975 when I was reading a technical manual. The division officer walked by and thought I wasn't working. As they say, it rolls downhill. The division officer told the warrant officer who told the senior chief who told my chief who told me. I in hand told my chief I was reading the manual to understand the equipment I was about to test and overhaul. I was an ET3 at the time.

A few months later I was advanced to ET2 and there was a reorganization in the area where we combined two of the three sections, and I was the leading petty officer of the overhaul and repair section.

I was working on a transmitter and accidentally came into contact with a 900 volt, 300 mA supply. Well, after I freed myself and it took a couple of seconds and a loud MFR.

Anyway, that same division officer wanted to hold a training session about the incident. I told him I heard he wanted to #&*! Me over and I won't say anything. I'll wait to tell them your (the division officers) part in this incident.

Well he asked about his part and I reminded him of the ass chewing I got when he thought I was malingering.

No charges were filed and I did my training on transistor circuits and talked about my incident.

I reminded everyone about the importance of reading the safety chapter and the theory of operations chapter to ensure the knew how the equipment worked. I told them that if anyone gave them any shit, and I didn't care if it were the Captain, the I would talk to them and set them straight on why you need to read those chapters.

I was shocked because I didn't read the mere fact that the transmitter was keyed using switched screen grid vice switched B+.

So the event played an important part of my interrelationship between me and my superiors in the chain of command.
 

#12

Joined Nov 30, 2010
18,224
Referring to post #1
yes, yes, yes, no.
The context of my questions was that you remember things without repetition when you have an emotional event.
I figured that out when I was a short person. I called it, "an emotional tag".
When you put an emotional tag on a lesson, it sticks.;)
 

JoeJester

Joined Apr 26, 2005
4,390
Retention certainly is a topic a professor should understand. I don't expect TAs to know about teaching methods and such. There should be a requisite of instructional theory, and it could be as simple as have them read a book and the professor be available to answer questions.

The "cone of experience" has been bastardized to reflect the person of retention and is falsely cited as a 1960s study.
 

profbuxton

Joined Feb 21, 2014
421
Many years ago made transformer(I thought) by winding about 20 turns of 2mm wire around and iron bar, connected to a plug and plugged it into the 240v outlet for the fridge.
Blew the wires off at the back of the outlet, seems I had enough sense to rewire the outlet but forgot about the blown fuse(luckily). Parents coudn't understand why the fridge defrosted till they found the blown fuse.
 
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