Anything with large capacitors?
Asklemmy
A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions
Search asklemmy π
If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!
- Open-ended question
- Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
- Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
- Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
- An actual topic of discussion
Looking for support?
Looking for a community?
- Lemmyverse: community search
- sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
- !lemmy411@lemmy.ca: a community for finding communities
~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~
And people don't realize how long they can hold power after the device has been "off".
Edit - I forgot to add my thing! A good example of something that doesn't sound scary is a TV, but it has large capacitors that can end you (or make a bad day).
Not a large capacitor in my case, but I took apart my old camera after it stopped working, and accidentally touched the capacitor for the flash. A memorable moment.
Word for word my answer
- Laser / LED printers can blind you and may have larger capacitors.
- Old CRT style TVs / Monitors can get you if not discharged correctly.
Is it true they can hold on to a charge for decades? I was told that but it seemed unlikely.
I'm treating them like guns. Assume they're loaded until you prove otherwise.
The coating on the inside of the tube can behave like a Leyden jar caps can accumulate charge over time even without an obvious power source.
Desktop computer power supplies. Don't open them.
How else am I supposed to put the magic smoke back in?
BS. Just drain capacitors. I've repaired a few (worthwhile ones) by replacing caps. You just need to know how. As with anything, read up.
Old CRT monitors. Particularly if they've been recently unplugged. There's a cable in there my old teacher used to call "the superman cable".
DO NOT backfeed your house's electricity with a generator when your electricity gets shut down. You might electrocute someone working on those lines.
At least have it set up downstream of the main shut off and make sure that main is off before firing up the generator. There are devices available commercially that do that for you but they aren't cheap and require professional installation.
I'll expand the microwave to anything that can carry a large electrical charge without you really knowing. I had a UPC that started acting weird, that was one I just sent right back to the manufacturer. I'll swap out batteries, but I'm not cracking open something with that much potential energy stored in it without me fully understanding everything about it - and unless I helped build the thing I do not know enough about it.
Ok firstly.
Never, work on anything that is still connected to a power supply.
This includes any stored energy. Isolate it first. Gravitational, electrical, pneumatic, hydraulic and chemical (if possible).
Don't fuck with stored energy.
Secondly.
Learn how to test if things are live, or have any stored energy.
Thirdly.
Once you KNOW you are safe. Go hard, learn all you can.
If you're gonna take a washing machine apart and you cut all the wires, make sure you cut the main electrical plug off as well or your dumbass son (me) will plug it in and electrocute himself with it.
and electrocute himself with it.
Um, aktschully, you shocked yourself. If you electrocuted yourself, you would be dead.
Β
WAIT. UNLESS YOU DID DIE. DOES THAT MAKE YOU A GHOST?!!! A GHOST THAT CAN TYPE ON KEYBOARDS!!! AMAZING!!!
Yes, I am a ghost, I don't type I just yell at it I till something happens, it's exhausting.
You can harvest the transformers for a couple junk microwaves to make an arc welder.
If you aren't experienced then pretty much all power supplies, battery backups, and motors should be left to someone else.
I saw someone lose a finger (later reattached) to a washing machine with a jammed tub. It was plugged in and on when they reached underneath it and yanked the belt, their sleeve ducked their hand into the drive wheel.
That said, if it fits your personality it can be both fun and satisfying to learn how to fix stuff. I try to teach anyone who's interested and asks. Except LG washing machines, those things can fuck right off.
How did they reattach the finger to the washing machine?
Duct tape of course
super glue. Don't get it on your eyelids, though.
This very much depends on your level of skill, experience and awareness of the dunning-kruger effect.
Microwave
Anything connected to your garage door.
That spring will fucking kill you.
kids today don't know about the scary suction cup on crts
I too was going to say microwave before reading the post body. Honestly though anything with a large capacitor, I can't give you examples unfortunately because I study physics not electrical engineering but some of those fat fucking capacitors will fry you and they hold their charge.
Air conditioner. I melted a screwdriver.
I was actually going to say microwaves, but specifically the thing where people use the parts to make those things where you can burn fractals into wood. They look super cool but apparently if you brush up against the wrong component your heart just stops.
Batteries
If it had warnings about not opening it, or not containing user serviceable parts, donβt fuck with it.
Of course I understand caution with β‘οΈ, but just about everything has a 'do not open' label on it (in the litigous US anyway). Do we not care about right to repair?
"As an ardent supporter of the right-to-repair movement, FUCK. THAT."
β Me and my spouse.
Β
P.S. Fuck John Deere.
Eh, I'm not sure about that broad. Macbooks say not to open them because "reasons", but most items in there can be easily repaired
I heard once that old smoke detectors have some radioactive isotopes in them. Not sure how true or dangerous but sounds bad.
Ionization chamber smoke detectors have a tiny grain of Americium in them, which is radioactive. However, the radiation is almost entirely alpha particles which are relatively low risk as they don't penetrate skin particularly well.
They are also still sold, though you should buy the other kind (which use light beams instead) because they're significantly better at their jobs.
They're low risk unless you ingest them, because then they're hitting internal organs directly.
Old arcade machines. Giant capacitors + little knowledge on the subject = a very bad time.
As with anything it can be done safely if you know how. People still play those and they obviously need repairs/maintenance sometimes.
Holy shit, how has no one mentioned rechargable batteries?
Lithium Ion batteries, commonly used in phones and the like, rapidly catches fire and emits acidic smoke that will melt your lungs when the battery is punctured.