# Ever had an electronic device go up in smoke?



## GigaBit (Jul 26, 2017)

I'm interested to see if any of you have ever had an electronic device go up in smoke before.


It's happened to me 5 times:

- 3 Desktop computers (All PSU failures)

- 1 Laptop (I still have no idea what happened to it)

- 1 LCD monitor (Used the wrong power adapter)


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## Saiko (Jul 26, 2017)

I wired up an IC backwards during a lab. It let out a feeble puff of smoke as it gave its last NAND output.


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## Belatucadros (Jul 26, 2017)




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## Deleted member 82554 (Jul 27, 2017)

Nope, but I've been electrocuted enough times to go up in smoke. Good times...


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## Scales42 (Jul 27, 2017)

One of those newfangled toasters  

I ate the bread anyway


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## Finian Wren (Jul 27, 2017)

Back in the last days of Super Socket 7 boards, I had a cap blow silently (though the magic smoke was easily smelled).  Used that as an excuse to upgrade to a Socket A and an Athlon.
Blew more than a few ICs by being incredibly stupid.  

An alarm clock once blew back in Univeristy.  This was prior to any electrical knowhow, so I didn't bother to see what ACTUALLY tanked inside.


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## darien (Jul 27, 2017)

I've seen fried electronics happen to others but never to me until recently. I had ordered a 3 in 2 mobile rack for my main machine, so i could easily plug in and remove backup drives and expand the storage capacity of my Corsair Air 540 (which only has mounting for two 3.5" drives by default) without having to open my case. Installation was nothing i hadn't done a million times(well over a decade in IT), so I thought nothing of it when i plugged in my backup drives before first powering the system back on. Well, long story short the kingwin mobile rack i had ordered was refurbished (one would think this means tested, apparently not) upon first power on there was the telltale putrid stream of smoke and no post. After some inspection and testing the refurb mobile rack had come to me faulty, a short in the mobile rack had sent power along the SATA lines and fried the north bridge on the mobo and every single drive connected to the system, including the SSD, three platter drives, and my backup drive. $2000 system up in smoke because of one faulty mobile rack. Kingwin refused to respond to my attempts to contact, so I'd avoid them like the plauge in the future. Alas because my backup drive was connected, along with main drives, data loss was real, though mostly art and crap. (I don't offsite for home stuff and anything critical is backed up to a TC volume on my HTPC/NAS as well) on the plus side, if i ever get off my butt and do it, i can repair the drives as the damage was to the controller boards and not the physical drives, just have to order replacement pcbs and swap and 8pin eeprom from the fried boards.

on the plus side i took the opportunity to downgrade the motherboard(from an asrock board using the 990fx chipset to an msi board using the 970 chipset, asrock was contacted and notably would've replaced the board under warranty if i payed shipping, however i had already ordered a board by the time they replied the next day) I also upgraded the CPU(from an fx6300 to an fx8350), and replaced the PSU (an 8 year old corsair 750w that I later tested to find was still in perfect working condition, the new Corsair rx750 however is modular and doesn't spin up the PSU fan until needed- a nice bonus. After I'd tested the old PSU I gave it to a friend in need and it is still functioning flawlessly to this day, gotta love seawell manufacturing.) The video card and ram survived intact. used an old platter drive i had laying around and bought a new one, alongside upgrading the old SP 250gig SSD to a 500 gig samsung 850 evo. I haven't bothered to test the old fx6300

In my years of IT i have seen some shit.
DDR2 shoved in backwards leaves two telltale burnt pins- something i've seen twice now. (not by my own hand of course)
I've seen a poptart shoved in slotload dvd trays (ironically on an old imac, they were not happy about the cost to replace the serialized drive. in case you're curious, it was a smores poptart)
I've seen dead lizards, spiders, roaches, etc. in power supplies
I've seen literal rats nest inside towers
I've seen UTP Cat5 draped over florescent lights (EMI is a thing, don't do this)
I've seen fiber bent 90 degrees around a corner without a radial bend
I've seen an ambulance service call center that didn't have their call recorders plugged in(This is required by law)
I've had to completely rewire a 4u intel server with a scsi u360 backplane to function without the backplane because a customer wanted SAS Raid because the drives were cheaper, but didn't order it.
I've seen LED's that had clearly been over-volted.
I've seen half-dollar sized holes in motherboards because of exploded ICs
I've seen more faulty capacitors than i care to even attempt to count.
I've had to fix a 24TB raid 5 array for a local tv station because the mac user in charge of the station's servers turned the storage server off at the power supply instead of through the os, corrupting the entire array, being called in to run a TV station off a DVD player while you fix a raid array at 3am on a Saturday after just getting home from the bar isn't glamorous, consider things like this before you decide to pursue a career in IT)

I could go on and on- the best however- was way back in the early 2000's when i was a wee bench tech for a little mom-and pop shop- an insurance claim. a guy had clearly tilted his tower forward and poured water in through the back then tried to claim it as something that happened at a party to get a new PC paid for by his home owner's insurance, who of course wanted the damages assessed first. The only thing it had damaged was the video card, which fried due to the sudden and rapid heat dissipation the water caused. (Water doesn't conduct electricity, the particulate in dirty water however, does.) When told his system was fixed for the cost of a low end graphics card and the labor, he looked visibly upset and said on the shop's camera "what!? just a video card? I poured a whole bottle of water in it!". A video we kindly provided alongside the invoice to the insurance company, who no doubt charged him with fraud.


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## Kellan Meig'h (Aug 15, 2017)

I've roached a number of items  over the years, including the power supply for an AN-APQ109A/APA165 Radar for an F-4D Phantom II fighter/interceptor. That was pretty spectacular. The best one was an Econolite Traffic Controller back in the early '80's. I had a Honeywell HMP190 controller go belly up so my boss said to take the Econolite, because it could be quickly programmed. The +24 and ground pins on plug #1 were not NEMA spec. Threw sparks out of the vents and destroyed all of the lamp load switches. Even the back plane became damaged, requiring the entire cab to need repairs.


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## FluffyShutterbug (Aug 18, 2017)

I've seen a dusty power outlet spark up before, but that's about it.


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## KairBear (Aug 19, 2017)

My boyfriend's iPhone started melting in his pocket so he brought it to the Apple store and the worker said the battery pack was about to explode.


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## jayhusky (Aug 19, 2017)

3 PSU's for a desktop pc
Lawnmowers, Chainsaws and Hedge trimmers
been electrocuted 4 times and carry a permanent scar from scorched tissue.


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## Simo (Aug 19, 2017)

A pinball machine we had almost did: a  relay got stuck, and whoa, what a lot of smoke. But replaced it, and saved the machine (D. Gottlieb's Aquarius, 1970)

Had a few other games where solenoids got stuck, and burned, but got to them before the 'smoke' stage.


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## Q2DM1 (Aug 20, 2017)

The first thing I ever sent up in smoke was a red LED. I was still very new to electronics in general. I connected two 9 volt batteries in series with the LED without knowing that I needed a resistor too. It popped and my involuntary reaction was to throw the LED across the room. When I found it, it had split in half, held together only with a rubbery kind of stuff on it's base.


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## Austin Silver (Aug 24, 2017)

I have blown many electronics on purpose to see them explode.  There is one instance, however, that wasn't caused by me.  I purchased one of those cheep iPhone charging cables at the grocery store, and a few nights later it caught fire in bed.  Luckly I was still awake!


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## 134 (Nov 14, 2017)

I wanted a LED strip inside my pc case for some nice light effects so i did following:
 cut about half a meter of led-strip
soldered an ATX connector to the strip (+5V and GND)
connected it to my PSU
pushed the ON button on my pc case
watched the led-strip burn

Now i got a new piece of led strip, added a resistor and Boom -problem solved

This was just one of many destroyed devices (i love soldering circuits)


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## Reserved_Krolik (Nov 14, 2017)

I had a microwave that self destructed into a flaming ball of melting plastic, suddenly.


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## Telnac (Nov 15, 2017)

Oh yeah. I’ve had several PCs give off the blue smoke of death. Usually it’s the power supply and on desktop PCs that’s pretty easy to replace.


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## Telnac (Nov 15, 2017)

Reserved_Krolik said:


> I had a microwave that self destructed into a flaming ball of melting plastic, suddenly.


What the heck were you cooking in it?!


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## Jay98 (Nov 15, 2017)

my dad tried to adjust the oven to save on gas and it exploded. literally. my mom lost her fringe, eyebrows and eyelashes.


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## ChromaticRabbit (Nov 15, 2017)

Yeah, I'm still upset about, too. I bought an electric kettle on amazon.com and it started leaking and failed after only nine months of daily use. I went on to amazon, saw lots of people had subsequently experienced similar issues, and those who received warranty replacements had the same issues again with the replacements. How are products like this allowed to market in the first place? I expected that kettle to last a lifetime.

You're probably thinking to yourself, "That's not an electronic device." But this one was, it had a digital temperature setpoint indicator, buttons, a few other features. When it started dying, it would occasionally fail its own power-on-self-test, displaying a hexadecimal error code. Lovely.


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## MetroFox2 (Nov 15, 2017)

My mum has had the same hairdryer since I was born. I was using it about a month ago when it just stopped, a held it away from my face to make sure I hadn't accidentally turned it off when there was a loud _*Bang!* _and a jet of flame shot out the bit where the wire goes into the hairdryer. It's the first time in a long time I've actually screamed.


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## Crimcyan (Nov 15, 2017)

Hmm
2 rc car motors
3 rc car ecs
1 6 cell nimh battery 
A cordless drill
A angle grinder
A air compressor 
A light switch 
A lamp
A car battery 
So tons of things


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## Courtney the smith (Nov 15, 2017)

The first time I put some upgrades hardware in my CPU i burnt out the PSU I put in it. I put my Nvidia GTX550ti card with a 650 watt PSU booted computer up went upstairs eat dinner or shower, I can't remember, and computer was off and refused to turn on. I panicked thinking I killed it totally but removed card, replaced power supply with factory and presto CPU lives. For Christmas that year my, now wife, got me an 1000w PSU and it's still going strong hahaha.

Another time I was playing GTA, I think San Andreas, the mission was one where I had to burn a pot farmers farm to the ground and while burning the fields I started to smell some funny which was odd timing. I looked up and my ceiling fan was smoking. I was home alone and freaked out thinking there was a fire in the attic or something but thankfully it was just the fan motor crapped out. XP


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## Butt_Ghost (Nov 18, 2017)

Had a PSU capacitor explosion that somehow managed to just selectively fry a single RAM stick in the process. I was in a Skype group call at the time and apparently the last thing anyone heard before I went offline was *bang* "_fuck!_" and I got a bunch of worried text messages.


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## Pikuhana (Nov 30, 2017)

There was a school computer a couple days ago that I was using, and the battery went up in flames.. It was pretty scary.
There was one time my headphones started to crackle and smoke, but that is because i was being stupid and stuck the male headphone jack over a 9-volt for about 3-5 minutes.


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## Remroto (Dec 3, 2017)

Um yeah we had a microwave and it started producing smoke after we put a bar of soap, a metal sponge a hand full of dead light bulbs and some old batteries we had laying about inside. 

Just turned it on for a 15 minute cycle and stood back and watched it go boom!

hehe


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## Pipistrele (Dec 3, 2017)

Wow, you guys kinda suck at using electronics properly, isn't it?


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## FluffyShutterbug (Dec 3, 2017)

I've never fried an electronic device before.


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## Magnavox (Dec 6, 2017)

Thats part of flying electric planes- eventually you will burn up a component.
Case in point I had to perform rhinoplasty on a brand new F-16 after the speed control (supplies the power to everything) burnt a hole in the plane.
It was cooking along at low altitude and this stream of gray smoke comes out of the back. Electric models don't do that. I tried to get the model on the ground before I lost power but the thing just lawn darted into the ground.


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## Telnac (Dec 6, 2017)

Remroto said:


> Um yeah we had a microwave and it started producing smoke after we put a bar of soap, a metal sponge a hand full of dead light bulbs and some old batteries we had laying about inside.
> 
> Just turned it on for a 15 minute cycle and stood back and watched it go boom!
> 
> hehe


Yeah I didn’t count the sheer number of LEDs I microwaved or put through other forms of digital hell. My electrical engineering lab in college had a bucket of LEDs and no one cared of you grabbed a handful for extra-curricular “experimentation.”


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## Pikuhana (Dec 7, 2017)

LOL


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## Magnavox (Dec 7, 2017)

Telnac said:


> Yeah I didn’t count the sheer number of LEDs I microwaved or put through other forms of digital hell. My electrical engineering lab in college had a bucket of LEDs and no one cared of you grabbed a handful for extra-curricular “experimentation.”


Trying to open a portal to another dimension are we?


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## 134 (Dec 7, 2017)

I re coiled a relatively big transformer which put out 2kV and 0.5 amps
after I recoiled it it had a output of about 200 amps? (couldn't measure the voltage because the transformer smelted after the first test, I should have measured the voltage first. I know I could calculate the voltage but I'm too lazy  )


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## Magnavox (Dec 7, 2017)

Nimilex said:


> I re coiled a relatively big transformer


Your such a German. "I'm bored, guess I'll fix these electrical components for fun"
What would you recommend for book on an introduction to electrical engineering?


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## 134 (Dec 7, 2017)

Magnavox said:


> What would you recommend for book on an introduction to electrical engineering?


Oh that is a good question! I've read a book but it's completely written in german and relative old. 





It helped me a little to understand how electronics work. Most knowledge I have came from my mother (she soldered circuits at work) and the Internet, Youtube has a lot of channels which can help you gain knowledge.
I experimented a lot at home, first my dad thaught me how outlet and switches are wired and how they work so I startet to build myself a relatively big wooden housing I added ampermeters, voltmeters and 3 outlets. After this I wanted more I startet learning about microcontrollers and logic bricks like 40xx




I wanted to activate the outlets with my pc and I wanted to controll the voltage so I startet learning about arduino and made my first programms. 
Someday I went to a bar in my town and met a man who I told about my hobby and that I'm very skilled at soldering (I tell you I have it in my blood, I can solder while sleeping!) so he told me that he is a television technician and I can visit him when I need parts/components (because I still don't have everything I need and the waiting for ordered components can kill you) so I decided to visit him about two weeks later. He showed me his self made audio system (2 amplifiers 2 self made speakers and a subwoofer) so I listened to that perfectly clear sound comin from the speakers and was completely blown away by the beauty and details of the audio (I even heard instruments I didn't know that they were used in the songs) so I bombarded him with questions which he all answered. I often visit him and learn new things (my wooden housing with the usb port is still not finished yet). Since I've heard this mindblowing sound I wanted to learn more about semiconductors, transistors, capacitators and amplifiers and I startet experimenting on a breadboard (only 2$ on amazon its worth its money!) I spent nights and killed hundreds of transistors trying to build a working amp. I was so excited about electronics that I applied for an internship at a company which wires switchboard, electric controllboxes and production lines. I had a lot of fun there and then I know that I want to do this for a living until I die! When I got my secondary school certificate I signed myself in at a technical secondary school so I can study electrical engineering at a senior technical college. And now I'm here.

The point is that you gather information, try to understand how things work and don't stop asking if you do not know something!


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## Telnac (Dec 7, 2017)

Nimilex said:


> I re coiled a relatively big transformer which put out 2kV and 0.5 amps
> after I recoiled it it had a output of about 200 amps? (couldn't measure the voltage because the transformer smelted after the first test, I should have measured the voltage first. I know I could calculate the voltage but I'm too lazy  )


If memory serves me right there’s a direct relation between voltage & amperage when you set up/down voltages like that. So to get a 400 fold increase in amperage you need a 400 fold decrease in voltage. So that’s 5 volts at 200 amps. Since heat lost due to resistance is a function of amperage, it’s no wonder the thing melted!


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## Rouge Artist (Dec 10, 2017)

Luckly I haven't had too many electronics go up in blue smoke, but my first and only attempt at replacing a 8 pin DIN plug for a speaker controller (for a altec lancing FX5051 for anyone interested) ended with a burnt out sound card as soon as I plugged the controller in and hit the power button. I didn't figure out what exactly happened but I might have misplaced a couple pins. 

But more recently at the last kitchen I worked in they had a meat slicer that was really old, and after the second time it tried to electrocute me, decided to take it apart and see what was up. Both times there was a loud crack and a huge amount of white sparks coming from where the cord came out. Found out that someone had rewired the whole thing using old twist caps that where a little too big, every wire except for the wires coming out of the power cord where all black. One of those wires had somehow been cut clean and was causing the huge sparks to erupt out of it any time it was bumped against the slicer's body. 

Oh and there was that one time when I witnessed a small power line transformer burning itself out. Ended up with no power for the whole afternoon, but it was an impressive show of sparks, buzzing, and plenty of blue smoke.


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## Crimcyan (Dec 10, 2017)

All vapes in the history of vapes, i dont vape but they all smoke


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## Deleted member 82554 (Dec 10, 2017)

Ok, I remember one time when I was a little whipper snapper still learning about electronics, I plugged a 7 volt drill into a 240 volt main that blew all the circuity and batteries. I never got a shock from that one but one helluva fright.


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## rekcerW (Dec 17, 2017)

Picked up a Blade 450x RC heli, flew it a few times, thought it was the best thing ever, Li-Po decided it was cool to go into super-blow-out-mode and sent the thing nosediving in a giant fireball where it pretty well grenaded itself when it hit the ground... It went ahead and found the only strip of pavement in the whole field, really nailed it. Made it super spectacular.

Also may or may not have tried out the voltage selector on a PSU back in the day. That's a bad idea.


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## Pikuhana (Dec 19, 2017)

I blew a couple bulbs the other day for my science fair project... I decided to plug them into the outlet and see what happens...


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## TheOutedFurry (Jan 6, 2018)

This thread may be old but still responding. Yes, I went to plugin my laptop when I smelled smoke and found my charger smoking. That was nice.


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## Crimcyan (Jan 6, 2018)

Another rc esc, my motor seized on me and some how fried the speed controller


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## TheOutedFurry (Jan 6, 2018)

Crimcyan said:


> Another rc esc, my motor seized on me and some how fried the speed controller


Rip man.


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## MyMonkeyLife (Jan 9, 2018)

When I was real young (and very dumb) I once took a pair of scissors to my sister's boombox when it was plugged in... Thankfully I didn't start a fire, but it did flash brightly.

As for me?
I once had computers hard crash (like freeze) while playing games/listening to music (again in the early 2000s) the way sound acts is haunting. Sometimes the one note drones on till the computer is shut off (or shuts off by itself), and other times it will act like a broken record by repeating a (1 millisecond) sound.

Another time was back in 2011 my last computer got the dreaded BSOD.

Other than that, my own problem with technology is getting viruses, and killing my computers that way. Thankfully my old dinosaur has lasted me long without getting any. It's just getting old, and ready for retirement (getting very slow, and programs crashing) now.


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## Pikuhana (Jan 12, 2018)

One time my washing machine caught fire.


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## FluffyShutterbug (Jan 12, 2018)

Pikuhana said:


> One time my washing machine caught fire.


H.... H... How!? OwO


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## Pikuhana (Jan 12, 2018)

A couple wires failed or something.


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## Kuuro (Jan 18, 2018)

Yes


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## AyKai (Jan 23, 2018)

I used the wrong adapter into an old 80's Keyboard-piano, and not only was the smoke bad, it started making REALLY LOUD noises.


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## stimpy (Feb 7, 2018)

My IBM 5150's power supply started to rip some fat cones one night, needless to say i shut it off immediately. (cant have it hogging the cone) I think 34 years of dust was in the PSU


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## Hairy Harry (Feb 7, 2018)

Video card in my old PC shorted out, set something on fire, and the exhaust fan went full napalm blowtorch on the wall before I got the plug pulled xD

I have a vague idea what happened, but because it probably was something I did, I chose not to investigate


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## Taku (Apr 2, 2018)

I had an old mobo light up once, just cuz I was over clocking and not cooling properly.


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## PolarizedBear (Apr 2, 2018)

I plugged an bootleg NES into a wall with the wrong charger and the whole bloody thing lit on fire.  My copy of Double Dragon3 was spared.


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## Skychickens (Apr 3, 2018)

My brother had a toshiba that popped and literally started smoking.

Does it count if I was cleaning an air pump for my fish tank and a series of events later and I had a burnt air hose?


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## Shadow of Bucephalus (Apr 6, 2018)

GigaBit said:


> I'm interested to see if any of you have ever had an electronic device go up in smoke before.
> 
> 
> It's happened to me 5 times:
> ...


Eeyup...

Thankfully, I was sitting right next to the damn thing when it literally *SPARKED, FIRE(d), SMOKED*, and was yanking power cables/accessory plugs faster'n an octopus on CRACK cleaning windows!... (that was a Windows quip...  Deal...)...

Graphics card had a short...  Only the 2nd time my 'puter Tech ever heard of/saw such a thing.

Go figure.  Me and something electronic/technical didn't get along.

What a surprise!


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## Sealab (Apr 6, 2018)

I tested the capacitors in an HD tv I bought from a thrift store, didn't realize I had my multi-meter at the wrong setting, and promptly blew the capacitors apart from the connection. Blinded me a few seconds and had me laughing from my stupidity a few moments later


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## Saiko (Apr 20, 2018)

Note to self: don’t play with batteries and LEDs when drunk.

My hand slipped, and I sent 6V through a 1.8V LED. It popped, glowed yellow, and smoked. At least now I know there’s no doubting when one dies.


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## Pikuhana (Apr 23, 2018)

I recently caught a small motor on fire after I made a car with about 20 9vs, and sent it down the street. Apparently, something got caught in the motor, and it caught fire because it was going fast enough to get enough friction, so, yeah. lets just say it was not a good day. I experiment with electronics a lot, deal with it.


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## Joni (May 30, 2018)

A microvawe transformer, but I only played around with it a few times. That can kill you very easy.


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## Redwulf16 (Jun 2, 2018)

I once had a laptop charger start smoking because the transformer-box part somehow got underneath a blanket. I'm glad my first, and to date, only, custom pc build did NOT go up in smoke. I thought there was at least a 15% chance I had made some fatal error but nope, it was fine. Works better than any computer I've ever owned, to boot.


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## Lexiand (Jun 4, 2018)

Well my Samsung galaxy note 7 exploded the first time I got it


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## 134 (Jun 5, 2018)

Today I blew up a valve which was unlabeled. 4.5 volts and the heater went glowing white and at the same moment dark again, then I measured the resistance and it was instead of 70 ohms over 2 mega ohms. rip valve. Now it is a keychain.


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## Some Moron (Jun 5, 2018)

I wish! That would be a great story!


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## Joni (Jun 6, 2018)

Nimilex said:


> Today I blew up a valve which was unlabeled. 4.5 volts and the heater went glowing white and at the same moment dark again, then I measured the resistance and it was instead of 70 ohms over 2 mega ohms. rip valve. Now it is a keychain.
> View attachment 33597


RIP valve. I always wanted to generate x-rays with the pd500, but that's not worth the money, just to play around with ionizing radiation.


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## Miles Marsalis (Jun 7, 2018)

My microwave.


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## Friskyaa123 (Jun 7, 2018)

one time my headphone amp the ac plug kind of sparked up but it was ok like for months now, but still um Monoprice lol


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## Mapa (Jun 7, 2018)

Nope. Even better, though:

In high school I was part of a robotics team, and we had a T-shirt cannon we were working on. The solenoid valves which controlled air flow to the barrels were controlled by a relay, so my bud was down with his head in the robot fiddling around with it so we could test.

With the robot on.

And pressurized.

Mistakes were made.

One of the pins coming through the bottom of the relay board must have touched the chassis or something and been pulled down to ground, because the cannon went off, and it was fucking loud. Startled everyone in the room. Couldn't imagine being him with my freaking head inside the robot when that happened lmao.


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## x_eleven (Jun 13, 2018)

Nimilex said:


> I re coiled a relatively big transformer which put out 2kV and 0.5 amps
> after I recoiled it it had a output of about 200 amps? (couldn't measure the voltage because the transformer smelted after the first test, I should have measured the voltage first. I know I could calculate the voltage but I'm too lazy  )



What were you trying to accomplish here? Heavy duty welder of some sort? The traditional criterion is 700 circular mills/amp, so 200A would need: 200 X 700= 140000 c/m, and that would require _at least_: sqrt(140000)= 374.17mills wire diameter: #00 (AWG) for the secondary. For heavy duty use, 1000 c/m is more like it, so you'd need more like #0000 or larger. Smaller wire pretty much guarantees poofage. I don't see wire of that diameter fitting in the window of a microwave PTX, and it looks from the specs you cite like a microwave PTX.

Full power testing right out of the box is a bad idea. Should've used either a Variac, or a water resistor, to do the prelim tests.


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## Joni (Jun 14, 2018)

x_eleven said:


> What were you trying to accomplish here? Heavy duty welder of some sort? The traditional criterion is 700 circular mills/amp, so 200A would need: 200 X 700= 140000 c/m, and that would require _at least_: sqrt(140000)= 374.17mills wire diameter: #00 (AWG) for the secondary. For heavy duty use, 1000 c/m is more like it, so you'd need more like #0000 or larger. Smaller wire pretty much guarantees poofage. I don't see wire of that diameter fitting in the window of a microwave PTX, and it looks from the specs you cite like a microwave PTX.
> 
> Full power testing right out of the box is a bad idea. Should've used either a Variac, or a water resistor, to do the prelim tests.


I never tried it because you only can melt things with low resistance, I don't want to put that much effort just to melt screws. But you could build a spot welder.


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## Vorelover467 (Jun 14, 2018)

Back when I was in elementary school, my mom had gotten a flat screen tv (which was new around the time). Within a month, my dumbass thought it would be a good idea to put the tv remote in the microwave for 2 minutes to see what happens. I swear one of our neighbors nearly called the cops, we lived in an apartment complex, because it sounded like gun shots.

Remember, never put new electronics in the microwave unless it's a Nokia, then that can survive a nuke.


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## Joni (Jun 14, 2018)

Vorelover467 said:


> Back when I was in elementary school, my mom had gotten a flat screen tv (which was new around the time). Within a month, my dumbass thought it would be a good idea to put the tv remote in the microwave for 2 minutes to see what happens. I swear one of our neighbors nearly called the cops, we lived in an apartment complex, because it sounded like gun shots.
> 
> Remember, never put new electronics in the microwave unless it's a Nokia, then that can survive a nuke.


Eggs are also fun. I did this on purpose and I did this on purpose and I had to blow the eggs pieces with an air compressor from the electronics.


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## Oakie-Dokie (Jun 15, 2018)

My mom used to have a Toyota Highlander, and the hybrid battery blew up in the parking lot of Pet's Mart. there was antifreeze and flames everywhere lol
and my last car, an '07 Subaru Outback, started smoking for some reason.... idk
and then my old phone's battery exploded


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## Rant (Jun 15, 2018)

Does my life count?


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## Joni (Jun 15, 2018)

Rant said:


> Does my life count?


No


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## Rant (Jun 15, 2018)

I had a samsung sport, new shiny and red, a year before the next gen began blowing up. 
I dropped it, not far either, and heard a very loud pop. I didn't have time to think about it as I was at work, just shoved it in my pocket and continued. Next thing I know I can't get it to turn on. I tried charging it but the cable wouldn't fit. I opened it up and lo and behold the fucking battery is blown out one end!!

I spent three weeks arguing they should replace it. Three agonizing weeks. They even told me it was covered by a warranty!!! But no, because it had a small crack in the corner from the battery exploding. 

Apparently that voids everything! Fuck Sprint, fuck Samsung.


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## Rant (Jun 15, 2018)

And at a house I lived in was struck by lightning, blew the brand new flat screen TV! Blew the lights, and shocked the shit out of me while I was playing Pokemon on my 3ds as it charged. My arms were like uncontrollable noodles of pain for a few hours.


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## Joni (Jun 15, 2018)

Rant said:


> And at a house I lived in was struck by lightning, blew the brand new flat screen TV! Blew the lights, and shocked the shit out of me while I was playing Pokemon on my 3ds as it charged. My arms were like uncontrollable noodles of pain for a few hours.


I have seen a lightning strike a few hundred meters away and this was already loud but that.. holy shit.


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## Oakie-Dokie (Jun 15, 2018)

Rant said:


> I had a samsung sport, new shiny and red, a year before the next gen began blowing up.
> I dropped it, not far either, and heard a very loud pop. I didn't have time to think about it as I was at work, just shoved it in my pocket and continued. Next thing I know I can't get it to turn on. I tried charging it but the cable wouldn't fit. I opened it up and lo and behold the fucking battery is blown out one end!!
> 
> I spent three weeks arguing they should replace it. Three agonizing weeks. They even told me it was covered by a warranty!!! But no, because it had a small crack in the corner from the battery exploding.
> ...


yeah, fuck Sprint. Fuck Samsung. Join the iPhone on Verizon cult


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## Rant (Jun 15, 2018)

Oakie-Dokie said:


> yeah, fuck Sprint. Fuck Samsung. Join the iPhone on Verizon cult


No way. Kyocera is the best! I threw this badboy at a brick wall and it's only got a scuff! It's water and drop proof!


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## Oakie-Dokie (Jun 15, 2018)

Rant said:


> No way. Kyocera is the best! I threw this badboy at a brick wall and it's only got a scuff! It's water and drop proof!


oh yeah? try this for a phone


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## AppleButt (Jun 15, 2018)

Oakie-Dokie said:


> oh yeah? try this for a phone
> View attachment 34152



That phone brings nostalgia to me lol. 

We had a battery on a tug at work blow up once, but that’s about it for me.


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## Rochat (Jun 15, 2018)

Nimilex said:


> Today I blew up a valve which was unlabeled. 4.5 volts and the heater went glowing white and at the same moment dark again, then I measured the resistance and it was instead of 70 ohms over 2 mega ohms. rip valve. Now it is a keychain.
> View attachment 33597


What thing still uses vacuum tubes?


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## Vorelover467 (Jun 15, 2018)

Rant said:


> I had a samsung sport, new shiny and red, a year before the next gen began blowing up.
> I dropped it, not far either, and heard a very loud pop. I didn't have time to think about it as I was at work, just shoved it in my pocket and continued. Next thing I know I can't get it to turn on. I tried charging it but the cable wouldn't fit. I opened it up and lo and behold the fucking battery is blown out one end!!
> 
> I spent three weeks arguing they should replace it. Three agonizing weeks. They even told me it was covered by a warranty!!! But no, because it had a small crack in the corner from the battery exploding.
> ...


AT&T is better. You don't have to directly have them as a phone carrier but other phone carriers such as Cricket is part of AT&T. Not to mention the bundle plan with DirectTV.


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## Vorelover467 (Jun 15, 2018)

On the topic of technological blow ups,  I'm surprised no one mentioned this guy:


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## Lexiand (Jun 15, 2018)

Vorelover467 said:


> On the topic of technological blow ups,  I'm surprised no one mentioned this guy:



Honestly, I don't know why
but watching his videos pisses me off
I can't help but say, YOU FUCKING IDIOT 
Everytime he does dumb shit


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## Rant (Jun 15, 2018)

Vorelover467 said:


> AT&T is better. You don't have to directly have them as a phone carrier but other phone carriers such as Cricket is part of AT&T. Not to mention the bundle plan with DirectTV.


All I need or want is my phone to work and internet at home. ❤


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## Joni (Jun 16, 2018)

Rochat said:


> What thing still uses vacuum tubes?


High quality audio amplifiers. Much better sound than modern amplifiers.
Or idiots like me use it for this shit:


Joni said:


> RIP valve. I always wanted to generate x-rays with the pd500, but that's not worth the money, just to play around with ionizing radiation.





Vorelover467 said:


> On the topic of technological blow ups,  I'm surprised no one mentioned this guy:


As I saw this compilation I found it funny but after a while it gets fucking boring.


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## Joni (Jun 18, 2018)

This capacitor is not gone up in smoke, but it shouldn't be that hot.


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## Zorack83 (Jun 18, 2018)

My car!


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## Joni (Jun 18, 2018)

Zorack83 said:


> My car!


Your car is an electromechanical device.


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## Zorack83 (Jun 18, 2018)

Joni said:


> Your car is an electromechanical device.


No..... my car was a little bitch! Hahahaha


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## 134 (Jun 21, 2018)

Rochat said:


> What thing still uses vacuum tubes?


my amp


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## Eli Wintershade (Jun 21, 2018)

My first laptop. I did alot of stupid shit and smoke came out of the part where the laptop and charger connect... whoops.


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## Flumpor (Jul 3, 2018)

I used a blender to make a peanut paste.
After a while it started to smoke and the power went out. I pulled the plug and went put of the room to switch the electricity back on. When I came back my blender was actually burning.


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## Night.Claw (Jul 3, 2018)

2 pc's power supply at the same time. Working in and old building with a lot of computers can have surprises. (And smells bad)


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## Firuthi Dragovic (Jul 9, 2018)

Fully up in smoke?  A surge took out a power supply in my computer a few years back and it wound up corrupting both hard drives in the computer at the time, but that's the last outright burnout of equipment I've had.

My electronics tend to go the route of "become temperamental and randomly throw a tantrum" (a state my graphics card is in right now) rather than "go up in smoke".


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## MrPhox (Jul 28, 2018)

I never did but a cat did in the 90s. It was a old stereo with radio and record players from the 50s that a cat pee on it and cause a short circuit.


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## Cremetoertchen (Mar 4, 2019)

I love the smell of smoking capacitors xD


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## Midimistro (Mar 13, 2019)

I've had multiple phone charger chords go up in smoke. They just did this at random, with no indication of issues prior. Not even a different phone or transformer. It just happened... 3 times so far... I've also had HO train smoke and a RasberryPi Battery pack for a funbot start to sizzle.

Maybe it has something to do with LG  since that's what I've been using to charge stuff?

On a side note, I have managed to burn water .


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## TR273 (Mar 13, 2019)

The cigarette lighter shorted out in my car and melted the whole main dashboard cabling trunk running behind it, effectively killing all the car’s electric’s and landing me with an £800 repair bill.
Fun times!


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## ManicTherapsid (Mar 13, 2019)

I had a resistor blow on an old Philco tube radio and quite literally smoke.


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## Yumus (Mar 17, 2019)

Playing around with a breadboard and accidently forgot to put on resistors for some LEDs i had and they all exploded or burned out


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## ManicTherapsid (Apr 23, 2019)

Update: My 6 amp power supply for my transceiver made a loud pop and started smoking today. Piece of crap was 30 years old and it cost $5 at a swap meet so probably shouldn't have used it anyhow, if I had to guess it was an electrolytic capacitor of some sort. Decided to buy a brand new one so I don't kill my radio.


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## Water Draco (Apr 23, 2019)

As an electronics engineer I see lots of kit that had already let the smoke out. Kit that decides to let more smoke out at you while your working on it. 

There was one particular model of electrodiathermy that was particularly exciting if someone had already been fiddling inside it before sending for repair. The calibration of them was very finiky. The process for initially checking them was to place it on the work bench then take the covers of, hook up the test gear which you had the floor under the work bench. You then got under the work bench with the test gear and powered on the thing and keyed the output. If after 10 seconds it had not exploded launching components and metal everywhere. Then it was safe to stand up to work on it.


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## Jinxie (Apr 24, 2019)

Ever see lightning strike a radio tower and fry a radio on the other end? Jinxie knew a ham radio guy once. Fergot ta disconnect the antenna before a thunderstorm. Kaboom! Got inside the radio shack and smoke everywhere. Ozone city, neh?


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## CrookedCroc (Apr 24, 2019)

Yeah :^)


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## A Minty cheetah (Apr 24, 2019)

When I lived at my Dad's flat, a transformer randomly went awry and delivered over 400 volts into the entire block of flats!
A couple of incandescent lightbulbs blew up, the living room TV I was watching started spitting sparks out the front and most spectacularly was my Dad's PC monitor which was on standby filled half of the flat with a nasty smelling smoke within seconds!

Once I realised what was happening, I ran to the fuse box and tripped the main fuse - why it didn't automatically trip, I don't know. Luckily all of my equipment was plugged into a surge protector which did its job flawlessly.


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## Water Draco (Apr 24, 2019)

A Minty cheetah said:


> When I lived at my Dad's flat, a transformer randomly went awry and delivered over 400 volts into the entire block of flats!
> A couple of incandescent lightbulbs blew up, the living room TV I was watching started spitting sparks out the front and most spectacularly was my Dad's PC monitor which was on standby filled half of the flat with a nasty smelling smoke within seconds!
> 
> Once I realised what was happening, I ran to the fuse box and tripped the main fuse - why it didn't automatically trip, I don't know. Luckily all of my equipment was plugged into a surge protector which did its job flawlessly.



Sounds like the substantiation lost the neutral. The breakers in the panel will not pick up on the change in voltage but will eventually react when enough stuff has started to burn and the over current protection kicks in.


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## A Minty cheetah (Apr 24, 2019)

Well there we go! I only have limited knowledge of domestic electricity supplies.


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## Water Draco (Apr 25, 2019)

Which reminds me least year a 400V generator let go on me because of a fault in the windings. Lots of smoke, sparks and vaporized copper.


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## Zehlua (Apr 25, 2019)

My car went up in white smoke that smelled like melted crayons


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## Ravofox (Apr 25, 2019)

A Minty cheetah said:


> When I lived at my Dad's flat, a transformer randomly went awry and delivered over 400 volts into the entire block of flats!
> A couple of incandescent lightbulbs blew up, the living room TV I was watching started spitting sparks out the front and most spectacularly was my Dad's PC monitor which was on standby filled half of the flat with a nasty smelling smoke within seconds!
> 
> Once I realised what was happening, I ran to the fuse box and tripped the main fuse - why it didn't automatically trip, I don't know. Luckily all of my equipment was plugged into a surge protector which did its job flawlessly.



Oh shit!!

Thankfully I haven't had any electrical device start smoking and/or burst into flames.


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## Cyberchowww (May 7, 2019)

We burnt the motherboard of my partner. Put in the wrong graphics card in an attempted to overclock it. The motherboard smoked like a bbq but still works xD


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## The Matte-Black Cat (May 7, 2019)

Yep. Get this -

Me and my mother had a crush on an actor - Shemar Moore.

We were looking up pics of him...and Literally as soon as we were doing that, the display got Really shaky and pixely, and then the monitor went up in Smoke!!!!!

This was 10+ years ago, when computers were beige and bulky 

..me and my Mother are super close


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## Skittlesthehusky (May 11, 2019)

man, a phone battery blew up on me once.
i don't even know how it happened or why, considering the thing wasn't even swelling!

it did me a big hurt in the face though. EDSJKFNSJKFD


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## Keefur (May 12, 2019)

I had a very expensive tee shirt heat press smoke out on me once.


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## Skittlesthehusky (May 12, 2019)

Keefur said:


> I had a very expensive tee shirt heat press smoke out on me once.


smoke shirts everyday.


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## Deathless (May 12, 2019)

Not sure if this counts but my hair dryer once literally spat out sparks once and made me terrified about electricity
It burnt a little part of my hair and I was super relieved that I didn't go bald!


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## MrPhox (Jun 2, 2019)

This morning a bit pass 3 am I was woken because of noise in the living room. There was a BZZzzzz and poof, poof, I taught that my sister forget to turn off the speaker, but once I got to the living room I found out it was the power bar. The stupid cats, well one of them pee on it and it short circuit.

Luckily the computer was protected as the rooter and modem. I use the big fan to chase the smoke to the max I could and hush the smoke detector who signal after I was awaken by the noise.


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## Guifrog (Jun 2, 2019)

My former printer, twice. It got clogged with paper both times, it smelled funny and I turned it off immediately after noticing the smoke


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## Niru the Husky (Jul 11, 2019)

It happened only once to me.
My friend and I were in my bedroom and we sat there and read jokes on our smartphones. Suddenly smoke was comming out of the plug of my Samsung Galaxy S3 and it was completely burned.
I don't know why it happened but okay :/


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