[sdiy] Re:Need Some Advice

[Ken Stone]

I managed to leave a dent in the ceiling with a much smaller cap - 100uf.
Reversed polarity across 12V Lead acid gel cell. I The can of the cap was
crushed by the impact, and the desk was covered in electrolyte. All that was
left on the board were the pins, the rubber bung and the heatshrink. There
is a good reason why modern caps have V notch stamped in their tops - to
prevent missiles.

Ken

>    Worst one I ever had was a 330uF 10V cap that was the bulk bypass cap on
>a DSP card.  The assembler put it in backwards....even under the best of
>conditions, this is not good, but the system had a 300Amp (yes, three hundred
>amps) power supply, and when I flipped on the power, boy did that baby
>blow....sounded like an M-80, made a big bright flash.  All that was left
>were the two legs soldered into the board.  The only remains to be found were
>little tiny peices of epoxy embedded in the cables for the logic pods
>connected to the board.  Only thing that saved me was the power switch was on
>the opposite side of the rack.  Back then, safety glasses were only for wimps
>and bedwetters as far as I was concerned (I have since reformed).
> -Jim
_______________________________________________________________________
Ken Stone   sasami at blaze.net.au  
Modular Synth <http://www.blaze.net.au/~sasami/synth/>
Catgirl Paradise <http://www.anime.net/~kens/>
Australian Miniature Horses & Ponies <http://www.blaze.net.au/~sasami/>