Power supply's got some exposed mains voltage, generally speaking using
alligator clips around anything with any exposed wires at ∗any∗ voltage
is a bad idea, all you need to do is slip a little and things short out,
stuff gets cooked, or ∗you∗ get cooked. Not good.
I can speak from experence that even the 'low' voltages (+15, gnd, gnd,
-15) on the boards is unpleasant. I was testing out my Blacet TIme
Machine conversion on a bare circuit board. I had the circuit board for
the time machine sitting on my leg, and I was wearing shorts. I hooked
it up, I turned on my power supply (which was mounted safely in my rack)
and took a 30 volt DC differential in my leg through the spikes on the
back of the circuit board where the MTA-156 power connector was. It
hurt. Not fun. Even low voltage can be unpleasant, and potentially
dangerous. I consider myself fairly safe, usually, and I thought I had
my insulation panel (cardboard sheet...) underneat the circuit board
when I fired it up, but I didn't. It's the silliest mistake I've made
working on my MOTM stuff. Don't me like me! =]
-Geoff
Jeff Laity wrote:
>I have built my first two modules, a 490 and 190. They sit here on a
>table as I wonder if they work. I mentioned to Paul that I was going to
>hook banana clips to my power supply to test them, since I hadn't
>gotten my 960 power distribution kit yet. He said, "ACK! ACK!" Having
>read lots of Bloom Country as a child, I am fluent in Bill the Cat and
>understood this to mean, "don't do that."
>
>So now I sit, looking at the gleaming modules, trying to resist the
>temptation to plug them in. Pretty, shiny modules. Just sitting
>there...
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