Epic CVL Projector Build Thread

[Xytrell]

standing on a wet floor with bear feet is not advised while tinkering.

Always! you might frighten somebody (or even yourself )

[clandestiny]

Of course there is the most epic laser electrical disaster of all time witnessed by those in attendence at the first ever
lexicon event- flem1

A member, to remain nameless ( usually photgraphed in a tie-dye shirt ) arrived with what would later become known
as the houdini zap box- a home brewed laser illusions based projector- with special anti-theft capibilities-

Unfortunately, the user himself was not exempt from the doomsday projector and could be heard yelping and screaming all day long as he attempted to operated it-

- the rest of us tried to enjoy some lasershows, but with the screaming heard over the music- to no avail -

I wonder what ever happened to that guy?

[soforene]

...A member, to remain nameless ( usually photgraphed in a tie-dye shirt ).....

Sounds like a right numpty.

[300EVIL]

Always! you might frighten somebody (or even yourself )

HA! Woops!

[buffo]

A member, to remain nameless ( usually photgraphed in a tie-dye shirt )

Sounds like a right numpty.

Aw come on! Everyone is entitled to a couple mistakes...

Mine was in forgetting that even though the power switch was off, the input terminals would still be hot. 110V AC across the back of the hand will make just about anyone yelp with shock (no pun intended) and pain. In my case it may have been a little louder, but that's how I roll, bitches...

The "Houdini box" has been dismantled, and the empty shell is currently sitting on a shelf. I don't have the courage to mess with it anymore!

And for the record, I never got shocked by my new projector or the HGM5. (Well, at least not yet, that is!)

Adam

[platinum]

. . .And for the record, I never got shocked by my new projector or the HGM5. (Well, at least not yet, that is!)

Adam

Ooooh, last second jinx protection for the win!

[QUAZAR]

Of course there is the most epic laser electrical disaster of all time witnessed by those in attendence at the first ever
lexicon event- flem1

Dunno about that.

There is the story about an ALC68 psu resevoir caps (300v) being discharged by a bracelet.

Or the story of someone tripping over a water hose feeding an I90. Hose was detatched from laser and snaked around until it was stopped by the 3 phase distro.

Or the story of mixing live and ground whilst tailing into a fixed supply. Its amazing how hard you get thrown into a wall 12 feet away.

There is also another ALC68 story involving glitter cartridges (pyro).

[daedal]

Capacitors... oh! Don't get me started... I've had my brushes with them...

The first was easy, but a good "warning" indeed. I have this small oil capacitor that I was testing out with a 10KV charge... it's pretty tiny though (thank God!) at only 1uF. A shock across the hand got it numb for quite some time... I was freaking out for a few minutes trying to piece together what I've just done and what I should do now!

The last encounter (a couple months ago) was extremely scary... I was messing with a digital camera, taking it apart and trying to get the flash circuit out... Well, me being the smart-ass decided to try and check it's all functional without the cover on in the first place... and it was, but since it's being powered by a bench supply it charges up pretty damn quick. When I went to disconnect the supply I got a cool smooth flash discharge of 150uF @ 500V into my left hand!!!! Let me tell you... my shoulder was numb! I couldn't raise my hand for a good couple hours, I was jittery and shaking from the encounter for a few hours after that even... Worst part... my arm was sore the day after from this!!

If it has a capacitor, only touch it if you have to... and even when you do, keep eyeballing the terminals! And just like 300EVIL said, the higher the voltage, the more they arc!

--DDL

[heroic]

Lemme tell ya, folks, the 45 kV EHT on the tubes of an old Barco projector ruined my day one time. I was reaching over to adjust one of the tube clamps when someone dropped something in the workshop, I jumped and the next thing I knew I was waking up on the other side of the shop with David the Boss looking down at me. Since David looked a bit like Jesus I was not sure if I was alive or not. When twenty minutes later the palpitations started, I got to take a ride in an ambulance.

Fortunately the ECG showed that my young (I was sixteen years old) heart had plenty of get up and keep going and hadn't allowed the insult to turn to injury, and what with Britain having a real health service and all, I got treated without it eating into my meagre wages as a shop tech.

I learnt something that day: don't get startled by loud noises if you're going to work on high voltage gear.

[mixedgas]

I used to have a boss, may he rest in peace, who would wait till I had a arm deep in a piece of energetic gear and walk up and go "ennntttt" right behind me when I was concentrating on the gear at hand. Of course you want to jump, even when you know its powered down. Then he'd crack out laughing.,,,, Ohhhh I hated that.

The following is NOT funny, but it is a good point.

Little Thai postdoc, lady is a mathematician who should have never been in a lab, but I had to put up with her natural born destructiveness for 4 years. After 3.5 years in a HV based lab, you think she would know something about circuits. So I get in this shiny new 60Kv 500 uA adjustable supply. At 60, single pin Aldens like on henes are not a good idea. Our normal supplies were current limited and had a arc fault trip, and were intrensicly safe.This one, was not arc protected and limited. So unlike our 0-20 and 0-30 Kv supplies, this had a big piece of RG8 coax on it as the output. 6 inches of the outer jacket are stripped off and a PL259 connector is the ground, with the teflon inner part terminated deep inside the PSU with a bannana pin, so basically the the hot junction is 6 inches inside the potted multiplier and the cable is locked in place by the 259 shell. Nice way of doing it.

But for 3. 5 years this lady has been using aldens.

"Steeeweve (cant pronounce the e-ve pair in Thai) Dr Reneker said you are not supposed to no about this projecd" (Oh no, another one of these I'm not supposed to know, but I end up making it work ones) "I vant Rathapol's new powder suppli". Me "Ok, but this unit is lethal, it can kill you and I don't want you working alone, the cable is 35 Pf per foot, and stores a charge." The boss in one of his rare fits of stupidity, wanted this project compartmentalised, so he would not have to share the reward for the patent. So he sent the machine out to be built, and not by a person who know about HV. The frame had two huge AL plates about 2 " apart on standoffs.

So I insist that Ms Destructo leaves the door open and tells me if she goes above 30Kv. Her experiment should have thresholded around 20 Kv. Nothing in our lab would ever need to go to 60 to threshold. Ok, she can do it alone, shes been around HV for years. But I start to hear the hissing of HV leakage, and I'm getting concerned. I'm at a computer outside the door, and my ears are perking up. So screw the "secrets", safety of life trumps security unless your in the military.

When I hear the static go to sparks...sparks increasing, and I think, sparks.. We don't DO sparks, arcing kills the 1400$ psus. What has she done now... I didnt know about the big plates....

The desk lights go, out, a GFI trip, and before I can get close, I see her turning the knob, as you DON'T hurry into a lab accident, screech, scream, yow and she jumps back hard into a desk. HV stayed on, it was on another outlet, so I whacked the psu switch with a piece of PVC, and went to check on her.

Shes still standing , sorta slumped over the desk, I'm thinking ABCs, Airway, Breathing, Circulation. Then Spinal, Secondary reaction bone injury Shes somewhat conscious,breathing, but really stunned. I get her talking....

The classic "whyy diddd it dddooo that?????" comes out.....

(The third most common phase on cockpit voice recorders starts with WHy is it "

She didnt understand the need for the huge, long, coax, even after being briefed, so she took a TVS-15 cable (Television Voltage Service, you've all seen it) with a half Alden and rammed it up the hole where the RG8 core should have been, and proceeded to use that hastily improvised spark gap to charge two 36x24 AL plates, air spaced.... To about 70 Kv.

She could not understand why her experiment didnt threshold at 20 and kept turning the knob....


Whilest I do not recommend repremanding one's 76 year PHD boss behind closed doors, in his own office, ............

Shes fine, now very rich, has kids, and still doesn't know what a complete circuit is.

Oh, and you keep the PVC handy in a electical lab, to knock people off circuit, You dont touch them. And we were told, if a alarm is going off, You do not go in, screw your coworkers, you leave. I personally disagreed with that policy in non chemical labs...


I only had three minor accidents in 8 years, and two of them were me, she's the only one that got even close....

Now do you guys understand why I have high BP??

Steve