On Tuesday 30 April 2002 09:29 L, you wrote:
> On Tue, 30 Apr 2002, Chuck Hast wrote:
> > I have done a lot of this sort of thing over the years, this is the most
> > fun part from my perspective, the part that I can see work, make it
> > flash, buzz or ring.
>
> I also enjoy -- emit a pillar of flame, and smoke, as I do
> from time to time on the breadboard, with cmos gates. <grin>
>
> -- Russ
Back in a previous life I worked for DEC in their Puerto Rico plant.
I worked in QC and one day chanced on a tester who had just put
a board in a test jigg, when she powered it up, one of the big chips
on the board did a volcano act. Quite neat actually, the center of the
chip turned almost white hot then out of it erupted this little flame,
with sparks and little cinders of chip, it actually built up a little cinder
cone and looked like a real world volcano... That was the most
impressive smoke release I have ever seen while doing this stuff,
yes I have seen bigger, noisier (how about a whole substation going
up in big puffs of something ugly?) and much brighter ones but for
shear elegancy that was the neatest, someone took the board home
for a keepsake. The second neatest was 3 transformers on a set of
poles all of them absorbed a lightning discharge and proceded to
launch the cans downward into the ground, that happened as I was
driving around a traffic circle, needless to say it was a real traffic
stopper... The transformers were held to the cross piece between
the poles by a bracket which was connected to the lid. That took
place in San Jose Costa Rica which has lightning that exceeds
even Tampa in seriousness.
-- Chuck Hast KP4DJT kp4djt@tampabay.rr.com To paraphrase my flight instructor; "the only dumb question is the one you DID NOT ask resulting in my going out and having to identify your bits and pieces in the midst of torn and twisted metal."
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