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Blowing Up Resistors and Capacitors

K

KellyClarksonTV

Jan 1, 1970
0
Has anyone ever connected Resistors or Capacitors to high voltages in excess of
their rated voltages? I once connected a 1-ohm resistor rated at 1/2-watt to a
51-volt battery and it instantly bursted and shot out a piece of carbon from
inside. I've also connected one-way capacitors the wrong way or to AC power. I
like how they burst like firecrackers. Another time I short-circuited a
12-volt, 2000mA transformer and the box cracked because of the high heat.

Has anyone attempted these stupid stunts?
 
D

Dbowey

Jan 1, 1970
0
RE:

<< Has anyone ever connected Resistors or Capacitors to high voltages in excess
of
their rated voltages? I once connected a 1-ohm resistor rated at 1/2-watt to a
51-volt battery and it instantly bursted and shot out a piece of carbon from
inside. I've also connected one-way capacitors the wrong way or to AC power. I
like how they burst like firecrackers. Another time I short-circuited a
12-volt, 2000mA transformer and the box cracked because of the high heat.

Has anyone attempted these stupid stunts?
Yes, but except for you, I can't recall any who survived.

Don
 
R

Russ Meredith

Jan 1, 1970
0
Has anyone ever connected Resistors or Capacitors to high voltages in excess of
their rated voltages? I once connected a 1-ohm resistor rated at 1/2-watt to a
51-volt battery and it instantly bursted and shot out a piece of carbon from
inside. I've also connected one-way capacitors the wrong way or to AC power. I
like how they burst like firecrackers. Another time I short-circuited a
12-volt, 2000mA transformer and the box cracked because of the high heat.

Has anyone attempted these stupid stunts?


Not intentionally
 
A

Art

Jan 1, 1970
0
Can't really see how this will increase the physical sizes of these items,
maybe I missed the implied idea? Blowing Up indicative of enlarging
physically such as a balloon??
 
N

N. Thornton

Jan 1, 1970
0
Has anyone ever connected Resistors or Capacitors to high voltages in excess of
their rated voltages? I once connected a 1-ohm resistor rated at 1/2-watt to a
51-volt battery and it instantly bursted and shot out a piece of carbon from
inside. I've also connected one-way capacitors the wrong way or to AC power. I
like how they burst like firecrackers. Another time I short-circuited a
12-volt, 2000mA transformer and the box cracked because of the high heat.

Has anyone attempted these stupid stunts?

I think most of us have one time or another. But just occasionally
your efforts at cockup get defeated: once repaired something several
years old, only to find a 16v electrolytic in it running on 21-23v of
the wrong polarity. Weird thing was it had worked fine for years.

Regards, NT
 
N

N. Thornton

Jan 1, 1970
0
Has anyone attempted these stupid stunts?

My vote goes to carbon resistors. With a kilowatt or so through a
third of a watt R you get a very intense arc light. Better hope you
cant see it, or you wont be seeing anything for a while. Dont try this
intentionally!

Regards, NT
 
J

Jerry Greenberg

Jan 1, 1970
0
I have safer and better things to do with my time. I think you need a
life, or a hobby!

Jerry G.
 
D

David Moreno

Jan 1, 1970
0
Has anyone attempted these stupid stunts?

Have your tried to connect a carbon-mine of a pencil to
a Voltage source ?!, Whow ! what a light ! =D
 
S

stoj

Jan 1, 1970
0
Have your tried to connect a carbon-mine of a pencil to
a Voltage source ?!, Whow ! what a light ! =D
thats what my days in science class consisted of. also trying to make the
cabon-graphite pencils blow up by running AC voltage through them.
those were the days
 
G

Glenn Gundlach

Jan 1, 1970
0
I have safer and better things to do with my time. I think you need a
life, or a hobby!

Jerry G.
That IS his hobby. Doesn't seem that interesting to me, though. Its
not that much of a challenge to make something fail.
GG

<snip>
 
R

Rich Grise

Jan 1, 1970
0
Glenn Gundlach said:
[email protected] (Jerry Greenberg) wrote in message
That IS his hobby. Doesn't seem that interesting to me, though. Its
not that much of a challenge to make something fail.
GG
Ever cook a weenie by putting a fork in each end, and sticking the
forks in two glasses, one to each line of a suicide cord?

Cheers!
Rich

PS. Me Neither. ;-)
 
O

Orhan Kavrakoglu

Jan 1, 1970
0
Has anyone ever connected Resistors or Capacitors to high voltages in excess of
their rated voltages? I once connected a 1-ohm resistor rated at 1/2-watt to a
51-volt battery and it instantly bursted and shot out a piece of carbon from
inside. I've also connected one-way capacitors the wrong way or to AC power. I
like how they burst like firecrackers. Another time I short-circuited a
12-volt, 2000mA transformer and the box cracked because of the high heat.

Has anyone attempted these stupid stunts?

We had blown up a capacitor in a high school electronics class once.
It's been some time, but I think it shot out a spiral-ish string thing
up into the air...
 
J

~^Johnny^~

Jan 1, 1970
0
Troll!

=plonk!=




Has anyone ever connected Resistors or Capacitors to high voltages in excess of
their rated voltages? I once connected a 1-ohm resistor rated at 1/2-watt to a
51-volt battery and it instantly bursted and shot out a piece of carbon from
inside. I've also connected one-way capacitors the wrong way or to AC power. I
like how they burst like firecrackers. Another time I short-circuited a
12-volt, 2000mA transformer and the box cracked because of the high heat.

Has anyone attempted these stupid stunts?

--
-john
wide-open at throttle dot info

~~~~~~~~
"Stealing our copyright provisions in the dead of night when no-one
is looking is piracy. It's not piracy when kids swap music over the
Internet using Napster..." - Courtney Love
~~~~~~~~
 
K

KellyClarksonTV

Jan 1, 1970
0
have you ever injected gunpowder into a capacitor, sealed it up, and then
heated it?
 
G

Glenn Gundlach

Jan 1, 1970
0
Rich Grise said:
Ever cook a weenie by putting a fork in each end, and sticking the
forks in two glasses, one to each line of a suicide cord?

Cheers!
Rich

PS. Me Neither. ;-)

Wasn't that the Presto Hot-Dogger?
GG
 
L

Lenny

Jan 1, 1970
0
Yeah I had a friend when we were 16 who screwed around with gunpowder
and auto aeriels. He blew two fingers off. I remember that. He's
remembered it too I'm sure. I'll bet you were a real piece of work in
science class. Missed a few doses of meds, have you? I can't help but
wonder, do you get a pass to leave the confines of your padded room
very often? Scary thing to imagine your leaving at all but it just
reinforces the theory that there's more of "them" walking among us
than there are locked up. Lenny Stein, Barlen Electronics.
 
R

Robert Monsen

Jan 1, 1970
0
I think most of us have one time or another. But just occasionally
your efforts at cockup get defeated: once repaired something several
years old, only to find a 16v electrolytic in it running on 21-23v of
the wrong polarity. Weird thing was it had worked fine for years.

Regards, NT

Electrolytic caps explode when put in the wrong way because of the
leakage current heating them up. From what I understand, old
electrolytic caps can lose their oxide layer if a voltage isn't kept
across them. When they get turned on suddenly after a few years of not
being used, they may blow up...

Apparently, however, one can reform the oxide layer by bringing the
old caps slowly up to their rated voltage, over a period of days.

If the current through these reversed caps is limited by some outside
means, then I guess they may just survive. If they survive, I'm
guessing that the oxide layer will form in the reverse direction,
causing them to actually start working properly... However, I would
guess the capacitance won't match whats written on the outside.

Anybody who really knows want to comment?

Regards,
Bob Monsen
 
H

Herbert West

Jan 1, 1970
0
Ever cook a weenie by putting a fork in each end, and sticking the
forks in two glasses, one to each line of a suicide cord?

Cheers!
Rich

PS. Me Neither. ;-)

Yep, I actually did it.

I also remember back in High School in the 60's. Early on in
Industrial Arts class, they made the students make "Hot Dog Cookers"
out of a short piece of wood with two nails in each end. The nails
were attached to an AC line cord and you skewered the hotdog, plugged
it in for 30 secs to a minute, and voila!

Of course, no school would allow such dangerous devices to be made
nowadays.

On another "safety" note, one Industrial Arts teacher insisted *all*
chassis' the students brought in to repair be grounded with a U-ground
plug. This wreaked havoc with all the AC-DC radios and other
hot-chassis devices that got fixed in his class. He never could
understand why so many of them blew fuses after being repaired...
 
H

Herbert West

Jan 1, 1970
0
Has anyone ever connected Resistors or Capacitors to high voltages in excess of
their rated voltages? I once connected a 1-ohm resistor rated at 1/2-watt to a
51-volt battery and it instantly bursted and shot out a piece of carbon from
inside. I've also connected one-way capacitors the wrong way or to AC power. I
like how they burst like firecrackers. Another time I short-circuited a
12-volt, 2000mA transformer and the box cracked because of the high heat.

Has anyone attempted these stupid stunts?


Not intentionally... I had a lot of nice stupid accidents duing my
early days employed as an electronics jockey. Loud *BANG* with white
"popcorn" electrolytic cap innards all over my workbench area...

Then there were a couple times where PC boards warped too much due to
heat while being run over the wave solderer. Upon hiting the solder
fountain, several pounds of molten solder would be running off the
machine onto the floor before I could hit the panic button...
 
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