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Old August 20th 04, 02:47 AM
Martin
 
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My story may not be extremely spectacular, but I think it has a rather
amusing moral...

I had for a number of years not bothered screwing down the top cover of my
13.8VDC 10A power supply, for whatever reason. Of course, every so often
the top cover would move and expose the inside working of the supply, but
that wasn't really a problem!(?)

Then one day, while doing my electronics trade course, we moved to the
subject of AC safety and how not to fry yourself! Very interesting lesson
and I scored 100% in the final exam for that subject.

Then I came home, rather pleased, reached down to switch off my power
supply, and promptly shorted the 240V AC main switch with my finger! What
was that about AC electrical safety again????

----

Another event, some years later, I was working on a tape deck on my
workbench. I had to reach over the tape deck to get a screwdriver from the
back of the bench, but of course I forgot it was still pluged in and
promptly shorted the AC transformer inout with my forearm...

Luckily for me we had just installed earth leakage breakers and it didn't
take long for it to trip... After that, whenever someone asked me "how long
do these breakers take to cut out" I would always answer with "oh, about
ARRRGG"

Cheers

Martin, VK2UMJ