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Story Time! How bad have you been shocked?

I've been shocked a few good times before... I've accidentally touched a tank circuit of mine in an induction heater. Hurt a lot, shook me up a bit but I was fine.

I've also touched a SMPS capacitor while it was still halfway charged to around 100 volts I think....that hurt even worse than touching the induction heater!

I've also even been shocked by a supposedly "low" voltage transformer... remember that the peak voltage is often a LOT higher than what it's rated for!
 





I was playing with ATX PSU capacitor caps. 300VDC (I forget the uF rating)

Well I went to do something else and forgot about the caps. Well a day or two later I was cleaning my room and picked up the cap thinking it was discharged and it went ZZZPP! The nerves in my hand were all tingling for about 15 mins. That wasn't fun :(
 
^^ how many times have we utterd the immortal words...

"that must be discharged by no.....BBBBZZZZTTTT!
 
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My worst experience was a bit like jeffreythe00's. When I was about 6-7 years old I also decided it might be interesting to put something into the wall plug. I found a paper clip and stuck it in. I was literally thrown across my room, something like 6' or so. What I remember most about the experience was What a SHOCK it was! WOW! Don't even remember hitting the wall.

The second worst I must say was a jolt from my NST 7.5kV@30mA:tinfoil:
 
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I've seen that video of the indian fellow before and it is quite amazing. I wonder how much heat he feels though... P= I^2 * R and all. Just to be clear, it does set off some BS alarms.

It brings up an interesting point of discussion: what is your resistance?

Take a multimeter and place one probe in each hand between your thumb and forefinger. Make good contact, and do so with your skin moisture at a normal level for any given day that you might be working with electronics casually. Arms stretched, and post what it shows to be.

I get 1.9Mohms average (1,900,000 Ohms), which means that it would take 19kV to push 10mA (enough to kill) through my chest assuming my skin at point of contact doesn't give way and expose my wet conductive insides to the metal, which would drastically lower my impedance. That is why even lower voltages can still kill you, the outer layer of skin is where most of the resistance is.. if it gets burned or cut or vaporized you become a heck of a lot more conductive and a lot more current can flow. But, a 10mA current regulated power supply at >19kV could still put me in the grave even if my skin were to hold up (which in itself would take special circumstances as the arc from an already-on supply would almost certainly break the skin). Totally pointless statistic, but one has to wonder how much variation there is in skin resistance, and a small sampling may even prove the guy in the video's claim that average resistance is <1Mohm is total bs.
 
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I understand that they're broadcasting to the general public, so they have to dumb-down the science, however:

1. resistance doesn't cause current to move more slowly.
2. Incandescent lamps don't make a loud humming noise.
3. He had a multimeter when he walked in. Why did he have to buy another one?
4. Multimeters don't beep on the ohm setting.
5. You would be able to power nothing with 1.3MΩ in series with your load.
6. I've put current through all sorts of strange things, and at currents high enough to power a blender, any organic material would either be smoking or on fire.

Simply not possible :o
 
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My first schock was because of my dad! When i was little he was lawnmowing the yard and he ran the powercord over with the lawnmower..

He asked me to fix the wire so i was like yeah offcourse dad. I assumed he would be smart enough to pull the plug out of the wallet. I picked up the cord and i was zapped :p felt a strong vibrating pulse in my arm!

That one really pissed me off back then! Allways double check everything now if i need to help him with anything :p

Untill today he is claiming that i was bluffing and that he is sure that he pulled out the cord. Sure thing dad...

Greetings,,
 
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Cyparagon said:
I understand that they're broadcasting to the general public, so they have to dumb-down the science, however:

1. resistance doesn't cause current to move more slowly.
2. Incandescent lamps don't make a loud humming noise.
3. He had a multimeter when he walked in. Why did he have to buy another one?
4. Multimeters don't beep on the ohm setting.
5. You would be able to power nothing with 1.3MΩ in series with your load.
6. I've put current through all sorts of strange things, and at currents high enough to power a blender, any organic material would either be smoking or on fire.

Simply not possible :o
Click to expand...

very nice flaws you have found in that video!

I would of loved to see someone put a clamp meter on the input to the blender, just because its rated for 700W doesn't mean that ~3A is flowing :thinking:
 
Cyparagon said:
I understand that they're broadcasting to the general public, so they have to dumb-down the science, however:

1. resistance doesn't cause current to move more slowly.
2. Incandescent lamps don't make a loud humming noise.
3. He had a multimeter when he walked in. Why did he have to buy another one?
4. Multimeters don't beep on the ohm setting.
5. You would be able to power nothing with 1.3MΩ in series with your load.
6. I've put current through all sorts of strange things, and at currents high enough to power a blender, any organic material would either be smoking or on fire.

Simply not possible :o
Click to expand...

Oh definitely, that show in entirety is pretty much BS. (I mean the show as a whole, not just the episode in question). Current through 1.3Mohms @ 220Vrms (311Vpk) = 239uApk. Though in the video you see him using his tongue as a conductor so likely it isn't passing through 1.3Mohms. The real odd thing is that you don't see any muscular convulsions or contractions...
 
I was talking to my brother about this thread and remembering shocking myself and he reminds me of the other time I've been badly shocked.

My brother, aunt and cousin all work for the abattoir and for some reason my cousin brings home a cattle taser. So we were having fun playing with it and I decided that I could touch both points while not pressing the button and avoid shocking myself... I was wrong and got a little jolt from the capacitors. After that I tried it again because I was all like 'That didn't hurt at all' and my cousin decided to press the button and hit me with the full jolt.

I ended up with 2 burn 'holes' on my thumb and dropping to the concrete floor managed to knock myself out.

I didn't remember any of this until reminded. I scared my whole family that day.

Lase
 
Reading this thread has reminded me that I'm pretty darn lucky that I haven't been seriously hurt with electricity. Hear is a little list of what has shocked the crap out of me.

120vac a few times: I have been luck in these cases; it was just enough to remind me how quickly the poo can hit the fan. The last time it happened, I was getting in a big hurry replacing ALL the outlets in my dad's rental house (the lady who rented it thought it was a good idea to paint all the white outlets brown with latex pant). This one outlet happened to be switched so I said screw it and started un-wiring it WITH OUT killing the breaker. It ended up being switched on the neutral side and not the hot side so the outlet was still live in reference to ground. I grabbed it trying to get it free and figured out it was hot. My reflexes helped yank it out the rest of the way. I now double check with my DVOM to make damn sure its dead.

Those damn camera flash circuits: 250VDC HURTS! These little evil devices gave me my introduction to numb and tingly extremities. Needless to say, I don't play with them anymore.

My stick welder: its open circuit voltage is only about 70 volts, but its the fact that you are never expecting it that makes it bad. I've lost track of the number of times I have been bit by it trying to tack 2 pieces of metal together. It sucks when you have the piece exactly where you wanted and you drop it when the current flows through your hand instead of the metal. It's even worse when the electrode holder has a conductive spot that you keep on forgetting to fix and you shock your self countless times with it.

Ignition systems: I don't like touching spark plug wires on any running engine. I seem to find all the cracks in the insulation. Im worried that I'm going to jerk my arm out of the way and find either a hot exhaust system or a big metal fan that doesn't get out of my way.
 
InfinitusEquitas said:
Reading this thread, I'm happy to see I wasn't the only one to stick stuff in outlets as a kid :p
Click to expand...

paperclip, I was 3 and wonder were light came from on a lamp and had the great idea to learn about what came out of holes in the wall that made light.

is not that every kid :P
 
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