Adam, my electrical experience comes from HVAC in the early 80's before it all changed to digital. I haven't had to use the knowledge in a long time. It's surprising. It's starting to come back to me pretty fast. Which I find amazing. Buried in the back of the brain. I worked in a lot of computer rooms with total climate control systems. One of the brand names is an Ed PACK. Capacitor and higher voltages. I automatically touch everything with the back of my hand not the front. And I just have a habit of always grounding my elbow when working on things. Cabnents on heating and ac equpiment have sharp edges everywhere from the sheet metal, they're small, and you're always getting zapped by something. Them oil filled capacitors can knock you a little bit. We call 'em 'run capacitors' because they're always in line as opposed to the air cooled start capacitors that are only in the circuit for 3 secs. Oh well, I'm rambling. I'm real happy I got into this.
Well, gonna play with them some more. And gotta figure out what clock chip to use, but I also want to include a humistat ,thermometer, wind speed indicator, and barametric pressure reading with trend. Also wondering, here in the US they make the weather radios now, that turn on when signaled for a weather alert. I'm wondering how to make some nixie lights go off when the weather radio alert goes off and turn on an old short wave radio tuned to the weather station. At least that's what I'm trying to do. let's see how far I get. To me it's just natural, time and weather go together. Mike. On Oct 20, 4:26 pm, Adam Jacobs <[email protected]> wrote: > Me too. It was Mike Harrison's design. I was new to all of this and had > never had my fingers into anything resembling high voltage before. I'd > grown used to be able to reach my screwdriver into the powered circuit > and adjust various pots, trying to get brightness of neon the same as > those of nixie, etc.. Well, anyways, once I tilted my head a bit to the > left for a better look. > **ZAP** > > My left temple had touched the case of the ultrasound machine sitting on > the bench and apparently the total impedance of the circuit (through my > skull) to ground via this path was much lower than it had previously > been before my head touched a grounded chassis. > > I've tried to be careful since then, but I must admit that one of the > primary reasons for switching to isolated high voltage supplies in all > of my nixie clocks after the 3rd or 4th one was due to the occasional > electric shock. My wife has grown accustomed to my occasional mutters of > "Wow, that'll wake you up." > I have to admit that I grew somewhat careless after a while. More > recently, when I had a nerve-conductance study done, I licked my lips > and said, "Hm.. 250v, 30ma?" > > Of course, now that the high voltage I work on is my swan transceiver, > which most definitely holds enough current and voltage to kill me stone > dead, I am boringly careful. The fact that I'm still here to type this > message means that I haven't grown careless with the plate supply on my > finals yet. > > As a side note, a few years back my car was totalled in a rear-end > collision on the 520. My tektronix analog scope was in the trunk. I > assumed it was toast. I crowbarred the trunk open and retrieved the > scope which was surprisingly in good shape. When I powered it on, > however, the scope trace was strange and skewed. I decided to open it up > and see if there were any loose connections which could be re-seated. > Before I did so, however, I called my dad and asked what I should know. > "I hear that there is a lot of potential on those scope tubes, dad.. is > this safe? It's been unplugged for a long time. What should I know?", I > said. My dad told me that probably the bleeder resistors will have > cleared the HV caps by now, but short them to be sure, etc... and then > finished with, "It's only a couple kilovolts in there anyways. That'll > maybe through you across the room, but it won't kill you. It's nothing > like the old color TV tubes, that's for sure.. I got bit with one of > those once, they really hurt.".. and then went on to casually recommend > that maybe I should have someone in the room who could start CPR & call > 911, "Just in case". > It was with true caution that I approached that scope, I can tell you. > > It's worth adding that the only thing wrong with the scope was that the > yoke connector on the CRT was unseated. After reseating it, the scope > worked fine. I still use it. > > -Adam AJ9D > > On 10/20/2011 3:58 PM, Jonathan Peakall wrote: > > > > > > > > > We feel your joy, Nixie brother! > > > I'll always remember how pleased I was when I lit my first nixie. It > > was a B5750. > > > Jonathan > > >> got all my tubes they all lit what fun > > >> mike -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "neonixie-l" group. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/neonixie-l?hl=en-GB.
