Comment by dom96

4 years ago

It seems like these guides never include the most useful info: safety. Does anyone know guides that talk about electronics safety?

4 comments

dom96

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Cocktail  4 years ago

User or component safety? I think in general electronics do not require much in the way of user safety (Ofcourse I exclude power electronics and other high-energy systems) beyond how to properly use measurement devices. Component safety, eg: the art of not killing your semiconductors is another beast entirely

  • mrob  4 years ago

    From Wikipedia's "Electrolytic capacitor" article:

    "Applying a reverse polarity voltage, or a voltage exceeding the maximum rated working voltage of as little as 1 or 1.5 volts, can destroy the dielectric and thus the capacitor. The failure of electrolytic capacitors can be hazardous, resulting in an explosion or fire."

    Even a small one could take somebody's eye out if they happened to be close to it when it failed and not wearing eye protection.

  • tzs  4 years ago

    Even low power components can do things that could hurt you if you do something wrong with them.

    When I was first playing around with electronics as a kid using kits and individual components purchased from Radio Shack I once put an LED directly across the terminals of a lantern battery.

    The LED exploded sending little bits of plastic flying off at high speed. They all missed me, but if I had been in a little different position when hooking up that LED my lesson in the importance of using current limiting resistors with LEDs could have been punctuated by a serious eye injury.

    I'd say that a paragraph when each component is introduced covering what bad things that component can do if you exceed its voltage, current, or power limits would be a good idea even if the course is only dealing with low power systems.