Electric shock experiences - for those still alive - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Howardlong
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2015, 02:37:51 pm
content: So I am not proud but I've had a handful of shocks over the years, the most recent one a few weeks ago, but that's the first I've had for about 20 years.I had one life-threatening one when stood 20' up on an A-frame ladder putting up theatre lighting 30 odd years ago, the cross bar was earthed, we were taught to hold the cross bar while doing anything up there to keep physical stability on top of the ladder. My left hand was holding the earthed cross bar with some force to stabilise my body, while my right hand plugged in the 15A round pin plug. My right middle finger happened to touch the live pin while I plugged it in. It was live. I don't remember much, other than being unable to pull either hand away for some time, but realising either I had to release my right or left hand. I tried both, one after the other. Luckily, after several attempts it was the right hand that budged.Apparently the whole ladder was shaking for about twenty seconds. I was shaking for a lot longer once I'd climbed back down.Luckily I've been on terra firma for the two or three shocks since then, and they haven't been across my body like that first time.

author: KJDS
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2015, 02:52:09 pm
content: I've had a few. Recently worked on a project that had a lot of 300V DC on the boards but it was always current limited to less than 10mA. It gave a sharp nudge but no more than that.When I was about 16 I managed to get a proper blast of mains which threw me across the room. That really was a shock.A mate of mine was an industrial electrician and would test 415V bus bars with the back of his hand. If you hold your hand and wrist the right way then it will always contract your muscles away from the bar. Personally I was neverbravestupid enough to try that.

author: ReaDave
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: March 04, 2015, 02:54:06 pm
content: I've had a few but there are two I remember most clearly.The first was when I was little and climbed up on the table and stuck my finger in the light socket of my mother's sewing machine!The other one I can recall clearly was when I was building my first serious power supply when I was in my teens. I forgot that I still had the mains cord plugged in and was rearranging the mains wiring on the main power switch. My thumb came into contact with the active wire and I felt a massive hum and serious pain shoot right down the right side of my body. Fortunately the path was from my thumb to ground and not across my chest. That really shook me up for a while! I went from this:to this:instantly!!Fortunately, in all my years of working with CRTs, live chassis TVs (always with an isolation transformer), neon sign transformers, gas lasers and microwave ovens, I never got a belt from one of those. I am ALWAYS extra cautious when working with lethal stuff like that.I used to work with another tech who used to tap his finger on the active mains of live circuits to check the presence of the mains! Dude must've had some seriously dry skin is all I can say!

author: Codemonkey
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2015, 03:03:50 pm
content: Had a few in the past at a previous job but only one really almost resulted in a change of underwear!Was building a SMPS. Had the earth disconnected on the scope and the PSU running from a large variac (looked like something straight from a Frankenstein film set). All was going well until I had one hand on the earthed metal handle of the variac and reached over with the other hand to change something on the scope. I brushed the unshielded bit of the BNC connector with my fingers making the connection to earth across my body. I remember a loud buzzing sensation, thinking oops, somethin bad is happening, then the trip went and I found myself sat on the floor on the other side of the office! I got on the phone immediately afterwards to our transformer supplier and had them wind me an isolation transformer.

author: matseng
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2015, 03:06:24 pm
content: 35 years later I still have scars on my fingertips from this incident. I was in school 14 or 15 years old and during a students-helping-the-staffs-week I was assigned to replace the lightbulbs of the lamp posts in the school yard.I was got a box of new bulbs, an aluminum ladder and a screwdriver and let loose on my task. The first few bulbs got replaced without any problem, but the last one I did was broken on the backside and by some reason the power was on. Having one hand in a steady grip of the metallic lamppost and the fingers on the other hand touching the live filament ended up rather badly.This was in Sweden with 220 volts, not the wimpy it-only-tickles-a-bit 110 you got in the states, so I got stuck for quite some time with the current going in on one hand and out the other.The bulb got reduced to tiny shards, and I'm still amazed that my other hand didn't make an impression in the lamp post.After a while I fell down to the ground, I remember a lot of people running around shouting and I was taken the the hospital to check that my heart still was doing what it is supposed to do.Except for some burns on one hand and some not too bad cuts on the other I didn't suffer any ill effects after the ordeal. Unfortunately I didn't gain any superpowers either. ;-)Then of course I have had the usual small mishaps mostly involving putting my hand on a transformer with exposed primary connector while being in contact with chassis ground at the same time. But since I always have GFI's where I work and play it's merely a minor inconvenience to get zapped rather than something nasty.

author: codeboy2k
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2015, 03:17:01 pm
content: I've posted about my brush with 10 KV beforeI'm here today because it was current limited to about 10mA.

author: Kaptein QK
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2015, 03:18:58 pm
content: I pulled the cap off the spark plug on my scooter while it was running. I got 10-20 shocks, one for each rotation of the engine before it stopped.Nothing to write home about

author: 3roomlab
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2015, 03:21:32 pm
content: Quote from: KJDS on March 04, 2015, 02:52:09 pmhuman volt meter? i had the chance to stumble upon a mildly leaky instrument once. and so i tried the "backhand human volt meter" on it, it works, but please make sure your hands are dry, etc

author: Mechanical Menace
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2015, 03:22:30 pm
content: Only once. I had a mishap plugging something in when I was a kid, and like an idiot for some reason I had it held with my fingers touching the pins. For some reason it threw my arm away very hard rather than making me grab hold though

author: vinicius.jlantunes
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2015, 03:30:38 pm
content: I have a shock induced Tourette syndrome - my first reaction to an electric shock is always automatic and unavoidable swearing. Remember it happening when I was repairing an outlet and had turned off the wrong circuit breaker - should've tested with the multimeter first but I didn't. Now I always do and never trust the identification on the breaker panel.

author: SteveyG
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 04, 2015, 03:36:08 pm
content: I've had one shock when I was installing a TV distribution system at my mother-in-law's house. I had nicely chipped out a nice hole for a standard 35mm metal pattress and made sure it was a slightly snug fit, so pushing hard with both thumbs to seat it in the wall. It made contact with the edge of a nail beneath the plaster holding some metal capping over the lighting supply to the 1st floor, which I knew was there but didn't know had a nail further up the wall driven through the capping and right into the cable.It was pretty painful, but I was only in contact for a fraction of a second so no burns. That section of wall had to be chased out from floor to ceiling to find where the fault wasWhat the heck is a public bath? Don't you have one at home?

author: Mechanical Menace
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2015, 03:41:24 pm
content: Quote from: SteveyG on March 04, 2015, 03:36:08 pmYe olde talk for a public swimming pool.

author: Howardlong
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2015, 03:45:19 pm
content: I regret to say that the result so far is not unexpected, although the UK's Health and Safety Executive appear to be living in utopia ridden parallel universe. While their aim is to be applauded, it appears that based on those of us who have so far registered a vote, that they are living in cloud cuckoo land regarding reality.http://www.hse.gov.uk/electricity/faq.htm#q2

author: 4cx10000
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2015, 03:53:22 pm
content: Well, being a ham - radio amateur - which are now and then close by high voltages, of course this apply for those getting into projects with big tube amplifiers. Remember this clearly with kind of horror though it is like 30 years ago... I was working on a grounded grid 4-1000A RF-amplifier at late night with my head full of things my wife wanted me to do. I had a lot of problems with parasitics and other stuff I don't recall right now. This tube can be a real nightmare... The high voltage power supply was in a wooden enclosure with 5KV output through a SO234 and then fed to the amplifier via a RG8 coax. Clever enough I had disconnected the cable with PL259 connector from the HV-psu, but stupid me!!There was still 5KV at the center of the chassis connector because I did not pull the HV-switch on the amplifier before starting to dig... The psu was standing on the floor beneath the table I had my amplifier on. What happened was, that underside of my foot came close to the connector and BANG!!! I woke up lying on the floor with abnormally high pain in my foot, the flashover created a small crater into the flesh. I won't try it again!!

author: rollatorwieltje
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 04, 2015, 03:54:08 pm
content: Most notable ones:touching a slightly modified electric fly swatter. I wired an extra cap to the grid, giving it more punch. Also removed the bleeder resistor, so it would charge faster. I lost feeling in my finger for about 15 minutes.Most nasty one was a combo of temperature and shock. Was fixing one of those instant coffee makers, it had a boiler without insulation and live electrodes on the back... During a test run (with the cover off) the damn thing almost fell off the desk. In a dumb reaction I grabbed it by the top, right on the exposed electrodes and the hot boiler housing... Both the shock and the temperature weren't particularly extreme, but the combination suckedIt's like the "dropped soldering iron dance", but with some extra spice added.

author: Seekonk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2015, 03:54:23 pm
content: When I was 15 I was reading at my basement work bench with my feet up on the desk. Lightning struck our back yard and I remember seeing this blue light coming from the basement bulkhead door. Next thing I remember was waking up about an hour later 15 feet away wedged up against the basement wall. Every bone in my body ached. Numerous shocks after that have seemed relatively minor.

author: ReaDave
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: March 04, 2015, 04:10:13 pm
content: Quote from: rollatorwieltje on March 04, 2015, 03:54:08 pmNow there's an idea for another topic. Great description! I think we can all relate to that one!

author: Phaedrus
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2015, 04:10:18 pm
content: I was working in a lab with a 3kVA AC source powered from 380V 3-phase. It was part of a rack system, and we needed to move it to another room, to hook up to some equipment in our thermal chamber. I had only recently started working there, and was a bit fuzzy from drinking the night before. For some reason I thought I'd turned off the breaker, when I hadn't. So I sat down behind the rack and unscrewed the earth connector, and was about to start unscrewing the live conductors, when my lab partner shouted, "STOP! Don't move!" He ran over and turned off the breaker, and when the enormity of what almost happened hit me I about shat my pants.Closest call I've had. I'm probably lucky to be alive. Gave me a lot more respect for procedure and checklists.Hm, haven't actually had any really bad shocks, nothing above ~20V and a few mA, but a guy I was working with once shorted a 400V cap with his screwdriver while working on an off-line SMPS, plugged into mains and turned on. I was looking right at it, and the flash gave me purple spots in my vision for half an hour, and the bang sounded like a .22 rifle. EDIT: No wait, I do remember getting a mains shock once, just briefly while I was unhooking a stereo from behind a TV. I was reaching around behind without a clear view of what I was doing, and I brushed the pins of the mains connector while it was halfway out. Hurt like a sonuva, but no permanent damage.

author: ReaDave
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: March 04, 2015, 04:23:38 pm
content: Quote from: Phaedrus on March 04, 2015, 04:10:18 pmDid you get to see what was left of the screwdriver?

author: Phaedrus
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2015, 04:27:33 pm
content: Quote from: ReaDave on March 04, 2015, 04:23:38 pmScorched, but not melted! We rubbed the char off with some steel wool and I think it's being used in the warehouse still.The PSU was also fine, aside from some scorch marks around the base of said cap. We replaced it and its parallel partner anyway, just to be safe.

author: BillyD
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2015, 04:40:07 pm
content: Was fixing a dishwasher and had just replaced a broken pressure sensor. The sensor fed the timer motor and I wanted to verify that the motor was now turning so I pressed the power button while watching the motor. Carelessly my other hand was resting on the contacts of the door cut-out switch while I did so, and I was kneeling on a damp tiled floor. I can remember the surging sensation coursing through my arms and knees. Got thrown (well probably leapt) back about 6 feed, badly shaken but otherwise unharmed.Another time I was fixing a pump on a carpet cleaning machine, and unknown to me the bosses 10 year old kid who was behind me innocently plugged it in. I was holding the live cable in my fingers and got a strong tingle rather than a big shock, luckily the workshop floor and my hands were fairly dry.

author: hans
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2015, 04:46:58 pm
content: Probably the first to say I haven't had any serious ones.I don't work a lot on high power or mains stuff. If I do, I only touch metal bits when stuff is clearly off (double check).Probably the biggest shock I have had was touching radiator and an old unearthed CRT at the same time. That was not too shocking, although it probably is not very nice to have them across both hands. Not sure how many Volts that was.

author: Alex Eisenhut
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2015, 04:59:05 pm
content: All I can say is DC shocks are worse. I was tooling around inside my tube-based scope, fooling around with a plugin that uses a cavity oscillator. I was powering this up outside its box with a bunch of cables. Anyways to drive the plate it needed a high voltage DC supply, which I cleverly took from the scope mainframe.250 volts DC is quite an eye opener. It's like my arm just violently twitched out of the way and knocked all my junk to the floor.Having worked in an industrial setting, techs who install small motor drives, like fractional HP stuff, confirm that DC feels different and generally worse.My DC shock hurt for a whole after too. I suppose DC totally depolarizes whatever juice-based wiring is inside me. Painful.Line AC, 120V, meh, whatever, I brushed up against a live wire once or twice, just a strong buzzing feeling.

author: radiomog
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2015, 05:11:05 pm
content: 350vac 400Hzknocked me back. that was the last time. I learned my lesson

author: Refrigerator
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2015, 05:12:14 pm
content: There's nothing better that feeling that 220VAC pass through your body....

author: CatalinaWOW
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2015, 05:12:43 pm
content: All of my shocks were 40 or more years ago. Apparently I was a slow, but eventually learner. Or maybe it took a while to generalize my learning.1st. At about four years old, I learned that keys don't work in electrical outlets, even though they fit US mains. My parents later told me there was smoke rising from my fingers, though there are no scars to show any permanent damage.2nd. Sometime in high school, playing with the spark coil from an automobile and an AC driver to the primary. Trying to generate the longest spark possible. Was up to about 2 inches when the gap across the electrodes became larger than the gap to me. I woke up sliding down the opposite wall of the room.3rd. In high school electronics class, reaching into the service port of an old Tektronix oscilloscope (the kind that had to have a cart because they were so massive). Touched the wrong thing and the reaction threw the scope onto the bench across the aisle. Fairly significant cut on the wrist from the housing.The latter two are the only ones I really remember, and I was shaking for quite a while after both of them. Apparently learned my lesson because I have not had any subsequent shocks to talk about through several decades of electrics, electronics and automotive exposure.

author: steve30
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2015, 05:22:03 pm
content: I've never had one. I'll put that down to being very careful.Of course, that doesn't mean I won't ever get one.

author: dexters_lab
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 04, 2015, 05:26:44 pm
content: i have been electrocuted three times in my life, all with 240v uk mains, all of which as a result of my dadfirst time i was a kid (late 1980s), but i knew a bit about electrics, we were in the process of redecorating my bedroom and needed to move some sockets or change something, i dont recall specifically. but there was a cable coming out of the wall ready to wire into a socket, it was terminated with a 3 way terminal block, i asked pops if the power was definitely off before i removed the block and went to wire into the socket. Well it wasn't off, thankfully i wasn't well earthed, likely wearing trainers etc so only had a funny feeling thumb, forefinger and arm for an hour or sohe commented 'sorry, i thought i turned it off' after that i learned not to trust anyone else apart from yourself, and have those voltalert non-contact pen thingsi wont bore you with the other times, suffice to say... he is a liability

author: AndyC_772
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2015, 05:42:08 pm
content: My lesson? Insulating tape doesn't. At least, not when there's a sharp, live conductor poking through it.

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2015, 06:06:33 pm
content: Sad to say I have had pretty much all of the shocks mentioned here, aside from the lightning strike.when I was very young ( around 8 or so IIRC) i connected a fluorescent lamp starter directly across the mains, then turned on the switch. Never found anything other than part of the bakelite base, and Skipper the dog vanished along with the starter. Luckily my dad had wired up that socket from the laundry, where he had done an improvement to the existing wiring, placing in the then new fangled invention of earth leakage ( and the box he used as an Australian made unit, complete with Australian socket outlets and matching plugs on the front as well) and circuit breakers, instead of the usual house wire protection of the time of using rewireable fuses. Seeing as the laundry supply was provided by a 40A fuse wire, and the cable was pyrotenax 2.5mm, and the new breakers were 20A units I survived with just a purple spot on my vision, ringing ears and later on a sore behind. the socket outlet did have a new black ring around it though.

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2015, 06:20:54 pm
content: 'For those still alive' is a fitting addition to the subject. About a quarter of a century ago one of my classmates in school electrocuted himself while toying with electricity. His parents found him dead in his room. Since then I'm far from frivolous when it comes to safety when working with electricity.

author: jlmoon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 04, 2015, 06:49:50 pm
content: Just last night damp and cold outside, I had to perform some maintenance on my ailing truck so I opened the hood got up on the engine (note had shut it off couple of minutes earlier) and reached to the distributor area in an attempt to remove the spark plug wires from the cap and I got the shock of my life. It was so strong I rared back and hit my head on the hood when raising up from the shock. I had no idea the newer HEI systems would hold a residual charge around that distributor cap.. WOW Last time I will do that without waiting a bit.

author: jlmoon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 04, 2015, 06:57:11 pm
content: Quote from: mojo-chan on March 04, 2015, 03:34:29 pmPublic bath?... Naw, I don't think so!OMG, I like being in the public, but... "A man has to know his limitations" Quote from Clint Eastwood.

author: chamod
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2015, 07:07:27 pm
content: I was about 9-10 when this happened. Ignition coil of our car (It was an old Peugeot 104) had gotten a small crack in the neck like place (Where the high voltage line is connected) and it had started sparking to chassis. So dad fixed a new one, bough home the old one. I had a 6V lead acid lying around, I wired it up somehow, and put my finger in the spark plug outlet. (It fit my small finger perfectly). My poor wiring was not good, something moved, and gave a nasty shock. I was shaking and it was breaking and making the circuit fast. I lost track of time but i'm sure I remained that way for more than 10 seconds.

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2015, 07:11:26 pm
content: Quote from: jlmoon on March 04, 2015, 06:49:50 pmI will bet you live in an area that is very low humidity at the moment, so that charge can build up to a very high level on the plug leads and the distributor cap. The HEI ignition systems have a 300V rail, but it discharges pretty fast through both bleeder resistors and voltage sense lines. Try starting the truck in a dark area, and you will see the corona discharge from the leads and around the distributor in a rough line where the rotor travels.Solution is to clean the leads and distributor, then wipe down with some fabric softener on the outside.

author: JohnnyBerg
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2015, 07:43:01 pm
content: Repaired a Philips PM3055 scope yesterday. EHT cascade .. Wow that hurtWhen I was a student I repaired TV's, with vacuum tubes of course. Before taking the EHT connection from the picture tube I slid a home made tool under the connector, to discharge the picture tube.Yesterday I used a screwdriver with a earth wire. I had to do this a few times, and I forgot it once. Schematic said 14 KV ..

author: rsjsouza
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2015, 07:57:33 pm
content: I had a huge number of 220V and 110V shocks, as well as 9kV/2mA from a poorly homebuilt oscillator (the pliers' insulation had a very small hole on it). I also got mildly tingled by touching the insulation of the spark gap cables of my dad's VW beetle and also by touching the anode cable of a CRT. All these episodes were followed by swearing and kicking things around.Also, capacitors blew on my face (don't use a 50V electrolytic on a 220V circuit, damn it!) which tripped the 60A breaker at the service panel in our apartment building. A potentiometer blew on my hand (who needs those fancy dimmers and their triacs anyways?) as well as two IEC supply cables (who would have guessed the lab parts supply had shorted 1N4007s in stock?!?) - all these before the age of 20.Of all this, the life threatening shock I had was before I knew I existed. My mother tells me that, at the age of two or three, she heard a gasp and came running. She saw me on the floor with my hands on my mouth trying to unroll my tongue from the back of my throat. I was gasping for air.

author: helius
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2015, 08:29:33 pm
content: I have given myself a shock partly on purpose, by playing with a device that someone brought to a party. It used 8 NiCd cells and a flyback oscillator to produce sparks. When one of those sparks passed through you it was seriously painful, but cannot cause lasting damage. I actually think this a good way to teach young people about electric hazards, because the jolt is not dangerous but is so painful no one would want to repeat it.

author: AG6QR
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2015, 08:46:12 pm
content: Quote from: vinicius.jlantunes on March 04, 2015, 03:30:38 pmYep, I learned the same lesson the same way. Except that I didn't get a shock, I merely shorted my screwdriver across the hot and neutral, making a big bang, and melting two spots in that screwdriver (still have it). I lived in an apartment building, and had turned off ALL of the breakers that fed my unit. I discovered that there was an outlet in my unit that was on a neighbor's breaker. Now I ALWAYS test.I've had my share of minor shocks, mostly before age 20, none recently.

author: tom66
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2015, 08:55:06 pm
content: Stuck my finger in one of those disco lamps when I was about 10. The ones with 240V light bulbs. In an empty socket before replacing the bulb. Whilst it was plugged in.I was not a smart kid, quite frankly, I'm surprised I made it through childhood.

author: komet
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 04, 2015, 08:59:15 pm
content: I touched the corona wire (perhaps 1000V? DC) inside an HP LaserJet.I defeated the safety and saw a black-on-yellow label warning about high voltage. I clearly remember processing the information in my mind. I don't remember why I then went ahead.

author: max666
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2015, 09:05:25 pm
content: Quote from: dexters_lab on March 04, 2015, 05:26:44 pmBest dad ever, I say! What better way to prepare your child for the real world. None of that put your child in a bubble rubbish.Reminds me of my dad, one time a bee stung him, he pulled out the stinger and showed it to me by sticking it right into the palm of my hand (yes they continue to pump poison!). Suffice to say the pain induced tourette made me called him an "ASSHOLE!".I don't find the HF ignition of my tig welder that bad, but I let my friend use it once and let's just say, he probably wont ever touch it again

author: kolbep
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2015, 09:12:30 pm
content: Was once sorting out some garden lights at a customers house.One of the lights was working, the other was not.Told my Appie to swap the bulbs over, so we can see if it is the bulb, or the supply.He pulls the bulb out of the dead fitting, goes over to the working fitting,And while I am watching, he pulls the still burning bulb out of the fitting, and jams his finger in the hole!!!!He got a sore finger, and neither him nor me could figure out why he did that....

author: kolbep
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2015, 09:19:37 pm
content: Also have haas hundreds of shocks.Once I opened up a panel that operates refrigeration plant at a local fish processor.Stuck my head in, to look down at the main breaker. And I saw white flashes.I pulled my head out, and then, don't ask me why, I repeated the exercise to see what happened, and it happened again...I was holding the steel panel, and the door of the panel has a voltmeter on it, when the door is opened, the back of the voltmeter, with its live terminal screw, was just at the height, and had actually touched my temple, sending 230vac into my head, and down to earth.....But I am still alive, with no side effectsdgxddghhngfxvhbby rebuff buff. Ghngfgv. No side effects at all gddggfd fought g.

author: gbrettell
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2015, 10:12:34 pm
content: I was a curious kid and found an unlocked box on a power pole in our neighborhood. I opened it up and saw some really cool round things with a glass window that screwed into a socket. I wanted one soooooo bad I tried to take one out ... as soon as I grabbed it I received the shock of my life (had a very hard time letting go)! I couldn't believe I survived that one and never tried that again (I still wanted one, though).

author: GreyWoolfe
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 04, 2015, 10:15:17 pm
content: I have had my share of piddly 120V shocks changing out a switch or outlet without turning off the breaker because the shock wasn't enough to bother me. Worst was back in the 80's I was a salesman for Nabisco. I was working on the isle display and there were a couple of wires hanging down from the florescent lamps over the isle. All the lights were off. I went to move the wires out of the way and got knocked across the isle. It took and couple of minutes for my vision to return to normal and I had impaired motor control for the rest of the day-called out sick for the rest of the day.DC shocks are no fun either. I was repairing power supplies for another program in ELO touch screen monitors. These were mounted in kiosks so there was no casing, just a bezel. After replacing the blown caps in the power supply, I would plug the monitor in to see if it worked. on multiple occasions, when grabbing the edge of the bezel to rotate the monitor so I could see the screen, I would place a finger on a small flat transformer for the touchscreen module. Hurts like a bitch. There was always a hole in my finger the size of the solder joint. Also, while working on the old model card printers with all the covers off, there were times I would reach over the printer to flip the power switch on the back and make contact with the 24 VDC power supply. Never did check to see the current capacity but that always ended up in a bout of Tourette's like cursing. On the very rare occasion that it happened when SWMBO came home for lunch, which she almost never did, she would get a good laugh out of it after making sure that I really wasn't hurt bad.We don't want to go there with soldering irons

author: helius
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2015, 10:19:33 pm
content: Quote from: gbrettell on March 04, 2015, 10:12:34 pmThat sounds like a screw-in fuse. Quite a dangerous installation if you can receive a shock from touching it.I always liked the soft sizzling sound they make when they are screwed in, you really need to be quiet to hear it.

author: rexxar
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2015, 10:40:12 pm
content: I was poking around inside an old CRT scope and had one hand on the grounded chassis, and managed to touch 600V with the other. Hurt like hell, but both my hands flew right off the thing, so no damage, except to my pants.

author: max666
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2015, 10:47:13 pm
content: Quote from: helius on March 04, 2015, 10:19:33 pmOr the installation was well thought trough to keep those damn kids from constantly stealing the fuses(just kidding)

author: Unknown
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 04, 2015, 11:43:13 pm
content: As a child, I pulled apart a disposable film camera just to see what was inside. I came in contact with part of the photoflash circuitry which was still charged up (few hundred volts?)It hurt -- I remember my arm felt odd for hours afterwards. I won't do that again!

author: JoeN
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2015, 12:01:51 am
content: Just got one a few days ago. I left the lights on the car in my driveway and car wouldn't start. Hooked up the battery charger which means an extension cord to the battery charger to the battery. The two prong head on the battery charger is cracked, as I now know, right where the wire goes into it and as I was pushing it into the extension cord my right index finger, middle segment came up across it. I was fully clothed, dry shoes with rubber soles on, but standing on ice. Don't know if that matters with decent shoes on. Anyway, it gave me a slightly unpleasant shock, I could feel the buzzing of the current in my finger and it stung a bit. But nothing extraordinary. This has happened to me many times and tends to make me think that the danger of line voltages are sort of overstated except under worst case scenarios, which can happen. Once I got a much better shock when I was at home in my socks and a similar thing happened with a frayed wire inside of a tabletop electric grill that electrified the rim and grease catch. But that didn't kill me either or really do any major damage, just a more severe shock. US AC 120V RMS.

author: Galaxyrise
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2015, 12:06:51 am
content: My first shock was when I was too young to understand what dangerous meant. I'd only just learned what "hot" actually meant thanks to an incandescent light bulb. I stuck a finger in an outlet. Nothing. Then I touched the other side, and got a strong buzzing feeling. It was much less unpleasant than the light bulb was, so I tried several times to be sure. (How do we survive being kids?)I started learning more about electricity over the years, and came to wonder why I got a shock in that situation at all. I wasn't completing a circuit! Now I've learned a lot more, but I'm still not certain, so maybe this is a good place to ask. My guess is that my body becomes one plate of a capacitor with the other side being all of ground. That results in a tiny capacitance, thus a large impedance that ac current can flow through, allowing a few uA of current, and that's what I feel as the unpleasant buzz.But that doesn't explain why other kids, who choose to insert a key into an outlet, receive such a bad shock compared to what I got (still at "just" 120V.) What am I missing?

author: orbiter
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2015, 12:32:55 am
content: Like you guys.. I've shocked myself many times with 240v, I even did it as a child when I was picking at a cracked plug socket with a screwdriver Id found, but most of the shocks were with 30kV vehicle ignition systems, I distinctly remember one of the ones that had me worried (it was about 15 years ago now) where i was hit with the 30kV and it went straight from one hand, across my chest to the other hand which was resting on a suspension strut.. It left me shaking for a bit and i could definitely feel a tightness across my chest afterwards, I got checked out though and all was ok.My grandad suffered the worst shock possible though resulting in his death?. He worked on the railway as a track layer years ago. One night the lights on the track laying vehicle he was operating were failing, he asked for the electricians to come out to replace lamps but there were none available until the next day.. My grandad wasn't prepared to wait until then as there was work to be done, so he attempted to get up to the lights to replace the bulbs himself, however he was killed instantly by arcs from one of the 25kV overhead lines. We later found out that he was not really that close to the lines however it was determined that as that particular evening was very damp the electricity from the lines had jumped the moisture and that was it.

author: ElectroNub
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2015, 01:28:55 am
content: When I was a dumb teenager, a friend and I would grab bare 120v lines and have a contest to see who could hold on the longest. I don't remember winning but I am still here todayBeen shocked by more than a few spark plugs. I was rebuilding small engines at 10 years old.I worked on 3 phase diesel generators for many years. Never screwed up once! Triple, quadruple, quintuple, checks were the norm. Safety first always!

author: CatalinaWOW
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2015, 01:45:42 am
content: I suspect that a lot of the difference in experiences with shocks from the mains depends on the relative humidity in the area. Dry skin is a fairly good insulator, while wet skin is not a bad conductor. Same thinking applies to the floors or other supports involved. When I worked for an electrical power and distribution company there was an apocryphal story about a linesman who had transferred into the area from one of the desert southwest regions of the US. He was killed very early in his employment due to an unsafe practice that had been used hundreds of times without harm in the arid region he got his start in.Other details matter. The key in a socket experience I related came when our family was living in an aluminum trailer at a remote jobsite. Lots of ground paths and every reason to expect that the wiring for this temporary camp was not the absolute best available.

author: digsys
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 05, 2015, 02:17:56 am
content: From the beginning -TV tube HT coils and Vehicle HT coils - so/so ... brief hurt, but not long lasting240VAC mains - slight tingle / fuzz, sometimes I have to double check that is IS live !Van der Graaf generators - coolValve amp DC rails 350-400VDC - Holly snapping FECKKK !!! I can STILL remember them (felt like blowing ALL your bones apart)!DC - up to ~60V, no clue if it's live ... up to 80V, fuzzy > stronger fuzzyOne thing for certain - IF you panick and release adrenalin etc, you WILL cop it worse. My years playing with the Van der graaf got mevery used to NOT over-reacting to sudden jolts.I worked with an electrician once who had to LICK his fingers and tap 415 3 PHASE to check it !! He had NO feeling if he didn't lick them.He was a legend :-)

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 05, 2015, 02:53:57 am
content: I've done this, it hurts:

author: T3sl4co1l
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2015, 04:13:40 am
content: Worst (at least in principle) I've had was, I was working on a piece of industrial equipment (480VAC 3 phase), I forget how but I had touched one phase, or the DC link, maybe with a careless grip on a multimeter probe. In and of itself not fatal, but my other arm was leaning by the front enclosure (which was off, laying on its side, as I was working inside the machine, obviously), which was grounded. The shock wasn't really worse than any other I've had, but it's far... angrier than anything else. The jolt was pretty intense for the loose contact I had on either surface, and the ground side (specifically, the edge of the grounded enclosure that was brushing against my inner forearm) left a small burn mark. Nothing else I've touched has actually caused burns!On separate occasions, I've seen the results of (fused) arc flash: the plasma ball obliterates anything in its way, leaving high velocity fragments and a sooty smudge behind. Unfused arc flash is... something to behold at a safe distance only.On the upside, safety procedures at that job were fairly well implemented, so there weren't any reports of injuries or worse, while I was there. At least, that I know of.Tim

author: calexanian
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2015, 06:30:33 am
content: Funny this came up. I got myself with an Electro Technic Products hand held tesla coil last night. That is up to 50kv but limited current to around 1ma. Its enough to get you going though.I have been hit many many times. 120 line voltage more than I can count. The worst one that comes to mind was about 410 volts unlimited, path hand to hand. Worst possible way to get it. Fortunately conditions were very dry or it would have been heart stopping time. That was the one that got me thinking about safety. Also I had a energized wire break from an improper stripping at a terminal and send a little dagger end of about a 12 gauge wire right at my eyeball. It looked like they used side cutters to strip a solid wire and it made that sharp stabby pointy knife edge when it breaks. Thank god I wear glasses. It bounced off my glasses lens enough for me to catch the still insulated portion. Had that hit my eye, or near it it would have stabbed me and probably would have blinded, if not killed me. Because of that I will never give up my glasses.

author: Howardlong
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2015, 08:27:45 am
content: Well this has been an eye opener. I am not sure whether to laugh or cry. I assumed that experiencing a shock was the exception rather than the rule, and at I was just a little clumsy with three or four "experiences".Here does seem to be a minor correlation of us getting shocks in our younger years, although it's certainly not clear cut.I'm no apologist for the over-cautious health and safety 100% risk averse culture, we learn better from our mistakes than we do by being talked at, but the poll results do suggest a certain degree of resignation to the innevitable.While I am sure almost all of us don't go around looking for our next experience, in general are we too blasé about the risks, or should we all just grow a pair? Should we be doing more to protect ourselves?

author: briselec
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2015, 09:08:27 am
content: I've been zapped many, many times.First time I was very lucky it threw me. I was young and had just started playing with electricity. Was on a 6 foot ladder when I grabbed a live active in one hand and the earth in the other. Next thing I know I'm sitting on my bum on the floor about 6 feet away with no idea how I got there.Used to maintain an old high rise fire alarm system that used 240V DC. The back of the panel was covered in exposed relays that were hard to avoid brushing against while working on it. I dreaded working on that thing. DC current feels like your flesh is burning from the inside out. AC feels much nicer.Got my hand stuck once between a live busbar and the switchboard frame. Took me a few seconds to open my hand enough to get it out.Funny thing is what I hate more is when something unexpectedly goes bang. It always unnerves me when that happens.

author: Kjelt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2015, 09:20:10 am
content: In our safety course on work they showed us a lot of movies as this one.A picture says more than a thousand words and don't forget that every graduated electronic engineer has a DUTY to warn everyone that is acting in an insecure/dangerous with electricity, if it is your neighbour or some newby here at the forum.

author: Zucca
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 05, 2015, 10:57:34 am
content: This was my first one.I was 7-6 years old. One day my AA battery powered toy just died in front of me. I went to my father bench (he is also an EE) and grab 2 banana-alligator cables, one red and one black.Pulled out the AA battery from my toy, connected the alligator clips to the two poles and I inserted the first banana plug into the main 220VAC socket. It didn't went all the way in. Unfortunately those sockets had the children protection (smart dad, but unfortunately smart child), so I need to push at the same time the two banana connector into the socket.All I remember was a yellow flame, my body being pushed back 1,5 meter and the house power going down. My mother showed up in milliseconds with a white face. She was shacking after realizing what I have just done.Unfortunately the AA 1,5V battery did not recharge. FAILED.God bless my guardian angel.PS: After so many years in the EE, I still look back and think:"I was born to be a crazy EE".

author: Howardlong
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2015, 11:48:26 am
content: I used to try similar things, trying to plug my 4.5v Lego motor into the mains, but at age 5 or so I couldn't figure out how to open the protective plastic covers that UK style 13A outlets have on them.Of course a few years later I figured out how to do it with a screwdriver, and luckily knew of the potential compatibility issues of a Lego motor and AC mains.

author: Stonent
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2015, 11:55:21 am
content: For me just the normal 120V stuff. In Jr. High our industrial engineering teacher connected a lawn mower ignition to a drill press to generate a recurring spark and successfully dared a student to let the spark go to his tongue.Surprisingly he did two or three sparks and didn't jerk back.The dare was that the teacher would give him $80 for doing it. The $80 was in the form of a writing pen filled with shredded $20 bills from a visit to to the facility that prints them.

author: Unknown
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 05, 2015, 12:02:37 pm
content: I have to say, the Aussie AC mains socket seems to be the more clever of designs; Thin blades where only the smallest of objects would fit and actually contact the terminals. No need for fancy shutters or the like. No round holes or large openings.Although I do like the Neutrik PowerCON plugs and sockets.In any case, for some reason, this thread reminds me of this classic Mr. Bean episode (particularly at 2:40 to 3:35)

author: Rerouter
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2015, 12:06:31 pm
content: Because i clearly fail at learning my lesson...atleast 8 times on full mains, (265V at my place due to all the solar)most memorable was a hand held mixer that had been thrown in the sink to clean while still being plugged. I put my hands back in the water a number of times trying to make sense what in the water could make the tingling feeling, until i traced the cord coming out of the water...a few kicks at 415V, that drives its lesson home, testing the trigger on a welder, while still leaning on the welder with my elbow, a few expletives but no marks or burns,next up the rank, a few KV off a car ignition coil, that is a feeling i wont soon forget, it holds you far worse than mains can dish out, and even makes it very hard to move your face to say call out help, still no burns,and finally, a non discharged CRT, i was poking around a bit of test equiptment looking for another error when my ear touched the step up transformer which was missing some insulation at the pin, it left a small singed area, and resulted in me wearing a 15KG bit of test equipment as a stunning hat until my flailing brought it back to the floor with me still wearing it, the hat did not survive the ordeal,

author: tom66
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2015, 12:30:23 pm
content: Quote from: mojo-chan on March 05, 2015, 09:24:20 amAlmost every power supply I have repaired has live heatsinks. Having heatsinks that are not live is the exception rather than the rule. Usually, they are tied to the -ve of the bridge rectifier/bulk cap, which means they float up to 120V from mains.

author: klr5205
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2015, 01:30:41 pm
content: In order of my surprise:Motorcycle spark plug across the chest. (In the left hand, out the right leg to the exhaust)Before I knew much better - but still enough to be dangerous- I got a zap from directly touching the electrode at the top of my solid state tesla coil. Touching the streamers is rarely more than a tingle, but in that case you have the benefit of the voltage drop across the air gap between the secondary and your finger. (I thought it wasn't oscillating, but in reality it just wasn't working well enough for sparks to break out on their own. The top of that coil was very much at high voltage! Fun fact: The problem was two too many turns on my gate drive transformer.)Prying a wall-wart off a plug strip, I once managed to get my finger stuck between the live prongs before they were disconnected. I felt dumb.Approximately 200VDC from a non-isolated heatsink. Rubber soles on a wooden floor meant this was more of an audio/visual thing than anything else. Barely felt a thing.

author: Seekonk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2015, 02:42:03 pm
content: My worst was a crazy wired building that I was helping demolish office into warehouse space. I was up ten feet on a ladder taking apart a junction box, left hand grabbing onto conduit and right hand on 277V. Power ran from breakers left side to right AND Power ran from breakers right side to left. I had disconnected all the wires on the left side before moving to the junction box. Seldom do you get as good a path through both arms. After that I got one of those non contact test lights.30 years ago there was a good article on electric shock. Haven't seen as good a one since. It said you can die 25 years later from an electric shock. You are not out of the woods yet!

author: amyk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2015, 03:03:11 pm
content: Have had onlly one or two close encounters with the mains (wasn't extremely painful - I have very dry skin - but still an unpleasant numbing sensation), but then again, I usually work on low-voltage circuitry.My most memorable and painful shock came from a treadmill that turned into a crude approximation of a Van de Graaff generator because of a failed discharge strip...

author: KJDS
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2015, 03:19:32 pm
content: Quote from: Howardlong on March 05, 2015, 08:27:45 amI used to free solo rock climb, which is almost as risky a hobby as it gets.I also used to drink in the Luton branch of the Glasgow Rangers supporters club, which was far more risky on a Friday night.

author: max666
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2015, 03:34:59 pm
content: Never had one, never will, I think I know what I'm doing 1 (0.8%)Oh look there is the first one, I've been waiting to see how long it took

author: Ericho
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2015, 04:18:20 pm
content: In the 80's I got zapped ones while I was trouble shooting a relay cabinet of a Ward Leonard driven winch.Someone decided to ignore the big sign I left at the controlls (DO NOT OPERATE)550V dc from my left hand to my right upper arm, Nocked me out and another hour of blury vision after I woke up. A few hours of sleep and I was fine.I suppose that was a close one.

author: Ericho
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2015, 04:50:14 pm
content: QuoteOh dear,,,

author: Sigmoid
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2015, 04:52:52 pm
content: I've touched 240V a few times... Thankfully I was well insulated from ground, so I always got away with just a nasty "zingy" sensation in my arm.Once I shorted 240V to ground through a hand. I couldn't feel it for a minute or so.

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2015, 05:48:19 pm
content: Quote from: Ericho on March 05, 2015, 04:18:20 pmDid the eedjit survive your recovery?

author: 1xrtt
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2015, 05:50:45 pm
content: Quote from: EEVblog on March 05, 2015, 02:53:57 amSo, you went through this on your first days at university? I've never thought of anything that mean...

author: AF6LJ
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 05, 2015, 07:20:03 pm
content: Electronics has been my hobby since I was twelve, that was a long time ago.Electronics did become my career...At the age of fifteen I managed to get myself across my home made Tesla coil.Scared the crap out of me and made me cautious for quite a long time.There were a few less than life threatening close encounters of the Voltage Kind, then...In 1989 While working on a piece of Motorola two-way gear. (a 900MHZ Micor repeater 150W) I began a member of the Four Digit Voltage Club when I managed to contact the 1600V plate supply of this repeater. Having your mortality shoved in your face at the tender young age of 34 was a life changing experience. The anniversary of that life changing event is in just over a week. You don't forget something like that even if it doesn't leave visible scars. The part that upset me most of all was not how it scared the crap out of me, but the fact I spoiled a perfect safety record.I still work on stuff that contains dangerous voltages, I own a number of "Boat Anchor" amateur and short wave radios. The little stuff doesn't bother me that much, I take the usual precautions. I own a couple pieces of gear that I will not make voltage measurements in without my roommate in the room.Is that fear motivated?Maybe............

author: electr_peter
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 05, 2015, 07:55:20 pm
content: "it's probably inevitable anyway"is very true in many ways. Working and living near electricity by default put you in a riskier situation. It is similar to traffic accidents. If there were no electricity/traffic, there would be zero incidents. You can blame just the person/driver - it is a combination of things (roads/vehicles/drivers). Precautions/knowledge/procedures/etc. only help to reduce initial danger to lower level, danger is still present.The fact that so much posts mentions various incidents is not surprising - EEs are exposed to electricity much more than general public. Some stories mentioned EEs testing mains with fingers and not feeling anything - I also heard about such breed of EEs (they must grow thick skin or something).Personally I have experienced small shocks of low (1.5/9V battery on tongue) and high V (few 100s of V from hand crank generator), medium shock (probe slip on 240 mains) and very serious shock (<10 year old). In latter case I was holding metal railing with one hand and thought to grab nearby cable with other hand. Cable proved to be energised (bad maintenance) with L and N shorting across my finger skin and small current going to other hand to E via railing. I was slightly shaking and could not remove my hands. Passer by noticed and pulled me on my stomach from a back. Top layer of the skin was burned, I still have a small scar. No painful sensation during or after shock though.

author: warp_foo
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 05, 2015, 08:20:03 pm
content: Ummm...

author: Artlav
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2015, 09:05:10 pm
content: Excluding static, not much and usually from lack of knowledge.Like, i didn't know that the metallic tops of electrolytic capacitors are connected to their terminals.Half-bridge, two fingers on the same hand touching both tops at once to check if they are warming up, jerk and yauch. Ended up with a pair of black spots on the skin.The most interesting one was from electrolysis experiments, back in school days.Salt water, 4.5 volts going through it.I'm fiddling around in the solution with one hand, then go to disconnect the battery with the other (wet with salt water) hand.It was like someone cut the skin at my fingers - turns out i had a small cut on the finger in the water, and that let the current through.You just don't think 4.5 volts can be dangerous, so it was really out of the blue.Second most memorable is dielectric absorption.I was testing a piece of plastic foil (from laminator i think) for dielectric strength.It was sitting between two wires, 50 KV across them.No breakdown, so i turn it off, discharge the supply, move the wires away, then pick up the foil.It had a static cling feel to it, so i started wiping it with my hands, trying to clean it out.Ended up putting one hand on one side, another hand on the other side...ZAP!Apparrrentttly a..a..a dddieleccctric ccan abbsorb cccharge.There were branched lightning patterns on the foil surface afterwards, but no harm done - more of a scare.Never saw that coming...RF burns - everything metal near a transmitter bites. You don't feel much, just smell burnt flesh and see black points on your fingers.Not really shocks, but in the same domain i guess.That is about all that comes to mind.

author: T3sl4co1l
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2015, 10:31:54 pm
content: Quote from: Ericho on March 05, 2015, 04:18:20 pmLOCK OUT TAG OUT!If it's not physically inoperable, the idiots WILL USE IT, whether it's useful, safe or otherwise!Sad, but true...And, your best safety is your own safety, etc etc. If it doesn't look safe and inoperable, don't touch it until you're satisfied with it.Tim

author: djacobow
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2015, 11:12:54 pm
content: I have shocked myself too many times and in too many ways to count.But I may have the record for the earliest shock here. I was in bed, 4 years old, and idly playing with the nightlight my mom had given me. It was a simple neon unit plugged into a socket right at the head of the bed. Well, my little boy fingers could fit right between those interesting metal prongs, even when it was partially plu ... zzap!It scared me silly, but I did not cry because I knew I would get in trouble.

author: Tinkerer
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2015, 11:17:15 pm
content: Only been shocked a couple times.Mostly static from my car and other stuff. Quite annoying.Years ago, went to a museum with a giant plasma globe. One of those things with the electric streamers inside. Turns out, you can deliver quite the powerful shock to your brother by touching the globe with one hand and simply moving a finger on your other hand near him. Felt like someone hit the end of my finger with a hammer. My brother didnt like it too much either. This was probably the worst one I got.Quote from: Galaxyrise on March 05, 2015, 12:06:51 amNow, as for the real shocks I have had and in reference to the above.Once got shocked by an electric fence surrounding a horse pen. It was strong enough to twist my arm around behind me and knock me to the ground. Interestingly enough, it didnt hurt at all. Wasnt really jumpy or anything afterwords, absolutely no effects.Once had a SMPS open and was testing something. I touched the two heatsinks inside with one hand and after a couple seconds noticed a very odd sensation occuring. Felt kinda like a subtle buzzing feeling but not exactly like that, eitherway very wierd feeling and hard to describe but not at all painful. Deciding I probably was getting shocked, I measured for voltage between the two heatsinks and apparently there was 120V there and I had gotten it across my hand with only a wierd feeling. No other effects.Kitchen stove (now replaced) had a path for 2-3V AC between the pan touching the heating element and the frame around the stove's edge. Once again, you get the wierd buzzing feeling but with only a slight burning sensation at the point of contact, could have been partially the heat from the pan though. No other effects though and wasnt painful.Was reaching inside a microwave to jiggle a switch that I hadnt yet replaced because I needed to use it. Touched the frame and something inside on the control board. Got a shock but once again, only had a slight burning sensation where one of my fingers had contacted the frame but no other pain. Gave me more of a surpise than anything else.So, what I have discovered about myself is that the only shocks that actually ever hurt me are ones that jump across a gap to me. Direct contact never seems to result in much pain other than a wierdly unpleasant feeling that I dont much like; and sometimes a burning sensation. Please note, I dont try to test this and I have been rather successful in not getting shocked.So have I somehow been lucky not to have gotten powerful enough shocks to cause pain and shakes like other people? I dont know, having 120V across your hand without any pain or effect seems odd as does being knocked down by an electric fence meant for horse without any pain at all.And also, I never got shocked when I was really young, I never tried sticking my fingers in stuff etc etc. I was never curious enough to test what being shocked felt like because my parents made sure we knew what dangerous was.

author: BradC
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 06, 2015, 01:23:58 am
content: 1st was at 18 months old. Grabbed a bore pump contactor that was being wired up on the bench and got 415v. Lucky dad had literally just wired in the RCD. He tells me I rocketed out of the shed at about 100mph backwards. Too young to remember.First one I remember was at my local hardware store. I must have been about 4. They had this really cool board with a press button and every form of light socket on it. You could take your bulbs in and test them there. I could only reach the board with one hand, so I found some random girl in the store who was a bit bigger than me and had her team up with me to press the button while I held my finger in a socket.lots between then and now but the most surreal was 15 years ago playing a gig in a pub where the socket my gutiar amp was plugged into was mis-wired. My lips touched the mic and I got about 200v. I don't actually remember the shock, but I remember the slow echo of when I screamed "faaaark.." dying away in the echo unit of the PA as I regained my senses. From then on, all stage gear has been powered from the same socket.

author: Tinkerer
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 06, 2015, 05:27:30 am
content: Quote from: BradC on March 06, 2015, 01:23:58 amSo what did the people around you do?

author: kolbep
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 06, 2015, 05:33:22 am
content: So what did the people around you do?They must of thought that he was beginning a Heavy Metal or Hard Rock song!!!! ;-)

author: babysitter
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 06, 2015, 05:48:41 am
content: I must confess I intentionally served one shock to some guy.In the radio tv shop I was working there was a salesunperson that sneaked up to technicians, grabbed a bottle of freezing spray silently and gave them, e.g. that trainee that was me, a nasty pain pulse in the neck with it.This was stopped by modifying a can to serve 350V DC to the fingers:empty it* cut open up the bottle from below* drilling a hole to put a small enamelled wire thru the valve to the pushbutton (needed some epoxy to put it back in place)* solder a bunch of plain old charged high-voltage capacitors hidden inside, try to get about to the same weight.* resolder bottom* scratch the paint outside the can for improved contactAs that was more than a decade ago, I didnt hide a CR2032-powered shunt resistor and 2 channel data logger to record current/voltage profile that went thru his hand.But, more important, Problem solved until the company closed.

author: BradC
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 06, 2015, 06:21:47 am
content: Quote from: Tinkerer on March 06, 2015, 05:27:30 amThey laughed. I was the only one in the band that was not a complete stoner, and they were all gassed to the eyeballs when it happened.

author: VK3DRB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 06, 2015, 11:45:36 am
content: Biggest voltage shock: Circa 100kV from a Van Der Graff generator.Worst shock: 27kV from a computer monitor ultor, with the power off.Most stupid shock: When I was a teenage I stuck my finger in a light globe socket to prove the pull chain switch "ding" sound meant on and the "dong" sound meant off. I was wrong. The only ding dong was me and my arm hurt for a week.Most recent shock: My last council rates bill (county taxes to our American friends).

author: bookaboo
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 06, 2015, 12:13:25 pm
content: Quote from: T3sl4co1l on March 05, 2015, 10:31:54 pm

author: 1xrtt
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 06, 2015, 01:30:02 pm
content: As many people, I had my shares of electrical shocks, ranging from the traditional hair clip sticked in the mains plug to a funny one, trying to discharge a CRT while the monitor was still on. Funny, because I saw the arcing between my knee and the metal structure of the bench and it took me what seemed a looooong time to understand what was going on. When I finally trace the current path to my finger touching the screwdriver inserted into the CRT, I was so surprised that I throw myself back on the floor.But my worst experience with electrical shocks was after a stupid domestic accident where I broke my right humerus at the elbow and damaged the radial nerve. After two surgeries, I spent the next 10 months hooked to a TENS machine 10 min/day, every day. While it's a mild shock, sometimes I got out with bruises in the arm.During this time, before the second surgery, I went through a myolectric examination (don't remember the exact medical term for the exam), where the doctor inserted some needles right at the nerves and hooked them to what resembled very much a reflectometer. The objective was to insert pulses at one needle and measure the propagation, trying to narrow down the possible area of the nerve damage. While very interesting for an EE, 10 minutes into the exam and I was ready to confess anything that I was asked for. That was the most painful procedure I ever went through.Anyway, it was worth the pain, because four years later, I recovered enough to solder smd components holding the iron with my right hand (never tried a 0402, though).

author: babysitter
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 06, 2015, 03:03:04 pm
content: Went thru nerve propagation speed measurement too: checkOperator told me after first pulse that I am working in electronics: checkGave trainee a electrical safety lecture today: checkGot shocked by charged capacitors in SMPS: check

author: digsys
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 06, 2015, 03:19:43 pm
content: Nearly forgot my favourite experience :-)Looong ago, I hang out with a serious bikie group. Every weekend was extra serious party time. They loved to compete on who was the mostfierce-some and could suffer the most pain, naturally while drunk. I made them a game - players sat around a table with pads in front of them,maze style pcb tracks. A random light came on and the first to get his hand out from under the table onto the pad scored a green WIN light.The other pads immediately switched to 4KV, very high current (parts from my work with defibs). Chickening out was NOT an option !!On a few occasions, I was forced to "play". Even drunk, it was unforgettable pain. Unfortunately, they loved it and we played it for months.This would be a great project for a newbie !!

author: DenzilPenberthy
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 06, 2015, 03:59:57 pm
content: I got properly blasted when I was a little kid. About 5yrs old playing outside with my mate in the summer with the garden hose soaking wet and bare feet. I put my hand on the garden tap to turn it off and got a huge electric shock. I couldn't let go but thankfully my mate was scared enough to run and get my mum who kicked me off it. Lots of other weird stuff was going on with the electrics that day and eventually it became clear that everything fed from our local distribution transformer had a live earth! I think probably a lost neutral connection at the transformer.Big f**k up by the electric company and a lot of ashen faced linemen and managers wandering about with voltmeters looking very scared apparently!

author: CatalinaWOW
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 06, 2015, 04:24:53 pm
content: Quote from: Tinkerer on March 05, 2015, 11:17:15 pmThis reminded me of one of my own experiences with the perception of pain. On the grandparents farm I had been shown how electric fences worked and even talked into accepting a demonstration through a cornstalk of how it felt. That combined with my prior experiences with shock left me terrified of electric fences.One day as I was walking by a corral, I felt a pain in my arm. I distinctly remember thinking - "Oh that's all right. This fence isn't electric, it is only barbed wire." I walked a few more steps with the pain, secure in the knowledge that it was not an electric fence before I realized what a stupid thought that was and pulled away. The good news is that I was wrong, it was electric, and there were no wounds to repair.

author: atferrari
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 06, 2015, 05:48:58 pm
content: Being 5 or 6yo, touching on purpose, with two fingers (of the same hand), the wall plug (220V).Sure a shocking experience.Much later, maybe 14 or 15 yo but still a stupid, touching my tongue with two copper wires connected to a still good 9V battery, seen strange "lights" and salty taste.

author: albert22
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 06, 2015, 11:28:47 pm
content: I started my "shocking career" at very young age <10.My first surprise came with playing with a battery and a coil. Many years later I realized why.My second was when trying to replicate a neon screwdriver mains tester, with something that looked like a neon. A bulb from a fluorescent tube starter. Probably did that without a series resistance.Lessons learned:Nasty feeling when you try to strip a 300ohm vacuum tube TV antenna with your teeth while at the roof.Doing electrician work when I was 15 I asked a guy to cut the mains and he just unplugged the fuse on the neutral.A few years ago repairing a smps 2700uF charged to 400v I took all (almost) precautions But somehow I received a shock and overreacted by instinct, tripped with the chair behind me and ended laying in the floor with the chair under me. Funny position. everybody was worried but the shock was very small and not dangerous at all.

author: Howardlong
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 07, 2015, 01:14:39 am
content: Quote from: atferrari on March 06, 2015, 05:48:58 pmThat's a pretty standard ballpark test on a 9V battery in my book, would anyone care to suggest otherwise, or that this is in some way dangerous?

author: mariush
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 07, 2015, 01:34:29 am
content: First serious experience with electricity was when i was maybe 10-12 yo, shoved a faulty voltage tester screwdriver into mains socket, flew out of my hand all the way across the room and chipped the paint off the wall.First real danger of dying... weekly visit to some family friends, they had a fence and a light switch on the other side of the fence and I was used to stick my hand through the fence and flip the switch. I didn't know they decided to do some painting and removed the actual switch and didn't bother to insulate them, so i touched live wires with my fingers. After maybe 5-10s I came to conclusion that I'm getting shocked because I couldn't control my fingers, so i just pushed my whole body away. Fingers were numb for about 10 minutes afterwards.After that... I'm usually careful, still got zapped by mains capacitors in atx and monitor power supplies maybe 2-5 times.

author: senso
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 07, 2015, 02:01:45 am
content: I will also share my part..Very young me, maybe 8 or 9, living in a farm, went to the cattle park, and decided to test the electric fence, touch it, hey it must be broken, didn't fell a thing, lets touch it again, damn that hurts!In that day I learned why the electric fence made a a pulsating noise about every second, it was sort of a contactor discharging the cap.Much more recent, about 3-4 years ago, we had a very,very old stick welder, that worked with two 230v phases, using a 4 prong 3 phase cable to a two prong schuko plug(basically, two phases where you have neutral and phase, and using the earth wire as the ground), well, over the years one of the phase wires rubbed down and started to make contact to the clamp/negative wire out of the transformer, was welding some hunk of metal, touched it, and I just remember thinking about, goodbye world, my mom said I screamed for like 30 seconds, the same time I was jerking around being electrocuted, for some reason a more violent jerk freed my left hand and I was free, but the fun was not over, a fire had started, and I couldn't move, so keep screaming, finally someone turned off the main breaker and put the fire down.Lie down for about 30 minutes, throw out that fucking stick welder and finally convinced my parents that a 400€ inverter was a good investment.An hot glue gun from a chinese store, borrowed from a friend, it was tossed around a lot, and just above the crappy plastic moulded plug the insulation was broken and the neutral and phase wires got twisted together, plug it in, BANG!What was that flash dude?Why are the lights out, what the well?There were pieces of wire and plug all over the room/lab, never ever again buy anything from a chinese store, went a bought a slightly better glue gun for 20€.Last one, toying around with designing a digital CDI ignition for my bikes, started testing the SCR+1uF 630v cap, it sparked, them stopped, smart me thinks, maybe the SCR over-heated, stick out the amazing thumb temperature measuring appendage, touch said SCR metal tab, bad idea..A punny 1uF cap charged to about 400v make one hell of a spark and hurts like hell, my right arm was numb for half an hour.Today I am very afraid of anything mains, if it has a plug, take it out, make sure its really turned off, them for good measure tape up the plug, so no one will plug it in.If there is no plug, mains breaker down, ALL the breakers down as well, just in case..Also, discovered that the eletrical installation in my house, is, well, very,very up to code, there is NO earthing that I have yet discovered, and the earth(yellow/green) is used to carry either mains or neutral, just what was needed.

author: kolbep
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 07, 2015, 06:02:43 am
content: Talking about Tv caps....Here I am shocking myself on camera

author: Red Squirrel
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 07, 2015, 08:39:05 am
content: When I was a kid I loved to play with electricity. I discovered that I could use foil paper for wiring because it was easy to get (just go sneak some out from the kitchen). I also used a paperclip to make a light bulb socket, I STILL have it in my toolbox somewhere, actually. It's a relic.Once in a while when playing with this stuff I'd accidentally touch the live conductors. Was always quite a surprise. Dead shorts made me jump the most though.Best one though is when I was in high school theatre club, I was in charge of lighting, and we were doing a bit of custom stuff back stage, essentially an extension cord with a dimmer switch, not very complicated. I wired up the dimmer switch, grounded it properly etc. Someone else did the end that plugs into the wall and got the wires mixed up. The ground wire was actually going into the live pin. I'm holding the box, plug it in, and it's not working. I play around with it and nothing. I reach over and go to unplug it and touch something metal... youtch! arm to arm shock. To this day that's probably the worse one I've gotten. I was actually giggling for like 10 minutes straight, I was not all there for a little while.

author: G7PSK
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 07, 2015, 09:27:49 am
content: I have had a few shocks in the past. The first that I can remember was kicking an electric fence at the age of nine while walking across a field at Runnymede where sheep were grazing the second was when I was about 12 and someone dared me to stick my finger in a light socket that gave me a horrible buzzing feeling in the finger, the next one I remember was when I was about 20 or so and was fixing a colour TV I was unplugging the HT lead from the tube when I found myself the other side of the room it was one of those big late 70' early 80's TV. the next was after erecting an electric stock fence I was walking round the field talking to some one when I wandered into the fence just where the feeder from the mains powered energiser came up from the ground, for some reason that made me do a complete back flip another shock which could have been deadly was when working on a 50KVA 415 volt diesel alternator set and some how I touched one of the phases while setting the AVR regulation. I have had many more over the years but none of them really register.

author: Ericho
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 07, 2015, 02:20:37 pm
content: QuoteYes he did, he was only a factor I should have accounted for, I was the one who deserved the blame, I made to many small mistakes. Including the assumption that others will not do stupid things

author: BradC
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 07, 2015, 02:55:47 pm
content: Quote from: Howardlong on March 07, 2015, 01:14:39 amI forget the stats, and I forget where I saw them but several or more people die each year after putting a 9V battery on their tongue. It's not the shock per-se that kills them but part of the reaction causing a slip or fall and contact with something unpleasant. Stupid is as stupid does.

author: Howardlong
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 07, 2015, 09:03:10 pm
content: Quote from: BradC on March 07, 2015, 02:55:47 pmI am sure the situations would be enlightening. There's an article in The Register about it which appears based largely on urban myth from what I can see, where Australians seem to be particularly at risk of death by 9v battery. Perhaps tongue in cheek?http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07/28/the_odd_body_death_by_battery/I would imagine you're more likely by orders of magnitude to die from choking on or ingesting a button cell than die from tonguing (ooo err) a 9v battery.

author: Tinkerer
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 07, 2015, 09:18:32 pm
content: Quote from: Howardlong on March 07, 2015, 09:03:10 pmThat is so punny.

author: ResR
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 07, 2015, 09:40:46 pm
content: Since I was a teenager, I got to "taste" 230V 50Hz AC from faulty equipment or 350V DC from mains capacitor at least once a week back then. Most serious shock was at work, when I washed a switched off light fixture and my hand gripped the live fluorescent tube. I fell down the 2,5m ladder onto concrete floor and lost conscious for a moment but survived to tell the tale.

author: c4757p
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 07, 2015, 09:43:33 pm
content: Quote from: BradC on March 07, 2015, 02:55:47 pmI'd call this a death by fall, not a death by battery, myself.

author: wagon
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 07, 2015, 11:02:21 pm
content: An old 'favourite' was tape decks and cd players with their power switches fitted to the upper LH corner of the front panel, terminals up.Also various electric fence units. The smaller units with a 2uF cap charged to 400V are unpleasant, but the larger units with a 20uF (or larger) cap charged to 700V can give quite a good 'education'. I've also been 'educated' when picking up dog turds in the back yard, using a steel handled shovel, wearing no shoes. That little electric fence I have to keep the hound in works well.I'm generally paranoid about safety. All my 'widowmakers' are terminated to a terminal block or the A N & E are twisted together, so if someone plugs it in the breaker should pop. I also take care to discharge any capacitors.

author: Howardlong
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 07, 2015, 11:08:00 pm
content: Quote from: Tinkerer on March 07, 2015, 09:18:32 pmI thank you!

author: Seekonk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 08, 2015, 04:11:50 pm
content: Alcohol is somehow involved with stories from Australia.

author: Vgkid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 08, 2015, 07:00:14 pm
content: Many bad choices involve alcohol...

author: wagon
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 09, 2015, 01:34:23 am
content: Mmmmmm alcohol.......

author: T3sl4co1l
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 09, 2015, 02:59:21 am
content: "To alcohol: the cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems."(Or if you're a chemist -- of course it's a solution!)

author: mtdoc
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 09, 2015, 03:04:44 am
content: Better a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy....

author: mtdoc
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 09, 2015, 03:25:32 am
content: As far as death by electric shock - it is current passing through the heart that is generally responsible. Hence the adage of an electrician working with one hand behind the back.Most human tissue (with the exception of bone, cartilage and dry outer skin) has fairly low resistance.Nervous tissue (nerves, spinal cord, brain) and muscle are electrical in nature. All cells have a potential across their membrane (somewhere around 70mV with the inside negative relative to the outside).Nerve and muscle cells have a threshold voltage so that once the inside of the cell is brought somewhat more positive, ionic currents across the membrane initialize a self- propagating "action potential" that can travel some distance. So it takes relatively little voltage across a nerve or muscle cell to get things going.Either AC or DC voltage can cause this effect in muscles and if anything but very brief, then muscle cells will go into "tetany" and cannot relax. Hence the phenomenon of not being able to let go of the thing causing the shock. For arms, the flexors (which cause the elbow to bend and a fist to clench) predominate, so one grips tight and can't release. Other muscles in the chest and legs for example will cause one to push away and jump back away from the source. This is why in the NEC requires a wide space in front of electrical panels and equipment so that a big shock will often result in one being knocked back away from the source of the shock.I think DC has the potential to cause more tissue burn damage because of its ability to sustain an arc.Current through the brain can induce siezures (e.g. ECT) but it is current through the heart causing dysrhythmias that generally kills.

author: Chipmunk
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 09, 2015, 05:14:53 am
content: Ooo too many to think of offhand. My weirdest ones will have to suffice.First, not really an electric shock, but a shock, and electricity was involved: Being an inquisitive child, I asked the electricians we had staying with us (mum used to take in lodgers to make ends meet) what an electric heater was, as in how was it made. Them: Oh it's just a coil of wire.... So i connected a coil of bell wire to a 240v socket in the livingroom. The socket had scorchmarks on it for the rest of the time we lived there. A similar event was when I figured that as xmas light bulbs are low voltage, there's no harm cutting that unused set off the tree with scissors, right? I avoided an actual shock there by the virtue of cutting the figure 8 flex neutral first. Sheer luck!Now to the ACTUAL shocks: 6 v lantern battery onto a transformer secondary , while I was holding the primary. Whoever said DC didn't operate a transformer should have been more specific.The most hilarious shock ever, was from an electric fence unit. I was fiddling with it (car boot sale find!) while in the livingroom with the family. I was sat on the output leads with the clips on. I snapped the battery connector on. It immediately felt like satan was stabbing me in the a*se cheeks. It took me several 'zaps' to figure out what was happening. The rest of the family found this MUCH funnier than I did at the time.Finally for the 'odd' ones, when staying in Canada, I was helping a friend replace her lights in the hallway. I was stood on a wooden stool on a wooden floor, undoing wirenuts, having removed the fuses in the basement. (old panel, no breakers) I moved the bundle of wires off to one side to attach the (bare) grounding wire from the fixture to the ground wire from the 'feed cable'. The ground wire shocked me. The cognitive dissonance this caused made me assume it was just that it had spiked me, rather than shocking me. So I grabbed it tight. And ended up on the floor with my head hurting from hitting the floor hard. Yep, the "Bundle" of wires i had in my left hand was live, raising me to 120v, but being well insulated I hadn't noticed. When I grabbed the ground wire in my right hand, that was 'an unwise move'. (Another case of never trust the label on the panel)

author: briselec
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 09, 2015, 10:00:05 am
content: Quote from: senso on March 07, 2015, 02:01:45 amA father and son were killed by a welder at my first job after leaving school. They were working alone on a Friday night. What we think happened is the welder stopped working so the son lent over it to see what was wrong and got hooked up. The father then tried to pull him off but got hooked up too. Emergency services found them early Monday morning after someone from another building rang them on Sunday night because he could smell burning flesh.

author: Ice-Tea
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 11, 2015, 08:24:37 am
content: First week on my first job. Was given a PCB to debug, so I got to work on the section that required attention. While hovering over the board with the scope probe, the side of my hand touched another portion of the PCB. Got zapped, was shaking for an hour, had burnmarks on my hand.So then my boss/mentor rose from his seat and said: "Uhm, yeah, might wanna watch out for the HV on the board". Backlight inverter. Low current, painfull still.

author: babysitter
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 11, 2015, 09:55:03 am
content: Fun fact: In animal studies, heart failure can be induced by reprogrammed pacemakers that intentional cause atrial fibrillation. I remember something from a presentation about 64 Hz, singe or two digit µA current applied right to the heart.From that point of view today, 50 or 60 Hz mains is a interesting selection...

author: Zero999
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 15, 2015, 12:16:11 pm
content: I've not had many severe shocks in my life.One of the most memorable was off a geared synchronous motor I'd stripped out of an old microwave when I was 12. I put the wires in my mouth, turned the shaft round and received a very painful shock.AC definitely is more shocking than DC. I thought I'd test it. I connected a lab power supply between my fingers on one hand and increased the voltage, up to the maximum of 70.5VDC and still didn't feel anything. I then measured the current and even when I pressed on the probes hard with my fingers and 1.5mA flowed through my hand I could barely feel it. If anything I could feel the heat being generated (only 100mW but it was over a small area) rather than the current flowing. Interestingly I did get a small shock when the I let go of the probes so it was the change in current which was more detectable than the DC current.I did not replete the test with AC but I know it would be more shocking. I''ve received a worse shock from a mains powered SMPS due to the tiny current (much lower than 1mA) leaking through the Y2 capacitor connected between the primary and secondary.

author: Mechanical Menace
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 15, 2015, 01:23:32 pm
content: Quote from: babysitter on March 11, 2015, 09:55:03 amHigher frequencies are more dangerous. Lower frequencies and you can't even adjust to not notice the flickering light bulbs, you always will.

author: Zero999
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 15, 2015, 06:32:48 pm
content: Quote from: Mechanical Menace on March 15, 2015, 01:23:32 pmWhat are you talking about? Higher frequencies (above 20kHz) are not as dangerous because they do not stimulate the nerves and cannot cause ventricular fibrillation. The only hazard is heating and burns which can be deep.

author: Mechanical Menace
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 15, 2015, 06:38:55 pm
content: Quote from: Hero999 on March 15, 2015, 06:32:48 pmThat's how many orders of magnitude higher than would be practical for mains supplies?

author: Zero999
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 16, 2015, 09:05:42 am
content: Quote from: Mechanical Menace on March 15, 2015, 06:38:55 pmWhat exactly were you saying then?You said:Quote from: Mechanical Menace on March 15, 2015, 01:23:32 pmBut it isn't true. Higher frequencies are less dangerous than mains frequencies.It's probably true that extremely low frequencies (under a 4Hz or so) are less dangerous than mains because the it doesn't have the same effect on the nerves and gives you time to react and pull away when the voltage cross through zeros.

author: Mechanical Menace
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 16, 2015, 09:54:34 am
content: Quote from: Hero999 on March 16, 2015, 09:05:42 amWell I was led to believe (due to health and safety literature) that up to a few hundred hertz your survivability is inverse to the frequency, mainly due to the capacitive properties of the body making it easier for lower voltages to pass through it at higher frequencies. And the comment I was replying to was specifically on about frequencies chosen for mains supplies. 20khz plus may be much safer but that would waste how much power in distribution?

author: KJDS
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 16, 2015, 09:57:43 am
content: I've had a few hundred volts at 1.8GHz. That just burns, deeply, not fun at all.

author: Zero999
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 16, 2015, 10:23:02 am
content: Quote from: Mechanical Menace on March 16, 2015, 09:54:34 amWho said anything about distributing power at greater than 20kHz?

author: Mechanical Menace
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 16, 2015, 10:27:21 am
content: Quote from: Hero999 on March 16, 2015, 10:23:02 amIn context, you

author: miguelvp
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 16, 2015, 12:06:45 pm
content: Quote from: Mechanical Menace on March 16, 2015, 10:27:21 amWell, the father of AC always believed in higher frequencies as more beneficial all around, and funny enough 20KHz was the barrier he encountered before coming up with the tesla coil.http://www.pbs.org/tesla/ll/ll_hifreq.html

author: Mechanical Menace
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 16, 2015, 12:16:23 pm
content: Quote from: miguelvp on March 16, 2015, 12:06:45 pmFather of AC is overstating it more than a smidgen, seeing as its first practical use was developed 24 years before his birth and based directly on Faraday's work. One of the fathers of AC motors would be true though.

author: miguelvp
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 16, 2015, 12:24:35 pm
content: True, I should have said the father of the AC electric grid.But the point was about the frequency.

author: Mechanical Menace
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 16, 2015, 01:00:52 pm
content: Quote from: miguelvp on March 16, 2015, 12:24:35 pmAs much as I think Tesla was an unqualified (if definitely insane) genius his cultists give him the credit for an awful lot of things he didn't do and that's just as disgusting as others getting the credit for Tesla's work. Just scanning that PBS article had them do it with X-ray photography, ignoring Puluj and Sanford and I had a knee jerk reaction, sorry.

author: tom66
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 16, 2015, 01:07:27 pm
content: The problem with AC much higher than say 100Hz is it would probably be a lot more audible than the current frequency. To overcome this you'd have to go to something like 18kHz+ which would have far too many capacitive and inductive losses along long power transmission lines.

author: Zero999
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 16, 2015, 01:21:07 pm
content: Quote from: tom66 on March 16, 2015, 01:07:27 pmThere are no such thing as capacitive and inductive losses. At higher frequencies more power is lost due to the skin effect, radiation, hysteresis and dielectric absorption which all manifest themselves as extra resistances.One of the benefits of low frequencies is long cables can be used before the transmission line effects are significant. The wavelength of 50Hz is 6000km so it's only very long distance cables which suffer from transmission line effects.

author: Mechanical Menace
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 16, 2015, 01:33:20 pm
content: Quote from: Hero999 on March 16, 2015, 01:21:07 pmReally? An awful lot of things I've read on the matter seem to say the skin effect would be negligible and that capacitive losses are real and the major stumbling block for high frequency grid power...Honest question, any suggestions on reading material on the subject?

author: T3sl4co1l
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 16, 2015, 04:21:34 pm
content: A properly made transmission line is just that, a transmission line: it obeys the Telegrapher's equations and transmitspower, not purely voltage or current alone.However, once you start packing all the energy into the EM field between the conductors like that, you depend upon transmission line effects. While it could be handled, it makes things that much more difficult than they already are.As is, lines are well under 1/4 wavelength, so they can be treated as simple lumped LC networks, and LC networks can be used to compensate for their impedance (such as: line reactors to tune the capacitance, and tap changers to compensate for the voltage drop). And that impedance isn't a terribly large fraction of the load impedance, so the voltage regulation isn't screwed up too badly. Compensation networks (line reactors, tap changers) need only modest tuning ranges (or can be static fixed components), so they don't cost all that much.You'd also have to control for interference effects. The grid should be a strict tree structure, with no cycles (loops), and carefully aligned parallel transmission lines where extra capacity is needed. Precision, and probably self adjusting, phase matchers would be needed to combine multiple power plants, or to implement loops or interconnect sub-grids. (So, it wouldn't be much of a "grid" anymore.)The transmission lines themselves would be more expensive, since they have to twist or swap every 1/4 wavelength, or be made in some twisted or interleaved pattern that minimizes radiation. Not to mention [true, resistive] losses due to skin effect, induction in the support structures, radiation and so on.Strictly speaking, "capacitive or inductive loss" is preposterous, but the implied effect is real: a robust power transmission system should have a low impedance (constant voltage) characteristic, but a transmission line system must be impedance matched -- and as such, no point in the middle of the system will have a low impedance, making the compensation and regulation hardware massively more involved (wider tuning / adjustable range, more control units in more locations, more emphasis on point-of-load regulation, etc.).Safety may also be a concern. At 50/60Hz, there's a few milliseconds between pulses during which arcs have a chance to cool down and break. This is still not enough on the biggest feeders, but at lower voltages and currents, it helps greatly with safety and fusing. High frequencies would require very expensive fuses; I'm not even sure what technology is used for high frequency or RF fuses. With power pulsating faster than the thermal time constant of even very small arcs, it behaves essentially as DC, very difficult to break.Presently, DC is in use, but only on individual feeders over very long distances, where the efficiency and capacity advantage is too great to turn down. With the vast preponderance of switching supplies today, it might be tempting to entertain DC as a domestic distribution method, but besides the enormous infrastructure cost of implementing it, it probably just wouldn't be a safe enough idea -- electrolysis and tracking on leaky insulators, static fields around everything (imagine the dust -- and insect and bird -- collection power!), nearly unbreakable arcs (expensive fuses, switchgear).Afraid I don't know much about references or research concerning the subject. It's an interesting idea to entertain, in a generally useful subject, regardless of its economic or safety drawbacks.Tim

author: Zero999
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 16, 2015, 08:37:56 pm
content: Quote from: Mechanical Menace on March 16, 2015, 01:33:20 pmAnything you've read which talks about inductive or capacitive losses is either grossly simplified or plain wrong.Capacitors and inductors do not dissipate any energy, only store it. The only circuit element which can dissipate energy is resistance, whether it be linear (i.e. a resistor) or non-linear (i.e. a semiconductor.It's true that energy can be coupled between two conductors due to their mutual capacitance or inductance and at higher frequencies this effect increases, but again it's resistance which actually dissipates the energy, both in the primary and secondary conductor. A barbed wired fence running along side a power line will have an electric current induced in it, but it's its internal resistance and that of the power line which are dissipating the energy, rather than capacitance or inductance. If the power line and fence were both superconductors then no energy would be dissipated. However, as frequencies increase further, cables can act as antennas and power can is radiated away in the form of electromagnetic radiation, even if everything is super conducting: a small resistance will appear at AC known as the radiation resistance.The only thing I can suggest reading about is inductors, capacitors, RF and transmission lines in general.

author: T3sl4co1l
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 17, 2015, 02:36:55 am
content: Quote from: Hero999 on March 16, 2015, 08:37:56 pmI already explained the slightly odd meaning of this.Strictly speaking, "capacitive or inductive loss" is preposterous, but the implied effect is real: a robust power transmission system should have a low impedance (constant voltage) characteristic, but a transmission line system must be impedance matched -- and as such, no point in the middle of the system will have a low impedance, making the compensation and regulation hardware massively more involved (wider tuning / adjustable range, more control units in more locations, more emphasis on point-of-load regulation, etc.).Point being... put an inductor in series with a lamp, does the voltage drop? HELL YEAH IT DROPS! Did the inductor dissipate power? No (to the first order). To be perfectly correct: it reflected some power. But the end result is the same, less power at the load. This is what's meant. Such "losses" appear in a whole lot more places than transmission lines, so it's a useful concept to be aware of.Do I really have to break my messages into little Twitter-friendly bits? Do people not actually read anymore?... Or most people are ignoring me, which would be a terrible loss if I do say so myself...Tim

author: Tallie
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 17, 2015, 03:16:15 am
content: I licked a 9 volt battery once...

author: Mechanical Menace
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 17, 2015, 04:46:18 pm
content: Quote from: T3sl4co1l on March 17, 2015, 02:36:55 amLol, I read your's and Hero999's responses and thanks to the pair of you. I just didn't think "oh an untrue convenience like centrifugal forces" was a great response

author: jaxbird
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 17, 2015, 05:08:47 pm
content: The funnies one I've experienced myself was, when, as a teenager, I used to remove isolation with my teeth and I was installing a land line phone, so I just put the wires in my mouth to remove the isolation (hey, phone lines are low voltage), but unfortunately someone made a call at the exact same time, causing a reasonably high AC voltage through the line, and me on my knees under a desk with wires in my mouth, slammed my head in the deskThe worst one was checking a 240VAC socket using one of those screwdriver things you put your thumb at the end and it will light up. Unfortunately the socket was wired just fine, but the screwdriver thing was shorter, resulting in quite a jolt, my elbow almost knocking the guy standing behind me unconscious.(I have not used one of those devices ever since)

author: sacherjj
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 17, 2015, 05:47:58 pm
content: Two major instances for me. First when I was around 5 years old. We had a 115V extension cord with a 15mm diameter or more cord, with a jack that was monstrous. I did not realize that it was an extension cord and thought it was a lock. So I "unlocked it". I remember not being able to let go of the key and my sister seeing me, scream and run away. My grandmother was watching us and she decided to unplug the cord, rather than try to hit me with the broom she picked up.My other bad one was getting run into with a small fork lift and pushed into a 480V box. I arced across my pinky and cooked it. It is back to normal with only a scar at the entry point.In addition to that, I've had a few 60 Hz "hellos" when brushing against something I shouldn't. I keep that as rare as possible and always practice the one hand rule when working on high power. Insulated feet and only one hand in use at a time.

author: radix
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 17, 2015, 09:10:33 pm
content: I received a shock across my arms and chest when playing with an ignition coil. Nothing major, it just hurts.When I was experimenting with neon glow lamps, I used a doorbell transformer fed from a model rail ac transformer wired as an isolation transformer. I accidentaly grabbed hold of the secondary (a bit more than 200V AC ). It also just hurt, and i could easily let go. It was probbably due to the small power of the complete setup.Only recently I had my first real encounter with the mains (230V 50Hz here). A piece of gear had voltage regulators bolted on to the housing. The housing was grounded. As I reached in with my hand to feel if the regulators are getting excessively warm, I touched the power switch (I forgot to pull the plug) which had bare solder joints (it was an old piece of gear). I'm not exactly sure if it was a live wire directly from the socket or through the primay of the power transformer. Anyway, I bridged the line to ground with my index and middle finger. I quickly pulled my hand back. Again it just hurt a bit. Maybe I was lucky that I was wearing flipflops.But in general touching the live wire doesn't have to be a big deal. An electrician I know likes to demonstrate how he grabs hold of the live and nothing happens. Offcourse he does it indoors in a dry area with his boots on. Heck, even I might have been touching the live wire when I accidentally connected it to a signal ground of an RS232 plotter. It had a plastic housing and I only noticed that it is miswired when I pluggen the serial cable into the PC. It blew the breaker but everything survived.And after reading this I can't help but wonder, why is 400/415/whatever V of the three phase power line such a big deal. You have to be extremely lucky to get in contact with two or more phases...

author: ConKbot
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 17, 2015, 10:50:27 pm
content: Quote from: radix on March 17, 2015, 09:10:33 pmWhen youre in a 460V (in the US) panel, chances are it has a rather beefy main breaker and a pretty low source impedance on the tranformer. So while 460V line to line isnt enough to arc though air, if you accidentally short it, the resulting arc and arc-flash from it can be very dangerous if youre not in arc-flash rated clothing. Low chance of occurrence with proper technique, severe consequences if it does, making it a medium risk.compared toThe first vid may have a larger than average source current available, either way when the pros kill the main breaker just to pop in a circuit breaker, vs working on it live like in a residential, I think I'll be sure to give it due respect also.

author: Red Squirrel
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 17, 2015, 11:20:40 pm
content: I like the "ding" at the end of the first video. "food is ready!"

author: Zero999
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 17, 2015, 11:23:57 pm
content: Quote from: T3sl4co1l on March 17, 2015, 02:36:55 amI read every single word of your post and understood it before replying.

author: Dave Turner
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 17, 2015, 11:52:33 pm
content: I haven't read the whole thread - so apologies if there are any repeat scenarios.I've had a number of close calls - one was was about 40 years ago whilst surveying the roof of a private property which had an overhead 10kV feed to an internal substation. I slipped off the roof and grabbed what ever I could to save myself. Once I gathered my breath I realised that I'd grabbed hold of one phase of the three phase incomer about 20ft above ground. Fortunately I had the presence of mind to slide hand by hand far enough from the building to just drop. Had I tried to go back to the building I'd have earthed myself which wouldn't have done me any good at all.I've been knocked onto a double pole knife switch (like those in the horror movies) 10kV again whilst running experiments to determine the heating effects of varying current on oil cooled resistors. That one stitched my shirt to me and left me on the other side of the lab.Yes it might sound stupid, but even when I've switched off I always use the back of my hand to check mains before holding the cable. Whether DC or AC that will throw me away as opposed to make me grab on.

author: radix
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 18, 2015, 12:43:13 am
content: Quote from: ConKbot on March 17, 2015, 10:50:27 pmAnd that matters while getting shocked? I meant to say that everybody is making a big deal out of touching 3 phase power lines. At least I am getting the impression that people think they're getting zapped by 400V. But to do that you have to grab at least two phases at the same time. I imagine that that is a lot worse than just grabbing a live wire and probably not having a direct ground contact. Of course here in Europe we don't have any of that high-leg delta bullshit. And it's quite common to have 3 phase power in our homes, which generally don't have a very large main breaker.

author: CatalinaWOW
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 19, 2015, 02:02:55 am
content: Quote from: miguelvp on March 16, 2015, 12:06:45 pmThis is the problem with popular science shows. They don't look into it deeply enough. At least in the university I attended, distribution frequencies were chosen based on a number of things, including core losses in transformers, transformer size, transmission losses and so on. There were homework problems to go through the optimization. Tesla himself did the problem and came up with one of the frequencies in use today. I don't recall off the top of my head whether his answer was 50 or 60 Hz, although I believe he was in the US at the time, so likely it was 60 Hz. There is no single correct answer as it depends on material costs and fuel costs as well as the basic physics, which is why there are two different standards around the world.Tesla did think higher frequencies were better to support his efforts on wireless transmission of power. Conflation of this with the wired power grid causes the confusion in some circles. If you look at his early work, Tesla was clearly a good and creative engineer. Unfortunately he started going crazy at some point, and had enough wealth and influence to cover for it for a long time. Sad end for anyone.

author: sacherjj
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 19, 2015, 03:02:41 pm
content: Quote from: radix on March 18, 2015, 12:43:13 amThat is true. Had my pinky been shorted between 2 phases of the 480 I hit, it probably would have exploded. However, one phase going into my finger went out enough (most likely to ground) to cook it well.

author: FlashedBIOS
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 19, 2015, 03:35:34 pm
content: Had a bad habbit of stripping small wires with my teeth so that i would not have to find my wirestrippers. USA Telephone networks carry about 50vdc. I worked at an office of computer repair and I got tired of one of the other technicians always pulling the phone cable from the office telephone to plug in customers' dial up modems to test their internet. We had a standing policy of "we dont do dialup" meaning we will fix your computer but when it comes to dialup we wont help you. Its just too slow and we dont have the patience. Well this one technician did have the patience and it pissed me off. So i set out to hard wire that phone to the wall. I was going to solder red and green to the board of the telephone. I put the wire in my mouth and got a good lesson. and a good zap. I still ended up soldering that to the phone and boy that tech was pissed off. It made sense though. If you can't afford cable modem, then you can't afford our repair prices, or you dont really need a computer.

author: johansen
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 20, 2015, 09:31:08 am
content: Quote from: radix on March 18, 2015, 12:43:13 ammaybe you need to hang with a different crowd then, folks who work at something other than a desk, where accidentally connecting 240vac equipment up to 600 volts happens more than once in a laboratory accident.BTW, at one time transformer iron was so bad, 25HZ was close to the ideal frequency.*16.66HZ was used for powering trains because the very large series wound motors had such inductance that they couldn't push enough amps through at 60hz.. and the cheapest and practical method available at the time was cut it in third with a rotary transformer/frequency converter.rotary transformers are making a come back btw.. i recall reading about a gigawatt sized unit designed to connect the canadian and us grid together across a long east west line.. IIRC it had something like a 100 MW motor to apply torque to the transformer to push power one way or another..*there is none, only practical limits, and those are relative to the cost of manufacturing, the cost of copper, cost of the steel, cost of the electricity, and cost of cooling the transformer, and cost of life.. insulation life is cut in half for every 10C increase in temperature.power companies today route power around hot transformers to squeeze every extra year they can out of transformers that were built for 50 year life spans and are older than that now...

author: Howardlong
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 20, 2015, 10:49:34 am
content: Quote from: FlashedBIOS on March 19, 2015, 03:35:34 pmSome of us still do, over forty+ years of electronics, my upper right 1 and lower right 1 are a tad worn as a result :-( so I don't recommend it.

author: max666
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 28, 2015, 06:44:12 pm
content: I would like to revise my choice at the poll, because today I think I had a fairly beefy oneI was standing on a steel-girder construction on top of an inclined rooftop. One hand firmly grasping the nicely earthed steel construction. Now I did switch off the lights and since they went dark I assumed they were de-energised. Little did I know that the electrician who installed it put the switch in the return path, and me the idiot didn't check ... this will teach me.Luckily the residual-current circuit breaker came to my rescue, but it was quite a jolt right across the heart until it responded

author: Howardlong
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 28, 2015, 11:47:46 pm
content: There is a recurring theme, many of the stories here involve not just electricity but also being in a precarious situation logistically, whether it be up a ladder or on a roof. They are not mutually exclusive, because in general you will be holding firmly onto something (probably earthed) with one hand while conducting work with the other.First hand, I can tell you that having a shock across your body in such circumstances is not to be sniffed at, and when I had my big one 35 years ago up an A frame ladder in a theatre, RCDs were not common, I had a choice to release my supporting hand or the one I was getting the shock from while being semi conscious. Luckily somehow I managed to release the latter, but it was not after having to try both, several times: the electric shock effect is to maintain your grip. Frightening.

author: CatalinaWOW
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 29, 2015, 06:28:33 pm
content: Quote from: max666 on May 28, 2015, 06:44:12 pmAnother recurring theme. Many of the shocks/dangerous situations come as a result of some fault in the fabrication or construction. Those who depend on the protection of design stand a very real chance of getting zapped. That is why I like killing power (and verifying that it is indeed off) when working on residential breakers if it is at all possible.At university there was a story (perhaps apocryphal) from the power lab which had a 480V 3 phase patch panel. Lots of 4/0 copper patch cables, which resulted in an obvious mistake (or perhaps it wasn't an error, students being what they are), a phase to phase short. According to the story, the breaker on the patch panel failed to open, as did the building level breaker. The patch cord squirmed to a circle before either melting/vaporizing or being ejected from the panel by magnetic forces. The campus level protection also failed and so the arc was sustained until something opened the line at substation level. Fortunately, no serious injuries were reported in this story, though some level of burns seems unavoidable.

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 29, 2015, 07:22:39 pm
content: Still have the screwdriver with the melt mark on it................

author: Dave Turner
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 29, 2015, 07:27:35 pm
content: Learnt a long time ago to use the back of my finger to touch a cable first, even when I 'knew' the power was off , before going further.

author: John Coloccia
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 29, 2015, 09:52:47 pm
content: I was plugging in an electric organ when I was a little kid, and touched the two prongs as I was plugging it in. I'm not really sure exactly what happened after that, but some time later I woke up on the other side of the room with this burn mark around one of my fingers...it went around it like a snake. I'm not sure I ever told my parents, but definitely not something I want to repeat!

author: jim_griff
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 08, 2015, 07:25:05 pm
content: In order of most dangerous to least dangerous:1. SMPS repair. Holding it with one hand and touching the other side of the HV cap with the other just after it had been plugged in. I didn't realise how sharp the solder joints were. It pierced the skin on both sides and sent probably a 200-300V shock through my chest. It hurt like hell and my heart was beating irregularly for a few seconds afterwards. Thankfully it recovered fairly quickly and I went on to fix the PSU. Lesson learned!2. 25kV flyback transformer mod, shocked several times. Once touched on purpose to remember what it felt like. It's not so much the electricity that hurts but the plasma burning the ends of the fingers that hurts even more. I purposefully touched it in order to remember how different the sensation was as compared to the DC shock from the SMPS.3. Defibrillator at 15 months old. Went in for quite a routine operation (won't mention what due to embarrassment factor). Had to have my heart restarted with the paddles. Had recurring nightmares about the experience up until age 5. I'll never forget it; it's stuck with me for life.4. Several times I experimented with transformers as a kid, accidentally shocking myself as a result. I also shocked family members and friends with it by attaching two thin wires onto my bedroom door handle with a pressure pad under the carpet to trigger the transformer. I have grown out of that habit nowNow I only experiment with things like this!:EDIT: I haven't touched it yet. It charges to 920V with 1.15µF (plus two cheap, crappy capacitors inside the bat). 0.48668 Joules of energy for the MOT cap? Not sure if I worked it out correctly.

author: Alphatronique
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 08, 2015, 08:21:57 pm
content: Hi my worst one was 10 year ago at that time i running TV repair shopso that day i was climb on a ladder for fix a TV Projector on a bar ,the kind whit 3 CRTNaturally TV was off and while i probe circuit for keep my balence have my hand flat on one of the CRT PCB (Tube Socket)then a drunk nutward at the bar grab the remote and put the TV onmy leg have fail and was fail out of the ladder and have take a good 10 minute for got back my vision whit my hand smell like burned pigone of my college later measure the tube socket G1 voltage and was bit over 1KV DC whit some good current for turn the Tube into projector ..that last time i service a projection TV ... and of course have tell to staff to unplug equipment even if you just need to take a 2 second measure whit the fluke..

author: abdullahseba
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 09, 2015, 06:14:23 am
content: First one was when I was 7 or 8. I had a 12V spot light transformer and stupidly thought I was handling the 12V side as I was connecting two wires together by handLast high voltage one I had was from on old Ashley UK plug with no insulation around the bottom of the pin.I pulled it out of the socket and touched the pins at same time. Not a good ideaVery last one was a slight tingle as I was connecting a 46V tube train backup battery to the train.

author: MikeW
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 09, 2015, 08:05:29 am
content: Have had three good ones.I used to work in kitchens and a lot of people like to clean down by throwing a load of soapy water at everything. Which is fine, as long as you exclude the plug sockets.

author: B.B.Bubby
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 09, 2015, 11:55:41 am
content: One of my first jobs as an apprentice electrician was to go through the whole factory and check / change motor brushes on all the conveyor lines.This was before AC VSDs became the norm, they were all 180 VDC rubbishAnyway first Motor, I press the e-stop for the line and proceed to unscrew the brush caps, I pull out a brush to inspect and bang - I've leapt 5 foot high and 10 foot back. The shock was the worst I've had - fucken non isolated "Reliance" brand DC drives. This was also before E-stops killed everything.Anyway I reported the issue to my boss - and got my arse kicked big time for been a dumb arse for not shutting down the line at the main isolatorI didn't even know what an isolator was!He'd be in jail today if the same thing happened in this day and age.I bag OH&S stuff a bit, but looking back at all the dodgy stuff that used to go on - I'm lucky to be alive.

author: con-f-use
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 09, 2015, 02:49:25 pm
content: Quote from: jim_griff on July 08, 2015, 07:25:05 pmThat sound's horrible. Sorry. If it happens ever again, don't go back to work! Get yourself checked out by a doctor. It's not uncommon for people to feel fine right after a shock like that and die a few hours later.

author: electrolux
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 09, 2015, 03:22:06 pm
content: Received a 240v shock once, by accidental plugging in a socket which had a loose wire connected, I only felt a light tingle though. And I'm only 13...

author: max666
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 09, 2015, 09:58:34 pm
content: Quote from: jim_griff on July 08, 2015, 07:25:05 pmYou remembered something from the age of 15 months? I've heard there are people remembering their birth, or is this just a myth?But more to the point, you were conscious when they used the defibrillator on you?I'm not saying you're lying, but is it possible your child brain made that up? Or you had the nightmare about it and over time the brain filed that under memory?Would love to hear from a medical staff if there are indeed situations where they defibrillate conscious patients.

author: Artlav
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 10, 2015, 08:58:33 am
content: Quote from: max666 on July 09, 2015, 09:58:34 pmBirth? Pretty much a myth.15 months? Quite possible.Most people have their earliest memories from about 2 years old, but intense events can be remembered from earlier than that.Quote from: max666 on July 09, 2015, 09:58:34 pmYes, AFAIK. When you are having a heart attack, you are still conscious, just can't move (or so my father described it).i won't be surprised if there are more cases like that.

author: jim_griff
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 10, 2015, 09:36:06 am
content: Quote from: con-f-use on July 09, 2015, 02:49:25 pmYeah, I'll never make that mistake again. I work alone so always good to get checked out or be around other people in case something happens.Quote from: max666 on July 09, 2015, 09:58:34 pmI also remember them putting the plastic thing into my throat to open up the airways right before the paddle shocks. I've always had issues with my heart rhythm which leads me to believe the memories are accurate (as accurate as they can be for a 15-month-old).EDIT: I also remember the house I used to live at that age. I remember the whole layout of the house and described it to my mum one night when I was reminiscing. She said she couldn't believe I could remember that house because I was so young. I even have memories of crawling on the floor, picking bits off the carpet and tasting them heh. I didn't walk at that age.

author: max666
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 10, 2015, 12:18:34 pm
content: Man, now I'm jealous. I'm not that old, but my memory is not that great. I forget a lot of long term stuff and have hardly any childhood memories.Oh well, how do they say? Ignorance is bliss?

author: sarepairman2
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 10, 2015, 11:45:37 pm
content: the only one I renember is shocking myself with a boiler transformer, across one hand. I am naturally fearful of fire and mains voltage so I usually approach it timidly with only one hand.That fucker almost knocked me to the floor.I think I maybe touched a hot heatsink on a ATX power supply once or twice but it was very lightly and I did not get much of a shock, as I am delicate around dangerous things.

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 11, 2015, 07:45:56 am
content: I remember when I had Tetanus after cutting myself on rusty wire. The red lines growing up my leg and the trip to the doctor, along with the painful shot of antibiotics to stop it. I must have been around 3-4. I remember the house layout, and that we had ducks, and hatched the eggs in the cooker warming drawer.

author: B.B.Bubby
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 11, 2015, 09:21:56 am
content: My earliest childhood memory is that of swimming up a really long but skinny tube with a heap of my mates, we were all racing trying to get to the big soccer ball first. Pretty sure I won

author: WZOLL
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 11, 2015, 10:02:39 am
content: Plugging in a wall wort with my index finger on one of the prongs. My arm jiggled and flew back. Someone needs to make those things safer.

author: Votality
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: July 11, 2015, 01:04:15 pm
content: Quote from: B.B.Bubby on July 11, 2015, 09:21:56 amThanks for that lovely insight into your mothers vagina. However I think this could be a bit off topic.

author: TheAmmoniacal
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 11, 2015, 01:21:05 pm
content: I have been shocked by 230 VAC mains countless times, I try not to be stupid or reckless - it's always been across two fingers on the same hand. It's quite the experience and I do recommend it! Whatever you're holding at the time will be flying and you most definitely will swear at least once.Interestingly - you can feel the frequency quite distinctly, it's a very buzzing-kind-of sensation.

author: poorchava
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 11, 2015, 04:41:56 pm
content: I got shocked many times by mains but the worst was when i took a shot from a capacitors charged to about 10kV or so. I was building a CW multiplier for some experiment. I have unplugged it but forgot to bleed the capacitors. The output was some serious nanofarads if not more (don't remember, it was like 10 years ago) but some of the charge must have bled of already or I probably wouldn't be writing this. Anyway, I woke up laying on the floor in my chair, having been out cold for like half an hour. It kinda strange that nobody at home heard anything... I still do not remember the exact moment of the shock.Sent from my HTC One M8s using Tapatalk

author: mmagin
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 12, 2015, 07:23:39 pm
content: I guess I've been pretty careful, excepting playing with a battery and a switch and a reversed filament transformer as a kid and shocking myself and others for fun. Never been shocked off the AC line (mains).My worst shock was just across my hand. When I was a kid, I had a off-line strobe light kit, probably had the usual photoflash capacitor, with no bleeder resistor. After turning it off, the tube had fired, so the voltage probably wasn't near the peak, but I picked up the board and went to put it in my other hand (bottom of the board against my palm). That was quite a surprise, and I involuntarily tossed it on the floor.I try to make a habit of avoiding working on line voltage or higher stuff live, and when I do, I use an isolation transformer. Also there are GFCIs here, should trip at 5 mA or less. The big danger I envision being involved with are higher power high voltage circuits (ham transmitters, vacuum tube tesla coils, etc.) and I've usually aimed to diagnose similar things without poking around in them while live. And always using bleeder resistors.

author: microbug
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 12, 2015, 08:39:11 pm
content: I got into electronics by making a spark generator from old disposable cameras for a potato cannon. I was 10... you can guess the rest! I guess the worst one was from a capacitor bank of maybe 450uF charged to 300V :|

author: gazdamissa
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: July 25, 2015, 06:01:53 pm
content: Hihihi, I read couple of pages with people's shock experience, and I could't help myself from laughing. Truth, some of the stories are dark, but as the topic says, we are still alive, and probably a bit smater from those experiences.I myself had countless shocks from various sources, I could run a topic thread by myself. Some of them were from carelesness, some from stupidity.The one that I keep talking about to my friends when this kind of topic pops up, is the shock I received from 20" CRT Mirovideo monitor. 42kg. Sometime around 1996, I think.The stupid thing was randomly prevailing green color. Like if you would put green film over the screen. Bonk it on a side, it flips back. In time, it required harder and harder slapping, and gone to the point where it was dangerously close to breaking its housing. So, I popped it open. By that time, I was just lightly introduced to electronics, what was dangeorus, what was not.Don't touch plugged in devices, touch unplugged. If it is plugged, it is safe to tinker near small electronics, it is always at low voltage/current. What bunch of lies...I called on the phone my in-that-time-electronics-foreman (smartest guy that I knew at that time), explained problem, and he said that one of the circuits (there were three of them, each for one color, I think) behind the tube is going loose, try to find a cracked solder, tinker a bit. Power it on, point to the mirror to see if you make difference.Easy, I took a small tuning screwdriver, that was all metal, and BOINKFound live pin on first try. Threw be on my back, and I didn't know what the h*ll happened. Phone rang. It was foreman. "If you are going to tinker on those chips, use toothpick, or a plastic pryer, those mother*****s run on 600V".Ok, hang-up.Aaand I started laughing like crazy for a good five minutes.Sorry for the long post, but since I read some of your stories, I thought I owe you guys mine.Remember, plastic is your best friend!