[pinkfloyd4ever]

until I hooked up this little LED flasher thing we made in Circuits Lab to a 9v battery....

All it does is make that LED flash at a rate that you can vary with the pot. I was gonna rig it up to a 9v with a switch and put it on the dashboard of my car to make it look like I had some kind of awesome (or ghetto) alarm system. But apparently that 5v we powered it with during lab wasn't just the design max voltage but the non-exploding max voltage

I just touched the contacts of the battery to those 2 posts there on the right side and POW, it instantly blew up in a sparking cloud of smoke...the piece of plastic from the body of the IC hit me in the eyelid (thank god for reflexes)

just thought I'd share it with you guys

 

[d-cee]

wow i didn't know they could blow up like that

i mean smoke, funny smell and burning i understand

but physical eruption... what kind of IC is it?

 

[Uncle Erik]

Reminds me of all the fun we had in high school electronics. The teacher was old and none too attentive, so we used to make LERs regularly. Those are Light Emitting Resistors. Yes, they will! We rummaged through the 50s era shop and mucked with the "worthless" tube gear. I am sorry for that. Very, very sorry.

Most memorable was the tough kid who would wander into the back of the shop and light up a cigarette with a soldering iron. During class. The teacher pretended not to notice.

 

[pinkfloyd4ever]

Quote:

Originally Posted by d-cee /img/forum/go_quote.gif what kind of IC is it?

some kind of timer made by TI...NE555P I think, but some of the lettering blew off too

HAH lighting a cig with a soldering iron, that's awesome

hmm I'm looking at the datasheet on Mouser....it says operating supply voltage is 4.5-16v...I think I applied reverse voltage...whoops. Maybe I'll order a couple next time I place a mouser order, they're only 45 cents

 

[a1rocketpilot]

Yeah, the first CMoy I built, the same thing happened. It was late one night, and I guess I wasn't paying attention when I soldered the battery terminals, but suffice to say, +9v went where -9v should have gone. I turned it on, nothing happened for a second, but then, with a pop, a gush of orange sparks, and lots of black soot, I had blown the chip clean in two! I always double check my wiring now...

 

[gz76]

Mental note: do not buy DIY amps from pinkfloyd4ever.

 

[Singapura]

I thought you blew up your interconnect! Now that would have been a feat.

 

[pinkfloyd4ever]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gz76 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Mental note: do not buy DIY amps from pinkfloyd4ever.

hah oh crap...and I'm about to build somebody an Alien....I'm much more careful when it's something that I (or someone else) actually paid for

Quote:

Originally Posted by Singapura /img/forum/go_quote.gif I thought you blew up your interconnect! Now that would have been a feat.

damn, yes that would've been something to see..made me think of this YouTube - Jacob's Ladder: 500kV Switch Opening dammit I need to go to sleep

 

[error401]

Yup, done that before. Whenever I power up a freshly built project, or even a breadboard really, I avert my face. We actually had a Jacob's Ladder in my high-school electronics lab. Of course the teacher wouldn't let us play with it, but it was a fun demo he used on the first day of class. He was a pretty cool guy.

Oh, and our favourite were the PEDs. Projectile emitting diodes. Wire an LED to a bench supply and increase current until it fires. Aim away from eyes.

I believe what happens is similar to a regular explosion. The silicon is basically vapourized by the heat, increasing its volume. Inside the epoxy package, there is no more volume. Physics says something has to give...

 

[beerguy0]

Working in electronic R&D, I've seen a lot of stuff blow up. Large switching power supplies can be good for hour of amusement. (There are few thing as nerve-wracking as turning on a big switcher for the first time.) I remember seeing one engineers prototype SMPS literally on fire, with flames several inches high. High-power RF amps are also good for fireworks, especially when you haven't quite gotten the design stabilized yet. I worked on a 10KW transmitter project a few years ago. A lot of MRF 150's got blown up on that project.

 

[Fitz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by error401 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Oh, and our favourite were the PEDs. Projectile emitting diodes.

Don't forget FETs too... Flame Emitting Transistors.

 

[Marzie]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Singapura /img/forum/go_quote.gif I thought you blew up your interconnect! Now that would have been a feat.

LOL, same here! But a good thread, nonetheless.

 

[scompton]

Back in the 80s, when I was working on a mainframe with dumb terminals, lightning hit the phone line between the mainframe and our office. We didn't have a surge protector on the phone line and half of our terminals got fried exactly like the OPs IC.

 

[splaz]

A friend showed me a transistor from an IR receiver that he connected up reverse polarity. There was a great big crack down the middle of it.

 

[dgbiker1]

Don't you know you're not supposed to let the magic smoke out of the parts???