Anybody let the magic smoke out?

[KenWittlief]

What about the magic noise in the mechanical parts?

most people are not aware that mechanical parts are made in machine shops where they are pumped full of noise (which is why machine shops are so loud)

the noise must only be let out of the parts a tiny little bit at a time - if the noise leaks out all at once the parts will fail. once all the noise has escaped from the parts you have to send them back to the machine shop to be pumped full of noise again.

With electrical parts its almost impossible to get the magic smoke back in, but with mechanical parts a skilled machinist can often pump it almost full of noise again.

One last thing, if a mechanical part fails on you, sometimes you can get a little bit of noise back into it by yelling at it, kicking it, or pounding on it with your fist. This might put enough back into it so it will work for a few more minutes.

[aaronbr28040]

During the offseason I let the magic smoke out. I was working on one of the previous years robots and two of the pwm cable ends got together with the power on.......there was lots of smoke. PWM cable ends together= really bad news. The caqbles were melted together and I wasnt able to pull them apart. I let the magic smoke out of lots of things for fun though.......try a 12 ohm resistor at 30 VAC on an educational board so it is safe. Another idea for you teachers and tinkerers: try putting a burned out light bulb in a microwave until it explodes then leave the microwave running and watch the ball lightning come off of it. That wasnt my idea, i thought the robotics mentor/physics teacher was crazy at first for doing it but the result was awesome.

Even though I dont get hurt often I have gotten the reputation for doing crazy stuff in the lab. Its great to scare the juniors here at school by grabbing a hot 120 VAC wire. They get scared that you are going to release magic smoke, its great.

[Ryan M.]

Originally Posted by KenWittlief

What about the magic noise in the mechanical parts?

most people are not aware that mechanical parts are made in machine shops where they are pumped full of noise (which is why machine shops are so loud)

the noise must only be let out of the parts a tiny little bit at a time - if the noise leaks out all at once the parts will fail. once all the noise has escaped from the parts you have to send them back to the machine shop to be pumped full of noise again.

With electrical parts its almost impossible to get the magic smoke back in, but with mechanical parts a skilled machinist can often pump it almost full of noise again.

One last thing, if a mechanical part fails on you, sometimes you can get a little bit of noise back into it by yelling at it, kicking it, or pounding on it with your fist. This might put enough back into it so it will work for a few more minutes.

Don't clicks and snaps from motors-with-rachets-being-driven-backwards release a lot of that noise at once?