Comment Stupid tricks with electricity (Score 1) 1144
About 5 or 6 years ago, I had just gotten myself a brand new development board that had cost around $250 (cheap for development boards as I would find out later, but back then that was a hunk of change for me). It needed 5V power on the order of 500mA.
Me being the stupid man about electricity that I am figured, "An ATX power supply can do at least 500mA." Of course not realizing that most of them run at a 1A _minimum_. Connected the power, turned it on, and blew a capacitor, with all the pretty sparks and smoke that accompany such an event.
Amazingly, the only thing that blew was the capacitor, so once I routed around it (and got a proper power supply), it worked again. So I guess this story is technically the $250 hardware I wrecked, and then unwrecked.
Me being the stupid man about electricity that I am figured, "An ATX power supply can do at least 500mA." Of course not realizing that most of them run at a 1A _minimum_. Connected the power, turned it on, and blew a capacitor, with all the pretty sparks and smoke that accompany such an event.
Amazingly, the only thing that blew was the capacitor, so once I routed around it (and got a proper power supply), it worked again. So I guess this story is technically the $250 hardware I wrecked, and then unwrecked.
