ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Who Let the Smoke out!!!! ?

I can say the same for a now-defunct make of cinema projector console. The wiring in that abomination was poorly marked, undersized and routed against every bloody sharp edge of the unit!

I also had the misfortune of frying a 2kW Xenon rectifier. It is available in 120v single phase and 220v single phase. Guess which one I connected to 220v? That was one god-awful smell. Think dirty socks meets rotten eggs and dead fish. That old beast used selenium rectifiers (diodes) and they burned quite nicely with the aforementioned smell. That on top of the traditional burning copper/varnish smell from the coils.

When doing my usual lecture in Power Quality, I strap a capacitor across the mains to prove a cap is not a linear load. Well, one day my trusty lecturing aid decided it was time to say goodbye and popped its top off with a spectacular bang.....

... and a shower of oil all over the delegate sitting just in front of my desk! Leaving behind, of course, a smell that lasted days in the lecture hall.

M.