Re: LEDs, drama

On 2025-05-05 12:54, Bill Sloman wrote:

On 5/05/2025 3:28 am, Cursitor Doom wrote:

On Sun, 04 May 2025 06:56:23 -0700, john larkin <jl@glen--canyon.com>
wrote:
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On Sun, 04 May 2025 12:18:12 +0100, Cursitor Doom <cd@notformail.com>
wrote:
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On Fri, 02 May 2025 08:10:44 -0700, john larkin <jl@glen--canyon.com>
wrote:
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One of my young engineers just got the first unit of a thing he
designed. He was all cautious about bringing it up a step at a time,
so I just pulled rank and switched it on in self-trigger mode. It
works.
>
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/wl51ennrq60edw9ina3za/P800-1Hz- Selft-Trigger.mp4?rlkey=ravaj03c330jjfmplylxr2k7j&dl=0
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It's an 8-channel high voltage pulse generator. We're not sure what
it's used for and the customer won't tell.

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Could be for the timing capacitors in a fusion bomb. I really wouldn't
worry about it.

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I've done timing to fire implosion fission bombs, and this doesn't
look to be one of those.

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Yes, I said *fusion* bomb which is somewhat different. Timing is
critical for those. It's rather like grasping a wet bar of soap.
>

Some of the things that could be really fun aren't, because the good
bits are secret.

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Yes, I can see how that would spoil things a bit from your POV.
>

One of my son-in-laws has a PhD in engineering mechanics and works for
a big lab that blows things up. He says it's not much fun because the
booms happen miles away and all he gets is data.

>
Er, yes. I think on balance I'd sooner be miles away in his position.
Jeff loves blowing stuff up. Haven't heard from him in a while; hope
he's okay and not been 'hoist by his own petard' if I might throw in a
bit of Hamlet here.

 A petard was a very small canon or mortar used for blowing down doors and walls, and notoriously dangerous to the person employing it.
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petard
 It may be one of the many idioms that Shakespeare invented (and he invented a lot), but the weapon was invented in 1579 when Shakespeare was 15, so he could well have picked up the phrase from some of his contemporaries.

Wow, thanks, I always wondered where the expression came from.
You see, for me the word "petard" is very similar to the Spanish "petardo", a firecracker.
The wikipedia doesn't explain why it was that dangerous. The Spanish article on it is much shorter, but the explanation on how it was prepared is more detailed.
--
Cheers, Carlos.