Disclaimer

Updated: 10-12-2017

This Internet site or persons acting as authors for the site cannot be held liable for any damage on persons or property as the result of anything written or shown on the site. All tests, in particular audio test, express subjective results. Anyone may repeat such tests and arrive at an own conclusion.

The purpose with the site is to describe experiences with electronic constructions that may inspire others to take part in an electronic DIY community and exchange ideas.
Though experiments with low voltage electronic circuits is probably one of the least dangerous hobby activities, accidents with a hot soldering iron or electric shocks are possible. Experiments with electronic circuits are likely at a certain moment to cause damage to components in the experiment or on elements that are external of the experiment, such as loudspeakers or computer peripherals. We all make mistakes sometimes and there is hardly any experienced electronics enthusiast who has never seen the experiment go up in smoke.

A few words of advise:

Avoid working on the primary 115V/230V primary side.
Be careful with the high-voltage supply from wall plugs. If you are not experienced with working on the 115V/230V primary side, consider buying the power supplies you need as finished constructions, with the necessary safety approvals, and work only on the low-voltage secondary side.
Variable laboratory power supplies with current limit are very useful but you can get far with power adapters, such as laptop chargers, at a very moderate cost.

Use safety glasses if you do not normally use glasses.
Your eyes are the most vulnerable part of your body. Electrolytic capacitors, apparently also tantalum capacitors and lithium batteries may explode if polarized wrong or overloaded.

Never look into a laser source.
Laser sources are nasty and can damage your eyes because of the very focused light beam.

Think about what you do with a hot soldering iron when the battle with your experiment gets intense.
At a certain moment you will forget that you hold a hot soldering iron in your hand and you will burn yourself or something that should not be exposed to such heat. If your eyes are well protected by glasses the damage is hardly very serious and you just need to apply a lot of cold water or ice on the burn.

Check one more time before turning on the power to the experiment.
When the last connections to your experiment have been made the patience before turning on the power is low. Nevertheless, try to get your impatience under control and check the most essential connections with an Ohm-meter and make sure that the supply lines are not shorted. Check that the polarity of the supply is correct. If you can manage such self-discipline and delay turning on the power just 10 minutes, for performing checks, you can reduce the risk of damage to the circuit importantly. If possible, turn on the power through a current limiter and start with lower supply voltages if possible so you can see that no excessive current is drawn.

Take care!




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