Buggerit...
David Jenkins - 1/12/19 at 08:59 AM
Have you ever had one of those days when you go and do something dumb and don't notice until a few hours later?
I have a small home-built project that uses 8 NiMh AA batteries - I decided yesterday to recharge them as I wanted to use the thing over the next few
days. So I got out the battery box, plugged in the power supply and left it to charge. An hour or so later I was ferreting in the box of bits
associated with this project and found the battery charger... which was meant to go between the power supply and the battery box... 
So I now have 8 fried batteries, a melted battery holder, a distorted battery box, and I'm damn lucky that I didn't have a fire on my hands.
My next task is to make another battery box on my 3D printer, get all the necessary bits on ebay, AND FIT A DIFFERENT TYPE OF CONNECTOR ON THE BATTERY
BOX! (The current connectors are identical on the end of the charger and on the power supply.)
Again... buggerit...
Bluemoon - 1/12/19 at 03:16 PM
You need to break an egg to make an omelette...
Anyway at least nothing ignited!
David Jenkins - 1/12/19 at 03:18 PM
quote:
Originally posted by Bluemoon
Anyway at least nothing ignited!
It was a close-run thing - some of the batteries were charred!
big_wasa - 1/12/19 at 04:00 PM
Spent hours measuring my new tank yesterday for a new sender. Putting the float in the centre to minimise level change on corners, equal distance from
the sides ect.
Forgot about the position of the straps
Just got away with it
Mr Whippy - 2/12/19 at 12:32 PM
I recently plugged in my external hard drive, came back to find it blinking and then realized I'd plugged in my Horny train set 18v adapter not
the 12v one... seems I have fried the internals and so far all my attempts to make it do anything have failed (including taking out the hard drive and
powering it with a new power thingy) so that's 8 GB of vital files gone 
Irony - 2/12/19 at 12:49 PM
Had the tuning software and laptop out on my kit car and some of the interior panels off. Backed the car outside and the power cable snagged the
spinning prop. Catapulted the laptop out of the car, clean through the tiny single glazed garage window and across the lawn. Sheared the kettle lead
without blinking. Funny thing was the engine didn't even blip and the laptop was fine. I bought the laptop from a carboot for a £5 with three
missing keys.
I have lots of these stories.
David Jenkins - 2/12/19 at 01:21 PM
So it's not just me then! 
The worst bit with my drop-off is that it was no-one's fault but mine - and the past couple of nights have been beautifully clear and would have
been the first opportunity for astrophotography since early spring...
Here's what I'm babbling on about - something I've been designing for a while.
Thingiverse
These are the batteries I screwed up (and the battery holder, and the box itself, etc.) in their uncooked state.
controller box
[Edited on 2/12/19 by David Jenkins]
Benzine - 2/12/19 at 02:05 PM
quote:
Originally posted by Mr Whippy
Horny train
Where can I get a ticket?
[Edited on 2-12-2019 by Benzine]
David Jenkins - 2/12/19 at 02:13 PM
quote:
Originally posted by Mr Whippy
I recently plugged in my external hard drive, came back to find it blinking and then realized I'd plugged in my Horny train set 18v adapter not
the 12v one... seems I have fried the internals and so far all my attempts to make it do anything have failed (including taking out the hard drive and
powering it with a new power thingy) so that's 8 GB of vital files gone
There are companies that will rescue data from a drive - for a big fat fee. You will probably have fried the electronics, so the platter itself may
be OK. They would be able to get the data off the platter, but it ain't cheap.
Depends how vital (and how valuable) the data is...
Mr Whippy - 3/12/19 at 07:11 AM
Cheers, I've been looking at these options and watching youtube vids to see if I can do it myself (doesn't seem likely) has heaps of work
stuff plus several tens of thousands family photos on it so kind of important, I'll work something out
David Jenkins - 3/12/19 at 03:07 PM
I can only say one thing, and it sounds a bit rude and after-the-event - but as soon as you're sorted, get a backup routine in place.
I also have thousands of family pictures, documents, financial stuff on my hard drive, and that gets backed up to an independent disk at least once a
week (I can stand the loss of a few days data, although I always backup straight after I've done a lot of work on the machine).
gremlin1234 - 3/12/19 at 04:36 PM
quote:
Originally posted by David Jenkins
I can only say one thing, and it sounds a bit rude and after-the-event - but as soon as you're sorted, get a backup routine in place.
I also have thousands of family pictures, documents, financial stuff on my hard drive, and that gets backed up to an independent disk at least once a
week (I can stand the loss of a few days data, although I always backup straight after I've done a lot of work on the machine).
online (cloud) services like dropbox, onedrive or googledrive are good for keeping offsite copies. and depending on your level of paranoia, password
protect, or encrypt files before saving to them.
SteveWalker - 4/12/19 at 12:48 AM
If you can find exactly the same drive, you can swap the pcb.
David Jenkins - 4/12/19 at 01:58 AM
quote:
Originally posted by SteveWalker
If you can find exactly the same drive, you can swap the pcb.
That's something that I would try, but I have a background in electronics, plus all the necessary tools: it wouldn't be a trivial job, plus
a lot of manufacturers make tiny changes to the firmware that may still prevent the thing working. To summarise - I would try it because I may get
away with it, but am inexperienced person could mess if up and send up in a worse state.
