My greatest electrical mishap

Started out in signalling where the TX/RX (transmitting/receiving) controls use to work with a 8 wire system (telecommunication basics). The word (bits) was send by frequency 4000, 8000, 12000, +, and only accepted by the corresponding frequency filter/station address (3000Hz were a –/0 and 5000Hz a +/l, etc). The binary way of control (gates) – 0 and l

Then the industrial time that consist of mostly 3 phase, logic/relay/contactor control, drives (starting to change from DC to AC) and PLC’s. I understood single phase but only did a few favours for family and friends (a plug or light here and there – you buy the meat, beer and spares and we do the job together)

During this time a friend needed a usage meter (k-watt) in an old garage he made into a flat that he was going to rent out. Time to switch on!!!

Boom

Luckily cell-phones just came out and I had my “brick” with me as it was time to phone a friend in building construction

So I put in this new No Name watt meter



Ok, fixed still no power. Go to the box in the street to switch on the CB. Oops it does switch on but there is a loose connection on the municipality side. Due to the difficult position (no space) and not having the proper Hi-Voltage equipment with me I decided to call the relevant technician – not enough beers yet for any more fun. Then the technician made the fun, he made the short that kicked out the local transformer.

So we all went to the transformer

KaBoom

A worker drop a spanner onto the transformer bus-bars (nice welding works though)

My work lead to the whole of Pretoria East to kick out, even the Pretoria East Hospital generator kicked in

Moral of the story – If you think you know without checking you are going to burn your fingers

Maybe I could tell you how we kicked out Pretoria West as apprentices being naughty (33 000 Volt). I think not, too old for jail time, even the police were looking for us as we stopped Iscor’s production.

When programming PLC's, if you see the command, "initialize", and don't understand what this function does, don't select it just out of curiosity.

I shut down a complete industrial manufacturing process one day doing that.

a reply to: ICycle2

Mine was the time I put a butter knife into an outlet.

a reply to: CharlesT

Ouch, do not remember that command but were maybe lucky in that sense.

Started out on Modicon, Telemecanique and later Allen Bradley and worked on the old machine dedicated terminals. Only once did I force a contact on a running machine in fault finding. In the 90’s when computers/laptops programs became compatible with PLC’s I always made sure that it cannot make changes while fault finding.

Nowadays I’m not into fault finding and with programming I normally work offline and run multiple simulations before familiarizing myself with the specific type PLC before I upgrade or make transfers. Clients normally have backups most people can upload themselves in a minor hick-up

I’m semi retired and it’s nearly 2 years since I worked on a PLC (think it was LG). I was very pissed of that my Windows 10 laptop didn’t want to work with the PLC program I wrote with Windows 7. This support stopping of software before the new one is compatible can cost companies plenty $. It took 2 days with the Windows online help to fix.

a reply to: ICycle2

I tell younger people to the engineering career field to ignore Ohm's Law and instead use Cole's Law.

a reply to: DBCowboy

Good job, Kevin.

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus
a reply to: DBCowboy

Good job, Kevin.

You needed to use a higher wattage knife.

originally posted by: DBCowboy
You needed to use a higher wattage knife.

When I did it my dad threw salt water on my feet.

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus

originally posted by: DBCowboy
You needed to use a higher wattage knife.

When I did it my dad threw salt water on my feet.

It builds character. All dads do that.

a reply to: DBCowboy

I like Cole slaw

My mishap, I was cutting a false floor to inset trunking in a main bank in a shopping centre (mall). Had to work at night because the bank was open during the day. I thought I'd identified all the cable runs, but no. I cut straight through a main cable, massive flash but i was uninjured. Buuutttt, it knocked all the power off to the shopping centre. It had knocked out the main fuses in the sub station. Electric company had to come out to fix it, police and security blitzed the place.

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus

originally posted by: DBCowboy
You needed to use a higher wattage knife.

When I did it my dad threw salt water on my feet.

Is this Guy not banned from ATS Yet? everywhere you look, this poster is just posting crap everywhere , no value to his posts at all.