Graphcore’s new AI chips are the best-looking server processors you’ll never see | 19mm Momentary Push Button

Continuing USWaterRockets: PCB could just have the solder mask on, mostly for oxidation/contamination protection, with the heating element trace a single top layer. Put a plate of borosilicate glass (maybe tempered?) tightly over it to spread heat and protect from shock, with overhang on the hazard side. If you want to get fancy, add an “active” indicator LED and a few thermal sensors on the bottom layer. Mind your PCB glass mat material and construction – make sure that the construction can handle the heat (a good [not great, not cheap] construction can handle ~170C before it reaches glass transition temperature)

Chances are almost anything you would want to power on and off through a Smart Plug will work. Lights — whether incandescent, LED, or fluorescent — are compatible as long as they are standard devices intended for use in the home (something like a street lamp or traffic light probably won’t work) and should work flawlessly. Audio-visual equipment should work provided it doesn’t need a power cycle through the built-in switch, and other smart devices like cameras or home hubs should work just fine.

Yeah just what we need – another dopey ‘standard’. Putting stuff in right and using proper equipment is and has always been the solution.

All in all, the current draw through this device was below it’s “rated” value. So either it’s a fake/poorly produced or was simply defective.

Add in the approx. 75 cents of AC shore power I pump in every night, and it works out in my head to about 5 cents per mile. Takes a lot of words and numbers to explain that figure, but the practical impact is that every day I drove over two hours, the car bought me lunch. I feel like I’ve patched a hole in my money pocket. This is half the running cost of any other car I’ve owned, including the TDI.

I’ve never used a 3D printer but I imagine the printer nozzle is conductive – a small misalignment, the nozzle breaks through the solder-mask, your whole printer then becomes live, blowing up the PC connected to it at the same time.

One of the most important rules ever: “Never underestimate your own stupidity.” Knowing perfectly well how to safely power down a circuit / appliance / machine is sadly not sufficient to actually do it, especially so if it has become a repetitive task and there are elements of distraction. If ones life is at stake, there should be check-lists written in stone, just like in aviation.

And now you know why companies react the way they do. It would be like someone going around deliberately ruining your reputation, and there’s little you could do about it.

Also, if you leave your oscilloscope floating at mains voltage with an isolation transformer puts you in danger as all earthed parts of the oscilloscope will be floating at that voltage. Again: when things are floating, it is ok to have 1 fault.. but the second fault will definitely kill you or break something as no RCD will protect you.

Now that’s something … And for other commenters: of course exposed mains voltage is dangerous, lethal even. But why would it need to be exposed? It could be made like Davic’s hack, or in countless other ways that are safe. Hide heating element under thermal mass, use secure connectors and proper grounding.

The importance of inspection isn’t so much the wires popping off as heating up. Any signs of discoloration of the crimp terminals or wires, or any fog or smoke and you should disconnect *everything* immediately and stop using it until or unless it is repaired and ALL heat damaged components replaced and THROWN AWAY.

How about trying to say something accurate for a change? Almost everything you say lately is provably WRONG.