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Have you tried a backwards polarity tantalum capacitor? I've seen those go off just on their normal voltage when installed backwards. Sometimes immediately and other times with significant delay.

Eye Projectile and Eye Flash protection along with hearing protection are required.


This reminded me of a Blog entry I wrote about in 2013 on "Massive Electro-Pyrotechnic Initiator Chip Resistor (MEPIC)". These are 0805 chip resisters that are by design meant to let out the Magic Smoke that runs all electronic parts.

Sadly I could not get free samples from my Vishay Rep, that I was in good standing with. MEPIC85N8R0KTT come in lots of 10,000 to buy.

Be sure to check out the application note "A Guide to Using EPIC / MEPIC Igniters in Pyrotechnic Applications".

https://www.vishay.com/en/product/53058/

National Semiconductor, bought by TI, used to make a similar part, check out the application note:

https://www.ti.com/lit/an/snoa217/snoa217.pdf

This is what I wrote about the MEPIC parts a long time ago:

"MEPIC resistors, also known as bridge resistors, are resistive elements that convert electrical energy into heat energy in a precise electro-thermal profile for the purpose of initiating a series of pyrotechnic events in a controlled energetic reaction. [They go BOOM on command, which is different than Rapid Spontaneous Self-Disassembly.]

The new Vishay Sfernice resistor is optimized for electronic igniter applications in automotive safety systems for the deployment of airbags and other safety devices; digital blasting in mining applications; and in fireworks applications for better synchronization of fireworks, music, and special effects.

With firing energy down to 1.5 mJ and a typical ohmic range of 2 Ohms (+/- 10 %), the device provides designers with very predictable, reproducible, and reliable behavior.

Offered in the standard 0805 case size for the wraparound and flip chip versions, with other sizes available upon request, the resistor features easy set-up of firing levels, and is compatible with various pyrotechnic compositions.

Offering ESD withstanding to 25 kV without extra protection, the MEPIC resistor's performance meets no fire/all fire conditions and the requirements of USCAR, AKLV16, and major car manufacturer standards.

The device is RoHS-compliant and conforms to Vishay "Green" standards. [Is it not great that Fuzes are 'Green'?]"


Byte Magazine had an April ad for a Noise Emitting Diode. The symbol was a diode wearing a pair of earmuffs.

You forgot to add a link to the blog :)

It was not an oversight, however since you asked:

http://blog.softwaresafety.net/2013/04/magic-smoke-resistors...


MEPIC fuses... ok... Green? Oh my!

I have found this ST Discovery kit extremely useful in figuring out what my USB-C power sources could actually supply.

"The STM32G071B-DISCO Discovery board is a demonstration and development platform for the STMicroelectronics Arm® Cortex®-M0+ core-based STM32G071RB microcontroller and particularly the USB Type-C™ and Power Delivery controllers.

...

The STM32G071B-DISCO Discovery board discovers and displays USB Type-C™ port capabilities such as data role, power role, VBUS and IBUS monitoring. ..."

https://www.st.com/resource/en/user_manual/dm00496511-stm32g...

Around ~$70 US now. Was around $50 when I bought mine a couple of years ago.

STM32G071B-DISCO at Mouser or Digikey.


In World-War-One J.H.Rogers invented and patented an antenna that worked well underground or underwater. It was used to communicate with Subs at the time.

According to the late, and somewhat controversial, T.E.Bearden the Rogers system has been rediscovered and then "lost" at least five times since WW1.

"James H. ROGERS Underground & Underwater Radio ( Static-free Reception & Transmission Underwater & Underground )"

https://www.rexresearch.com/rogers/1rogers.htm

There is also

Wallace MINTO Hydronic Radiation Transmitter

Radio-Electronics (May, 1967), p. 37-38.

“Build a Hydronic-Radiation Transmitter”

by Jack Althouse

“Scientists in Florida have discovered a new form of electromagnetic radiation which propagates under water as well as radio does in air”.

https://www.rexresearch.com/hydronics/hydronics.htm

While not indented for water use the Sutton & Spaniol et.al.'s "Black Hole" Antenna is always of interest when it comes to VLF/ELF. This work was done for NASA. Dr Sutton described it to me this way:

"Re: ACTIVE ANTENNA From: John and Helen Date: 10/02/05 10:54 pm

Hi Bob,

The synchronous detectors were used in temperature monitors and temperature controllers designed to control temperatures on spacecraft at 60 milliKelvin +/- a few ucroKelvin. The preamplifier had to have a gain of 10E5 after which the demodulated signal had to be converted by a 16 bit ADC, with +/- 1LSB allowable error.... so of course, you can see that we were working with extremely small signals buried in the noise, and we had to go all out in an effort to beat down the noise. That's why we had to use a new improved synchronous demodulator. This project was as close to being impossible as you can get! I still have trouble believing that we actually made it work.

The active ("Black Hole") antenna was developed in another project, where we didn't want to transport a two meter long antenna that weighed 200 pounds.....so we miniaturized the hardware while simultaneously expanding the antenna field cross section. We wanted to receive the entire ELF-VLF bands all at once, so we had to have an extremely broadband antenna....like four decades of bandwidth or more. You wouldn't believe the arguments I had with the reviewer at Physics Essays. He just couldn't believe that one could do what we did....and if it was indeed true, then why hadn't someone done it years ago?.., "and what makes you so smart", .so, of course, "this must be nonsense, etc....." Progress in physics is so bloody difficult because most physicists think that everything worthwhile has already been discovered....so they expect nothing new. This is negative feedback which, of course, makes the system stable, I suppose.

The one text book that includes diagrams of the antenna-external field interaction is listed as one of the references in the Physics Essays paper. Sorry, I can't remember the name of the author or the title.

John Sutton, Ph.D."

https://web.archive.org/web/20120722112702/http://www.unusua...


In the fall of 2023 I tried to visit Stonehenge. We arrived at 15:15 local time.

I was riding in the passenger seat.

There was a male and female police officer standing at the side of the road, beside a "Road Closed" sign blocking the entrance.

The male police officer came to my window and started yelling in my face:

"We are closed!! Come back another day!!!"

I knew it would be pointless to argue with this a-hole and there was no other day in my schedule that we could come back. So we left and never got to see it.

Do these old rocks get tired at three in the afternoon or what?

I'll be sending this Head of Stonehenge an email about the experiance...


The stones don't get tired, but the humans running the visitor center and keeping the tourists in line do. Operating a highly visited historical site like Stonehenge takes significantly more work than people realize.

Sounds like VIP/head of state visit and terrible communication skills.

Last entry is at 3pm in winter because it takes a while to queue then catch the shuttle bus etc. and it gets dark, so closes at 5pm.

But if there were actual Police, not just English Heritage security, it sounds like something strange was happening that day, like a VIP visit or something.

It gets so busy that it's recommended to book a timeslot in advance on the website, even if you are a member and don't have to pay.


I can see both sides of this. I really want different part numbers for the same reason you do.

However we deal with a lot of regulated products and to just open a case at one of the Government Paper-Pusher Regulators will cost us $5,000 to just change the part number. We are a small company and $5k hurts.


I'm sure it does and you have my sympathies, but your situation would not be a reason to let Texas freakin' Instruments off the hook. They're not exactly "a small company", and I wouldn't be surprised if the $5k would have been cheaper than dealing with the response to this, so this just comes across as incompetence on their end.


... How do the "paper-pusher regulators" feel about getting a completely different part unannounced? I would guess unhappy, tbh. Like based on the thread it's not trivial changes.


Kind of like keeping a certain plane model number the same, and claiming that re-training isn't needed even when it clearly is


An iPhone 17 is very different to an iPhone 3G, but we can pretend to ignore the fact one had its first flight in 1968 and the other in 2016.


I got one of those take down notices because I had their catalog of Space Grade Rad Hard parts on my website. About six directory levels down; did I give TI permission to invade my site?. Any Human would have seen it as promoting their parts, which was not the direct intention. The Bot just said it was a Copyright violation and I had to remove it from my site or they would send lawyers after me. It wasn't worth the time to fight.

I've been screwed by TI many times in one way or other. As have colleagues. They did a die-change of a MSP430 and it stopped working in their product. No answer was forthcoming from TI.

I had designed in a Silicon Labs Bluetooth module a few years ago. Now that TI has bought SiLabs, I'm designing it out. I simply don't trust TI. They once were a good company. They went downhill fast after they got rid of all of the support people and moved support online via forums.


Some companies want no records at all, see:

"2028 – A Dystopian Story By Jack Ganssle":

http://www.ganssle.com/articles/2028adystopianstory.htm

Known as ’The Rule of 26’, which is sometimes given as a reason NOT to keep engineering notebooks etc. By Federal Rule 26 you are guilty if you did not volunteer the records before they are requested. Including any backups.

From Cornel Law:

LII Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 26. Duty to Disclose; General Provisions Governing Discovery

Rule 26. Duty to Disclose; General Provisions Governing Discovery

(a) Required Disclosures.

(1) Initial Disclosure.

(A) In General. Except as exempted by Rule 26(a)(1)(B) or as otherwise stipulated or ordered by the court, a party must, without awaiting a discovery request, provide to the other parties:

(i) the name and, if known, the address and telephone number of each individual likely to have discoverable information—along with the subjects of that information—that the disclosing party may use to support its claims or defenses, unless the use would be solely for impeachment;

(ii) a copy—or a description by category and location—of all documents, electronically stored information, and tangible things that the disclosing party has in its possession, custody, or control and may use to support its claims or defenses, unless the use would be solely for impeachment; …

https://www.law.cornell.edu/rules/frcp/rule_26


Much of my experience with corporate counsel is one of 2 extremes: "keep everything"[1] or "keep nothing". Keep everything, because then you can't be caught out deleting something possibly relevant, which looks very, very bad in court. Keep nothing, because then opposing counsel can't catch you out only keeping things that make you look good in court.

[1] There's actually a subset of this, which includes "...until you are legally allowed to delete it, then delete everything". This is driven by regulation (e.g. SOX in the US).


This was interesting and sent me down a research hole.

General conclusion:

Corporate litigation is mostly just a series of self-investigations so that both sides can learn what both sides actually know, given that neither side knows much about themselves OR the other side. At the same time both sides are trying to stop the other side from getting the judge to order them to do more investigating.


See also the OpenAI vs. Musk trial, where Greg Brockman's diary and Sam Altman's texts have taken center stage.


"2028 – A Dystopian Story By Jack Ganssle"

If Mark Z was exactly himself but not successful and filled with resentment, he would write something like this. The smugness, the egotism of that story. It's so obvious that engineer types, like almost all middle class variations, are part of the problem and somehow think they are the solution. Bleh.


It is a good history. Alas in the bizzarro legal landscape of today some places ban such notebooks under the Federal Rule of 26.

That leads us to directly to 2028 – A Dystopian Story By Jack Ganssle:

http://www.ganssle.com/articles/2028adystopianstory.htm

Known as ’The Rule of 26’, which is sometimes given as a reason NOT to keep engineering notebooks etc. By Federal Rule 26 you are guilty if you did not volunteer the records before they are requested. Including any backups.

From Cornel Law:

LII Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 26. Duty to Disclose; General Provisions Governing Discovery

Rule 26. Duty to Disclose; General Provisions Governing Discovery

(a) Required Disclosures.

(1) Initial Disclosure.

(A) In General. Except as exempted by Rule 26(a)(1)(B) or as otherwise stipulated or ordered by the court, a party must, without awaiting a discovery request, provide to the other parties:

(i) the name and, if known, the address and telephone number of each individual likely to have discoverable information—along with the subjects of that information—that the disclosing party may use to support its claims or defenses, unless the use would be solely for impeachment;

(ii) a copy—or a description by category and location—of all documents, electronically stored information, and tangible things that the disclosing party has in its possession, custody, or control and may use to support its claims or defenses, unless the use would be solely for impeachment; …

https://www.law.cornell.edu/rules/frcp/rule_26


Pretty good story, but the author lost me when he implied socialism is synonymous with authoritarianism.


> the author lost me when he implied socialism is synonymous with authoritarianism.

To enforce the socialist cause at the 100+M level, a stricter level of enforcement is required in order to forbade a breakout of inter-party bartering & thus the subversion of the socialist cause.

Such bartering is allowed under capitalism as it is considered arbitrage for at least one of the parties involved, but under mainstream understandings of socialism, such value surplus is disallowed to be kept to the private parties involved as it should be given out to the benefit of the wider population.

Caveat: There are variations of socialism that still allow for private bartering & exchanges, but they're typically disallowed at larger scales as they allow for the subversion of the socialist cause through the accumulation of private means of production, even if the "private" means "my town, not yours"


I remember seeing in a Popular Electronics Magazine, in the late 60s or early 70s, stating "There will never be a Blue LED". Despite looking I've not found that issue again.


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