Not to brag or anything but, i just got electofuggincuted by adjusting monitor!!!

[OIB1981]

Can't speak for myself I never had nothing that bad except a few buzz from light switch. While working with monitor I try to be as careful as possible because I'm afraid of them. I'm sure it might happen someday though. My dad he's an electrician has a fake socket joint at the top of his left arm. Working on some sort of light at his job he got zapped. It knocked him out of the cherry picker bucket but I think he said he landed on something and didn't fall all the way down. He's very lucky to be around to tell about it. Doctors said if the electric didn't blow out the top of his shoulder it would have killed him. So I'd say that's a pretty bad zap.

 

[Arcadenut]

You could always wear insulated gloves when making those adjustments

 

[OIB1981]

Don't know if it would help or not but I do wear a rubber glove while discharging. Better safe then sorry I suppose.

 

[mecha]

surprised no one said anything about adjusting yokes yet... lol

yeah, you can tinker with a yoke perfectly fine, I don't encourage doing it INSIDE an MK cab, I'd pull it out first and run it on the floor.

whatever you do, do NOT touch the copper windings on the yoke. only handle the plastic part.

but yeah... speaking of yokes, I was adjusting the white balance on a Sanyo EZ once in my PlayChoice-10 and I believe I either hit a drive transistor or possibly even the yoke and wound up scraping my entire arm along that sharp metal neckboard cover too. it looked pretty badass though..

I've gotten zapped several times, I should probably have kids with the wife FIRST before I start getting deep into this stuff for a long time huh?

oh, and those kiddie rides, pay mention that 120VAC goes directly to the coin switch on those things... yeah, unplug before trying to fix a coin jam on those.

 

[kstillin]

..... No more monitor adjustments while the power to them are on.....

That's kind of unreasonable. Some adjustments can only be made with power on. Just be more careful..

Also, you guys quit spreading the hype about getting shocked. You're scaring the crap out of people.

You're alive, right? What's the matter? Never fell off of a bike?

Be definition, electrocution is DEATH by electric shock. All of you guys reading and writing here were merely SHOCKED.

Now pardon me while I go clip my anode lead to my scrotum...

 

[roothorick]

Never taken a hit from a monitor. Been surprised by arcs, but none of those arcs ever touched skin. Worst monitor experience so far was when a D9400 chassis exploded about six inches away from my face. I was shaking as I drove home after that.

I've gotten zapped from mains voltage. It doesn't hurt, actually, just a kinda tingly sensation. I don't start freaking out until I realize exactly what I'm touching that's creating that sensation. I guess I've been conditioned well by my (certified journeyman electrician) father.

 

[ArcadeGreg]

I have seen this one before. Did it look something like this?

 

[MKtrill]

freaking amazing movie! still to this day can watch this and laugh almost completely through!!

 

[kencinder]

It always amazes me to hear the BS Urban Legends surrounding monitors electrocuting people to the point of death.

Yes, there are high voltages present in areas of a monitor...but without high current/amperage to go along with it at those voltages, these things cannot kill you or even seriously harm you unless you have some pre-existing condition. You would blow fuses in the monitor, and fry all the components on the chassis before there was enough current to seriously harm you...there's too much resistance.

You can't put 115v 1amp in and somehow get 15kv 1amp out anywhere, electricity isn't magical.
I've been bitten by 500v at 1.2amps before, it's not fucking nice...and it's beyond ANYTHING any monitor could do. Wasn't seriously hurt, but my arm sure was numb for hours.

I'm far more worried about breaking a neck on the monitor, and breathing in the magic smoke than I am about being electrocuted. Neckboard/yoke winding bites are nothing...stop spreading the crap and scaring people please.

 

[tony90]

We have 240v down under here in Australia, and I can tell you, that even with an earth leakage detector, you still get bloody shot well before the dam thing switches off.. from the mains supply, just didn't burn any holes in my fingers this time!

 

[andykmv]

he he he i was fixing my stock electric fence, disconnected everything except the earth then managed soemhow to short out my head with a spanner on the HOT terminal while trying to tighten the earth bolt - 5000v pulse straight to earth thru me! the wife heard me from a paddock 200m away

 

[TheDrewster]

Like I shared in a similar post, I forgot to discharge a K4600 once. I unhooked the anode clip and let the cup hang. I had a hold of the frame as I was taking the chassis off and the anode clip touched the frame I was holding. I made some sort of a "Dahuhh!" sound. Haha.

 

[TonyH]

It always amazes me to hear the BS Urban Legends surrounding monitors electrocuting people to the point of death.

Yes, there are high voltages present in areas of a monitor...but without high current/amperage to go along with it at those voltages, these things cannot kill you or even seriously harm you unless you have some pre-existing condition. You would blow fuses in the monitor, and fry all the components on the chassis before there was enough current to seriously harm you...there's too much resistance.

You can't put 115v 1amp in and somehow get 15kv 1amp out anywhere, electricity isn't magical.
I've been bitten by 500v at 1.2amps before, it's not fucking nice...and it's beyond ANYTHING any monitor could do. Wasn't seriously hurt, but my arm sure was numb for hours.

I'm far more worried about breaking a neck on the monitor, and breathing in the magic smoke than I am about being electrocuted. Neckboard/yoke winding bites are nothing...stop spreading the crap and scaring people please.

It only takes .05 amps to stop a healthy human heart .03 with heart trouble its really about how well you get your self into the circuit the voltage is not a huge factor the amps is what gets you. Most of the time the human body has to much resistance to become a good conductor so we get light shocks nothing deadly. just my educated two cents. By the way be careful it still sucks I fear breaking the tube or jumping back busting my hand the most.

 

[kencinder]

It only takes .05 amps to stop a healthy human heart .03 with heart trouble its really about how well you get your self into the circuit the voltage is not a huge factor the amps is what gets you. Most of the time the human body has to much resistance to become a good conductor so we get light shocks nothing deadly. just my educated two cents. By the way be careful it still sucks I fear breaking the tube or jumping back busting my hand the most.

How educated? Because .05 amps at 115v, you won't even notice. 0.05 amps at 20kv you will.
Voltage is very much a factor, as it dictates current flow at x amperage.

FYI it can take as little as 100ma to stop your heart, but if it was only at 5v you likely wouldn't even feel it.

 

[Peale]

Heck, I was shocked yesterday, and I've been doing this for years. I took a shortcut (didn't bother discharging when I removed the anode) and whereas I was fine taking it off, it bit me putting it back on. I know better, and I was in a hurry. Knocked me to the floor for a few minutes.

 

[musicman282]

How educated? Because .05 amps at 115v, you won't even notice. 0.05 amps at 20kv you will.
Voltage is very much a factor, as it dictates current flow at x amperage.

FYI it can take as little as 100ma to stop your heart, but if it was only at 5v you likely wouldn't even feel it.

If you broke the skin with the wire you would.

 

[NeoTopher]

Got one good shock making basic X/Y monitor adjustments. Had my arm reaching around the back while I was standing on the side of the cab looking at the monitor pic. Don't know what I hit or grabbed but my wife heard the zaaaaaap followed by my yelp upstairs.

Now I always use a mirror. Lesson learned.


Sent from outer space.

 

[jonathan1138]

I was zapped the first time - slightly - by my Spy Hunter Cockpit monitor a few days back - Adjusting horiz width coil (with plastic adjustment tool!), my hand glanced the G07 Fly back (its a new one, has a metal clip on the magnet part) - i think thats what got me - it was in that area. I have a small (VERY SMALL) boil on the fleshy part of hand.

It wasnt that bad at all - is that the extent of it? I mean, i will be VERY careful in the future, always, around monitors, but again, the shock wasnt as bad as i read here.

If what i felt is near to extreme shock as it gets - it didnt feel like it would kill me. I would be more worried about getting the shock and the aftermath - perhaps the reaction leads to a flying hand that snaps a tube or smashes a board, tool gets thrown across the room, etc. That is alot more horrifying to me.

 

[roothorick]

I actually have a pretty relevant story from just the other day.

I was taking apart a pro audio amp that's been giving us trouble (Crown CDi1000 if you're curious) and as I'm undoing the shield around the AC filter, it arcs to the outer casing with a BIG yellow spark. After thorough examination I couldn't see where the voltage was coming from, so I decided to let it sit overnight hooked to ground. Next morning, discovered that the shield had scraped away the laminate on the board directly underneath it and came in direct contact with the trace the filter capacitors were sitting on! Patching this with electrical tape fixed the wavering volume issues it was having, but it still goes into fault shutdown every now and then -- and two of the filter caps look vented. Eh whatever, it's getting replaced soon anyway.

Moral of the story -- as you're taking something apart, NEVER assume ANY metal piece isn't energized. You just don't know until every capacitor of size in the machine has been grounded.

How educated? Because .05 amps at 115v, you won't even notice. 0.05 amps at 20kv you will.
Voltage is very much a factor, as it dictates current flow at x amperage.

FYI it can take as little as 100ma to stop your heart, but if it was only at 5v you likely wouldn't even feel it.

Not quite... As little as 9V can kill you if it makes direct contact with blood in just the right places -- and that's only what we know to have happened. In theory, much less (~1V or so, just enough to overcome the very low natural resistance of human blood) is enough.

Once there's enough current flowing directly through the heart, regardless of what voltage that current is at, it's heart attack time. Voltage is a factor only inasmuch to overcome resistance in the human body -- V=IR applies here, and skin has a much higher resistance than blood. In other words, the current is what kills you, but the voltage is what gets it there in the first place.

By the way, current flow == amperage. P=VI and all that. Also, you'll notice 115VAC even if it doesn't actually make a circuit -- I speak from personal experience.

 

[Mike Doyle]

The most painful monitor hit for me was back in the very early days of collecting, I had a GO-7 that was dead so I discharged it (like I'd read to), unfortunately I hadn't read the part about the HOT taking out the fuse and discharging not working.

I was standing there in the garage holding the chassis, and decided to wipe the dust off that little innocent fuse to have a look at it. ZAP!

My arm felt like I'd had a tetanus shot the rest of the day :-(