-=> Mike Ross said to Greg Mayman
 -=> about "WATTS UP? KILOWATT-HOUR M" on 08-28-03  10:37.....

 MR> Okay, then fetch us a 74LSxx wheel gear... hehehe!

Ah, yes, well you are talking about digital electronics.

I was talking about a digital display.

 MR> Voltage multiplier or is it one of those led flasher ic's? Reminds me,
 MR> in college when I was learning about switching regulator circuits, I
 MR> made a flyback multiplier that worked as was taught to design. Then I
 MR> had the brain storm to feed back the output voltage to the power
 MR> supply through a diode gate. I applied power and the voltage just kept
 MR> climibng and climbing, until I was left with a large mushroom cloud of
 MR> smoke in the middle of the lab. I don't remember quite what I did in
 MR> the circuit but I haven't repeated it since. The teacher seemed to be
 MR> impressed by my random modifications to the lab circuits and gave me a
 MR> passing mark at the end of the semester. Oh, well... :-)

I also heard about an experimenter who did a similar trick with a
unit powered from the mains. Unfortunately there was a breakdown
and it sent a surge out into the mains that took out half the
country. You may remember hearing of the big New York "brownout"
of 1968 that was blamed on a faulty breaker at the Niagara Falls
power station. Well, now you know the real story...

From Greg Mayman, in beautiful Adelaide, South Australia
   "Queen City of The South"    34:55 S  138:36 E

... Everybody lies, but it doesn't matter because nobody listens.
___ Blue Wave/386 v2.30

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