Yup, us too, except that we've standardized on 24V because that way the boxes are harder to blow up. ;)
I'm mainly thinking about that APD power supply. It has three separate current limit circuits, so it can't go above 5 mA unless they're all broken, but it goes up to 250V.
I don't know, but I've got similar voltages. I think we mostly try to stay within the letter of the law, but don't get any certification. (Or if you are small enough can you self certify? Sounds like an oxymoron) We've been selling our diode laser for years. ~120V DC going to a piezo stack. When we started shipping to Europe we added 'security' screws to one end of the DB9 connector so that some idiot wouldn't take it off and stick his finger in there. Hmm I should probably think about adding current limit to the line.... it's got a series resistor but a depletion Fet thing might be better.
OK, I think someone (in the EU) wanted a CE mark, and so that's what we did. In the more distant paste there was a German professor who wanted to make sure our Rb lamps passed emission standards. I went with a guy and we ran the tests.. not certified, but just measured stuff, found that there was a bit of radiated gunk above 1 GHz... we made the light hole a little smaller, (actually not a big deal) and then the Prof. didn't even buy one!
Without seeing the exact UL wording I very much doubt it is an issue about electric shock,
Even for ELV circuits, large currents can do a lot of damage, I would not us rings or metallic watch bands e,g, when working with a ELV forklift battery, Specifying the energy available instead of current available also solves the issues of big (super)capacitors.
At least in EU, there are some situations in which ELV (PELV/SELV) can be "dangerous voltage".
With pretty clammy hands, I grabbed two alligator clips in opposite hands and cranked up the DC voltage. It got pretty bad about 90 volts. I noticed the same metallic taste afterwards.
--
John Larkin Highland Technology, Inc
picosecond timing precision measurement
When I was 17, I took a year off university and worked in a camera shop, among other things. (I'd goofed off pretty badly in my first year, so I decided to come back to it when I could take it seriously.)
With some of my pay, and an employee discount, I set up a darkroom in my parents' furnace room. It was hot air heat, which stirs up a lot of dust--_not_ what you want in a darkroom. So I attached a hose and nozzle to the drain spigot of the hot water tank, and before using the enlarger I misted down the table, concrete walls, and floor. Worked great. Then one time I reached up to turn on the suspended light bulb in the middle of the ceiling, and couldn't let go. I had to let my knees bend to the floor to pull my hand free. A good thing the wire didn't come down. Needless to say, a very beefy ground wire was attached to the fixture very shortly after.
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