Design of exploding control panels

Best example on TV was _Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea_ with Richard Basehart... about 1964,

But, it goes back WAY farther than that; Hugo Gernsback's _Ralph_124C_41+_ was a very explicitly arc-intensive bit of speculative fiction. About 1925.

I know a guy who got tired of pulling the heavy cover plate from a power SCR, and just left it off. He asked the designer later, why was a quarter inch of steel covering that opening? The designer recalled dimly that a magnet quench event (unlikely, but...) penciled out at a megajoule or so. The plate went back up.

All control panels make giant white sparks, as do all lead bullets and car crashes.

What amazes me is how soon after making all those sparks the whole system is back up and running again.

John

Ever notice the safest place to be when the shooting starts is running right out in front of the bad guy? ...particularly if he has a machine gun.

Especially on Dateline NBC.

"But she cannot take it, Jim."

Never count on your paycheck if wardrobe hands you a red shirt.

Pyrotechnics. There are a lot of different recipes for making huge volumes of sparks, of virtually any color you want.

Try lurking at rec.pyrotechnics for awhile, somebody might already have something there; they've got rockets and fountains and something called "gerbs," which I haven't figured out yet what they are, and so on and etc. ;-)

Good Luck! Rich

Once, when walking to the corner store, I happened upon a burning pickup truck; the fire dept. and police were already there, shooting water at the oil/grease fire. Suddenly, it flared up in a huge orange fireball that made a huge cloud of greasy black smoke, just like in the movies; what surprised me was that it was almost totally silent (It was as if it whispered, "whuff.")

When it finally burned out, they kept wetting it down; the local tow truck hauled away the burned-out husk, and the police got brooms and shovels out of their trucks and proceeded to sweep up the debris. I think that's the sort of non-glamorous part of the job of cop. ;-)

Cheers! Rich

The real question is: In a future with transporter technology that can instantly beam a person thousands of kilometers, why does everyone still take the turbolift to engineering?

They don't trust their own work?

Jamie

The Elevator Music lobby?

The people on scifi shows are actors.

As actors they are told to JUMP backwards so the camera will catch the emotion of the moment.

This is a problem with scifi watchers, not scifi makers.

hamilton

Because the transporter is always broken and at the worst possible times.

panels?

ge

Many years ago a new 440V starter for a 75 Hp motor blew up while I was standing nearby. When pressed, the start button gave out a nice flash, immediately followed buy flames exploding out all around the new 6=92 high contactor enclosure. Don=92t recall much noise or the jump

Because the transporter wasn't designed for short range use. Don't you ever listen to the engineers when they explain things?

My favourite Keystone Kops segment is where they're in their truck chasing someone and the engine falls out on the ground. A couple of them get out, toss the engine in the back, and then they drive away again.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

If you need to visit engineering, the transporter is by defenition a shaky option. The need you in engineering for a reason. ..and the transporter is less environmentally friendly, more CO2 emissions and all that. Aside, the transporter needs a human operator. The lift does not. Cuts overhead.

gerbs are a CAM file that contains the board layout data. Typically sent to PCB (or instrument panel) manufacturer who magically sends you back a pile of PCBs a week or so later.

Nemo schrieb:

Hello,

if a control panel used for a film would behave like your instrument panels, the director and producer of the film would argue with the special effects guy.

Bye

IEEE 1584

-- Paul Hovnanian mailto: snipped-for-privacy@Hovnanian.com

------------------------------------------------------------------ Marching to a different kettle of fish.

ls?

John's gear obviously never needs the attention of a service engineer, let alone a good one.

-- Bill Sloman, Nijmegen