Worst hobby construction project of all time?

Oh! I've got one... I seem to remember one Electronics Now (or was it Poptronics by then?) where they wrote an article for a real (i.e., spark-excited) Tesla Coil, I think the kit was from Information Unlimited (you know, the ad you looked at in the back of the same magazine and just gazed in wonderment at the fanciful gadjets available..).

But, on the schematic, somehow, they managed to *short* the mains supply wires! I hope no one tried to build it exactly to plans there...

Tim

-- Deep Fryer: a very philosophical monk. Website:

Ah yes. They work blooming wonders! ;-)

where

They also had a class D audio amp that was not isolated from the mains (regulated power by phase angle control to the filter caps), and had some nasty voltages present to the inputs and outputs and other functional problems.

IIRC, It's got nothing to do with the two leads. It lines up to a marking on the adapter plug you plug the two pins into.

Oh, I remember a class D audio amp that didn't have an output filter and you were supposed to connect your speakers with coax. I think that was in Electronics Now.

Mark Zenier snipped-for-privacy@eskimo.com Googleproofaddress(account:mzenier provider:eskimo domain:com)

I still thinks it's a dumb way to do it. That marking should have

where

Yeah . . . IU has some neat toys. One of Bob's recent books (Electronic Gadgets for the Evil Genius) contains a wide variety of delightful devices, many seriously dangerous.

That's a safety feature! TCoils are dangerous, particularly the primary circuit.