Why do we fall down, Master Bruce?

Project Tom Waits: Why do we fall down, Master Bruce?

In science we learn from what we get right. We learn even more from what we fuck up. Sometimes it’s a case of “so THAT’S what happens when you put too much water in the battery” and others it’s “this is why we check the other end was disconnected as well”. Here’s the thing:

We don’t all learn well in a classroom. We don’t always learn well from books. I realised recently that the reason I zone out in those situations isn’t that I’m lazy or inattentive, but because abstract concepts without application literally don’t stick. I need to poke things with a reference I can check, then poke them some more and the knowledge builds cyclically. I need to be able to use what I’m learning. Tom is in a state I couldn’t have fathomed when I started, but I grok every piece of the puzzle in away I couldn’t have if I’d just built a kit.

Course, part of that is getting it wrong occasionally. I knew that reverse polarising connections was bad. Wanna see why? Details of a couple of the fuckups spectacular enough to document included as comments on the photos. There aren’t many - most were a spark here or a singed screwdriver there, but still: enjoy.

And fuck adult supervision. Absolutely go try this at home. Just remember the rubber-soled shoes...

Peter Raven You’re not supposed to use a double-negative in English. This is what happens when you do it on a battery. I wasn’t paying attention and I accidentally reverse-polarised my connection - neg already on pos, go to connect the other side and ZAP. That pool at the bottom of the terminal was molten lead. Molten lead is nobody’s friend. 

I remembered to knock it loose using a stick tho, which was A Good Thing.

Peter Raven This is Tom’s Brains. This is, in fact, Tom’s Brains on fire. Another moment of inattention here: I was reseating some loose connections and accidentally connected the solar panel pushing 18v 6A into the 12v outlet port. The panel started fading to black and smoke came pouring out of the USB ports. I pulled everything, unscrewed it from the mounting board and let it sit a while before dismantling to see what the damage was. 

I tested it carefully afterwards and was shocked that it still worked. The USB ports are dead, but otherwise it still does the important things and happily runs the 160w panels to give me my morning boost. Resilient little bastard of a thing...

Peter Raven This Mosfet took the brunt of way more current than it was designed for, but saved the rest of the unit. It’s sacrifice will not go unremembered...

Peter Raven I accidentally added too much water into Morello, and with the amount of current these things get fed each day it was bubbling out the vents. The powder is bicarb soda to neutralise the acid as it comes out so I don't have strong acid pooling up.

Peter Raven Scorch marks from the Thumb incident. Most of my terminals have some sort of burn or melted patch from coming into contact with the wrong thing while being rearranged in the fly.