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user_7832 3 days ago

Is there one saying “All electronic devices are smoke machines, some can compute too”?

jaggederest 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

Similarly, diesel engines come with a reserve fuel supply that you can accidentally use once. (diesel engines will happily run on engine oil when warm)

TheSpiceIsLife 3 days ago | parent [-]

This happened to me once in a Peugeot 306 2L turbo diesel.

Over filled it and kinda had to do one 1600m trip.

Fortunately it was manual so I was able to stall it fairly swiftly in third gear with my foot on the break.

Didn't seem to have any impact on the engine as far as normal operating and how it sounded. I didn't do any internal inspection.

qskousen 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The one I've heard is "Every machine is a smoke machine, if you operate it wrongly enough."

frabert 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

"All diodes are light-emitting if you try hard enough"

sitkack 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

All diodes are also light SENSING is you try hard enough.

slow_typist 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

Especially true for LEDs, tried that in the lab once with a flood light, got a few μA out of the LED shortened with the multimeter. Did that with 8th graders, we did other experiments mainly with pv, LEDs and bipolar transistors as well.

The logical question came up more than once: “can we use photovoltaic cells as a light?“. Pretty sure that‘ll work, too, but didn’t try because stuff was expensive then and we didn’t have any broken parts of cells at the time. They probably learned a few things on that day.

hawski 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

Steve Mould of Youtube fame did this:

Why all solar panels are secretly LEDs (and all LEDs are secretly solar panels) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WGKz2sUa0w

sudosysgen 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

I did try to do that in 8th grade, it worked for a bit but it was quite dim and uneven.

immibis 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

You don't have to try hard. Just use it as a photodiode and it magically works. However, if it's inside a plastic case that blocks light, it doesn't.

Due to some law about entropy, efficient processes are necessarily reversible. That's why electric motors - some of the most efficient machines ever invented - are also generators.

sitkack 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

All diodes are photodiodes, one has to be esp careful of glass encapsulated diodes. I have had that bite me before.

biot 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

> However, if it's inside a plastic case that blocks light, it doesn't.

You want an ordinary diode to allow current to flow easily when it senses light? Simple: shine a powerful laser at the plastic-encased diode and it will melt the plastic and liquify the metal, fusing it together and allowing current to flow again. See? You just needed to try harder.

Moru 3 days ago | parent [-]

Or if the hammer don't work, the sledgehammer is over there.

bsder 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Ah, the light emitting resistor. The moment when you realize why it's called Ohm's Law.

gavinsyancey 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

"All diodes are light-emitting at least once"

dmoy 3 days ago | parent [-]

Hahaha yea

I've seen that in electronics lab a few times. The "temporarily light emitting diode"

Moru 3 days ago | parent [-]

I have a Temporarily light-emitting harddrive cable. Really old 40 MB hdd connected to an old computer with a cheap power supply that most likely couldn't handle the slightly lower than standard power in a friends house.

ChuckMcM 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

"Inside every amplifier is an oscillator trying to get out."

qingcharles 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

"All electronics are hand-warmers if miscalibrated correctly enough."