Practical Electronics for Inventors, Fourth Edition
Why we love it?
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase In short, for a 1000 page book, anyone who buys this is getting a bargain. It’s the BEST.
Some comments about this we saw on the web:
* /u/wuvvakk on /r/BurningMan From your other post: > Users will receive a brief shock while the button is pushed downPlease don’t do this. It’s not safe. You may have already decided not to do it, but for anyone else reading I want to drive the point home. To reach for a quote…
> Electricity is neutral. It doesn’t want to kill you, but it will if you give it a chance. Electricity wants to go home, and to find a quick way to get there – and it will.
> Anything that gives it an escape route. Anything – iron, wire, water, flesh, ganglia - that will take it where it must go, with the efficiency of gravity or the imperative of salmon swimming upriver…. And it wants the shortest route - which is not around a corner and through a muscle mass in the middle of your back, but it will go that way if it has to.
> – Hunter S. Thompson, 1989, Songs of the Doomed
In particular:
Very tiny currents can stop a heart. 1 microamp can induce ventricular fibrillation if applied directly to the heart. The reason you can safely grab a AA battery at both ends is that your dry skin presents a high-resistance interface. But if someone with a heart condition and salty sweaty skin came around, that might be all it would take for a mild novelty shock to produce a serious injury.
Even “safe” currents that only produce a mild tingle can cause damage to the surrounding tissue if they apply current in the wrong waveform. DC currents cause ions to migrate which can burst cell walls, and can also induce chemical damage due to sodium hydroxide formed at the cathode and hydrochloric acid formed at the anode. Medically-approved electrostimulation devices like TENS use a monophasic or biphasic waveform as described here to prevent this.
If the shock would be a surprise, this violates consent. No one should be subjected to shocks without the ability to opt out. I’m all for safety third, but consent comes first.
If you want to read more about using electricity safely, Juice - Electricity For Pleasure And Pain is available for free download.
I’d really think hard about whether you might be able to replace the electric shock part of your art piece with a buzzing vibrator motor or weird audio effect. Which could have an equally surprising effect for visitors in a certain sort of headspace.
If you want to learn more about electronics in general, I’d recommend:
I’d suggest just posting some details here if you’re looking for advice. This subreddit doesn’t really get enough traffic that it’s going to spoil a surprise for people, if they even remember. And that way any responses might help or inspire other people to build some cool interactive art just like you’re doing!
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