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What DIY successes and disasters have you had? (lazysoci.al)
submitted 1 month ago by CheeseToastie@lazysoci.al to c/casualconversation@lemm.ee
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Once tried to paint my front door and fucked it up so badly that a professional had to sand it down. Cost me more than a workman would have done in the first place.

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[-] Smokeydope@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Diy success: building my own solar system that works over a year later.

Diy failure: upgrading a computer with new GPU as a young teenager, not understanding different graphics card sizes and case limits, getting a three fan to replace a two fan, forcing it into the case (I forget how I modified things to fit) and having the whole thing blow up a few months later.

Diy success: wiring up a cheap induction heater board when I couldn't afford a nice one.

Diy failure: not giving a shit about proper project boxes. Also using electrical tape, heat shrink, splicing screw caps, and quick disconnects instead of soldering (I fucking hate soldering and welding hate working with molten metal liquids man). I'll never be able to flex my project online without fellow electrical engineers rightfully calling me out on my lack of code following, could-go-wrongisms, and general poor layout.

Diy success: turning a old gaming computer into a local model engine server.

Diy failure: when I was just learning how to use a voltmeter I acidentally put the probes into the house outlet while testing amperage. It got fried.

[-] Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 month ago

Reminds me of that one time I fried some electronics and learned my lesson the hard way.

So, there’s this fancy USB power meter that shows a bunch of data on everything that is going on while charging. Turns out, it doesn’t communicate USB-C PD stuff correctly and can zap some electronics as a result. Here’s how to fry stuff with the wrong voltage.

  1. Plug in a C-C cable between the charger and the power meter.
  2. Plug in another C-C cable between the output side and a phone that can tell the charger to ramp up the voltage. The phone negotiates a higher voltage according to the PD protocol.
  3. Unplugg the phone, but leave all the other cables as they are. Normally, the charger would drop back to 5 V, but now that the power meter is still there, the voltage will stay at 15 V, 20 V or whatever.
  4. Plug in sensitive electronics that can only handle 5 V and watch how the magic smoke escapes.
  5. ???
  6. profit
this post was submitted on 13 Apr 2025
60 points (98.4% liked)

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