Author Topic: Murphy Thread  (Read 4983 times)

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Offline CyberdragonTopic starter

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Murphy Thread
« on: March 23, 2018, 11:56:19 pm »
Today we petition for the murder of Murphy and his constant attempts to thwart everything.

How hast thou been thwarted? (Preferrably technical wise)

Small screws are the first candidate, evil little bastards... Not only do they get lost, they get stuck, and it's hard to find an extractor small enough. And it's always after you've taken something most of they way apart... |O :rant:
*BZZZZZZAAAAAP*
Voltamort strikes again!
Explodingus - someone who frequently causes accidental explosions
 

Offline Electro Detective

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Re: Murphy Thread
« Reply #1 on: March 24, 2018, 12:08:47 am »
You forgot the poor quality soft screws with forced stripped heads in a pita location   |O 

...compliments of the OS below -mates rates-  paid WonHungLo assemblers  ::)
 

Online wraper

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Re: Murphy Thread
« Reply #2 on: March 24, 2018, 12:17:32 am »
Usually this happens like this. I'm 1-10 thousands km away from home, repairing some laboratory equipment. The thing is already fixed but it has something that don't need fixing right now but may potentially break later. So I think, heck, I don't like it leaving like this, I'll make it right. As the result, I remember yet again road to hell is paved with good intentions. In the process of doing right, something breaks, screw thread get stuck, some fitting breaks. And now I'm in situation to figure out how to get out of this crap and leave the thing at least going for now without having spare parts to replace :palm:. Like gold plating on glass tube in IR measurement cell got partially stripped off, let's replace a resistor in amplifier to get more gain as mitigation  :scared:. Often superglue is your best friend  :-DD.
 

Offline CyberdragonTopic starter

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Re: Murphy Thread
« Reply #3 on: March 24, 2018, 01:10:00 am »
You forgot the poor quality soft screws with forced stripped heads in a pita location   |O 

...compliments of the OS below -mates rates-  paid WonHungLo assemblers  ::)

It happens with high-end stuff too. Set screws are the worst, especially buried super deep in a hole.
*BZZZZZZAAAAAP*
Voltamort strikes again!
Explodingus - someone who frequently causes accidental explosions
 

Offline CyberdragonTopic starter

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Re: Murphy Thread
« Reply #4 on: March 24, 2018, 02:12:57 am »
Carbon resistors!

If you can get to them, and change them easily, they're all all fine.

If you can't...they're all dead. :--
*BZZZZZZAAAAAP*
Voltamort strikes again!
Explodingus - someone who frequently causes accidental explosions
 

Offline BravoV

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Re: Murphy Thread
« Reply #5 on: March 24, 2018, 02:22:00 am »
Alkaline batteries, when you do constantly and diligently checked them, they never leak.

Offline CyberdragonTopic starter

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Re: Murphy Thread
« Reply #6 on: March 24, 2018, 02:27:56 am »
When they do leak, if it's not important, it'll just be a bit of green dust. If it's important...it's all rusted away. >:(
*BZZZZZZAAAAAP*
Voltamort strikes again!
Explodingus - someone who frequently causes accidental explosions
 
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Online wraper

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Re: Murphy Thread
« Reply #7 on: March 24, 2018, 02:34:06 am »
When they do leak, if it's not important, it'll just be a bit of green dust. If it's important...it's all rusted away. >:(
I got to purchase a whole new back cover for my Keysight U1272A because of this |O.
 

Offline Electro Detective

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Re: Murphy Thread
« Reply #8 on: March 24, 2018, 09:05:38 am »
and I can assure all fellow battery victims here that it makes no difference how expensive and great quality the batteries are,

Murphy issa no far away...  >:D
 

Offline Red Squirrel

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Re: Murphy Thread
« Reply #9 on: March 24, 2018, 09:49:24 am »
I have a server that controls my home automation stuff and also provides monitoring.  About once or twice a year it just randomly fails, and has to be rebooted.  It's still running, but it loses network connectivity.  EVERY SINGLE TIME it happens when I'm not home and I'm trying to remote into it.   Of course the whole server dies when I'm on vacation or other place where I'm relying on it to get any alarms.  I almost need to setup a monitoring server for the monitoring server.

Speaking of batteries, if you have a Wii or other console with remote/controller that takes alkalines and you don't play it a lot, check them.
« Last Edit: March 24, 2018, 09:56:53 am by Red Squirrel »
 

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Re: Murphy Thread
« Reply #10 on: March 25, 2018, 03:37:24 am »
TH component lead snippets.  :scared:

Before powering ON always rotate/invert the DUT and listen for Murphys little creations rattling around inside.

Tinkle, tinkle and a hunt for them is always better than poof/bang !  :rant:
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Offline Electro Detective

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Re: Murphy Thread
« Reply #11 on: March 25, 2018, 08:41:02 am »
Second vote for clipped component leads  |O

assisted by rogue blobs of solder, sometimes both from day one when the unit was manufactured and someow passed inspection  ::)

Tipping the unit upside down and around, plus a few love taps and a blast from an air gun or vacuum cleaner in blow mode ~usually~ sort of sorts that out  :phew: 
and freaks out the snooping neighbours  :o

I had two DUTs on two different occasions, different models but same manufacturer, the models known to be 'temperamental' 

both had small metal staples rattling inside (the office stapler type), that I found after a total disassemble,
both units never again had issues and no other fault found 

I actually suspected staples the second time around and hit instant pay dirt  :clap: 


I can only imagine some assembly line fwits stuffing about shooting staples at each other during lunch break, because nothing else makes sense  :-//

 
« Last Edit: March 25, 2018, 08:46:15 am by Electro Detective »
 

Offline SeanB

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Re: Murphy Thread
« Reply #12 on: March 25, 2018, 10:32:34 am »
I would more assume that there is paperwork as the unit passes through the assembly process, and the stages as completed per meter or small batch are stapled to the previous paperwork, using a regular office stapler. Thus the occasional jam and clearing of the jammed staple, with it going who knows where, probably into the pile of partly assembled units in the bin. Really common thing to have happen, staples get into the most amazing places.
 

Offline Ampera

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Re: Murphy Thread
« Reply #13 on: March 25, 2018, 03:31:06 pm »
They say that no man has ever assembled a computer fully, and had it turn on fully working the first time. Whoever claims to have done this is a liar.

I've had many 5 minute "This shouldn't take too longs" turn into several hours of anger, frustration, and eventual defeat, especially with my older computers being stupid.

Probably the biggest instance of Murphy's Law I've had is while I was giving the first attempt at building my Pentium Pro computer about a year ago.

I got the board, DOA. Nothing worked, and I spent hours trying to get it to do anything. Then, after a day of wasted time and frayed nerves, my only capable machine, an i7-4790k box, the board popped. No big deal, it's under warranty, except the warranty doesn't cover complete jackasses who forget how to install an LGA socket cover, resulting in me having a nice MSI-Z97 PCMate board with a not so nice LGA socket, and no way in hell I'm getting a new one.

b r i l l i a n t

This doesn't end, oh no, because despite me having to slap together an Athlon 64 X2 5000+ (yes, that was my second best machine) into my machine to have my SSD probably being smacked to hell and back with memory swapping (it's still here, though), I had to go on vacation the VERY NEXT DAY.

b r i l l i a n t

So I have to leave returning the Socket 8 board to someone else, since I was going to be gone longer than I would be willing to wait for that sort of thing. The vacation went alright, despite knowing I had to buy a new board when I came home, all the while suffering with a CPU and board from 2006. I come home to find my keyboard's (musical) LCD had fractured (the readout that shows all the instruments and such). So, after all that stupidity, I have two broken boards, a crippled workstation, a broken keyboard, and I'm out 80 bucks for a new Z97 board.

b r i l l i a n t

friggin Murphy.
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Offline CyberdragonTopic starter

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Re: Murphy Thread
« Reply #14 on: March 25, 2018, 05:09:08 pm »
/\ expected replies..."you killed it 'cause you didn't use wriststraps...naaaah" >:D

I opened some super cheap Chinese POS audio something-or-other and found a ton of loose screws of different sizes rattling around inside, stuck to the speaker magnet, and stuck in blobs of gross cheap glue... :scared:
*BZZZZZZAAAAAP*
Voltamort strikes again!
Explodingus - someone who frequently causes accidental explosions
 

Offline Ampera

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Re: Murphy Thread
« Reply #15 on: March 25, 2018, 10:04:06 pm »
Lol. The Pentium Pro board did actually turn on, it just didn't post. It had a somewhat old flash memory chip on it that I think might have just died.

Now about the time I had 3 dead boards in a row, each of which slightly less dead than the other....
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Offline g.lewarne

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Re: Murphy Thread
« Reply #16 on: March 26, 2018, 12:40:41 am »
replaced dozens of laptop screens, never an issue.

Need to replace mine, badly scratched. 

Order panel 1. Panel arrives.  Drop panel before even fitting it, cracked.

Order panel 2, successfully transport it to my "operating" table.  Screw it into laptop.  Screwdriver cams out of the teeny tiny screw and gouges across the panel.

Order panel 3, successfully transport it to my table.  Sucessfully screw it into laptop.  Turn on.  DOA

Order panel 4, successfully transport it to my table.  Sucessfully screw it into laptop.  Turn on.  3 bright green pixels.

I give up at 4 and leave it as it is.
 

Offline basinstreetdesign

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Re: Murphy Thread
« Reply #17 on: March 26, 2018, 06:10:01 am »
Bench rule #26:
Any small object (such as a resistor or screw) when dropped on the floor immediately attempts to run/hide under something.   ::)
STAND BACK!  I'm going to try SCIENCE!
 
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Offline basinstreetdesign

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Re: Murphy Thread
« Reply #18 on: March 26, 2018, 06:33:33 am »
I built an L/C meter a couple of years ago to test the value of a bunch of inductors once.  I went through three versions of hardware including design, home-brew pcb fab, assembly and firmware re-writes for various reasons.

All versions had to be made from parts on hand including the uC- no purchases.  I had 3 types of uC that I could use.

#1 ver ended because all 4 of my uC type #1 were found to be dead.  But to fix them I had to get a schematic from the company that made my device programmer.  I found they were (almost) out of business due to a fire they suffered a few years earlier and lost ALL engineering info on the products (including mine) they had then.  So I had to fix it with no schem.  |O

#2 ver ended when I found the SW just would not fit into the 2K code space of the uC type #2,  |O
Half-way through ver #2 the HDD on my XP laptop that I was using to develop it, died.  |O |O I had to replace it, re-build all of the SW installations on it and re-establish the license for the SW IDE.  The IDE re-installation made me the most nervous as I had to get in touch with the SW company that sold it to me 10 years prior and talk them into sending me a new installation license code even though I had never bought any maintenance from them in all that time. :palm:

#3 ver was successful but need complete HW and SW redesign for the only other uC type I could use, a ATMEGA16 with 8K code space.

After all that, about 4 mo into it, I came face-to-face with the impossible prospect of calibration.  And there I was stuck but the best I could do is get it to within about 10% - but that was good enough for me - then.

I wrote an instructable on the experience to show what can happen when things just WILL not go right sometimes.  It's here:

https://www.instructables.com/id/InductanceCapacitance-Meter-Saga/
« Last Edit: March 29, 2018, 06:14:45 am by basinstreetdesign »
STAND BACK!  I'm going to try SCIENCE!
 

Offline Mr. Scram

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Re: Murphy Thread
« Reply #19 on: March 26, 2018, 07:51:52 am »
Bench rule #26:
Any small object (such as a resistor or screw) when dropped on the floor immediately attempts to run/hide under something.   ::)
Small objects are subject to quantum physics and can therefore blink in and out of existence.
 

Offline Ampera

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Re: Murphy Thread
« Reply #20 on: March 26, 2018, 12:53:48 pm »
I've dropped tensioners for lockpicking on the floor, and it took an embarrassing amount of time to find them again.
I forget who I am sometimes, but then I remember that it's probably not worth remembering.
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Offline CyberdragonTopic starter

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Re: Murphy Thread
« Reply #21 on: March 26, 2018, 03:11:31 pm »
Bench rule #26:
Any small object (such as a resistor or screw) when dropped on the floor immediately attempts to run/hide under something.   ::)
Small objects are subject to quantum physics and can therefore blink in and out of existence.

Or they get stuck to your pants so you never find it until it randomly falls off...or you sit on it. :o
*BZZZZZZAAAAAP*
Voltamort strikes again!
Explodingus - someone who frequently causes accidental explosions
 

Offline schmitt trigger

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Re: Murphy Thread
« Reply #22 on: March 26, 2018, 03:30:09 pm »
When you drop to the floor THE VERY LAST small (sub-0402) SMT component in your inventory...... and which to boot, has an oddball value like 7.865K at 0.1%

Then you are all in your hands and knees, wondering how much tiny debris accumulates on the floor.
« Last Edit: March 26, 2018, 03:31:45 pm by schmitt trigger »
 

Offline IanMacdonald

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Re: Murphy Thread
« Reply #23 on: March 26, 2018, 03:47:26 pm »
There have been attempts to deal with Murphy ranging from pointed sticks to a Russian surplus RDS-220

Invariably, something goes wrong with the weapon. I guess that's the advantage of being Murphy.
 

Offline Electro Detective

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Re: Murphy Thread
« Reply #24 on: March 27, 2018, 09:39:05 am »
Bench rule #26:
Any small object (such as a resistor or screw) when dropped on the floor immediately attempts to run/hide under something.   ::)
Small objects are subject to quantum physics and can therefore blink in and out of existence.

Or they get stuck to your pants so you never find it until it randomly falls off...or you sit on it. :o

Oh yeah, that scenario, been there  too  many times   :rant: 

So now my 'seek' inventory includes:

a bright torch

soft brush broom and small brush/shovel kit

large magnet in a sock

cheap cyclonic type bagless vacuum cleaner with transparent collection bin, kept in a clean state 


and if all that fails to find the  'runner'...   ::) 

I close my eyes and drop another small object that isn't vital to proceedings, in the vicinity of where I think the runner ran to,

go looking for runner #2 praying I find runner #1

or both...or NONE,
and move on !!!   and shout Murphy a beer for his hard work   :-[

 
 


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