Stock Electronic Image FAILS

[bsfeechannel]

This, the small print user manual for an Aldi branded set of digital calipers and who should be safegaurded from them. Basically no-one except a fully qualified grown up with zero psychiatric certifications should be using them. Maybe not even then?

OMG WTF I'm so frightened of anything that contains a numeric scale

Btw, on the subject of dodgy tech, these calipers are cheaply made but for the money, remarkably accurate!

This kind of disclaimer is becoming increasingly frequent. I bought an electric appliance the other day, and in the manual they said the same thing.

[Infraviolet]

The kind of persn who feels the need to write that sort of disclaimer is just about the only kind of person who could need protecting from a pair of calipers.

[jmelson]

Why is a grocery store selling digital calipers?
Jon

[EPAIII]

A little while ago I was trying to find a "stock" image to use in an article I was writing. I needed a picture of an early telegraph station, showing the various parts, properly connected together. I must have gone through a thousand or more images with zero luck. The photos, many of which were actual shots of real, working telegraph stations, just did not show enough of HOW they worked. Just some of the parts, like the key or the sounder, sitting on a table or desk. Often they removed the wires, I guess to make the photo cleaner or some such. None of them showed the working points that I wanted to illustrate.

I would up buying the equipment myself and wiring it on a desk for the photo. That article has not been published yet, but when it is I am going to look to see just how long it takes that photo to be ripped off for the unauthorized profit of others. I have secretly added a copyright symbol and my initials to it so I will positively know it is mine. Can you say lawsuit?

[EPAIII]

I can see why they don't want these calipers in the hands of teenagers. They EXPLODE!

I am going to throw all of mine out right away! But no, wait, they also say you can't do that too. So there is no way out. Now I see it in the display. It says mm. It's the metric system that's doing this. I knew it was evil. Why didn't we just stick with cubits?

I am doomed by my explosive calipers. Doomed, I tell you! DOOMED!

Note: Be sure to check out the date posted! It adds to the flavor.

[Ed.Kloonk]

I wound up buying the equipment myself and wiring it on a desk for the photo. That article has not been published yet, but when it is I am going to look to see just how long it takes that photo to be ripped off for the unauthorized profit of others. I have secretly added a copyright symbol and my initials to it so I will positively know it is mine. Can you say lawsuit?

Or you could release it CC and put it on Wikipedia. 

I've got photos from ten years ago when I visited this place:

The Alice Springs Telegraph Station Historical Reserve marks the original site of the first European settlement in Alice Springs. It was established in 1871 to relay messages between Darwin and Adelaide along Australia’s Overland Telegraph Line.  This not only connected Australia’s population centres with the north of the country, but it also connected Australia up with the undersea telegraph network of the British Empire.  Prior to 1872, a message back to England would travel by boat and take 3 to 4 months each way.  However, after the telegraph line was built, Morse code messages travelling through Alice Springs could reach London in as little as 5 hours – slow by today’s standards, but revolutionary for people of the 19th century!

https://alicespringstelegraphstation.com.au/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Springs_Telegraph_Station

Interestingly, there are no money shots on the website or the wiki. Must be a conspiracy. You can see what the cafe looks like. 

It was implied when I was there that the gear presented is period correct if not original.

[Fungus]

I can see why they don't want these calipers in the hands of teenagers. They EXPLODE!

You never tried to solder wires to a CR2032?

[Psi]

I can see why they don't want these calipers in the hands of teenagers. They EXPLODE!

You never tried to solder wires to a CR2032?

haha, yeah. They do tend to pop. Though i'd hardly call it an explosion.

[AndyBeez]

I can see why they don't want these calipers in the hands of teenagers. They EXPLODE!

I am going to throw all of mine out right away! But no, wait, they also say you can't do that too. So there is no way out. Now I see it in the display. It says mm. It's the metric system that's doing this. I knew it was evil. Why didn't we just stick with cubits?

I am doomed by my explosive calipers. Doomed, I tell you! DOOMED!

Note: Be sure to check out the date posted! It adds to the flavor.

I am holding those very calipers right now and pondering, what exactly is likely to explode? The battery is a miniature LR44 button cell. So unless it contains nitrocelulose or even PETN, an explosive pressure wave would be messurable in milli-pascals. Should I take it outside, and hammer it on the iron anvil? Let's find out...

I can confirm, no nuclear fission occurred.

Luckily, Aldi provided a spare battery, just in case the first one detonated.

It's ass covering statements like that which spreads fear in the technophobic.  Imagine some school teacher with the intelligence of a school teacher reading this? Evacuate the classroom and call the bomb squad! Similar happened when a pupil broke a thermometer causing a hazmat level evacuation of the school. Thermometers contain mercury right? So do the ones with red liquid?

Maybe we shouldn't read the fecking safety warnings, it's TMI.

btw, Big Clive does an interesting teardown of this type of caliper on YouTube.

[HwAoRrDk]

I imagine the documentation discussion went something like this:

Legal: does it have sharp parts or small parts?
Engineer: yes
Legal: include the standard "not for children, etc" warning.
Legal: does it have a battery?
Engineer: yes
Legal: include the standard "danger of explosion" warning.
Engineer: but the battery is tiny! It poses no danger...
Legal: do you want us to get sued? No buts!
Engineer: <sigh>

[CatalinaWOW]

I think blaming on the legal department is not generally accurate.  The dialog would be correct if that much thought were put into it.  I think some of these companies just sweep up every safety warning they have ever seen.  I have seen unpowered equipment with warnings to use grounded outlets.  Warnings to use hearing and eye protection with screwdrivers. 

[Zeyneb]

Ha, this is funny.

On amazon.de, the Ryobi right angle drill with typenumber RAD18C-0 has specified:

Maximum chuck size: 10 MONTHS

Is this a special time-distance relativity feature?

[vk6zgo]

I think blaming on the legal department is not generally accurate.  The dialog would be correct if that much thought were put into it.  I think some of these companies just sweep up every safety warning they have ever seen.  I have seen unpowered equipment with warnings to use grounded outlets.  Warnings to use hearing and eye protection with screwdrivers.

Not so much an image, but at my then work back in the day, some idiot managed to get hot solder in their eyes by incorrect desoldering methods.

OH &S went into the  mode & decreed that we would have to use safety glasses for soldering.
The plastic things supplied were crap, with poor optical qualities, & soldering for any length of time caused eyestrain.
On top of that, the plastic was very prone to a build up of dirt from flux fallout, finger grease, etc.

The latter was recognised, & "glasses cleaning stations" consisting of a spraycan of cleaner & a pack of soft tissues were installed.
The "station" was installed with the spraycan nozzle facing straight out at eye level----what could possibly go wrong?

[Fungus]

The latter was recognised, & "glasses cleaning stations" consisting of a spraycan of cleaner & a pack of soft tissues were installed.
The "station" was installed with the spraycan nozzle facing straight out at eye level----what could possibly go wrong?

What's the problem? It's your hands that are dirty. Keeping your glasses on your face while cleaning will make sure you don't get more dirt on them through handling.

[tom66]

I think blaming on the legal department is not generally accurate.  The dialog would be correct if that much thought were put into it.  I think some of these companies just sweep up every safety warning they have ever seen.  I have seen unpowered equipment with warnings to use grounded outlets.  Warnings to use hearing and eye protection with screwdrivers.

Same problem as with Prop 65.   The regulation was well-intentioned but it became easier to just mark everything as possibly violating Prop 65 because there are so many possible ways to contaminate something with a few ppb of some dangerous chemical, and it's utterly impractical to test everything, and you don't want to get sued.

But it completely defeats the point of something like 65.  The idea was that manufacturers would be less willing to use dangerous compounds, because consumers would avoid those products, but when everything gives you cancer, how can you avoid everything?

[Fungus]

But it completely defeats the point of something like 65.  The idea was that manufacturers would be less willing to ...

That strategy has never worked. Manufacturers NEVER look at a law and think "Oh, I'd better stop doing that", they always think "How can I get around that law?"

[tom66]

But it completely defeats the point of something like 65.  The idea was that manufacturers would be less willing to ...

That strategy has never worked. Manufacturers NEVER look at a law and think "Oh, I'd better stop doing that", they always think "How can I get around that law?"

Not even remotely correct, RoHS has worked quite well once manufacturers have figured out how to actually solder BGAs with lead free processes. There are a few absurdities, but it has reduced the concentration of lead in groundwater.  Lead is one of those horrible materials that has no safe exposure limit, even a few tens of ppb of lead have been shown to have a deleterious effect on brain development, and higher doses may be associated with increased criminality (it's suggested as one reason the US had a violent crime spike in the 70's-80's was leaded petrol.)

[Fungus]

Not even remotely correct, RoHS has worked quite well once manufacturers have figured out how to actually solder BGAs with lead free processes.

Obviously they couldn't figure out a way around that one.

[AndyBeez]

(it's suggested as one reason the US had a violent crime spike in the 70's-80's was leaded petrol.)

Or the amount of lead in bullets(?)

[tom66]

Not even remotely correct, RoHS has worked quite well once manufacturers have figured out how to actually solder BGAs with lead free processes.

Obviously they couldn't figure out a way around that one.

So what you're saying is robustly designed and implemented environmental regulations don't get worked around and will eventually lead to change.

Seems like a good thing to me.

[Fungus]

Seems like a good thing to me.

Nobody's saying it isn't. 

Somebody mentioned something about manufacturers being "willing", that's the only thing being disputed here.

Most manufacturers go "kicking and screaming".

[xrunner]

In case your iron starts to burn from the inside - vent holes will help out. 

[jonovid]

In case your iron starts to burn from the inside - vent holes will help out. 

the advertising agency creative needs to quit smoking.

[AndyBeez]

the advertising agency creative needs to quit smoking.

Or he needs to replace his vape liquid with liquid flux.

[armandine2]

a pet peeve

RS components stock image for their range of single decade resistance boxes from Chauvin Arnoux is actually the k ratio resistance box P03197531A