Almost fried a $2,000 board because I skipped one step

I was swapping a power supply on a Commodore 64 in my garage last Tuesday... forgot to discharge the CRT first. My hand slipped and the probe hit a trace near the flyback transformer - saw a blue arc and smelled ozone instantly. Managed to kill the power before anything caught fire, but it took me three hours to confirm the board was still good with a multimeter. Has anyone else gotten too confident and skipped safety checks? I keep a discharge tool on my bench now but man that was close.

2 comments

2 Comments

stellat8710d ago

Overreacting a bit, a little zap builds character and teaches you faster than any safety checklist ever will.

skyler_craig10d ago

That whole "a little zap builds character" thing is kinda how people justify skipping steps everywhere, not just with electronics. I see the same thing with folks rushing through oil changes or not leveling their 3D printer bed, just wanting to get to the good part. But a near miss like yours (blue arcs are no joke) usually means the lesson stuck way better than if you'd actually fried the board. There's a fine line between reckless and "I got lucky," and it sounds like you crossed it just enough to pay attention.