so, anyway, on Saturday, I electrocuted myself.

on saturday i came within a couple of inches of wrecking the car, and very likely some element of myself.

i think you need to be very careful inside an amp because of the capacitors ?? which can build up highter than normal voltages and hold them even when the thing is off. at least i remember reading that somewhere. my rhodes suitcase amp has some mammoth capacitors in it and i get a bit nervous when i have to go in there changing fuses.

I was buggering around with my newly purchased Sega Saturn, modifying it so that it can play copied games, when my finger slipped onto a live component in the power supply while it was plugged in and switched on. Yes, I am a moron. Yes, it hurt.

By the way, nobody who's been "electrocuted" will be posting about their experience (or indeed anywhere else in this universe), because you have to die as a result (by definition).

And it's even worse if you are standing in bare or sockfeet in your basement,.

I've spent the morning doing a google refresher course in electrical currents to try and figure out what happened to me last night and how dangerous it was: the fixtures on the front door of my building had current running through them (possibly due to ConEd work down the street?), and putting my key in the lock while barefoot caused locked-up muscles, tingling numbness, and serious pain all the way up my right arm.

This kind of stray current worries me on the dog's behalf: it sounds like about the same amount that routinely kills dogs around New York! Can someone who knows more than me about electricity add to or subtract from my worry? Did I just come very near to killing myself? Is the weirdness I feel in my right arm just paranoia, or can some serious current mess with your muscles for a few days?

i'd recommend putting unlubricated condoms on the dog's feet (and tail, just to be safe), holding them in place with elastic bands.

I already do that anyway

that's your solution to everything.

or can some serious current mess with your muscles for a few days?

Sure, you just clenched every muscle in that arm, hard, involuntarily. You'll feel it for a day or two, but it's not a big deal if you're alive to post about it.

why were you barefoot?

Or are you ZOMBIE NABISCO?!?!

possibly due to ConEd work down the street?

No, would more likely be due to a wire from an ungrounded circuit in the wall where the door frame is. It is dangerous and should be checked out pronto by a qualified electrician.

^^^^^^^

If you're uncertain whether something is live or not, touch it with the back of your hand, not your palm. Any current will restrict the muscles of your arm causing them to constrict and will fling your forearm back towards you.

This is a much better scenario than having a vice grip on an electrified object.

did you get an erection?

please don't really answer that

^^ ConEd theory is due to the fact that the problem was gone by this morning, which made me imagine they'd caused some kind of ground fault during overnight work.

Someone's meant to be looking at it soon, yeah. It's annoying, though -- the fact that it even cropped up as a problem once makes me worried about what other electrical issues might be waiting to happen. Here's hoping they're all discovered by arms, and not any of the 6 smallish dogs living in the building.

"Stevie Wonder, an Obama favorite, will perform Thursday night at the climax of the Democratic National Convention.

A local paper had reported that Bruce Springsteen would perform, but an Obama aide says the headliner is actually Wonder."

woah wrong thread

(And Kingfish, that is smart, but man do I hope not to have to walk up to the door every single time I come home and check if it's running current!)

did you get an erection?

live current traveling thru your torso is not really something you'd want.

And apparently, this actually is how some older phone techs will check which connections on a punchdown block are live or not. Get a jolt = there you go.

haaaaaaaaaaaaaaa elmo

But yeah, you should make enough noise to get an actual electrician out there. Wot Jaq said.

Lord help me but I refuse to make an electricity-related pun about Stevie Wonder being "live" and how he also should be properly grounded before touching a mic

(also, i couldn't find that album cover)

nabisco, even if ConEd had caused a ground fault, it still means there's a wire connecting to the door frame where it shouldn't. For your dog, the danger would most likely be from an appliance that should be plugged into a grounded circuit not being properly grounded. If your fridge/oven/window ac unit/etc ever give you an electrical tingle, it's a major danger sign. And if you're using any of those ground plug cheaters that let you plug a 3 prong into a 2 prong outlet, make sure the ground wire is connected correctly. Do you have GFI outlets in the kitchen/bathroom? They are required by code most places, but sometimes old buildings can get around the requirements.

Hmm. Jaq, it wasn't the doorframe that had the current, it was the assembly of the lock and handle (which are buzzer-operated, obviously).

I don't know that that makes any difference in what you're saying, though

so sad to hear Bruce Springsteen was electrocuted, r.i.p.

the lock and handle

That's actually a much better scenario - probably a wire has come loose from all the opening/closing vibration of the door.

Is the buzzer connected to house current or a separate low voltage alarm system?

^^ If I knew that much about electrical wiring I would not have kept trying to turn the key after the first time it electrocuted me

My guess is that it connects through the whole building's wiring, though, since it's a whole complex door + video cameras + elevator thing. (It's a small condo building where the elevators open directly into the apartments, so the system has to allow you to see from multiple angles and unlock the elevator for visitors and all sorts of stuff.)

Yeah, that'd be house current then.

Shocked myself not too long ago on a Fender amp of mine. Someone had gone into our practice space, unplugged the speaker from the chassis, and turned every knob up to TEN. Once it was on, "hmm, what's with these knobs...*turn down*...hmm, why no noise...*check standby switch*, *SHOCK!!!!*"

Now it doesn't work so well :(

(viagra lolz, etc)

The THINK that technically you can only use the word "electrocuted" if the zapped person dies.

Our electric garage door motor zapped me twice recently. And last year I was stung by one of those wasps that lay their eggs inside live spiders and then got two sever shocks from the TV in the space of about five minutes.

What's stupid is that in both cases I got 2 shocks, because I was too dumb to stop messing with it after the first time.

lol good job

When my dad was a teenager he somehow rigged up his teacher's car so they'd get a shock when they turned the ignition. The magic number of shocks here was 3, evidently.

I don't think you can do it with cars past 198x or whatever it is.

That might be teachers', plural, I'm not sure..

Update on front-door theories: it's possible the door wasn't live at all, and that in fact the stray current was coming from a messed-up security light set down into the stone paving next to the door. It's possible I assumed the current was running from the door to my feet, whereas in fact it was running up my feet and only jolting me when I touched the fixtures of the door!