Dumb things we've done...

[nzlongfellow]

Dumbest thing - Got married 44 years ago.
Smartest thing - Got separated 2 years ago.
Smartest thing I learned in that time - I'm a sloooow learner.

 

[damo1271]

I proceeded to cut out and replace a pixel because I thought it was a dud, only to find out the new pixel didn't work either.
Only after much swearing and head scratching did I work out the length of the string was set wrong.
The original pixel worked fine. This was followed by even more swearing...

 

[AAH]

I have twice forgotten to plug in the power to my laptop while it's running the show. Last night my show finished at about 10:30 which I put down to a brain fade at setting the scheduler. Turns out there WAS a brain fade bu not where I thought.

 

[BundyRoy]

I was testing some repairs I had done. Plugged strip directly into output on controller that it used. Nothing. Blood pressure begins to go up. Then realised that the power wire from controller was not plugged in as I was power injecting this strip with a separate PSU downstream on the other end of the cable I had just unplugged from the controller. At least I realised before I swapped the repaired pixel out.

 

[BundyRoy]

I've also turned the FM transmitter on and not plugged in the headphones jack.

Another good on is when I removed a null pixel and changed the controller setting from 1 to 10 instead of 0. My 10 year old son came running in to proclaim "Dad, the minion's gone nuts". when really all that had happened was his arm had moved up 10 pixels. Did look odd though.

 

[mborg10]

I made an announcement sequence telling everyone about my charity night on the 20th December to raise money for Crohns disease. I have scrolling text on my mega tree giving details. I just figured out I have mapped my mega tree in the wrong way so all my text is mirror image.

 

[firebug]

This is a non blinky related situation but highlights the importance of the 'three points of contact' rule upon exiting a high vehicle.

I'll try to keep the story short. My job at the time required me to shower and dress in quarrantined clothes prior to starting work. This day there was not enough clothing for me so I had to 'improvise' and nick some ladies shorts that would fit a large hippo.

I proceeded to drive a semi trailer for the night in my parachute pants. In a hurry I pulled up to an eagerly awaiting crew to unload the trailer, I opened the door and jumped out. Yep..., there's ya mistake!

The leg of my shorts got hooked on the maxi brake lever conveniently located between the driver seat and the door. My atomic wedgie would've made the 'Jackass' boys proud. Not ready for this, I had no time to grab anything on the way down, so upsidedown I went. This left me with both my newly found pants, and my undies stripped down to my knees twisted tight, hanging upside down, hugging the steer tyre after smashing my face against the wheel nuts.

Unable to move, it felt like an eternity before anyone attended to my awkward situation. The rest of my crew were rolling about the place laughing and refused to come near me. One of the girls from the office ran out to help.

It was a location joke, you had to be there... :-[

 

[logandc99]

Firebug, that cracked me up. Sorry to laugh at your misfortune but it was a very funny story.

 

[Habbosrus]

Firebug, that cracked me up. Sorry to laugh at your misfortune but it was a very funny story.

+1 on that
Sorry for your misfortune mate, but thanks for the laugh

 

[Bird]

The rest of my crew were rolling about the place laughing

As are now a lot of ACL members.
Highlight of my day .. thanks for sharing.

 

[AAH]

I can add an extra "forgot to plug laptop power supply" to my previous total of 2.

 

[Gilrock]

Speaking of FM transmitters....I run a coax from my EDM outside by cracking open a window and throwing it over a wall where I hook it to a homemade antenna out of PVC. I went outside passed the cable in to my son through the crack and tossed the cable over the wall and went back inside and hooked it to the EDM. I use an FM receiver to capture my own transmission and play it back out to speakers in the yard which lets me know my FM transmission is working. So a couple nights later my competition was driving by to see if he needed to be worried about my show and started talking to me and he asked me what channel I was broadcasting on and I said 91.1 like it says on the sign. He said it's not working. I thought for a second and said...you know what I never hooked the cable to the antenna and then I was pondering how the music was able to be playing in the yard. I walked back and connected the coax to the antenna and came back to the street and he said now its working. I said well I'll be damned the coax coiled up on the ground was acting like a low power antenna enough for my FM receiver to be working but not enough for my visitors cars to receive it. Luckily it was only 2 days and I was still in early setup mode.

 

[keithsw1111]

I was using a microcontroller with built in relays that would switch mains power but because it travelled over the pcb was limited in the amount of power it could handle. No problem purchased a mains socket for the box with provision for a fuse and put in a suitable fuse so there was no way I could draw too much power and cause any problems. Then proceeded to wire it up so the fuse was bypassed. Not long later lots of smoke and a fried pcb when I turned it on.

 

[caffeine]

Second year of blinkies. Making a naive housing for my LOR controller board in 2007 I think, out of a flimsly plastic tub.

Drilled holes for all the outputs, no worries... last thing was the network cable, odd shape.


Out comes the stanley, and of course I cut towards myself, plastic cracks, knife slips, there goes tendon and artery of my middle left finger. Pretty fountain of pulsing blood. Full lower arm cast and rehab for months after the plastic surgery with a 3 month old daughter


Wife was not amused.

 

[Gilrock]

Ouch...I cringe just looking at that. Reminds me of when I was a teenager and did pretty much the same thing trying to carve my pinewood derby car with a utility knife....that was back when parents didn't make the cars...lol.