Safety Warning

[spec]

I hate procedures because they inevitably inhibit innovation and generally waste time with a load of meaningless waffle. But procedures are important.

One area that worries me is electrical safety.

Members, including me, often post schematics for circuits which involve dangerous voltages (defined roughly as any voltage over 30V including AC peak voltages) and while the members involved in the thread, OP included, may be experienced in high voltage electronics, ETO is read by many people world-wide, not necessarily ETO members, so there is a worry that someone inexperienced, especially young people, may expose themselves to danger.

After all that, I suggest that circuits that have high voltages should have a warning in red. This is one that I used recently:

WARNING: The circuit in this post involves dangerous voltages. You must observed safety precautions. Never touch the circuit when the power is applied. If you are not experienced in high voltage electronics do not attempt to build this circuit.

spec

 

[spec]

Afterthought:

To avoid cluttering up posts with a long safety message perhaps it would be best to have a standard safety message that could be linked as follows, or similar:

SAFETY WARNING: please read [here]

Where [here] is a link to a standard, but succinct, safety warning.

spec

 

[DerStrom8]

This is a very good idea. I often have to put in "disclaimers" especially when people ask about Tesla coils and other high voltage devices. A standard "disclaimer" sticky could be very useful in those cases.

 

[Mikebits]

I recently saw a post that made me think the same thing. I think it was about a transformerless power supply.
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Just to be clear, the OP of the circuit of the thread I spoke of did post warnings, quite a few in fact. I suspect that despite the warnings, some people will choose to ignore them for what ever reason, be that English is not primary language or maybe the circuits get copied to Google images and the warnings are not transferred.
Be that as it may, I think adding warnings is a good idea, but how would you enforce such a thing, the mods have enough to do as it is, and this may be just another burden of their time?

 

[DerStrom8]

I recently saw a post that made me think the same thing. I think it was about a transformerless power supply.
----------------------------------edit--------------------------------
Just to be clear, the OP of the circuit of the thread I spoke of did post warnings, quite a few in fact. I suspect that despite the warnings, some people will choose to ignore them for what ever reason, be that English is not primary language or maybe the circuits get copied to Google images and the warnings are not transferred.
Be that as it may, I think adding warnings is a good idea, but how would you enforce such a thing, the mods have enough to do as it is, and this may be just another burden of their time?

I wouldn't think of it as a rule that must be enforced (i.e. "If you post a thread that could potentially be dangerous then you MUST link to the 'Safety Thread'"). Instead I would think of it as a useful tool for the creator of a thread, instead of writing a disclaimer saying "This is dangerous, do this at your own risk, only if you know what you're doing, only if you have experience", etc, they could simply link to the sticky.

 

[Mikebits]

Yeah, that sounds good to me

 

[JoeJester]

Think of safety. After all, the a** you save may be your own.
If you choose to ignore it, have someone provide details so I can nominate you for a Darwin Award.