Different video format just something that I thought I'd give a go just because I'm working away from home. As you can see from the backdrop here, it's not the normal backdrop including all the warning signs and the doors and things like that. But anyway, subject to this video is electric shocks because recently Paul of Mr Carlson's lab released a video where he described his worst electric shock. what happened.

He doesn't actually even know what caused the electric shock, but he came very close to death. From his description, it sounds like his heart was in a state of ventricular fibrillation or knocked out of sync but then re-synced itself. Very very scary video and my own experience is different. It was a strong shock but not what I call of fatal levels.

but uh for me the worst thing about the shock was the fact that it happened in front of lots of other people uh who were staring at me at the time because it involved a barrier gate in a supermarket. You know when you go into some supermarkets you walk up and a gate Springs open in front of you and then you walk through and it closes. but if you try walking back the way it won't open, it will only open in One Direction The reason for that is to start what are called trolley workouts where people will basically fill a shopping trolley up with all their booze and food requirements and then just basically just walk out the store without going through the checkouts. That's why they have those barrier.

Gates So I used to serve as a particular brand called Wanzel I think that was a Wanzo unit and it was a really nicely engineered but the electronics were just absolutely terrible it was. It was based usually on like a Z80 microcontroller if I recall correctly and it used to crash all the time. So these things used to give problems now. I can't remember exactly which model this fire gate was, but it had a Metro control module that slid out the pillar of the gate and I just replaced that for a new reconditioned one and there was the problem.

It was the reconditioned one that was a problem and the procedure for starting these Gates is I had to go have a ladder switch the power on at the top that feeds the cable down to the barrier and then I had to come down close the gate because if you power up while it's open, if you try forcing your way through these Gates and alarm goes off. So I had to close the gate and at that point lots of people started building up behind it. Then I had to turn a key in it and then it goes through its process of booting cycle and then the in normal operation the gate would then open. Um, in this instance the gate did not open and I was thinking oh, I forgot to put the motor connect wrong because the motor connector drops down inside the pillar.

So I took out this Earth metal box and I was holding the metal handrail at the time. That's also something that you shouldn't do. you shouldn't provide a ground path through your body. So I pulled out the metal box that was grounded supposedly and everything was fine and as I pulled it out uh, it suddenly became live.

It means voltage and we're talking 240 volts here and I felt the current go up the arm, across the chest, down the other arm and it kind of threw me back and the Box went into the air. Uh, the Box hit the top of the barrier gate when there was a loud bang and a shower of spark which basically sped over the people who were standing behind the barricade. All very dramatic. so like after regaining my composure I jumped over the handrail and climbed the ladder, turned the power off to the barrier, came back down again, pulled open against a Safety Lock and like to let the people through and then just kind of slumped down behind it and the first person through is this big fat lady who said you got an electric shock didn't you really? What can you say I was just like very embarrassing.

um so obviously I wanted to know why I got an electric shock. so I opened the unit right there and then I just basically sat against a pillar uh and got the tools. just opened the unit up. The person who had maintained it had left out some spaters.

They've left out the plastic spacers that kept the live circuit board away from that of case. and they'd left out the brass spacer that grounds the metal case to the printed circuit board con connection points. So the reason I got the electric shock and this is kind of important. You just have to realize that if you look at the Health and Safety Executive or OSHA guidelines, they um, seemed to have a very detached reality.

They seem to assume that just turning the stuff off will protect you from electric shock and that the only way to avoid it is not to work live. That's nonsense because you have to work live in many instances to actually diagnose faults. But more importantly, in this case, nothing they said would have actually prevented this shock because a grounded piece of metal, a earth piece of metal became live unexpectedly with no warning. Something that should not have given a shock gave a shock.

And that is where most people in the electrical industry will potentially get sharks from. Uh, those unexpected sources. um, other. my closest screen without getting a shock was with Husman Refrigeration.

Also in another Supermarket I was changing when I was disconnecting compressor so we could swap it out for a new compressor In what's called a compressor pack and a compressor pack is basically a row of very big car engine sized compressors Copeland style compressors and above. it is often the liquid receiver for the refrigerant because it feeds a whole network of cases in the supermarket. and in that instance, uh, I'd isolated the compressor that I was going to be disconnecting noting that it was long hours and I was quite tired at the time and having isolated the one compression I was going to be disconnecting from that system because you can't just turn the whole lot off I had to squeeze in between the various bits of metal including the hot running compressor so it was a bit clammy and sweaty and I took the cover off it and I checked out the terminals sizes inside, got the appropriate socket for my deep socket set, tried on one of the terminals and just as I lifted my metal sock off just as it cleared it, the compressor went and started because I had isolated the wrong one. That, but I don't even know what happened there because it didn't happen I reckon I would have uh, possibly perished or into the fact that I was sandwiched in a position that I wouldn't be able to get away and uh, my hand would have been gripping onto the terminal that given the nature of when you get a shock, your the tenses for your arm to go to your chest I think it would have pushed down the terminal uh and not let me escape from that situation.

Very scary. No, let's talk about uh Paul's shock Mr Carson's lab. He was working on what he thought. Well, he reckons the Shockers DC although he doesn't know exactly where it came from, he was sitting down at the time I tend to stand at my bench because it's one of the biggest causes of fatal shocks is people in a confined position that they can't fall back.

they can't escape from the connection. He also reckoned that it was DC but strangely said he could feel the AC on it now. I Deliberately did an experiment. A very foolish experiment a while ago where I connected myself in series with a high frequency power supply and a neon tube and to see if I'd get a shock because I reckoned The High Frequency would cause either the skin effect or more likely the frequency was above the point that the nerves and muscles could react.

But although it's connected to a bench DC power supply I felt the Ripple when I powered that up the neon tubelet and I got one hell of a shock and it was the Ripple on top of the DC that was manifesting itself as modulating The High Frequency AC and that uh, what? I actually felt it was definitely 50 hertz I felt going through the body and this is where it's quite odd for her. Mr Carlson Uh, because there's a common misconception that DC shocks are more dangerous than they see That's completely wrong. Um, it takes continuous alternating fluctuating current to give you a shock so you can get and cause muscle contractions. You can get a shock Off DC when it tends to cause.

if it's pure smooth battery like DC then it'll be one convulsions. The muscles react suddenly to this sudden flow of current across them with AC and that alternating current or even rectified DC that humpy current causes the muscular contractions. So it's most likely that the high DC voltage established current flow through pole and then the AC Ripple on top of that or the the rectified DC Ripple was what actually clamped his muscles on. um quite scary.

Uh, he doesn't know what. Uh well you can watch his video I'll link to it down below in the description. Uh, that can explain everything well, almost everything because he doesn't know where you get the shot from I know what? I got my shock from. It's also worth mentioning that I have a little zaps and tingles.

You follow the usual rules of working electrical equipment. You do have to work in electrical panels when they're powered when you're diagnosing fault and the most zaps I've had have been from random pieces of exposed metal. So you go into a panel. There's a little contactor sitting here and for no obvious reason there's just a piece of metal sticking inside of it as part of the construction that is live like a permanently built-in bus bar.

And uh, I've even an embarrassing situation of turning around her colleague and sing, watch yourself in this bus bar, there's a bit of live metal stick out and then touching it. It happens. Um, in those instances, if it has no particular function, do the next person a favor and turn the power off and wrap some insulation tape around that so they don't come in contact with that bare metal. Uh, but that is it.

My worst electric shock was not what I'd call particularly life threatening. although it could have been life-threatening the correct circumstance. Uh, there was an element of luck to that. and it was caused entirely by someone else's incompetence and leaving all those insulators and spacers that can conductive species out.

And um, they basically set me up to have an accident. so you just have to keep that in mind when you're working electrical equipment. So let me know in the comments down below what your worst electric shock was. and if you know what caused it because it's always educational to read about other people's experiences,.