Hacker News Reader

Comment by anoonmoose | Hacker News Reader

All three of the warnings and concerns you provided are extremely mild compared to the warning/concern that should actually be attached to this post: "if you fuck up while working on this you can easily die, and if anyone who doesn't know the danger you have created exists and interacts with it they can easily die". Emphasis on the easily part. Someone trips in the backyard, etc. I understand OP is desperate but I think putting this info out in the world is legit more likely to cause harm than good.

View on HN

Who are we to weigh the consequences to the poster of a lack of electricity against risk created by jury rigging?

And specifically, to make that choice for them?

Caveat hacker.

This isn't even a hacker, though! This is a person who isn't capable of doing extremely basic electrical calculations. It'd be a totally different topic if it was a person who I thought fully appreciated the danger of what they're doing. If you can't calculate the voltage drop over a length of cable you should not be wiring your own deadly AC voltages. I'm willing to die on that hill.

Agree to disagree. Submitter was smart enough to measure resistance in their chosen wire, and understand the rough ideas of current limits: that's a hacker in my book.

"Here are the things I know" + "Here are the things I know I don't know" + "Can you help me?"

I'm sure there's a ton they don't know they don't know (stranded vs solid core AWG equivalency), but this is a pretty simple use case -- running power a relatively short distance in a temporary install.

The worst that can happen is they or someone on the street short across their heart and dies. Which would not only require shocking yourself, but doing so in a pretty specific orientation.

But they're already in a warzone! That risk is lower than their base level of environmental lethality.

This is a metaphorical hill you're willing to metaphorically and not literally die on? How brave.

The Stack Overflow poster is on a metaphorical hill in a literal warzone to literally die on. They're trying to hack together AC power the best they can to make their home in Sudan livable. That's some serious hacking! So what if they don't know V=IR?

No need to be piquish. Parent's entitled to their opinion.

I'll ignore the rudeness and respond to the substance- they are not making their home livable, it's in a warzone, it'll still be unlivable but with electricity. And that is not at no cost- they are creating an extremely dangerous situation that could be deadly to people and animals. I might be persuadable if they were the only people who could be hurt by what they're doing but it's a danger to the public. It's not about the formula, it's about the fact that they don't know enough to appreciate the danger of what they're doing.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com