How dangerous was this?

[Brian McKee]

I was testing a motherboard on a cardboard box, and I was shorting the 2 pins to turn it on but my finger was on the metal part of the screwdriver by accident and I felt it a bit.

 

 

[Clanscorpia]

Its probably fine

[Brian McKee]

Just now, wrathoftheturkey said:

dood... you ask after the fact?

 

On a more serious note, for you? Not really at all. For the components? God, I hope you got yoself some of dat warranty shit

It was an accident because it's how I just hold my screwdrivers lol. The components still work.

[RGProductions]

It's fine. Done stupider. 

[TheRandomness]

3 minutes ago, wrathoftheturkey said:

dood... you ask after the fact?

 

On a more serious note, for you? Not really at all. For the components? God, I hope you got yoself some of dat warranty shit

You know you can short two pins on any motherboard to power it on?

[TheRandomness]

Just now, wrathoftheturkey said:

shit fam for real? I was talking about him touching it, but I didn't know you could. How exactly does that work?

The power button is just a glorified shorting device, you know  Shorting the two pins where you normally plug the front panel power button will cause the system to power on/off. 

[Jovidah]

I haven't really heard of a whole lot of 12volt fatalities so I think the chances at physical harm were fairly limited...

 

Actually, having been stupid enough to once expose myself to 220 volts, even that was rather underwhelming considering the fuss people usually make about it. 

[mariushm]

Cardboard is insulator, so the motherboard can start just fine and work while placed on a cardboard

The two pins that start the motherboard have low voltage.. well one pin has low voltage, something like 3.3v or 5v and the other pin is ground.  By shorting the first pin to ground, the chipset detects your "desire" to start the motherboard and sends another signal through the 24 pin atx connector which tells the power supply to fully start (up to this point the power supply only sent 5v stand-by from which only the chipset and some other components on the motherboard were running in "stand-by mode".

 

The current sinked to ground through those two pins is very small and limited by chipset, something like 1-5 mA ... you wouldn't feel anything if you touch those pins.

The pins were probably sharp and they just slightly penetrated your skin and that's what you felt, you didn't feel any electricity.

 

[bobhays]

21 minutes ago, wrathoftheturkey said:

dood... you ask after the fact?

 

On a more serious note, for you? Not really at all. For the components? God, I hope you got yoself some of dat warranty shit

Actually it wouldn't affect the components at all (at least the way I'm picturing the scenario).

[bobhays]

22 minutes ago, wrathoftheturkey said:

shit fam for real? I was talking about him touching it, but I didn't know you could. How exactly does that work?

Can't tell if it's sarcasm or not, but the 2 pins that you use to connect your case power button. If you just connect them with anything metal it'll turn on your computer just like as if your pressed the power button.

[mariushm]

10 minutes ago, Jovidah said:

I haven't really heard of a whole lot of 12volt fatalities so I think the chances at physical harm were fairly limited...

 

Actually, having been stupid enough to once expose myself to 220 volts, even that was rather underwhelming considering the fuss people usually make about it. 

People have died from touching 9v batteries on their tongues. It all depends on the person if he/she has unknown medical conditions or how humid it's around you (humidity changes skin resistance and so on) and other things.

Most power supplies won't limit the current on 12v so if you somehow put the 12v and ground wires on your tongue or somewhere conductive (low resistance caused by saliva) you'll probably burn a hole in your tongue before the power supply shuts down due to over current protection.

With some power supplies you can even solder metals together before they trigger over current protections.

 

However, those pins for buttons and leds are current limited and run at low voltages so they're safe to use.

 

 

 

 

[MatazaNZ]

3 hours ago, wrathoftheturkey said:

shit fam for real? I was talking about him touching it, but I didn't know you could. How exactly does that work?

It creates a circuit. It makes the same circuit it does when you press the power button

[Canada EH]

It aint voltage that kills its amperage. Plus there needs to be enough voltage to break skin resistance, so blood would do it. You can feel a buzz even off a 9V battery.

[malon]

You are dead and are now comunicating to us in your ghost form, but for real the chance of real phisical damage from that is realy slim to not exicting

[Bleedingyamato]

7 hours ago, Brian McKee said:

It was an accident because it's how I just hold my screwdrivers lol. The components still work.

Ummm..  Aren't you supposed to hold a screwdriver by the handle?  I.E. not the metal part.

[Brian McKee]

2 minutes ago, Bleedingyamato said:

Ummm..  Aren't you supposed to hold a screwdriver by the handle?  I.E. not the metal part.

I rest my index finger on a bit of the metal on some screwdrivers.

[Bleedingyamato]

7 hours ago, Jovidah said:

I haven't really heard of a whole lot of 12volt fatalities so I think the chances at physical harm were fairly limited...

 

Actually, having been stupid enough to once expose myself to 220 volts, even that was rather underwhelming considering the fuss people usually make about it. 

I forgot which it is (volts or amps) that actually is responsible for harming people.  One of the two I'm pretty sure might actually be safe even at high numbers but the other is what is the thing to watch out for and too high can do serious harm.

 

I think Mythbusters tested something about electricity once and mentioned something about this.

 

Edit: I didn't notice at first that other people already pointed out which it is that hurts you.  ?

Edited November 2, 2016 by Bleedingyamato

[Bleedingyamato]

1 minute ago, Brian McKee said:

I rest my index finger on a bit of the metal on some screwdrivers.

I'm having a hard time picturing that but I'll take your word for it.  

 

Glad it turned out ok.  That neither you nor your tech got fried.  Not getting hurt or destroying something is always nice.  ?

[Brian McKee]

Just now, Bleedingyamato said:

I'm having a hard time picturing that but I'll take your word for it.  

 

Glad it turned out ok.  That neither you nor your tech got fried.  Not getting hurt or destroying something is always nice.  ?

It's a habit I got from drumming.

[Space Reptile]

7 hours ago, Brian McKee said:

I was testing a motherboard on a cardboard box, and I was shorting the 2 pins to turn it on but my finger was on the metal part of the screwdriver by accident and I felt it a bit.

 

 

so you shorted the power Pins on the mobo wich would normally be shorted by the Switch

 

eh/10 danger , thats how i do it when i test boards , use a coin or screwdriver

[CaptainSav916]

if it makes you feel any better, I was dumb enough to plug in my beard trimmer while still half asleep, with one of my fingers touching a prong. I'm sure you can imagine how wonderful that felt... you are not alone.

[VerticalDiscussions]

Know what would be dangerous?

 

[WereCat]

Try again to make sure that you were not just lucky.

[ThinkWithPortals]

Did you die?

[Brennan Price]

17 hours ago, Jovidah said:

I haven't really heard of a whole lot of 12volt fatalities so I think the chances at physical harm were fairly limited...

 

Actually, having been stupid enough to once expose myself to 220 volts, even that was rather underwhelming considering the fuss people usually make about it. 

It isn't the voltage you have to worry about. It is the current that you have to worry about. It could be a high voltage with low current and you would be fine but if the tables were turned and you had a low voltage and a stupidly high current then that could kill you.

 

Edit: I forgot to mention that it is the high voltage that allows it to penetrate the skin because if the voltage is low then it wont even come into contact theoretically.