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I converted my microwave into a laser oven [video]

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Re: I converted my microwave into a laser oven [video]

#31

Post by junon »

avianlyric wrote: post #29
junon wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It can be difficult to know if you’re capable of doing something safely Not really. Opening up electronics, fiddling with them, and then plugging them in, is pretty typically considered dangerous. It's such a ridiculous argument to say we should be censoring this stuff because it's dangerous to the untrained. Should we censor professional cooking videos where they chop food really fast with sharp knives? Someone co…

> Not really. Opening up electronics, fiddling with them, and then plugging them in, is pretty typically considered dangerous. With a microwave, just opening it up and fiddling is dangerous. No need to plug it in. The main capacitor inside stores enough charge at a high enough voltage to kill you. Unless you take explicit steps to discharge it, it’ll hold that charge for hours to days. > It's such a ridiculous argume…

Sorry, I simply don't agree with your point of view.

Re: I converted my microwave into a laser oven [video]

#32

Post by jrootabega »

junon wrote: post #21
avian wrote: post #14

I wonder, how many people will give themselves RF burns or permanent laser damage to their eyesight trying to replicate stuff they see in these click-baity videos? YouTube is full of content that tries to give the impression of a random, edgy, not-quite-knowing-what-they're-doing guy just messing around with stuff in their parent's garage, woefully ignoring all safety concerns on camera. I'm sure many of their viewer…

This isn't a clickbaitey video. This is styropyro, one of the most knowledgeable YouTubers when it comes to lasers and the related engineering. He's not just some dude who hooks up lasers to a wall outlet. He knows very well what he's doing. He always makes a point about proper laser safety. Another one is Photonicinduction, an electrical engineer that plays with insane voltages in his attic basically. I'd never want…

I think it is/isn't a clickbait video regardless of the credentials of who produced it. I agree this one is. It's padded out to 20 minutes, stealth mid roll ads inserted, etc. You don't get to be well-known on youtube by making non-clickbait content. I don't dispute that he's knowledgeable, though.

Re: I converted my microwave into a laser oven [video]

#33

Post by avianlyric »

joe-collins wrote: post #27
avianlyric wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If some idiot thinks they're god and wants to emulate something they're clearly not capable of doing safely It can be difficult to know if you’re capable of doing something safely. Unfortunately you only find out that you’re not capable when it goes wrong. There’s a reason why labs and engineering firms force people through long detailed safety training courses. There’s a lot of things out there that can kill or se…

03:11 > Now I gotta say it, poking around in a microwave is not for the inexperienced. When electronics hobbyists get killed by their projects, it's almost always because they're messing around with microwave parts like these.

I think he could have done better and worked more warnings into his delivery as he went.

Simply saying something dangerous isn’t enough. People need to understand _why_ it’s dangerous, or they’re likely to ignore the warnings.

When he was messing around with the capacitors (the really dangerous bit in a microwave). It would have been easy to work in a sentence about how they have a high voltage, and touching them could kill you.

Equally when he was messing with the lasers, he didn’t explain the risk at all, or even demonstrate any safety equipment. Him simply wearing this laser googles on his forehead for the second half of the video would be enough to make it clear that he’s using safety equipment and not just winging it.

Re: I converted my microwave into a laser oven [video]

#34

Post by junon »

avianlyric wrote: post #33
joe-collins wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

03:11 > Now I gotta say it, poking around in a microwave is not for the inexperienced. When electronics hobbyists get killed by their projects, it's almost always because they're messing around with microwave parts like these.

I think he could have done better and worked more warnings into his delivery as he went. Simply saying something dangerous isn’t enough. People need to understand _why_ it’s dangerous, or they’re likely to ignore the warnings. When he was messing around with the capacitors (the really dangerous bit in a microwave). It would have been easy to work in a sentence about how they have a high voltage, and touching them cou…

I think you're making a lot of assumptions about someone based off of one video. If you've been a styropyro fan for a while, you'd know how serious he takes safety. He has whole videos about proper safety glasses and whatnot, and even destroys some to demonstrate that not all glasses are safe or even made correctly.

Almost every video of his mentions "if these lasers were on for even a second and I'm not wearing glasses, I would immediately go blind".

Re: I converted my microwave into a laser oven [video]

#35

Post by avianlyric »

junon wrote: post #31
avianlyric wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Not really. Opening up electronics, fiddling with them, and then plugging them in, is pretty typically considered dangerous. With a microwave, just opening it up and fiddling is dangerous. No need to plug it in. The main capacitor inside stores enough charge at a high enough voltage to kill you. Unless you take explicit steps to discharge it, it’ll hold that charge for hours to days. > It's such a ridiculous argume…

Sorry, I simply don't agree with your point of view.

Out of interest, have you ever worked with equipment like this? Or in an environment that contains this type of equipment?

Trying to avoid a personal attack here. But having worked in environments that deal with high voltage equipment, and high power lasers, been through the safety training, and also been prevented by co-workers from touching/doing something that would have seriously injured me. I’ve developed a healthy fear of electricity, microwaves and lasers.

Once you make enough silly mistakes that injure you, and meet enough people missing fingers, have serious, work induced, chronic illnesses and know people that died. You start understand how little stands between you and the abyss.

I think I can be tricky for people to really comprehend the danger until you’ve seen the photos, met the people, and made your own mistakes.

Re: I converted my microwave into a laser oven [video]

#36

Post by Tuna-Fish »

tgsovlerkhgsel wrote: post #20

The obvious way to both utilize the unique properties of lasers, and solve the diffusion problem, would be operating this at a larger distance. What he has can probably cook the steak from a hundred meters away.

What he doesn't have is a hundred-meter room, and operating the laser array outdoors would be criminally negligent.

Of course, plenty of mirrors arranged just right could give the same effect with limited space, and also allow him to cook the steak from all directions at once. Clearly there are opportunities here.

Re: I converted my microwave into a laser oven [video]

#37

Post by jowsie »

avianlyric wrote: post #33
joe-collins wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

03:11 > Now I gotta say it, poking around in a microwave is not for the inexperienced. When electronics hobbyists get killed by their projects, it's almost always because they're messing around with microwave parts like these.

I think he could have done better and worked more warnings into his delivery as he went. Simply saying something dangerous isn’t enough. People need to understand _why_ it’s dangerous, or they’re likely to ignore the warnings. When he was messing around with the capacitors (the really dangerous bit in a microwave). It would have been easy to work in a sentence about how they have a high voltage, and touching them cou…

These are all great points, for someone putting out a single video. When an entire channel covers a single subject matter with the same precautions etc each time, it's easier to just create dedicated videos to that information, otherwise each video you release comes with a 30 minute safety training section. Nile Red is another channel who does a lot of things that are potentially dangerous, and in editing will gloss over some of the safety precautions taken. He also has dedicated videos to lab safety for this purpose.

Re: I converted my microwave into a laser oven [video]

#38

Post by avianlyric »

junon wrote: post #34
avianlyric wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think he could have done better and worked more warnings into his delivery as he went. Simply saying something dangerous isn’t enough. People need to understand _why_ it’s dangerous, or they’re likely to ignore the warnings. When he was messing around with the capacitors (the really dangerous bit in a microwave). It would have been easy to work in a sentence about how they have a high voltage, and touching them cou…

I think you're making a lot of assumptions about someone based off of one video. If you've been a styropyro fan for a while, you'd know how serious he takes safety. He has whole videos about proper safety glasses and whatnot, and even destroys some to demonstrate that not all glasses are safe or even made correctly. Almost every video of his mentions "if these lasers were on for even a second and I'm not wearing glas…

I’ll go watch more of his videos then.

To be clear I really enjoyed the video, and love videos like this, and want to see more. They’re incredibly educational, and do a fantastic job of lifting the curtain on the modern miracles of science we take for granted everyday, and demonstrating that normal people can understand them. With luck it’ll encourage more people to pick up science and engineering, and build new and interesting things.

But I do worry that sometimes the internet makes it very easy for people to put themselves into very dangerous situations without realising it. I don’t think it’s unreasonable for educational community on YouTube to be constantly trying to find new ways of teaching about the risks, in addition to messing around with the science.

Re: I converted my microwave into a laser oven [video]

#39

Post by jowsie »

wodenokoto wrote: post #9
londons_explore wrote: post #3

Each of those laser array chips is ~$300 when bought as a factory reject from China. He has 9 of them... Is YouTube really profitable enough to spend $2.5k just in parts, not to mention the other components and a few days to assemble test and film this?

Have you seen the insane studio and production value of MKBHD? They use better cameras than what some theater releases are shot on. I definitely can't work out the budget of a youtuber either, but there is money to be made. Speaking of which, does anyone know if Mr. Beast is actually giving away wads of cash and expensive cars on his channel? The only TV show I can think of that gave away more money was when Oprah ga…

Mr Beast is 100% giving away everything he claims too. There are a few videos of him talking about the process, which basically involves convincing sponsors to bank roll the giveaways.

Re: I converted my microwave into a laser oven [video]

#40

Post by pell »

wodenokoto wrote: post #9
londons_explore wrote: post #3

Each of those laser array chips is ~$300 when bought as a factory reject from China. He has 9 of them... Is YouTube really profitable enough to spend $2.5k just in parts, not to mention the other components and a few days to assemble test and film this?

Have you seen the insane studio and production value of MKBHD? They use better cameras than what some theater releases are shot on. I definitely can't work out the budget of a youtuber either, but there is money to be made. Speaking of which, does anyone know if Mr. Beast is actually giving away wads of cash and expensive cars on his channel? The only TV show I can think of that gave away more money was when Oprah ga…

The MKBHD studio tour was very entertaining to watch and definitely taught me that I have no idea about YouTuber economics. They have a permanent fixed multiple thousand dollar camera just for those topdown shots.
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