Streetlights and other odd electronic failures

[John G]

Re: Seemingly odd electronic device failure

In short, it seems to me that there is "something" in people that affects electronic devices. My theory is that there is something about people - be it psychic energy, something to do with consciousness, or whatever - that interacts with electrical and electronic devices in ways that we don't quite understand yet. That's not really hard to imagine given that we don't even understand how gravity really works. Actually, I don't think we as a species understand anything about anything, now that I think about it.

Sounds like the Pauli effect

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pauli_effect

The Pauli effect is a reference to the apparently mysterious anecdotal failure of technical equipment in the presence of certain people... An incident occurred in the physics laboratory at the University of Göttingen. An expensive measuring device, for no apparent reason, suddenly stopped working, although Pauli was in fact absent. James Franck, the director of the institute reported the incident to his colleague Pauli in Zürich with the humorous remark that at least this time Pauli was innocent. However, it turned out that Pauli on a railway journey to Copenhagen switched trains in Göttingen rail station about the time of failure... Wolfgang Pauli was convinced that the effect named after him was real.

 

[durabone]

Re: Seemingly odd electronic device failure

One more thought is to examine the connections between these two boxes very carefully (if any) I saw something like this happen once when we were using a cheesy ADC card that had auxilliary power in the lines. 5V met 5V and that was ok. But a sudden voltage drop on one side of the connection allowed the power supply in the other device to try and compensate. Result: burnout.

 

[dant]

Re: Seemingly odd electronic device failure


I have seen this many times, when the power supply
burns out or actually smoking and flaming, more than
once. I have actually measured the power rails and
they LOOK within specs - voltage-wise, but under load,
is was totally out of spec - result - "flaky motherboard"
- so - I replaced the power supply with the proper current
needs, and the motherboard is fine. Gotta watch the PS!

Often times the power supply is underrated to drive all
of its devices when they are added over time - so one
has to make sure there is enough current to drive these
devices and most likely in server systems but not likely
in laptops unless it was a PS going bad or the laptop
PS design was wrong.

PS: Scotty - there is (most likely) an explanation for your
MOBO not working in one system but fine the other system?

Hmm... a good possibility, no?

 

[ignis.intimus]

Re: Seemingly odd electronic device failure

Still no further issues with the device in question. What is interesting to me is that I felt no zap or discharge at all, nothing. And I am sure it was at the moment of contact when the fiber touched the card. The general consensus from my co-workers seems to be that it was merely coincidence, that it had nothing to do with what I was doing. That would make the timing incredible though. Regarding the fault-analysis, the manufacturer had told me before they would do this on failed parts. Apparently the caveat is that the part must not be end-of-sale. Makes sense, why would they spend money figuring out what with wrong with "last years model". The dollar figure on our support contract is high, so it was not entirely unlikely they would perform the testing.

Again, this happened inside of a temperature and humidity controlled data center. I have worked in DC's for about 5 years now, and an electro-static discharge within the DC is virtually unheard of, at least at my company. Also, I had already been in contact with the device for several seconds, so any static potential should've already balanced out I would think. I have fried components before, and when this happens it generally has fried the first electronic component it reaches. I once brushed my sock against an audio jack on the front of a PC. Felt and saw the spark, computer shut down, motherboard had a noticeable burn mark where this audio connection met the motherboad; the PC worked after that, just no audio. In this case, the first component would've been the fiber-optic transceiver on either end, and I would expect the path to ground to be shorter towards the device I was working on, not the other one. The only "normal" conclusion I can reach is that I did cause an ESD shock, this traveled somehow on the outside of the plastic fiber cable, and when it met the chassis, it "rode" the surface of the chassis until it reached the grounding lug, which I believe would feed back into the power-supply somehow. The P/S that fried was the spare/redundant one.

I was in a pretty "excited" and rushed state at the time. Very early in the morning, long hours, and running out of time to finish my work. I am still not sure what to make of it, perhaps in a "future" life I will have an answer. Thanks for everyone's input, when I get to Wave Book 6 I will be sure to reflect on this.

About MOBOs and their apparently finicky nature: I have noticed similar behavior before. At school, we had a hardware lab and there was this one MOBO that just didn't like a particular chassis. Both the MOBO and the chassis worked fine with other components, but not each other. We never did figure out why.

About some people not working out well with computers: I gave a friend of mine an older, but reliable PC. It worked fine until he had one of his friends over. This guy seemed pretty negative. An Iraq veteran who liked to stare at people like a stalker/predator and just in general gave me and my wife the creeps. He was over one day using my friends computer for a couple of hours, when it just stopped working. The guy didn't open up the chassis at all, it just died. We spent hours troubleshooting it but everything seemed broken: the P/S and MOBO wouldn't work in any other computers. My friend, not very inclined to esoterica, is convinced the guy broke it with his bad mojo.

 

[RedFox]

Re: Seemingly odd electronic device failure

The only "normal" conclusion I can reach is that I did cause an ESD shock, this traveled somehow on the outside of the plastic fiber cable, and when it met the chassis, it "rode" the surface of the chassis until it reached the grounding lug, which I believe would feed back into the power-supply somehow. The P/S that fried was the spare/redundant one.

fwiw I remember reading about Tesla's experiments with high voltage at high frequency. The charge would transmit over the surface of the object and not through it. He apparently use to use his equipment to shoot 'lightning' from his finger tips.
Was DB on when the card was half out? Perhaps some residual charge earthed through DB....and the potential difference via the cable and the two system via the power lines was what caused it? Am guessing here mind...

About MOBOs and their apparently finicky nature: I have noticed similar behavior before. At school, we had a hardware lab and there was this one MOBO that just didn't like a particular chassis. Both the MOBO and the chassis worked fine with other components, but not each other. We never did figure out why.

I've even seen motherboards "die", only to be re-installed in another computer and they magically start working as if nothing was wrong. Before I moved this particular motherboard, I tried different power supplies, measured the voltages, and other such things to try to eliminate other possible reasons for the failure. If I had been logical about it, I would have thrown the motherboard away because it was clearly dead. Instead, it is to this day still working great in a different machine! And the original machine with only a new motherboard has also been working great since then.

Having been repairing laptops as a hobby for some time now, I've had to deal with the above on a different scale. In my case over tightening screws or just general ware/tear had caused motherboards to warp slightly.....fracturing soldier joins in sub millimeter components.
I'm curiouse to know if you tried ruling out the PSU Mr Scott?? I try and treat everything as a component, even the chassis.....putting insulating tape on the inside of laptop cases has helped fix one or two! Poor design leeding to a minor short.

Having said all that however.....

In short, it seems to me that there is "something" in people that affects electronic devices. My theory is that there is something about people - be it psychic energy, something to do with consciousness, or whatever - that interacts with electrical and electronic devices in ways that we don't quite understand yet. That's not really hard to imagine given that we don't even understand how gravity really works. Actually, I don't think we as a species understand anything about anything, now that I think about it.

As a result, I never discount the possibility that there is something else at work outside of the reasons you have given. Sure, sometimes it's pretty clear that there was a failure in some component. Replace the component, things work again. But very frequently, it doesn't work that way at all for me. So, when strange things happen, I just pat the device and tell it that it's a good boy/girl, and go about my business.

Your mileage may vary (a lot).

I use to (And still do) sometimes have that exact effect on computers. Being in tech support it actually comes in handy.......
At university in the computer labs I'd go help people with there computer coding (I tended to finish before everyone else). This stopped happening after one week where every computer I walked up to to go help with would crash or switch off, so they lost there work!!
I use to do this when my friends where playing computer games too (Even if it was my PC).
But it never happened when I was using it.....
The opposite now seems to be true, I'll walk up to someones computer at work (or the printer or fax etc) who is having a problem...either software or hardware...and 9 times out of 10 it'll just magically start working. Makes my job easier that's for sure
Something to do with non anticipation possibly, because if I want to fix it like that it doesn't work.

Actually, I'd like to thank you for starting this thread Aaron, as it may help explain some problems I've been having with laptops I've sold to people.

 

[JonnyRadar]

Re: Seemingly odd electronic device failure

Just a note to this thread... I just got up and walked through the studio here at school, and one of the large bulbs in the ceiling blew out with a *POP* right as I walked underneath it. Could be coincidence but it struck me as odd. All my students looked at me like

:P

 

[RedFox]

Re: Seemingly odd electronic device failure

Just a note to this thread... I just got up and walked through the studio here at school, and one of the large bulbs in the ceiling blew out with a *POP* right as I walked underneath it. Could be coincidence but it struck me as odd. All my students looked at me like

:P

Ok....now you've reminded me that I've had street lamps go off as I've walked under them...only to come back on again as I walk away.

 

[manitoban]

Re: Seemingly odd electronic device failure

Just a note to this thread... I just got up and walked through the studio here at school, and one of the large bulbs in the ceiling blew out with a *POP* right as I walked underneath it. Could be coincidence but it struck me as odd. All my students looked at me like

:P

I remember when I first started to study Laura's work, in addition to practically every appliance in my house breaking down, lightbulbs were popping all the time. I'd read some new shocking (to me at the time) revelation and seconds later the light bulb beside me would go out.

 

[dant]

Re: Seemingly odd electronic device failure

Reflecting on what BlueLamp pointed out about the Pauli Effect,
there was something else interesting to note in Wiki:

The Pauli effect, if it were real, would be classified as a "macro-psychokinetic" phenomenon. Wolfgang Pauli was convinced that the effect named after him was real.[1] As Pauli considered parapsychology as worth serious investigation, this would fit with his scientific thinking. Pauli e.g. corresponded with Hans Bender and Carl Jung on the concept of Synchronicity. In 1934, he saw a failure of his car during a honeymoon tour with his second wife as a prove of a real Pauli effect since it occurred without an obvious external cause.[2]

So as for popping light-bulbs and street lights mysteriously turning off
then on after passing by, and such, one usually expects to explain it away
as coincidence at least for the first time, and becomes harder and harder
to explain it way in the same way when it happens more often than once.
I counted this effect >20 and gave up counting... and I still cannot 'explain
it away via rationalisation' no matter how hard I try :D

Seems like something out of the Twilight Zone... DodoDodoDodoDodo... :D

But in electronics - it is hard to SEE/Observe charge gradients floating/
hanging around, and in many cases, ESD damage still can happen with
no ZAPs or the feeling of a charge leaving one's body.

I have seen cases even in a "ESD Certified" room where sensitive parts
still end up getting blown - because of careless human error for not taking
the proper step wear ESD clothes/shoes/coverings to GROUND THYSELF or
that the ESD area was properly tested (re-certified periodically)!

The human body itself is like a big capacitor, a collector/generator of ES charges
(think hair, skin, shoes, wool clothes, rubber shoes... and the list goes on
and on. If you have not seen the "clean room" IC manufacturing plant,
I suggest you take a look at their procedures and actions against ESD - it
is interesting really but it is not completely 100% ESD FREE but certainly
minimised as much as possible and this costs real $$$ to setup such a closed
environment (the air is even filtered to remove charged ions floating around).
Your "computer room" is not the same as a "clean room" unless it is certified
as "ESD FREE" room... no papers, no cardboard boxes, filtered de-ionized air,
proper clothes and shoe "bunnies", ESD stations and grounding straps... no
rubberized cables, floor tiles are ESD certified, and the list goes on and on,
and yes, I have been in 'computer rooms' of large companies to know the
difference.

Since I would surmise that you did not properly ground yourself, and if
that is the case, then there was no possible way for you to drain off
the charges from that of what you touch or from your own person,
and to a grounded source.

From personal experience, I have seen this over and over, and
the second that I removed my grounding straps, walked ONE STEP
over to grab something then accidentally touch the circuit board I
was working on to end up with a zapped chip/MOBO/Cell Phone and
in many cases did not necessarily result in a ZAP or feeling of a charge
transfers - in most cases, it is the "silent ESD" that does most of the
damages.

Don't take my word for anything I said, but I am sure there are plenty
of facts "laying around" on this subject.

FWIW,
Dan

 

[ignis.intimus]

Re: Seemingly odd electronic device failure

DB was powered on at the time.

This was definitely not a clean room, but it ain't no converted closet neither ;D But like you say, an ES discharge doesn't necessarily need to be felt or seen to have happened. It's just the shocks at 1K's of volts that we notice. I guess what still boggles my brain is the riding of what, I would think, should be "standard" electrical voltage frequency('s) across a highly non-conductive surface.

Some things I remembered while reading through the replies: While taking the card out, my right hand was mostly removing the card, and my left arm and hand were used to hold some fibers out of the way, including the one that touched. I had to continuously move my arm during this to keep the fibers up and out of the way; I should've taken the time to restrain them better. So perhaps during this movement I built up a charge that got transferred into the chassis of DA. Maybe it jumped across one of my arm hairs right into the grounding lug, which was somewhat near my left arm.

Thanks again for all of these replies. Sometimes seemingly weird stuff happens and it's good to let them air out, as it were. I guess my conclusions at this point are that it was an uncommon, if not rare sort of event, but "standard" electrical occurrence. Standard precautions, like an ESD wrist strap probably would've prevented it.

AND that it is interesting issue to have happen to me, given that I have grounding issues of my own (feet issues).

 

[ScarletBegonias]

What's up with these street lights shutting off on me?

Every morning in the 4'o'clock hour (long before sunrise) I walk about a block to the gym in my apartment complex. Nobody is on the street at that time and the street lights light my way. It seems that practically every day a street light will shut off when I'm about to approach it or when I've just walked under it. I've always just been used to this happening, but it's always a little startling.

Well, this morning I was sleepy while on my way to the gym and I got frustrated when one went off as I walked underneath it. I decided to check and see if it was still out when I came back from the gym and it was. Right when I saw that it was still out I immediately flung my right arm into the air in a frustrated motion (I was carrying items in my left hand) and suddenly it flashed back on as if I had somehow flicked it on with the quick movement of my hand in the air!

I don't understand why this is going on and I have denied that I have anything to do with it for quite some time now. However, the lights that go off are ones that I am walking right by and it's as if there is a motion sensor in them or something. But why would there be a motion sensor to have a street light shut off when it's still pitch black outside? Years ago I read of this happening to the artist Diego Rivera when he was courting Frida Kahlo, I but thought maybe it was just a story he made up. I read online that others experience the same phenomenon too. Does this happen to anyone on the forum?

 

[anart]

Re: What's up with these street lights shutting off on me?

This is actually really common, Scarlet and has been discussed in a few places on the forum previously. If you use the search function, you can probably find those threads.

 

[ScarletBegonias]

Re: What's up with these street lights shutting off on me?

This is actually really common, Scarlet and has been discussed in a few places on the forum previously. If you use the search function, you can probably find those threads.

Oh yeah? I used the search function, but couldn't find anything. Thanks for the lead, anart! I'll search again. :)

 

[ScarletBegonias]

Re: What's up with these street lights shutting off on me?

I have typed in a few different key words, but still haven't found the discussions yet. However, I just discovered this:

_http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_light_interference_phenomenon

Hilary Evans and the The SLI Effect

Hilary Evans, an English author who writes about paranormal subjects, coined the word "SLIder" to refer to someone who causes this effect, in his book The SLI Effect.[5] In this book on page 15 he explains that a wide variety of street lamp types show
“the effect is spontaneous and is apparently meaningless; it serves no practical purpose, nor does it seem to provide satisfaction for the individual or in any other way serve some kind of psychological purpose.”

In the preface of the book Evans says,
“SLI is an apparent phenomenon, based on claims by many people that they involuntarily, and usually spontaneously, cause street lamps to go out. Generally the effect is intermittent, infrequent and without an immediately discernible sequence of cause and effect. SLI deserves study because it gives the appearance of being an anomalous phenomenon in its own right. That is to say, it appears to be an effect which is not consistent with our current knowledge of how people interact with the physical world, and which occurs in specific circumstances.”

On page 16 he explains what seems most likely to be happening,
“Most commentators, confronted with the Street Light Interference phenomenon, look - and rightly - for a straightforward physical explanation. For example, when Robert McMorris of the Omaha World-Herald devoted two or three issues of his regular column to SLI reports in January 1990, he quoted Allen Klostermeyer, manufacturer's representative for Lighting Specialists Inc., who pointed out that when a sodium (amber) bulb nears the end of its useful life, it may go into an off-and-on sequence:

When one of them starts to "die", it requires more voltage. This will cause the lamp to go off temporarily;
when it cools down, it will come on again for a while. Eventually it will die completely.”

“This, it was suggested, is sufficient to explain the SLI effect; what happens is that the witness just happens to be passing such a lamp during its death-throes, and is led by the synchronicity to imagine that he is somehow responsible. But as the testimony shows, even if we allow the coincidence in place and time, this effect could account for only a small fraction of the reported cases. For one thing, other types of lamp are involved besides sodium lamps. Then again, only a small number of reports describe anything like an SL going off, then on, then off again. And what about when a witness extinguishes a whole batch of SLs: are we to conclude that the whole batch was purchased together, and so shared the same life-span, and such was the perfection of their manufacture, that they all reached their death-point simultaneously? Yet even if we allow that, there is still the fact that some SLIders extinguish a row of SLs in sequence, each one going out as the witnesses nears it: it is asking too much to suppose that a series of lamps would have been arranged in order of their life-span.[6]”
[edit] Skepticism of SLI

The skeptical explanation to claims of SLI is to consider it an example of confirmation bias: people are much more likely to notice when a street light near them turns on or off than they are to notice a street light in a steady state. This is compounded by a failure mode of street lights, known as "cycling", in which street lights of the high pressure sodium type turn off and on more frequently at the end of their life cycle.[7] Also, a bizarre personal causal inference, especially in the case of inferring a relationship from one or few instances, is known as magical thinking. A top high pressure sodium engineer at General Electric, quoted by Cecil Adams, summarizes that SLI is "a combination of coincidence and wishful thinking".[7] Massimo Polidoro notes in Skeptical Inquirer that "Paranormal phenomenon is the least likely possibility."[8]

I could see how people would think the lights are just dying, but these lights are functional the next day until I walk by one that decides to shut off again. I don't think the bulbs would be replaced that fast if they died, but I could be wrong. Also, I could see the skeptical GE engineer's suggestion about it being "wishful thinking," but its just occurred so often for so long now that it's impossible for me to ignore.

 

[DGF]

Re: What's up with these street lights shutting off on me?

Or there could be a problem with a capsitor wearing out, causing the lamp to go and when the capsitor cools down it turns back on. Which is what I've attribited to when it's happened to me. The only difference is it's happened to me in different locales. I've also concidered perhaps it's a field that I generated, but nah. ;)