dhuster@... wrote:
...
And regarding nuclear research, I remember a field engineer telling
me about selling a lot of transient digitizers to the nuclear
research community. They'd put a TD down a hole with a bomb with the
cabling leading to the blockhouse a couple of miles away. They'd
blow up the bomb and the TD would send the signal out of all the
stuff they were monitoring -- about 1???s before it went into total
meltdown -- and then in the blockhouse monitoring station, they'd
wait for the signal to show up and then after it was captured, high-
speed clamps shut the lines down so the the massive EMP that was
right on the tail of the data didn't totally destroy all the
monitoring equipment. But the poor transient digitizers .... they
got to make one and only one measurement in their entire lives before
that serial number ceased to exist. Danged expensive probe!
Dean
Concerning 'strange' uses of TDs: I have a problem with a 7912AD
which apparantly has been used in the Sandia National Labs (it has
a Sandia cal sticker from 1993). While repairing the power supply,
I got some fine light brown dust present in the supply on my fingers.
After some minutes I had the impression that the dust warmed my
fingers up, I also had a salty taste in my mouth after working on
the supply. I let the TD run for some time with the case open, and
the TD's fan obviously spread some of that dust inside the room I
normally work in. During the weeks which followed, after being some
hours in the same room, I got a slight headache and nausea unless
I opened the door for letting fresh air in.
The problem is that I neither know if this dust is bad for my health,
nor what to do to find out what the dust is. Does anyone have a clue
what it might be, or has anyone ever seen something similar?
Laurent Lamesch
