Was working in the grow room the other day...

GOT_BUD? · Feb 13, 2018

As some of us will do from time to time. :dance013:

I had my back turned to my lights that were on working on a little project, when I heard a very loud bang. Like a small explosion. Kinda sounded like a .22 rifle.

Now back in the old days, that would have signalled a blown lamp. Literally. Like exploded.

But today, with my LED's, it kinda leaves me scratching my noggin. 'Cause everything was (and still is) working just fine.

All I can think of is maybe it was an air bubble in the thermal paste between the COB and heatsink. Maybe it heated up enough to go pop finally.

Anyone else experience something similar?

Klompen · Sep 7, 2018

In some circuits a capacitor could blow and still leave the overall circuit functional. Then again, it could easily have been a droplet of condensation on something. It would be best to go over all your connections and make sure nothing is loose.

brickweeder · Sep 10, 2018

I shorted a resistor once, sounded like a mini-firecracker. Does the dim function still work in your light?

GOT_BUD? · Sep 11, 2018

Klompen said:
In some circuits a capacitor could blow and still leave the overall circuit functional. Then again, it could easily have been a droplet of condensation on something. It would be best to go over all your connections and make sure nothing is loose.

I did. Everything was kosher except for the melted housings of the reflectors. I did not have a fan blowing across the heatsinks as I should have, and they got a bit melty. I have since corrected the situation and all has been well.

brickweeder said:
I shorted a resistor once, sounded like a mini-firecracker. Does the dim function still work in your light?

Yes.

I still think it was an air bubble exploding between the COB and the heat sink. Never heard it again so I can't really investigate it further.

Ny2CaFuse · Sep 11, 2018

I'm wondering if I'm the only one reading the title of this thread in the character Waynes voice from the show Letterkenny.

GOT_BUD? · Sep 11, 2018

Ny2CaFuse said:
I'm wondering if I'm the only one reading the title of this thread in the character Waynes voice from the show Letterkenny.

That's exactly how I wrote it!!!

Lost in a SOG · Sep 11, 2018

No frickin way was it an air bubble in the thermal paste! what you smokin lol?

pass that joint already

Having heard wires shorting plenty of times, and it does sound like .22, I would guess that's what it was personally (hope it wasn't), or something else, but an air bubble between the cob and the heatsink making that much noise is just impossible imo..

:smoke out:

Ununionized · Sep 11, 2018

If you take the cover off the piece of equipment that you figure the popping sound came from,

if there was a noise that loud,

there's gonna be some physical evidence of smoke and scorching.

Just like your first respondent said, capacitors sound like a .22 or pop gun when they go off, and they tend to blow the entire body of the little capacitor away, and leave two small metal leads, little metal legs, sticking up out of the board they were soldered into.

In these instances you might not see a scorch mark anywhere because the little min-explosion is contained mostly by the body of the capacitor.

Someone said it could have been a resistor, - even just two wires touching.

That popping sound is the noise - I mean, you probably know this - of air expanding when two charged entities somehow become briefly shorted together, and the electrical energy vaporizes a tiny tiny little chunk of copper wire, or whatever - and this expansion ya know, - it's what makes that firecracker sound.

If it happened, and all is running well, your first poster is exactly right man, caps pop and the overall equipment will still keep running.

It's probably worth it to ya, to get a screwdriver, or whatever you've gotta get, and figure some way to look inside the thing.

Sometimes, it's just a matter of a wire nut slipping a little and a little tiny exposed 1/2 inch of wire, just touched a nut, or a screw head, or whatever -

if you find this kind of situation screw the wire nut back on tight after having taken it completely off - there'll be some exposed copper there, ya know, and probably a little scorch mark where the wire touched the screw head or even just the frame - sometimes this goes on.

The girl or guy putting that/those parts on, is new, and gets most of his/her stuff done right but they forget to tighten just one or two during their shift...

Good luck with your troubleshooting and poking around expedition.

GOT_BUD? · Sep 13, 2018

Lost in a SOG said:
No frickin way was it an air bubble in the thermal paste! what you smokin lol?

pass that joint already

Having heard wires shorting plenty of times, and it does sound like .22, I would guess that's what it was personally (hope it wasn't), or something else, but an air bubble between the cob and the heatsink making that much noise is just impossible imo..

Ununionized said:
If you take the cover off the piece of equipment that you figure the popping sound came from,

if there was a noise that loud,

there's gonna be some physical evidence of smoke and scorching.

Just like your first respondent said, capacitors sound like a .22 or pop gun when they go off, and they tend to blow the entire body of the little capacitor away, and leave two small metal leads, little metal legs, sticking up out of the board they were soldered into.

In these instances you might not see a scorch mark anywhere because the little min-explosion is contained mostly by the body of the capacitor.

Someone said it could have been a resistor, - even just two wires touching.

That popping sound is the noise - I mean, you probably know this - of air expanding when two charged entities somehow become briefly shorted together, and the electrical energy vaporizes a tiny tiny little chunk of copper wire, or whatever - and this expansion ya know, - it's what makes that firecracker sound.

If it happened, and all is running well, your first poster is exactly right man, caps pop and the overall equipment will still keep running.

It's probably worth it to ya, to get a screwdriver, or whatever you've gotta get, and figure some way to look inside the thing.

Sometimes, it's just a matter of a wire nut slipping a little and a little tiny exposed 1/2 inch of wire, just touched a nut, or a screw head, or whatever -

if you find this kind of situation screw the wire nut back on tight after having taken it completely off - there'll be some exposed copper there, ya know, and probably a little scorch mark where the wire touched the screw head or even just the frame - sometimes this goes on.

The girl or guy putting that/those parts on, is new, and gets most of his/her stuff done right but they forget to tighten just one or two during their shift...

Good luck with your troubleshooting and poking around expedition.

I've worked in electronics for 30 years. I know what a cap popping off sounds like and when wires get shorted together. This wasn't that sound. (Ever see flames shoot out of the front of an amplifier? Good times...)

This was a loud snap, not a pop. There was almost no bass to it.

I don't know what it was. I've never heard it again. And everything is as it should be. So I'll just chalk it up to Jimmy Hoffa's ghost.

Klompen · Sep 13, 2018

GOT_BUD? said:
I've worked in electronics for 30 years. I know what a cap popping off sounds like and when wires get shorted together. This wasn't that sound. (Ever see flames shoot out of the front of an amplifier? Good times...)

This was a loud snap, not a pop. There was almost no bass to it.

I don't know what it was. I've never heard it again. And everything is as it should be. So I'll just chalk it up to Jimmy Hoffa's ghost.

Just to be on the safe side I hope you have fire suppression available!

Ununionized · Sep 13, 2018

Small electrolytic caps and chips snap when they pop for some reasons.

When you said "blown bulb,'' I got the wrong impression. So basically I guess what you're saying is it was like a high voltage snap across some air gap.

You're not necessarily talking about mains power shorting.

Sometimes small plastic wire nuts fall off low voltage connections and the tips pop, when they contact the chassis; and if they're small, and soldered, and they come to a really fine point they can make a snapping sound, even if it's mains voltage, cause the enamel paint of course delimits the shit out of the arcing.

But you know that so... since you're the man on the ground there, you probably know as well as anyone what it's likely to be. What's your guess?

If you ever find out, it would be good to know what it was.

GOT_BUD? said:
I've worked in electronics for 30 years. I know what a cap popping off sounds like and when wires get shorted together. This wasn't that sound. (Ever see flames shoot out of the front of an amplifier? Good times...)

This was a loud snap, not a pop. There was almost no bass to it.

I don't know what it was. I've never heard it again. And everything is as it should be. So I'll just chalk it up to Jimmy Hoffa's ghost.

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Was working in the grow room the other day...

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