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Hardware building is an expensive hobby, and often involves aspects of engineering like heat, power, safety, etc. I don't trust myself to build something that

Hardware building is an expensive hobby, and often involves aspects of engineering like heat, power, safety, etc. I don't trust myself to build something that I can leave unattended and won't catch fire. How does one get over this?

fellowmartian 3y ago
Outsource dangerous building blocks to qualified people, overpay for quality components, learn proper wiring (ratings, crimping, etc).
01100011 3y ago
I don't know if you ever do, but designing with fat tolerances helps. If you're just building something once, it often doesn't cost much more to over-engineer it. Choose a more powerful processor than you need, add more cooling than you need, use more fuses and power-supply filtering than you need. Opto-isolate all I/O. Test it in a hotter/colder/more-humid environment than you'll use it in normally...
_benj 3y ago
I think outsourcing the “dangerous parts” i.e. buying a power supply instead of building one. Apart from that, most applications stay in the 5V range and few mA. If you are using something that requires more current then just over engineer. A motor that uses 0.5A? Buy a 3A mosfet, flipping 120v electricity? Buy a premade relay module that is already optically decoupled and just feed it 5V signals. When it comes to stuff failing in general at hobby level you either burn something instantly (plug the power to an IC backwards and see the magic smoke go away) or it just heats up VERY VERY FAST! I once plugged an external 5V power to a development board that was already USB powered but I didn’t know it… it started smelling like something was burning within a few seconds and I burned myself by touching it instead of pulling the heat camera :-)
jcalvinowens 3y ago
Use listed current limiting power supplies. A 10W 5V wall wart is incapable of starting a fire no matter how badly you screw up.
- fareesh 3y ago
  Helps to know, thanks
sheepybloke 3y ago
To build on what others are saying, when you have a project, just learn what is dangerous and be careful when dealing with that. For example, power supplies, wiring with mains, high current or voltage for motors, or LIPOs. Once you identify those key areas you can figure out how to handle them in a safe way!

fellowmartian 3y ago

Outsource dangerous building blocks to qualified people, overpay for quality components, learn proper wiring (ratings, crimping, etc).

01100011 3y ago

I don't know if you ever do, but designing with fat tolerances helps. If you're just building something once, it often doesn't cost much more to over-engineer it. Choose a more powerful processor than you need, add more cooling than you need, use more fuses and power-supply filtering than you need. Opto-isolate all I/O. Test it in a hotter/colder/more-humid environment than you'll use it in normally...

_benj 3y ago

I think outsourcing the “dangerous parts” i.e. buying a power supply instead of building one. Apart from that, most applications stay in the 5V range and few mA. If you are using something that requires more current then just over engineer. A motor that uses 0.5A? Buy a 3A mosfet, flipping 120v electricity? Buy a premade relay module that is already optically decoupled and just feed it 5V signals. When it comes to stuff failing in general at hobby level you either burn something instantly (plug the power to an IC backwards and see the magic smoke go away) or it just heats up VERY VERY FAST! I once plugged an external 5V power to a development board that was already USB powered but I didn’t know it… it started smelling like something was burning within a few seconds and I burned myself by touching it instead of pulling the heat camera :-)

jcalvinowens 3y ago

Use listed current limiting power supplies. A 10W 5V wall wart is incapable of starting a fire no matter how badly you screw up.

fareesh 3y ago
Helps to know, thanks

sheepybloke 3y ago

To build on what others are saying, when you have a project, just learn what is dangerous and be careful when dealing with that. For example, power supplies, wiring with mains, high current or voltage for motors, or LIPOs. Once you identify those key areas you can figure out how to handle them in a safe way!