Good point, Gafisher. Everybody in product development seems to be suing and getting sued these days -- Sony, Apple, MS, Amazon, Samsung. They all have one thing in common -- $$$. I don't believe the small inventor is going to get sued simply because there is no possibility of a big payday.
Good point, J-allen. I don't think Andrew has anything to be concerned about here. People build gadgets at their own risk, even if they come from a published source.
Thank you all so much for your kind words. They make me feel a lot better. Fortunately, my next project does not operate directly off the power line. I don't know when it will be published.
Getting sued? Magizines (hobby and professional) have been publishing plans for projects for well over a century. Can anyone name a single case where an author has suffered any civil or criminal judgment because someone attempted to replicate the published design and got into trouble?
Line voltage safety: We have been using electricity for well over 100 years. If anyone is doing electrical and electronic work and still doesn't know you can get a shock from line voltages, then he pretty much deserves to get zapped.
I am not an attorney but I am almost certain you won't get sued for giving this kind of information away. Otherwise hobby electronics magazines, who actually sell the information, would have long ago ceased to exist as they depend on people like you for their projects. They print stuff like this with a simple warning that high voltages are accessible so use your own "good judgement".
Take a look at the July 2012 projects issue of Elektor USA and you will find four or five line operated projects that are not transformer isolated, usually powered by a resistor/capacitor direct to the power line. And since these have to operate in Europe as well as the US, they expose as much as 230V.
IANAL either, but I'd say no liability for what someone does by their own choice.
The whole liability issue is fodder for another day, but I have to wonder how many inventions have been suppressed by their inventors over the simple fear that some idiot is going to barbeque himself while misusing the product. Would Edison, Ford, Bell have brought their ideas to market in today's litigious toxic atmosphere?
I like it, I could use something like this for my gazebo in the winter. Also, if anyone has not already said so, you can probably use a power switch tail from sparkfun. I used one to automatically switch off my soldering iron if it falls off of my workbench.
is available at Amazon for less than it would cost to make mine. It also has a digital readout. You can solve the temperature issue by setting its temperature a couple degrees cooler that you want the eye-level temperature to be. Just keep it well away from the heater. I don't want the liability of someone building a faulty version of my gadget.
Andrew Morris designed a circuit that could detect a stroke victim's groan and convert the sound into a signal so caregivers would know when help was needed.
New disc magnet motors fit into the design trend of stepping up to closed loop performance while maintaining the cost advantage of stepper motor technology.
At the Design News webinar on June 27, learn all about aluminum extrusion: designing the right shape so it costs the least, is simplest to manufacture, and best fits the application's structural requirements.
On April 21, NASA launched a novel project, putting into orbit three satellites that employ an off-the-shelf commercial smartphone as the control system.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 5
Early in my career, I worked as a draftsman and remember the days of drawing on vellum with numbered pencils and Mylar with plastic lead. This was a fun experience in the sense that I ...
I've been using workstations for more than 10 years and love finding ways to get more performance from my system. With demanding professional applications that require more power each ...
A lasting memory from my first job as an engineer in an auto assembly plant is standing on hard concrete at six in the morning, vending-machine coffee clutched in hand, listening to ...
For industrial control applications, or even a simple assembly line, that machine can go almost 24/7 without a break. But what happens when the task is a little more complex? That’s where the “smart” machine would come in. The smart machine is one that has some simple (or complex in some cases) processing capability to be able to adapt to changing conditions. Such machines are suited for a host of applications, including automotive, aerospace, defense, medical, computers and electronics, telecommunications, consumer goods, and so on. This radio show will show what’s possible with smart machines, and what tradeoffs need to be made to implement such a solution.
To save this item to your list of favorite Design News content so you can find it later in your Profile page, click the "Save It" button next to the item.
If you found this interesting or useful, please use the links to the services below to share it with other readers. You will need a free account with each service to share an item via that service.
Tweet This
0 
