6.19.2006
Kentucky Fried iPod Shuffle
Is your iPod broken? Think you can fix it yourself? This story we found on ipastudio.com might change your mind.Someone named Chris T tried to open his broken iPod Shuffle. He's just a project manger with no real engineering experience, but he wanted to give it a try. He grabbed a metal knife and started to pry open the iPod. Apparently he hit a small capacitor or the battery with his knife because "the iPod basically exploded in his face and caught fire." Moments later the room was full of black smoke, sparks and girlish screams. The end result was something that can only be described as a Kentucky Fried Shuffle.
Francis, a friend of Chris T who blogged about this story, feels there are 2 morals or lessons to be learned from this experience:
- Apple made the iPod Shuffle in a way for it not to be opened... there is a reason for this!
- Project Managers should never think of themselves as "Hardware Engineers"
digg story | methodshop
Pimpin' Thoughts:
It must have been the lithium-Ion battery, they are extremely dangerous when punctured. Lithium is an alkai metal (much like sodium) and very reactive to water (including water vapor in the air). It Oxidizes very quicly (burns).
If you were lucky in chemistry class you probably saw your teacher drop some sodium in water, a similar effect occurs with lithium.
He would have been fine if he hadn't done one of the following: 1) Punctured the battery, 2) Damaged the safety device built into the battery, or 3) Shorted the battery.
If you were lucky in chemistry class you probably saw your teacher drop some sodium in water, a similar effect occurs with lithium.
He would have been fine if he hadn't done one of the following: 1) Punctured the battery, 2) Damaged the safety device built into the battery, or 3) Shorted the battery.
It looks like the battery wasn't connected properly. The battery is what exploded. There was a backup of battery juice that eventually ate away at the connections. I don't think that him hitting the Shuffle helped this juice to stop at all.
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