Watch On A warning from the maker Dunn ends his crazy hot dog LED testing device project post with a word of warning, as he should. “Don't touch the hot dog, the LEDs, the forks or the bun while the hot dog tester is plugged in,” advises the electronics expert. “It's wise to set something heavy on the cord so you won't trip on it and pull the hot forks on the floor.”
As well as the electrical safety concerns, we wonder what chemicals might be introduced to the hot dog using this cooking method. The LED ‘legs’ may be coated in some kind of factory residue, and be made of a metal that could taint the food.
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Mark Tyson Social Links Navigation News Editor Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason.
chaz_music We did that in college and it was a lot of fun, but yes, very dangerous. Now I would use a GFCI outlet at least. Note that an AFCI breaker might trip, as there could be arcing inside the hotdog around the electrodes. Since the power delivery is mathematically V^2 / R, I would expect that the power is roughly 4X as much at 240VAC versus 120VAC, so should take about 15-20 seconds to cook in many global areas versus about 60 seconds in the US using 120VAC. When the smoke detector goes off, dinner is done. Reply
Findecanor That picture must have been taken very quickly before the sausage started smoking … Reply
Fruitmaniac I have questions: 1. Are the LEDs 120v? 2. Do they flicker at 50/60 Hz? Reply
chaz_music Fruitmaniac said: I have questions: 1. Are the LEDs 120v? 2. Do they flicker at 50/60 Hz? Those appear to be regular LEDs. The hotdog is going to act like a resistive voltage divider, although it might be a bit non-linear. The LEDs are going to react to the voltage across the hotdog as though it were just resistors, so yes I would expect that they are flickering at line frequency. They can only illuminate with forward voltage, so reverse voltage won't cause any light. Note that LEDs can be damaged by relatively small reverse voltages. On an AC connected LED, you should have an antiparallel diode to protect it (diode anode to LED cathode). Man, if I had known some of these things earlier in life, my little brother would have some interesting experiences. Other than super glued fingers, bike ramp concussions, sinking our raft in the river, … Reply
Key considerations
- Investor positioning can change fast
- Volatility remains possible near catalysts
- Macro rates and liquidity can dominate flows
Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/maker-stem/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/maker-stem/frankly-dangerous-hot-dog-based-led-tester-could-be-a-weiner-in-the-2025-hackaday-component-abuse-challenge#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com
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