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Path: utzoo!watmath!wateng!padpowell
From: padpowell@wateng.UUCP (PAD Powell)
Newsgroups: net.rumor
Subject: Re: Strobe lights -> crashes
Message-ID: <2222@wateng.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 29-Mar-85 10:15:15 EST
Article-I.D.: wateng.2222
Posted: Fri Mar 29 10:15:15 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 30-Mar-85 00:26:26 EST
References: <1185@ihuxi.UUCP>
Reply-To: padpowell@wateng.UUCP (PAD Powell)
Distribution: net
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 20
Summary: 

In article <1185@ihuxi.UUCP> trough@ihuxi.UUCP (Chris Scussel) writes:
>I have a repeatable example of photographic strobes causing a computer
>to crash. I have a microprocessor "training" board which I used for
>several years at our annual christmas "toy and doll night". Every time
>the photographer took a picture nearby, the micro would go belly-up,
>and have to be reset. The closest thing it had to an optical sensor
>was its EPROMS, and these were not erased by the flash. The best

Ah, yes, the joys of EPROMS.  A couple of years ago, some students put together
a display using a single board computer system for a controller.  It was
meant to show how the computer worked, so the board was out in front, under a
transparent cover.  During the exhibit,  along comes the big/little chiefs,
with photographers.  FLASH!!!  Crash!!!  Wheep!!! Alarms, etc. go off.

Why?  The EPROMS were uncovered, and the high light intensity caused them to
malfunction.  I repeated this test in the lab, and it sure worked.  There are
lots of explanations in the various semiconductor physics books.  SOOOOO-
cover up those EPROMS with black tape!!!

Patrick Powell