Ten Car Battery Presentation at Calgary Mini Maker Faire
Why Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange recommends it
Electronics Stack Exchange answerers point people to it when a question is about how dangerous DC voltage or battery short circuits really are, since it shows real-world demonstrations.
Recommended by 2 people across 2 different months, 2018 to 2025.
What it is
A 2014 live presentation by Mehdi Sadaghdar (ElectroBOOM) at the Calgary Mini Maker Faire, using a stack of ten car batteries. He demonstrates whether AC or DC hurts more, whether current or voltage is what kills, and whether car batteries can be used for welding.
What people said
Recommends Jeroen3 · 2018-07 · Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange · on “12 V car battery short circuit with a wrench that has resistance of 0.5 ohms, how much current?”
The contact resistance between your multimeter wires and the wrench is 0.5 Ohm. The wrench, when pushed to the soft metal connecting lugs of the battery, will have a much lower short circuit resistance. Still, the contact resistance it the highest of the short, hence the sparking. Lots of heat is wasted at the contact area. Excellent do not try this at home videos can be found [LINK] online [this video] .
Recommends James · 2025-09 · Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange · on “Boost converter voltage danger”
If it was pure DC then I doubt it would be particularly dangerous under typical conditions, this guy does some real world demonstrations: [this video] Question and answers also mostly ignore real-world things like internal resistance of the battery and efficiency of the boost converter
Cites amy programmer · 2018-08 · Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange · on “Can I touch voltage?”
After watched this man this [this video] man, I have some questions. He touched 170 VDC, what is max DC voltage can I touch when I dry? And wet? What is max AC voltage can I touch when I dry? And wet? Is using 'diode bridge' convert dangerous 50 VAC voltage to safe DC voltage? 120 VAC @ 60 Hz vs 120 VAC @ 100 MHz, high or low frequency make voltage dangerous? Is '50 V PWM 60 Hz' dangerous like AC or safe like DC? Can I touch charged capacitor (only one leg)?
Cites Gabriel Luci · 2020-05 · Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange · on “Is it safe to touch 200 volts DC?”
The content maker simply declared that 200/300 volts DC is safe to touch. He didn't say this anywhere in the video, and he didn't imply it either. In the first few seconds he says: I want to kick it up a notch and show you at what voltage it hurts over skin He is just showing "when does it start hurting". That's all. He has another video of a live demonstration, hooking up multiple car batteries to produce 120V DC and touches them: [this video] He feels it and it hurts, but not nearly as much as 120V AC. He's not saying DC is always safe. He explains the dangers in a different video where he talks about the relationship between voltage and current in hurting you: [LINK]
Cites Tim Williams · 2024-05 · Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange · on “MOSFET or IGBT for DC Motor”
Regarding circuit design, you have many hurdles before component choice matters: Are you familiar with current-mode control? Switching loop design, layout? Switching circuits in general, theory of operation, etc.? Protection (isolation, fusing, inrush)? There are many things to get right the first time; done properly, this will be a lengthy project, but you can also learn a lot from it. Current-mode control is a double bonus here, as it provides both protection for the switching circuit itself (the transistor cannot die of excess current because it is controlled to never exceed the current setpoint), as well as torque control (in a PMDC motor, torque is proportional to current, minus frictio