• @[email protected]
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    7710 months ago

    Basic overcurrent protection? In my sci-fi?

    Next you’re gonna tell me you can’t just “re-route power” by pressing buttons on a screen and not, you know, actually unhooking any wires!

    • admiralteal
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      6410 months ago

      Building everything to be able to re-route to everything is WHY all the consoles are constantly exploding.

      • @[email protected]
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        2810 months ago

        What do you mean you dont want to reroute all the power for the warp engines into the navigation console?

        • @[email protected]
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          710 months ago

          With that much power you can navigate anywhere, at least until the console melts through the floor

      • @[email protected]
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        14
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        10 months ago

        O’Brien constantly breaking good cardassian engineering with infernal federation secondary backups.

      • @[email protected]
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        310 months ago

        Exactly, sure you could have relays or Automatic Transfer Switches like we use from generators. But if you’re just slamming more power at stuff than it’s meant to use, where’s your overcurrent protection?

    • wrath_of_grunge
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      4110 months ago

      one of my favorite jokes about this is on TNG. i think it’s the episode where the bridge gets cut off from the rest of the ship, and Troi is in charge of running the ship. O’Brian makes a comment to Ro about how you can’t ‘just reroute power from things’.

      it’s a funny little nod from the writers.

        • @[email protected]
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          1010 months ago

          Yeah you can shut the power from anywhere if you’re running low. You just need a sufficient switching system and for the issue to be related to supply or drain elsewhere

    • @[email protected]
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      3410 months ago

      I don’t know about you people, but personally, I always write programs at work by removing boards from my computer and plugging them in a different order.

      • andrew_bidlaw
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        1610 months ago

        That’s why they are so fit and resourceful. Imagine carrying every IF statement by hand.

        • @[email protected]
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          610 months ago

          Well, it really wasn’t. You’d program by punching the cards, and then insert them into the computer. If they brought the boards from a terminal (or replicator), and switched the old ones to the new ones, the entire thing would make sense.

          It’s a bit similar to how people programed analogical computers at the 50s. But it’s actually a lot like programing old sewing machines. The thing those have in common is that their programs were always an order of magnitude smaller than this comment.

    • Norgur
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      3110 months ago

      How do you know the buttons don’t trigger relais or the like which then actually unhook the wires?

    • @[email protected]
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      710 months ago

      you can’t just “re-route power” by pressing buttons on a screen and not, you know, actually unhooking any wires!

      High-voltage switches might be a bit complicated. One I’ve seen requires you to tighten a spring and then have it released extremely fast to prevent sparking. Still, there should be a way to do it safely, without having to go near or touch the wiring.