Are the electronics not in a plastic casing? Is the board exposed? Wtf?
this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2025
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I could see this. I’ve had motherboards reboot from static affecting the USB ports. Could be a power button or similar that sends the shock straight to the board.
Had a flashback to that shitty PC I had as a kid where if you punched the side around the power supply, the pc would reboot.
Why were you punching the PC?
Because its a naughty computer in need if punishment.
Probably gaming related, keyboards and mice can only take so much rage before you need to go one up.
Have you not vented frustration on a peripheral/controller or in red blind rage turned the console/PC off?
It just makes me think of certain old crappy Sony TV production monitors that would stop working in color but if you hit them in the right place they’d work again for a little while. Sony sold the parts to fix them for more than a new monitor so a lot of stations just put them places where it didn’t matter if they were black and white instead of color.
N-No?
I was a dumb kid.
I've had my screen turning off whenever I move my seat for months and I've no idea how to prevent what I assume is a static event. And now my Hue stripe is similarly unreachable unless I gently touch it (discharge it?) Ye gods I fucking hate static and I've no idea how to prevent it or check that my computer is properly grounded.
Just wait until you learn about the nonsense that can be ground loops in audio gear. Chasing a buzz has a whole new meaning.
I think there's a video somewhere where a cat just slightly pull the plug a bit so it disconnected, and release it so it reconnected, and the feeder rebooted and did the thing OOP said.
I watched too many cat video.
Surely no one would just go in the Internet and lie
What actually happened was my cat brushed up against me and the static shock caused my phone to glitch a little and type up and sublime the whole post that OP screen-shotted.
For many consumer electronics the general design used, (because it's cheap and easy to assemble) is a PCB in a plastic clamshell sort of thing which unfortunately places the PCB right where the seam in the plastic is. Usually there's some additional geometry to prevent direct exposure. But high voltage finds a way and if there's tabs with cutouts or anything like that there often is a direct path, especially for something as thin and 'sharp' as cat fur.
That being said, it's more likely to be either the buttons, power connector, or something the designers foolishly thought of as "ground" and there not actually being an earth ground
low voltage: who here is a conductor? High voltage: Who here wants to be a conductor??
For reference, if you can physically feel an ESD (electrostatic discharge) event, aka shock, then it's at probably least 3kV, could be 10+ kV. But they're incredibly short duration transients, on the order of microseconds.
Gotta have buttons to program it. Buttons need to be on the outside.
I've seen a video where the cat turned the dispenser off and back on, with the same result.
They're smarter than we give them credit for.
When food is involved at least
Fat furry bastards
my cat knows which button dispenses more food, but he likes it when i press it. he's a singer
Could be another reason but cats and other animals may want you to guard their back as they eat
I've seen cats just reach up the chute and work the mechanism manually.
Cat that does literally naked hardware hacks. For snacks. Every single fur has a new religion now.
Fuck. I do too.
I expected something different from this title.
Tell your cat they have to take off their shoes indoors
I, for one, welcome or new furry overlords.
Seriously... can we let cats be in control?
Clever girl.
I love this. Bringing back the spirit of the original phreakers.
My cat Captain Crunch just purrs at 2600hz.
Wrap a few strips of aluminum tape on it and ground it.
Cats don't like tape, and I've never been able to ground mine.
Hah, nice switcheroo.
The tape is a sticky situation. But grounding them is pretty easy. Just keep the windows, doors, and cat flaps closed.
They earned this.
Cat has evolved into Pikachu!
I betcha 5 bucks he’s orange.
That would require more than one brain cell to rub together. All orange cats only have one collectively; and it's not always their turn to even use that one.
I have 2 oranges. Orange is just a type of software. They are different than other cats. They just do stuff all the time.