From: alioth1	Date: August 17th, 2007 10:06 pm (UTC)		(Link)

I dunno, since taking up mucking around with electronics, I found that the magic smoke leaking out is a very, very fast indicator of mistakes :-) Especially the time the switch mode power supply I was constructing to power nixie tubes didn't quite have the correct feedback for regulation, and the voltage went off scale high on the meter (> 1000 volts) swiftly followed by a strong smell of ozone and the tank capacitor bursting!