Titanium wrist electric shock risk?

I893469365902345609348566

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Oct 20, 2021
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Due to a badger attack, I now have this titanium plate in my wrist. Is it safe for me to work on ebike batteries or should I use thick rubber gloves? If so how thick should the gloves be to prevent electrocution, and does anyone have recommendations for type and brand? Can I use Marigolds?

X-ray.

52260


Badger attacks!

 

saneagle

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Titanium isn't particularly conductive - about 3% as conductive as copper. The battery can't come in contact with it, and even if you stabbed yourself with something live, there is no path to the negative, so it can't go anywhere to do any harm. In other words, you have nothing to worry about.
 

Bikes4two

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An oft quoted rule of thumb is that more than 50v is required to present an electrocution problem - google it to get more info.

I can't see that you with the titanium plate are at any substantially greater risk than someone without, but if you're into Marigolds, who am I to dissuade you :D.
 

Bogmonster666

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I'm no expert but my layperson's opinion for what it's worth...

I doubt an internal metal plate makes any difference to risk. You are a big fatty wet saline infused bag - and that's not intended as an insult. In a worse case scenario 12vdc may be enough to kill you - hot sweaty body and contact points across chest can be enough to cause fibrillation with say a car battery - yes, people have done this experiment and not everybody lived.

However, in reality, ~50v is unlikely to be fatal in most scenarios. The bigger danger I would think is fire risk either at the time or at a later date due to poor design or workmanship. Never tried, but I believe building reliable and safe batteries is a bit of a skill and cheapo spot battery welders are rarely up to the task.

I'd be needing a very good reason to want to do this before putting in the effort to acquire the necessary skills, knowledge and equipment to do it safely. What is it you are wanting to achieve?
 
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Bikes4two

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+1 for that @Bogmonster666
Never tried, but I believe building reliable and safe batteries is a bit of a skill and cheapo spot battery welders are rarely up to the task.
  • Building batteries is most definitely not a light undertaking.
  • As an aside you don't have to spend a lot of money on a spot welder to get something quite capable of spot welding 1.5mm nickel strip.
  • Of course there is a current limit to 1.5mm nickel strip and if your design requires thicker strip, then the spot welder would need to be a beefier model.
  • I got something like the one below from Ali for around £50 inc p&p and it was entirely adequate for my first (and only so far) battery build using 1.5mm strip.
  • 52265
 

saneagle

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Here we go again with stupid scaremongering. Anything CAN happen. You could be hit by an asteroid when you step out of your house or killed by a Cyclist riding on the pavement or wiped out by a Russian Nuclear attack or catch a fatal virus from the guy in the post office or be vaporised when AI goes rogue. The question is what is the chance of it happening, and the answer is so close to zero that we can call it zero.

An average of 20 people a year die from electric shock in UK (average from 2000 to 2017). That includes people that died after getting tasered, touched the 400,000v power lines with their 10 meter carbon fibre roach poles, touched 400v while working as an electrician, and things like that. I'd like to bet that not one of them died from touching 12v.

Compare those figures with the 361 pedestrians wiped out in 2021. That's 0.065 chance of getting killed by electric shock compared with walking along a street, and we haven't even taken into consideration, the exceptionally small percentage of people (if there are any at all) that were wiped out by low voltage.

There were 111 cyclists killed in 2021, which means that you're 5 times as likely to die riding your bike than from any electric shock at all.

In case you're interested, there's a finite possibility that all the particles you're made of could spontaenously separate and explode into space, then come back together in the same arrangement on the moon, in which case, your blood would start boiling shortly after your lungs exploded.
 
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Bogmonster666

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Here we go again with stupid scaremongering
An unprovocted personal attack on a stranger on the internet doesn't make you look big, quite the opposite.

It was stated "However, in reality, ~50v is unlikely to be fatal in most scenarios". I think that statement is clear and correct and states the real world risk is low.

Maybe you should share your wisdom with the HSE who point out:

"A voltage as low as 50 volts applied between two parts of the human body causes a current to flow that can block the electrical signals between the brain and the muscles. This may have a number of effects including:

  • Stopping the heart beating properly
  • Preventing the person from breathing
  • Causing muscle spasms
The exact effect is dependent upon a large number of things including the size of the voltage, which parts of the body are involved, how damp the person is, and the length of time the current flows."

And it's, not just the HSE who have got it all wrong: https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/textbook/direct-current/chpt-3/ohms-law-again/. This was based on the back of work by those well known village idiots at MIT. The above article explains how voltages far lower than 50v can be fatal given the right circumstances.

I believe the risk from shock is very low, the risk of building an unintended fire hazard is much higher. That was the real risk I was pointing out in my reply. In my opinion it is not stupid scaremongering to encourage people to think carefully before undertaking DIY battery packs given the spate of battery fires and the deaths and property damage that can result.
 
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saneagle

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An unprovocted personal attack on a stranger on the internet doesn't make you look big, quite the opposite.

It was stated "However, in reality, ~50v is unlikely to be fatal in most scenarios". I think that statement is clear and correct and states the real world risk is low.

Maybe you should share your wisdom with the HSE who point out:

"A voltage as low as 50 volts applied between two parts of the human body causes a current to flow that can block the electrical signals between the brain and the muscles. This may have a number of effects including:

  • Stopping the heart beating properly
  • Preventing the person from breathing
  • Causing muscle spasms
The exact effect is dependent upon a large number of things including the size of the voltage, which parts of the body are involved, how damp the person is, and the length of time the current flows."

And it's, not just the HSE who have got it all wrong: https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/textbook/direct-current/chpt-3/ohms-law-again/. This was based on the back of work by those well known village idiots at MIT. The above article explains how voltages far lower than 50v can be fatal given the right circumstances.

I believe the risk from shock is very low, the risk of building an unintended fire hazard is much higher. That was the real risk I was pointing out in my reply. In my opinion it is not stupid scaremongering to encourage people to think carefully before undertaking DIY battery packs given the spate of battery fires and the deaths and property damage that can result.
Show me one example of someone who got electrocuted from a 36v or 48v ebike battery, or any other.
 

I893469365902345609348566

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Oct 20, 2021
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Titanium isn't particularly conductive - about 3% as conductive as copper. The battery can't come in contact with it, and even if you stabbed yourself with something live, there is no path to the negative, so it can't go anywhere to do any harm. In other words, you have nothing to worry about.
Thank you, that I won't get zapped if I have to replace a BMS is great! What about lightning strikes? Is this titanium implant a lightning rod?

What is it you are wanting to achieve?
My main objective to to stop being attacked by badgers. I have PBTSD. I was thinking of buying or making a small 12V pack to power an ultrasonic wildlife deterrent which I could carry on public transport and while shopping, as well as on the bike because clearly badgers could unexpectedly attack anywhere anytime. And many teenagers can hear ultrasonic frequencies like rats, this device could scare them off seats I'd like to sit on.

I would have to find a way to waterproof one of these -

 
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sjpt

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And many teenagers can hear ultrasonic frequencies like rats, this device could scare them off seats I'd like to sit on.
Can it deter them from reckless riding of illegal e-motorbikes at dangerous speeds?
 
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saneagle

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My main objective to to stop being attacked by badgers.
Badgers don't have many enemies, so they're not scared of much. The best I can suggest is to wear a catsuit so that you can become a giant cat because big cats do prey on badgers. As you ride along, do loud meows to scare them away. Something like this should work:


I don't know what animal this is supposed to be, but I bet it's scary to a badger. It should keep you warm in winter too, which is when badgers are most likely to attack because food is scarce then:

I use this one to prevent rats coming into my garden. It works a treat:
 
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flecc

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My main objective to to stop being attacked by badgers.
Badgers don't have many enemies
Dogs are the natural enemies of our Eurasian badgers and the badgers are terrified of them. Walk with a dog or have one running alongside when cycling as some of our members do and you won't be bothered again. They just ignore cats.

Playing a recording of a dog either barking or growling works equally well.
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Nealh

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He could just cycle along woof woofing alll the time .
 
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flecc

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Playing a recording of a dog either barking or growling works equally well.
Actually I should have said even better, as this account shows.

Walking a neighbour's dog after dark past a badger sett, a badger was ambling towards us, so I stopped on the edge of its path with a forefinger pointing down to signal the well trained dog to freeze.

The badger, clumsy and short sighted as ever, trod on my left shoe, which was just too much for Penny the dog so she let out a low snarling growl of warning. The badger fled straight back down into the sett!

That's badgers, terribly short sighted but having superb hearing.
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egroover

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bolt one of these onto your handlebars, problem solved

 

portals

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£80 is a lot to get just a woof, a front basket with a real dog in it might be more effective.
 

saneagle

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£80 is a lot to get just a woof, a front basket with a real dog in it might be more effective.
Brilliant logic, but completely flawed. You're going to kick yourself. Unfortunately a real dog cost £10 a week to feed, hundreds in vets bills and even more in toys and equipment. That's why I suggested the suit, which is only a one-off payment of a couple of hundred quid.