Frankly dangerous hot dog-based LED tester could be a Weiner in the 2025 Hackaday Component Abuse Challenge
Does electrifying LED legs make them food-safe?
An LED testing ‘device’ which largely consists of a hot dog, two forks and a power supply has been entered into an electronics competition. Luckily, this is the 2025 Hackaday Component Abuse Challenge, where being zany is a winning strategy.
But don’t try this at home.
Ian Dunn’s 100% "Safe" 120VAC LED tester looks glorious, with its LED sprinkles. Bonus: if you test your LEDs in a hot dog connected to a 120V AC mains power source, your savory meat comfort food will be fully cooked and ready to eat in about two minutes.
We repeat, don’t try this at home.
Dunn helpfully includes all the instructions you need to replicate this (hot dog) maker project. “All you need is a power cord, two forks, and two bolts to hold the hot and neutral wires on the forks,” explains the electronics and hot dog abuser. “Stick the LED's that you want to test in the hot dog before you plug it in. They must be oriented with the leads facing the two ends of the hot dog. If they are oriented opposite the hot dog, then no current will flow through the LEDs.”
It is also noted that you can test as many LEDs this way, as long as there is room on the back of the dog. “It takes about 2 minutes for the hot dog to be fully cooked at 120 volts,” advises Dunn.
We can’t be sure what the cooking speed differences might be in parts of the world where 220V or 240V AC mains is the norm, because we don’t want to try this at home. However, we note that TechTuber Big Clive tested a commercial 120V electric hot dog maker on 240V a few years ago, if you want to see something sizzle.
Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.
A warning from the maker
Dunn ends his crazy hot dog LED testing device project post with a word of warning, as he should. “Don't touch the hot dog, the LEDs, the forks or the bun while the hot dog tester is plugged in,” advises the electronics expert. “It's wise to set something heavy on the cord so you won't trip on it and pull the hot forks on the floor.”
As well as the electrical safety concerns, we wonder what chemicals might be introduced to the hot dog using this cooking method. The LED ‘legs’ may be coated in some kind of factory residue, and be made of a metal that could taint the food.
Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds.
Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason.
-
chaz_music We did that in college and it was a lot of fun, but yes, very dangerous. Now I would use a GFCI outlet at least. Note that an AFCI breaker might trip, as there could be arcing inside the hotdog around the electrodes.Reply
Since the power delivery is mathematically V^2 / R, I would expect that the power is roughly 4X as much at 240VAC versus 120VAC, so should take about 15-20 seconds to cook in many global areas versus about 60 seconds in the US using 120VAC.
When the smoke detector goes off, dinner is done. -
Findecanor That picture must have been taken very quickly before the sausage started smoking ...Reply -
chaz_music ReplyFruitmaniac said:I have questions:
1. Are the LEDs 120v?
2. Do they flicker at 50/60 Hz?
Those appear to be regular LEDs. The hotdog is going to act like a resistive voltage divider, although it might be a bit non-linear. The LEDs are going to react to the voltage across the hotdog as though it were just resistors, so yes I would expect that they are flickering at line frequency. They can only illuminate with forward voltage, so reverse voltage won't cause any light. Note that LEDs can be damaged by relatively small reverse voltages. On an AC connected LED, you should have an antiparallel diode to protect it (diode anode to LED cathode).
Man, if I had known some of these things earlier in life, my little brother would have some interesting experiences. Other than super glued fingers, bike ramp concussions, sinking our raft in the river, ...