My worst screw up was causing a fire that destroyed one of the two prototype 3D printers my company had built.
I was working at a startup that was trying to create an affordable 3D printer. We had two working prototypes that were used for everything - demos, print testing, software testing, PR shoots, everything. Each prototype had cost hundreds of man hours to build and debug and quite a bit of cash as well.
Among other things I had done all the work on the thermal control system for the printer, it kept the print heads and build chamber at the correct temperature. One night while working on one of the printers I hit an edge case that my control code didn't handle well and the printer turned all of the heaters on full-bore. Half an hour all the plastics in the prototype had either melted or burned and I was left with a room full of smoke and a pile of scrap aluminum.
I was working at a startup that was trying to create an affordable 3D printer. We had two working prototypes that were used for everything - demos, print testing, software testing, PR shoots, everything. Each prototype had cost hundreds of man hours to build and debug and quite a bit of cash as well.
Among other things I had done all the work on the thermal control system for the printer, it kept the print heads and build chamber at the correct temperature. One night while working on one of the printers I hit an edge case that my control code didn't handle well and the printer turned all of the heaters on full-bore. Half an hour all the plastics in the prototype had either melted or burned and I was left with a room full of smoke and a pile of scrap aluminum.