July 13, 2026
Breakdown? More like blinkdown
Cursed circuits #6: reverse avalanche oscillator
An upside-down chip makes a light blink, and the comments are fighting over whether that’s genius or old news
TLDR: The article shows a bizarre circuit that still works even though a key part is flipped the wrong way, making an LED blink through a strange high-voltage effect. In the comments, people split between “this is ancient, calm down” and “this is gloriously cursed,” while others rushed in with music hacks and mod ideas.
A tiny electronics post somehow turned into a full-on comment-section identity crisis: is this blinking-light circuit a beautiful monster, or just a very old trick wearing a spooky costume? The article shows a wildly odd setup where a transistor — basically a common electronic part — is flipped the “wrong” way, its middle pin is left hanging, and yet the thing still works, making an LED light blink when powered. To non-engineers, it looks like absolute nonsense. To the community, it looks like catnip.
The loudest reaction came from the "this is not cursed, actually" crowd. One commenter flatly rejected the premise, saying people have been doing avalanche tricks for ages and blaming “garbage undergrad textbooks” for making it seem mysterious. That instantly gives the whole thread a deliciously nerdy edge: not just “cool circuit,” but a mini war over who gets to call it obscure. On the other side, people were very happy to embrace the chaos, with one calling it “delightfully cursed” — which is basically the perfect internet blessing.
Then the thread took a turn from argument to playful experimentation. One person dropped a link showing how the same weird behavior can become a simple sound-maker, which is the exact kind of comment that makes readers think, “Wait, this nonsense can make music?” Another immediately started tinkering out loud, asking if adding another part could change the blink speed. So yes: the article is about a bad-but-fun circuit, but the real show is the community splitting into snobs, gremlins, and kitchen-table inventors — and honestly, all three make it better.
Key Points
- •The article showcases a reverse-avalanche oscillator built with an upside-down NPN transistor, a resistor, a capacitor, and an LED.
- •The circuit is said to operate from roughly 14–20 V even though the transistor base is not connected.
- •Oscilloscope observations in the article show the capacitor charging to about 10 V and then discharging rapidly to around 9.1 V.
- •The capacitor charges through a 1 kΩ resistor from the positive supply rail, then dumps energy through the LED via the reversed transistor.
- •The article explains the circuit using semiconductor-junction theory, especially reverse-bias avalanche breakdown in a transistor junction.