Microsoft engineer speedruns Raspberry Pi magic smoke in five minutes

Only cool dudes should wear a HAT backward

Microsoft is no stranger to things breaking unexpectedly – and now one of its engineers has added a Raspberry Pi to the list.

Steve Syfuhs, a Principal Engineering Manager at the Windows behemoth, managed to release the magic smoke from a Raspberry Pi 5 in five minutes, he says.

Outside his day job dealing with authentication, Syfuhs is not averse to a bit of tinkering. He's not alone. Microsoft has more than its fair share of curious people, keen to poke hardware to see what it does.

The Raspberry Pi 5 is a small and inexpensive (less so recently) computer. One feature is its General Purpose Input/Output (GPIO) interface, a 40-pin header to which HATs (Hardware Attached on Top) and other devices can be connected.

In addition to official add-ons such as the recent AI HAT+ 2, enthusiasts can put the pins to work for all manner of purposes.

While this hack has destroyed an embarrassing number of Pi computers thanks to some spectacularly ham-fisted soldering, Syfuhs took the destruction to the next level.

In a series of posts on Bluesky, he documented the perils of accidentally fitting a HAT backward. The pins aren't keyed, so it's a relatively easy (if silly) thing to do. Worse, the HAT was powered, sending electricity where it didn't belong. The result was magical smoke and the smell of burning.

The problem is that the Pi doesn't really have much in the way of protection against user error. Use the wrong pin, and there's every chance a short circuit could result. Or, in the case of Syfuhs, a puff of smoke and instant regret.

Recent price rises mean that a 4 GB Pi 5 can now be had for around $85 - so it's a slightly more expensive lesson to learn. It is, however, a useful reminder to be careful when attaching that HAT. Nobody wants a visit from the magical smoke fairy. ®