Hi there,
Nice episode. I remember now that this is the actual meaning of debugging, LMAF.
I especially liked the power module that blew up "discretely", capturing the act in the gel, very nice. This would be difficult to recreate actually.
To dave: I would use your friends "joule bomb", not sure what the technical term it for that demonic device, the one you used on the multimeters. The trick would be to determine just the correct amount of energy not to blow up the IGBT completely but still have the effect of the smoke caputered in the gel. The setup itself is quiete simple. Hook up source and drain to the "joule bomb" and put an isolated control signal over gate-source to make it conduct, like a 9V battery. If the battery blows up with the rest, that is not a big loss.