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Thread: 'Home-brew' anti-static precautions...

  1. #1
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    Default 'Home-brew' anti-static precautions...

    Ok, so the better half is off to Denmark for 4 days this weekend, and taking the nipper with her....

    ... which has coincided beautifully with my last parts turning up for my 445 builds!

    Unfortunately, my local Maplin has sold out of anti-static wrists straps and won't be expecting any more until July.

    Are there any home-brew ways I can get by?

    When building PC's, I simply used to plug the IEC in and touch the chassis regularly. I do also have some 13A plugs with trailing earth cables, can I connect myself to this somehow?

    Also, what sort of material should I have under my work? My 'bench' is wooden (real wood!) topped.

    I'm paranoid that these diodes are more sensitive to ESD than anything I've previously handled - please put my mind at ease!

  2. #2
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    Exclamation Food for thought...

    Although it is not recommended you can technically wrap copper wire round your wrist or finger then attached via a 10Meg resistor in series to earth

    The 10 meg resister is there for three reasons firstly if you touch something live the most current that will flow through you and the wrist strap will be limited to 24uA (assuming UK mains voltage), The second reason is the inverse should you for some reason have a potential sitting on your earth connection the current flowing through you will also be limited, the third reason is it partly limits the peak current of a static discharge.

    I have done it a couple of times when i have needed a quick and nasty way of taming the static i seem to generate so readily and haven't had a proper wrist strap available.

    I would recommend using a proper ESD mat and wriststrap, if your out and about try having a look in the computer shops as they often stock antistactic wrist straps.
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    Crank the humidity up in the room.
    make it feel like its a day in Belize.

    Spray the work area with a water mist with a touch of glycol in it, you can find this as antistatic cling spray for women's dresses. Do that some time before you do the work so there is no mess. Do the floor and your chair too, give it a path to ground. The glycol makes the moisture "hang around" a while.

    Put a copper pad on the desl tied to earth ground via a 10 Meg or resistor, and bleed off any charge on your body by touching it.

    Avoid roller chairs and carpet.

    Avoid nylon etc.

    Steve
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    Quote Originally Posted by mixedgas View Post
    Spray the work area with a water mist with a touch of glycol in it
    Fog juice you mean

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    Quote Originally Posted by FourDee View Post
    Fog juice you mean
    well, you could use that, just dilute it say 50:1

    Steve
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    Is it humid in England during the summer? You can practically swim through the air here in St. Louis right about now.. I'd be pretty hard pressed to create a random static discharge in thins kind of weather. It's certainly not impossible, but not likely.

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    ^^ We have a marine climate, it is humid here all year round, 80 > hi 90s ^^
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    Except now, just checked - 70° 55%
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    Doc's website

    The Health and Safety Act 1971

    Recklessly interfering with Darwin’s natural selection process, thereby extending the life cycle of dim-witted ignorami; thus perpetuating and magnifying the danger to us all, by enabling them to breed and walk amongst us, our children and loved ones.





  9. #9
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    So essentially, if I get a copper plate and attach a wire to it and to the earth pin on a plug I'm generally good so long as I touch the plate often, and don't have any appliance with a fault to earth?

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    ^That's exactly right. You can also touch any grounded metal object. In most electronics with metal cases (computers, scopes, some PSUs) the case is grounded, so touching any bare metal (usually screw heads) will do the trick as well.

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