ESD

[The_Jizzler]

ESD is definitely a killer. For all of you saying it hasnt happened to you, it may well have and you were just unaware. ESD can strike and you not feel/see/hear a thing, then later on down the road weird issues occur. And I'm not sure simply putting on a wrist strap is good enough. I was taught it's all about the electrical potential between you, the part and the device. Example, if I need to work on a PC, down goes a ESD mat that may or may not be grounded to a wall socket. PC sits on the mat, wrist strap is plugged into the mat. When I take a part out of the box, set it (in antistatic bag still) onto the mat. Remove part and place on mat. Everything is now at the same potential and I'm off to the races.

 

[EarthDog]

I was taught it's all about the electrical potential between you, the part and the device.

..... isn't that what the wrist strap does? Provides a solid path/ground you so you're the same electrical potential as the parts you're handling?

There are also ESD gloves (though, these are cumbersome) and you can raise the humidity in your room to help mitigate the issue further.

 

[The_Jizzler]

The idea is to get everything to dissipate any static present. Yourself, the part, the device, it all needs to be dissipated otherwise there is no way to guarantee everything is at the same potential. That's how I understand it anyways, could be wrong. Any electrical engineers on here that can chime in would be great.

 

[WhitehawkEQ]

 

[EarthDog]

So, are those pictures of ESD damage? Neat!

** gets wool socks... turns down humidity, shuffles over to non-grounded PC table.

The idea is to get everything to dissipate any static present.

Right. I wonder what can hold a charge like that? For example, does/can my wood/composite table hold a charge (depends on the material, I suppose)? The board inside an anti-static bag? Yeah, we need an expert, lol!