[Elecraft] ESD question

Ron D'Eau Claire rondec at easystreet.com
Mon Jul 24 13:35:27 EDT 2006


That's a great ESD story Mike. I can almost hear the groans that must have
erupted when that little spark hopped over to the I.C. Even being installed
on the board couldn't save that one.

Mats and straps are wonderful, and should be as much a part of any workbench
as a soldering iron and good lighting. But it doesn't always have to be
exotic mats and straps. If that fellow had simply touched a ground before
poking at the board, there would have been no spark and no damage. 

I've done a lot of work servicing electronics in the "field", far from bench
resources. All it takes to be as safe as sitting at the bench with a wrist
strap on is to touch a ground *before* touching anything else, and keep
touching that ground again and again before touching other things. It needs
to be an unpainted metal ground. An equipment case connected to the mains
safety ground is FB. An earth ground is too. Consciously practice until it
becomes second nature to touch a ground first, just we learned to pick up
the soldering iron by the handle without thinking about it <G>. 

Several folks mentioned having a metal strip on their bench that they can
touch before touching parts. That works beautifully, provided one remembers
to touch it!

My wrist strap has a clip where the ground wire attaches so it can be
quickly removed when getting up. I quit using the clip to remove the ground
wire after I found myself working at the bench wearing the wrist strap and
realized that I hadn't reattached the ground wire. So I take the whole thing
off now. It's obvious when I don't have it on. 

The best safety systems in the world are useless unless we develop the
habits that ensure we use them! 

Ron AC7AC



More information about the Elecraft mailing list