Anti-static wrist strap question...

Well two questions actually :-)

- What is the average life span?
- Are there any specific storage rules?

... thanks in advance!

Longer than yours.
Don't store near nuclear reactors.

I mean... Seriously. Its a wire. You could use long nail driven into the ground with a wire tired to it and to your skin.

Anti-Static wrist straps are a sham. If you have deep carpets, walk around in socks, and have forced air heating (dry air), I might use one. Or I might just touch a doorknob before I start working on the system.

Otherwise, don't bother. I've never fried a component, and I've rebuilt my PC a hundred times.

I agree with sswift. Touch the radiator occasionally and your sorted. Unless your rubbing a baloon on your head of course.

If you are like me, you need one.

I've fried a few things on the rare occasion I don't use a strap, but then, I'm also linked to strange phenomena such as my watches all stop working within a few hours of putting them on etc.

TBH, I have fried a few components back when I used to do PCB repair. However most motherboards are coated before they are sent out these days so usually your not touching anything bad (unless you intentionally touch an IC of some sort).

Anti-Static wrist straps aren't really a sham, or rather to buy one (or more) would be a sham. The object isn't to ground yourself to ground (of your home/office), but to the ground of the device (like the computer case). Basically you want something OTHER than a circuit/IC between you and the Ground pole (in this case, the ground of the psu which isn't always the same as the ground wire of your home or office).

Most can get away with-out the use of a wrist strap (just continually touch the case metal with your fingers, or lean up against it with your bare arm from time to time to ensure you carry no charges that differ from the ground terminal of the psu).

I just touch the radiator before handling anything from the pc.

yeah but it makes you look pro if you put one on in front of a customer.

btw, for case earthing to work you have to leave it plugged in but off (for the plug earth pin)

Never used one, never blown anything up.

TBH in my experience touching a radiator or the computer case when its turned off at the wall (UK has a earthing connection three pin plug).

Depends on the customer -- if he/she is a techie too, then they may even take you *less* seriously if they see you use one.

anyway, I used to live in a place high up with low humidity, with terrible static electricity issues. (e.g. get zapped all day long each time you touch a door handle, etc.) Even there, just touching the chassis of a computer first is enough to get rid of the charge.



Famous last words? :-)

many years ago before Ethernet was affordable, there were some popular programs that could transfer data over either serial or parallel cable between PC's. I remember someone about to plug one of those cables in between two live PC's.
"you really should turn them off first"
"nah, I've done this a million times, and never fried any~snap-crackle-pop... and best of all was the little puff of smoke that slowly floated upwards. If I had seen it on film instead, I'd have sworn that it was added later as a special effect.

It may be different in the US, but in Denmark, doorknobs aren't grounded.

It makes you look like a bit of a geek. Discharging static on the computercase or something else similarly grounded, is all you need to do.

Ok I'll take that into account :)

Hmm... don't store near nuclear reactors... doorknobs in Denmark aren't grounded... I don't think I need to know some of these things :D ... I feel weirded out now...

It's been many years since I've seen any kind of grounding problem with computers themselves.

However, I have personally very recently fried a peripheral that was plugged into a computer through static discharge. I am currently waiting for a replacement for a 'proteus' ( http://www.mindmodulations.com/prodprot.html ) that fried from static.

Here's how it happened:
The output of the sound card was plugged into the Auxiliary input of the proteus. I was using a computer program as the audiostrobe source to drive the proteus unit. I do have low shag carpet in my office and have had problems with static electricity before, so I have a grounded anti-static floor mat under my computer chair.
Well... when using the proteus, I sit in a recliner that is a few feet away from my desk, so the proteus was sitting there, cabled up to the PC soundcard. 3 steps off the anti-static mat was all it took to build up a good charge, and as soon as I touched the proteus the discharge went to ground through the cable to the PC. Whammo, the sound no longer worked on the proteus.

And... the reason I got the anti-static floor mat in the first place -- I had previously reached for the volume knob on my PC speakers, static discharge, and whatever kind of electronics were in the speakers blew. I really don't know what electronics were in the speakers and got damaged, but they sounded bad ever since the shock and had to be replaced.

So... Yes, it's easy enough to say that static is not a problem unless you actually have the problem. I live in a very dry climate, at an elevation of 6500 feet, and add to that having shag carpet in my office and yes, static is a problem!

Mark.

You shouldn't really do those sort of things on the office floor - bound to generate loads of static ;)

I have been working on computers for 20 years and never zapped anything and I don't use a static strap. If static seems to be especially bad(like this week), I do ground myself to the case first.

Uber-nerd, the need for an anti-static strap, floormat, or anything else is really up to you and your situation. I lived a lot of years by the ocean, and it was an environment where static problems were completely unheard of, so didn't need to be given a second thought at all. I've also lived a lot of years in the high desert, and now in another high-altitude low-humidity environment, and it is absolutely no-questions-asked necessary to work at preventing static discharge from damaging electronics.

If you live in an area or have an environment where static is a problem, you probably already know it because you are on the giving or receiving end of shocks on a very regular basis. Some people in this thread recommend things like touching the computer case or other such things to discharge. The problem with that advice is that it is completely useless unless you are so religious about it that you do it every single time. One touch is all it takes, and one time forgetting to touch metal on the computer case before touching the keyboard or some other peripheral is enough to put something you depend on out of commission. So... too late for a short post here, but... If you do have static problems, I'd strongly recommend taking measures that require no active thought at all to discharge the static. Change the carpet, add a humidifier, put a grounded mat where you have to step on it or touch it, something requiring no thought. But if you don't have static problems, there's probably no need for anything at all.

Finally... people don't even feel most static electricity discharges until they reach something like 1500 volts. However, a discharge that a human can't even feel can fry a hard drive or other components inside your computer. Just because you don't feel a shock doesn't mean it wasn't static electricity that made some component in your computer (or telephone, etc.) suddenly stop working.

Example: You are working in your computer. You faithfully touch the metal case before starting. You then take two steps to pick up the hard drive you're putting in the computer. You and that hard drive now have a static charge, and the next time you or the hard drive touch ground, that discharge is going through the hard drive. If that next grounding happens to be the gold-plated contacts touching the drive cable, you can easily have a fried hard drive or controller card or PSU, and all the while you have no idea there was even a static discharge at all.

Mark.