Are you slack with antistatic?

Forums › Desktop computing › Are you slack with antistatic?

1 | 2

ezbee

2655 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 3093

#3344859 20-Feb-2025 11:44

I remember the old days when you would get supplied chips in normal static loving foam with a token bit of tinfoil.

I gather that most of the silicone mats are just insulating with no conductive static dissaptive material.
These days what it says on the tin is only aspirational, and testing and verification needed.

Batman

Mad Scientist
30014 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 6217

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#3344869 20-Feb-2025 12:08

MadEngineer:

Curious, how many of you wear antistatic straps whenever you're operating on a PC, keep everything in antistatic bags and make use of a grounded antistatic mat, vs how many of you will happily pull apart a PC, lay all the bits out on the carpet or your mattress for resale photos?

I'm very much in the first camp, having gone through training on this. Whenever I see the latter on trademe or facebook I'll instantly pass.

I have no formal training whatsoever, have been stripping and building PCs and laptops for fun since 1990 and I don't use antistatic straps or mats. I also lay things on my mattress, but not carpet.

Last time i traded a GPU and was instructed by the other party to wrap it with newspaper before handing it over to them, so I did.

Senecio

2853 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 3164

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#3344881 20-Feb-2025 12:36

I'm slack, yes. But not to the point where I invite static into the process. Haven't had an issue (yet) but I'm only a hobbyist working on low cost components.

loceff13

1089 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 340

#3344962 20-Feb-2025 14:52

I just touch an unpainted part of the case to dischange any static if there was any, before I touch any hardware. Never had any issues, probably assembled 400-500 PC's when I did that briefly for work. Even if you did discharge a shock everything in the case should be fine if installed correctly.

K8Toledo

1018 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 311

#3345027 20-Feb-2025 17:51

MadEngineer:

Curious, how many of you wear antistatic straps whenever you're operating on a PC, keep everything in antistatic bags and make use of a grounded antistatic mat, vs how many of you will happily pull apart a PC, lay all the bits out on the carpet or your mattress for resale photos?

I'm very much in the first camp, having gone through training on this. Whenever I see the latter on trademe or facebook I'll instantly pass.

Never worn one in 17 years.

MadEngineer

4591 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 2570

Trusted

#3345037 20-Feb-2025 19:37

Behodar:

I've yet to see anything "modern" get killed by static. That doesn't mean I go rubbing it against carpet, but I also don't go over the top (I didn't even know mats were a thing).

Edit: Re: a recurring comment below, yes, I do touch the case and keep the cable plugged in so that it's actually earthed :)

richms:

No strap but I will hold the case as I pull things out of the static bag, and hold the case before I put the motherboard into it etc to make sure there is no difference between the things so that they are not the ones taking the shock.

Never even feel or hear static at home, even with the aircon blasting in summer dropping the humidity inside to sensible levels. Did at a former workplace where it was running so hard that it was making it unpleasantly dry inside to the point where people felt the need to use moistureiser.

Touching the case isn't enough. You need a permanent ground as the discharge can take time.

fe31nz:

And if you have a stainless steel sink bench, that is required by law to be fully earthed, so it works OK as an antistatic mat - but just be aware that you must not have anything with mains power running opened up on a sink bench, as it is a hard earth so any contact with the mains will kill you. With mains on an antistatic mat, the mat to earth path has gigohms in it, so not much current will flow if you do something silly with the mains.

Might sound obvious but just don't put something that has a battery in it directly on that bench.

Other things that people don't realise is that you don't actually have to make contact with a part as the static electricity can be 'induced', if you will, from a distance. Some may think components will be protected if they're in a PCB but the conductive tracks just act as large channels that will send the charge directly into them.

As for built-in protection, components can be rated for different classes. Consider that a human sitting at a desk can easily build up several thousand V and compare that to the classes below.

What Everyday Tasks Produce Static | Blog | Bondline

Reliability - What Are ESD Immunity Classification Levels (HBM and CDM)? – Luminus Devices

You're not on Atlantis anymore, Duncan Idaho.

1 | 2