I'm thinkin about buying an antistatic mat, as I'll be working with very sensitive PCBs soon.
I've seen several options.
Some cheaper ones, come with a wrist band that attachs to the mat.

But other more expensive ones, have a cord to ground the mat. Is this very important?? Do you have to ground the mat by plugging it to the mains socket??

Any advice?
thank you!

 

As far as I'm aware ANY anti-static mat will come with a grounding lead, and you also need a grounded wrist strap as well. Assuming your sockets are correctly grounded?, you can ground them via a mains socket. However, as you don't have your location filled in we've no idea how good your socket grounds might be? - in the UK they are normally excellent!.

__________________
PIC programmer software, and PIC Tutorials at:
http://www.winpicprog.co.uk

 

I live in Spain.
I've seen some mats that don't come with any grounding lead. Just a conector to attach the wrist band... that's what I meant

 

It still needs grounding as well, keeping the mat and yourself at the same potential will help to some extent, but a piece of wire and a high value resistor will ground it as well.

If you enter your location in your profile, then we would know where you are!, from what I've heard about Spanish electrical wiring I would suggest you run a wire to your own earth spike!, rather than trust the house wiring!.

__________________
PIC programmer software, and PIC Tutorials at:
http://www.winpicprog.co.uk

 

You could connect yourself to the radiator, you'll have to bare a bit of paint off though.

I connect my self to the radiator purely because it is right next to me where i work, and it has a good ground connection.

 

"I would suggest you run a wire to your own earth spike!"

what do you mean with that?

 

push a metal pole a few feet into the ground and join your static mat and strap to that instead.

__________________
Angry!? I'm absolutely electrolytic!

Will have to make do with myspace now I guess...

 

he means,

get a metal spike and drive it into the ground, connect a wire to it and hook yourself up.

it is also an implication that the spanish electrical system is crap.

it's not hard to understand.

here in the UK electrical wiring is great, good earthing for many appliances and very low risk.

 

How am I suppose to stick a metal spike into the ground if I live in a flat building ?

 

Use a VERY long spike

(it's that team of comedy writers again!).

__________________
PIC programmer software, and PIC Tutorials at:
http://www.winpicprog.co.uk

 

On a related note, check your environment for anything that can generate static electricity. I can generate a healthy spark from my chair by just standing up. Ditto on walking a couple steps to a different desk.

I tend to use mats because they prevent boards from sliding around while you work on them - not so much for the ESD reasons. Then again, when handling boards, I always temporarily ground myself by touching something metal before touching anything sensitive.

 

Or, consider an alternative approach.

Gamma radiation will dissipate static electricity, just get a nice block of Plutonium and park it on your bench. End of static problems!

JimB

__________________
Experience is directly proportional to the value of the equipment ruined.

 

Hmmm, he might grow a second head though!!!

Brian

 

a second head, well i've been worse off, either that or he'll have to damage every chip he handles...

or maybe just touch a radiator...

end of problem

 

Two heads are better than one!