Skinflint's anti-static wrist-strap 2013-01-17

alec_t submitted a new article:

Skinflint's Anti-static Wrist-strap - When working on static-sensitive circuits, e.g. involving CMOS ICs, it is advisable first to discha

When working on static-sensitive circuits, e.g. involving CMOS ICs, it is advisable first to discharge static electricity built up in your body. This can be done by wearing an earthed wrist-strap. Commercial straps can be relatively expensive. Here's the recipe for a cheap one using bits from your junk box.

Remove the outer cover and inner core from a ~ 15 in (40 cm) length of old TV antenna cable to leave the copper braid. Alternatively remove the insulation from one core of a similar...

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That's a good one, Alec. I love the skinflint approach!

as a static discharge device in the shop i worked at, i used a bare wire wrapped around my wrist through a resistor, as you said,but first i checked my ground cover on the ac outlet to make sure,the ac outlet was Truly at earth ground potential,once done you dont have to worry unless you have an electrician work on your ac out.

i want the circuit.would you please....?

Really? Here it is :-
**broken link removed**

Actually, it is a bit more like this:


JimB

Edit: Lost schematic restored 6-1-14

Snap!

I've always taken a likeing to the 'doorknob' approach. Being strapped is no fun and can produce accidents. All you need to do is take an old raw metal doorknob use part of the attachment hardware to connect to the ground wire (through the resistor) and get into the habbit of grabbing the doorknob when you touch things.

Straps are really for production environments or when around hyper sensative extremely sensative equipment (think thousands or tens of thousands of dollars to replace)

It's far more important to use grounded mats on your work bench and storage containers (almost always plastic)