Connect it to the mains ground, just like your Weller soldering station. Wrist straps designed for ESD protection have a 1 Meg resistor built it. It's easy to check with your DMM. The warning is there in case someone homebrews a strap. It works very well without the resistor too, too well if you should touch a live circuit with the other hand so the current passes through your body where it could kill you. That's why the resistor. It limits the current to a safe value while still draining off any static fast enough to protect sensitive components.
Optionally, touching a bare, metal ground regularly just before handling a sensitive part works fine too. The advantage of the strap is you only have to remember to put it on. Be aware that squirming on your cloth seat or shuffling your feet on the carpet under your chair can produce a big static charge quickly. If using the touch-the-ground method, touch it often and sit still after doing it! Other things to be aware of: 1) Do not use any Styrofoam or other plastic containers to hold parts. They are very efficient static generators which can damage parts even though you are grounded. (The pink plastic bags many parts come in have a slightly conductive film on the surface to protect the parts inside. The important thing is that the voltage across the leads of a sensitive part never exceed a few volts - their normal range. So even if you pick up one of those bags with a huge static charge on your body, you won't do any damage as long as everything is inside the bag. The black foam some parts have their leads stuck into does the same thing. It's slightly conductive so the leads of the device are at the same voltage. They're safe as long as their leads are in the foam even if you don't have your wrist strap on.) 2) For the same reason do not use carpet on your work bench! That was very popular years ago, but most carpet a huge static electricity reservoir. A static-dissipating mat is nice, but not essential. 3) Just because a part is installed in a pc board doesn't mean it's safe. Usually the assembly procedures call for installing sensitive parts last, whenever possible, so resistors and other circuit elements serve to keep the leads from acquiring a destructive static charge. But when you have a board out of the rig, some sensitive circuits may be open where it plugs into the other boards. Unless you know for sure it's safe, treat any pcb that is out of the rig as static sensitive. Ron AC7AC -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Koaps Sent: Wednesday, May 23, 2007 12:24 PM To: Elecraft Subject: [Elecraft] Being ESD Safe Hello all, I just ordered a KX-1 lastnight and I have bought a weller wes51 solder station and cutters which are ESD safe. My question is, how do I make myself ESD safe? In the KX-1 manual it says, "Wear a conductive wrist strap with a series 1 megohm resistor." I have a wrist strap, I can get a 1 megohm resistor, but what do I connect it to? The PCB board? A wire going out my window to the ground? I really don't want to shock any components, so I want to be very careful about ESD and take the best course to prevent it. Thanks all, -Chris ____________________________________________________________________________ ________ The fish are biting. Get more visitors on your site using Yahoo! Search Marketing. http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/arp/sponsoredsearch_v2.php _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
