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Ground Strap Ground Point?

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Supreme [H]ardness
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Jun 12, 2001
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How can I saefly make a direct ground point for my ground strap? I was thinking going to home depot and buying a spare appliance cord. 2. putting heat shrink tubing over the hot and neutral wires 3. putting it in a plastic project box and then soldering the ground wire to a big metal lug for my groung strap to clip on. is this a safe way?
 
If your house is wired correctly and was build past the '70's, all you have to do is connect a wire to the recepticle plate screw which grounds to the metal within the recepticle which is grounded by way of the wiring. If you're not sure if it's grounded or not, you can purchase a cheap recepticle ground plug tester at Home Depot. I wouldn't advise plugging in an appliance cord and capping the ends, needless risk of a random electrical shock.
 
Originally posted by MajorDomo
I wouldn't advise plugging in an appliance cord and capping the ends, needless risk of a random electrical shock.
Click to expand...
Agreed.

Static discharges happen when two things of different potentials come into contact. As such, to prevent ESD "events" what you have to do is to make you and the hardware you are working on have the same potential. As such, I don't believe finding a good "ground" is as important as making sure everything is at the same potential.

What I do is hook the wrist ground strap to the chassis of the system I'm working on. I take the hardware that's going to be installed, still in its ESD bag, and lay it inside the PC touching metal, and wait a few seconds. Then, you should be good to go.

Regards - B.B.S.
 
My trick for ESD is to have the following:

computer, still pluged in (but PSU power switch OFF)

Wrist strap with alligator clip (they slide right on to teh banana plug)

4ft 18ga wire with alligator clips soldered to each end.

I attatch the wrist strap to my pc somewhere (usually around the 5-1/4 bays), then attatch the 18ga wire to the case as well, leaving hte other end loose. This loose end is to attatch to the bag of the part, and to anyobdy else for that matter.

Now if I'm doing this at home, I have to go out my window and attatch a 14ft 18ga wire similar tot eh 4 ft one to a ground cable I mounted up there. The place I live at is almsot 100 years old, and last wiring job was in the 1950s. It's a hair ghetto, but everything is grounded, I just don't like stacking grounds on that thin cable I have on my "cheater" plugs.
 
I'll second what bbs said. Even if you ground yourself, if the computer is ungrounded then there could still be an electrical potential between you and the computer. It is best to have the computer grounded, then hook your ground strap to the chassis.
 
I opt for the triple

Grounded Static Mat with the computer on it
PSU off but plugged in
Wrist Strap to Ground

soon to be augmented with a humidifier nearby

but I do think Im going to upgrade the guage on those wires ;)
 
my house was 1800's complely gutted a rewired in 1999-2000
with a 200 AMP service
so the electrical is fine. how about just buying a replacement 3 wire plug and attach a 18 guage ground wire to my box/lug for my ground strap.
 
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