Grounding Wrist Straps...

[Luckydevil]

Recently I have found the need to work on circuit boards in the garage. Now I know it is proper procedure to wear a grounding wrist strap when working with circuit boards to prevent static damage, but I was unsure of where exactly to ground myself to in the garage.

I've talked to a couple engineering friends and relatives and they said to just hook the strap up to the house ground by taking off the electrical socket cover and clipping on there.

Is there a better way to do this and make a permanent accessible ground that still looks clean?

 

[Jay H 237]

I've heard of people using a three prong plug. Just hook the wire from the strap to the ground prong. Now when you want to use the strap just plug it in and when you're done you can unplug it and not have a wire semi-permanently hanging from the outlet or not have to unscrew the plate everytime to hook it up to the screw.

Just remember to check the outlet for a good ground to begin with.

 

[michvee]

If you are working on alot if circuit boards, get a ESD pad to work on and clip your strap to that.

 

[Luckydevil]

If you are working on alot if circuit boards, get a ESD pad to work on and clip your strap to that.

Doesn't the pad have to be attached to a ground though if you are going to attach the wrist strap to it?

 

[djjack]

All ground surfaces should connect to a common point. The ground screw on the outlet cover usually works good. If you use a homemade wrist strap it needs to have a large resistor in series. This reduces the current that would pass through your body if you grap hold of something live like a defective tool. If you have a lot of charge build up on insulated surfaces grounding doesn't do much good since the charge is trapped. In that case you might want to try an ionzer. They blow out charged air molecules that neutralize the charge.

 

[michvee]

as i understand it the pad works like a big condenser.

 

[Luckydevil]

I finally decided on how to set up the ground for the wrist strap and keep it clean looking. It was actually very simple and involved only a male open end crimp connector and a 3" piece of 16 gauge solid wire. I put the ground wire on the outside to avoid snagging it on the prongs when I go to plug something in. Thanks for the advice guys and let me know what you think.

 

[ranger_dood]

Looks good :thumbsup

 

[byrdman]

that ought to do it!

 

[DynoDave]

That looks like a good answer. You can tell your uninformed friends that you are just "recharging your batteries" as you sit wired to the wall outlet.