EggXpert

I'm getting ready to build my second computer.  I'm in college for my BSEE, so I know all too well the importance of grounding yourself and the potential hazards of static discharge on components.  I didn't properly ground myself for the first computer I built, and I consider myself lucky, since it booted the first time up and I never had any problems with it.

The machine I'm getting ready to put together is quite a bit more pricey, so I'm taking my precautions this time around.  I've done some pecking around for grounding wrist straps, and they're easy and cheap enough to come by.  My question is what do you guys connect them to?  Most of them terminate in a banana clip - do you just plug it into the ground plug in a wall socket?  Or do you guys have another way of grounding yourselves entirely?

 Thanks!

cg49me:

My question is what do you guys connect them to?

The case is usually sufficient... 

cg49me:

Most of them terminate in a banana clip - do you just plug it into the ground plug in a wall socket?

No, heck no.. Do not stick metal things in Wall sockets..  

If you clip it to the case, and have the PSU installed in the case, the outside of the PSU is grounded..  The case is grounded because the metal outside of the PSU is grounded and that is touching the case (with screws or otherwise)..   

cg49me:

Or do you guys have another way of grounding yourselves entirely?

There are many ways, generally how well people ground themselves depends on the expense of the hardware as you mentioned.. Unfortunately in this day and age whenever somebody zaps a piece of electronic equipment due to their own negligence, they just RMA it and demand a replacement.. It's a cruel reality and more often than not companies and retailers will comply when they really shouldn't and have no obligation to since a good static discharge on electronic components can be more damaging than chucking it out the window of a 2 story building..  In the end, the cost of the RMAs due to stupid users gets passed on to ALL customers by higher priced hardware.. It's not fair to those who are very careful with their hardware, but that's just the way things are to make customers happy..

 

 

cg49me:

I'm getting ready to build my second computer.  I'm in college for my BSEE, so I know all too well the importance of grounding yourself and the potential hazards of static discharge on components.  I didn't properly ground myself for the first computer I built, and I consider myself lucky, since it booted the first time up and I never had any problems with it.

The machine I'm getting ready to put together is quite a bit more pricey, so I'm taking my precautions this time around.  I've done some pecking around for grounding wrist straps, and they're easy and cheap enough to come by.  My question is what do you guys connect them to?  Most of them terminate in a banana clip - do you just plug it into the ground plug in a wall socket?  Or do you guys have another way of grounding yourselves entirely?

 Thanks!

Careful with your house ground, some cheap contractors will just connect the ground pin to the neutral line, which isn't safe to plug yourself into.

If you have a real ground in your house, you can connect yourself to it.  I had a disposable 3M strap that said to simply connect myself to my case (assuming its large and metal, it should dissipate nicely).

If you don't know if you have a true ground or not, but you have copper or lead pipes in your house, you could rig yourself to a drain or water pipe.  That's how most houses implement the grounding anyway.

Sidicas:

No, heck no.. Do not stick metal things in Wall sockets.

Made me chuckle.  :)  I know, one of those things mom always told me, like driving on railroad tracks...

I've done my fair share of house wiring, and if done correctly, neutral and ground end up at the same place (which is literally earth ground), but usually not until you get to the breaker box or further back.

Thanks for the ideas - I like the pipe one.  I'll probably stick with just grounding myself to the case.  I knew that the PS grounded it once installed AND plugged in - thing is, that usually goes in after the mobo.

Anybody else have some input?

cg49me:

Made me chuckle.  :)  I know, one of those things mom always told me, like driving on railroad tracks...

isn't the street a smoother ride ?  

I just connect the alligator to a thick part of the case and occasionally grab onto it for a few seconds here and there...just in case.

Well, I ran tests on my house wiring when I moved in and made sure the grounding/neutral system is good so I use a mains lead plugged into any receptacle which with a ground prong (and nothing else). Clipped to that a test lead (two croc clips one each end) which goes to somewhere on the case. Then the wrist strap clipped to the case. Bob's your uncle!

If you can't be sure of the grounding, the "just clip to case" answer is fine. Some things to think about though:

1. Many people advocate never grounding yourself because care in handling is more important than grounding and they never had a problem (your own experience shows that too). They use the "ground yourself before you touch" system - use flat palm of hand not point of finger if you do this!

2. While I don't agree with 1. above, one thing that IS more important than grounding is making sure you are not charging yourself. How? Well, wearing flipflops on a nylon-based carpet is one sure way to require a Faraday cage lol Simple things like: what surface you are working on (do you use grounded mats to work with a mobo? what is the bench/table made of?), what floor/flloor covering are you standing on? what are you wearing (shoes, shirt etc) - what's it made of? Those things can be much more important because sometime you unpop the wrist strap from the lead to go and get a coffee and when you come back you touch before re-popping.

3. Ever think about not working on electronic components when there is a lot of static in the air? Never when thunderstorms are forecast (even though you are inside).

4. Buy good components and test completely once you have installed!

Good luck!

Install the power supply in the case first. Plug the power supply into the wall, now you have a place to ground yourself. Either a wrist band or just grab the case while you're handling any components. Either way you'll need to have all of the parts near your work area when building, so you can continually keep yourself grounded. I personally just grab the bare metal of a case that's plugged in while I work, never had any problems for many years now building dozens and repairing hundreds of computers. Good luck with your new system!

Yep the case works. I dont even have a strap. I just keep touching the case a lot especially before I touch a component.Heck my house is 100 years old. does'nt even have grounded anything. The outlets are all 2 pronged :)

I work with extremely sensitive electrical components every day at work and consider myself an expert at grounding (i work with radar transducers, just looking at those the wrong way will zap them). in short it might be a good idea to start off by buying an ESD mat if you are serious in all of this computer stuff, its expensive, but a lot cheaper than a zapped high grade CPU/GPU/RAM. that will get plugged directly into a ground (it may be a good idea to test your houses ground sometime at least so you know that you are safe any future projects). now, you will want to get yourself a wrist strap, they are cheap, but DO NOT plug it strait into ground. if you screw up somewhere it could KILL you. when you get your wrist strap you will also want to get a 1megaohm resistor from radio shack or something, from there you will want to set it up in a series to go wrist strap>wire>resistor>ground. next comes testing/qualifying, from the wrist strap plate to the ground you will want anywhere from 750K Ohm to 10M Ohm, the mat to the ground should at least register on an ohm meter, that will suffice for computer work. now that you know how to set up the work station you will want to look at what is around it. im sure you will be wanting to sit down sometime during all of this, if all of your grounding is correct that wont be a problem, however if you are sitting in a non-conductive chair you will start building a charge every time you stand up for what ever reason, just be cautious of that. when working on electronics at home i always go bare foot just so any charge will have a chance of dissipating, and i also wear an ESD smock ($135, not needed for you) but just dont wear wool or anything else that will build a charge. wrist straps take a little while to get used to, but once you use them for about a month you dont even notice that you are wearing one, i dont even remember putting them on anymore at work because its so automatic, i just do. good luck with your PC and any future projects, if you have any questions feel free to get a hold of me

yea,

1) dont do PC work while standing on carpet

2) I just go barefoot, I work on tile

bascially I never had any problems with only doing that

never worn a anti-static strap or anything

lukeiamyourfather:

Install the power supply in the case first. Plug the power supply into the wall, now you have a place to ground yourself. Either a wrist band or just grab the case while you're handling any components. Either way you'll need to have all of the parts near your work area when building, so you can continually keep yourself grounded. I personally just grab the bare metal of a case that's plugged in while I work, never had any problems for many years now building dozens and repairing hundreds of computers. Good luck with your new system!

Agreed.  Even the A+ exam requires techs to know that an easy available ground is to touch the power supply (which is connected to the case so...).