[Amps] blowing up CMOS

[Bob Darlington]

This was something we saw at work in the early Cray days of computing and
is taught in our electrical safety courses today.    Even with some
precautions taken, the movement of the human body sliding in a seat was
sufficient to cause damage to parts as a technician leaned forward
slightly.

If I'm arm deep in a computer I can't afford to replace ($1M+/rack like we
have now), I will surely use my fancy Spiedel twist-o-flex grounded wrist
strap, Keen ESD steel toes, and test these regularly to make sure they are
doing what they're supposed to be doing.  Even the ESD chairs are tested
where it matters, although we don't do much work sitting down in the
computer rooms these days.

-Bob N3XKB

On Tue, Apr 11, 2017 at 4:47 PM, Bill Turner <dezrat at outlook.com> wrote:

> ------------ ORIGINAL MESSAGE ------------(may be snipped)
>
> On Wed, 12 Apr 2017 08:38:17 +1200, Steve wrote:
>
> > at this point you can safely take the
> >component out of the bag, AND safely put that component down on some
> >conductive surface PROVIDED you bonded yourself to said surface by
> >touching it first with your free hand, and so on.  H
>
> REPLY:
>
> This method is better than nothing, but is still not adequate.
>
> As can be demonstrated with a static meter, your body is constantly
> generating static, even when seated by simple movement of your arm and
> legs and even by shifting a little in the seat. Because of this, you
> must be constantly grounded by a wrist strap.
>
> 73, Bill W6WRT
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