[BC] Solving static discharge issues

wfifeng@aol.com reader
Sun Nov 13 10:58:11 CST 2005


In a message dated 11/13/2005 12:07:55 AM Eastern Standard Time,
ka1mvk at gmail.com writes:

 > At a particularly bad site for this, I would put a band-aid around my
finger
 >
 >  with a resistor lead sticking out.  It really helped get rid of the big
 >  jolts, that could be painful, and would wreak havoc with the console.
Just
 >  touch the R to ground first, but be careful scratching your nose!.

At WFIF, I have everyone trained to touch the side of the rack when they
enter the studio, and then after being seated, touch a grounded screw on the
bottom of the console.
There are several signs to remind them, lest they forget.

There was a great strip in the Dilbert comic a few years ago, where the
"Pointy-haird Boss" tells "Alice" that he taught himself a technical trick- he
shuffles his feet and makes a tiny spark... which he promptly 
discarges onto a PC
card that she is holding (a look of horror on her face). The final frame shows
him putting it under his door, with a thought balloon: "She's right! This
thing DOES make an excellent doorstop!"

Under it, I wrote "Beware the 'Demon' of STATIC" with a lightning bolt under
it.

We haven't had too many probelms with static since I told everyone about it,
and then made the signs. We also have an aluminum plate on the floor right in
front of the board, so that the chair is rolling on that. It serves two
purposes: dramatically reduces the static, and protects the rug 
"forever". It's now
several years old and going strong. I got the idea from our Olde Tyme Engineer
up in RI.

Willie...



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