G'Day! Do you discharge your "zap" gun directly to the connector pins?
As far as I know, there is no standard that provides a specific ruling on connector pins. The basic standards refer to points accessible to personnel during normal use, including Customer maintenance. Here in the UK, Competent Body and test houses opinion appears to be divided - some insist that discharge to the pins be checked (which usually results in a fail - funnily enough), and some only apply ESD to the shell. Some do both - if the contacts are recessed then they "zap" the shells; and if the contacts are non-recessed then they zap the contacts. In practice (i.e. real life), connectors with female contacts would probably discharge to the shell, but those with male contacts would discharge to the pins. "Quick fix" solutions for exposed connectors (which will not have cables fitted in the final installation) is to fit metal blanking plates, or metalised plastic dust covers, and/or fit an ESD warning label next to the connector. Then, hopefully, you can argue with the test house (or yourself !!) not to "zap" the contacts. The ideal solution, of course, is to actually design the I/O circuit and connector to deal with these "zaps"! Regards, Alan [email protected] wrote: > I have a brief question about IEC 801-3 test methodology: When conducting > air discharges, is it legitimate to discharge to pins on unterminated > connectors ? What about a case where the air discharge is not directed at > the pins but rather the connector shell, but ultimately arcs over to the > pins ? In this case, is this test point legit, or is this particular > dicharge deleted from the test data and repeated ? > -- Alan Hudson email: [email protected] ----------------------------------------------------------------
