As Mr. mailadmin points out, grounding wrist straps have a resistor that allows electrical potential to bleed off slowly. This is a safety issue, because for various reasons one could achieve an enormous charge when working on electrical equipment that is isolated from earth ground (such as when the machine is unplugged.) As soon as a ground path becomes available, one finds oneself in the position of become a discharging capacitor. Sometimes with fatal consequences.
The purpose of touching the metal power supply chassis, or other conductive parts of the computer is to achieve neutral potential between yourself and the machine. If you and your machine are charged to identical potential, then you won't harm the components of the machine, even if positively charged to plus 1000 volts. However, when you reach over and grab something off you desk that is at ground potential, that 1000 volts is going to suddenly change from potential to flow. A safer technique is to use a switched power strip. This would interrupt the AC power while leaving the ground path intact. And plug your wrist strap into the same strip. The plug on consumer wrist straps has a ground pin only, no power pins. That way, you and your machine share a common ground path, no AC potential and are at the same electrical potential, hence no static build-up. (Actually, the wrist strap that I have has a female receptacle designed to plug into a standard removable power cord. I keep one plugged into the power strip to use for this purpose. HTH -----Original Message----- From: Dale Spear [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Sunday, January 26, 2003 9:19 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [SM] Finder? --- mailadmin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > on 1/25/03 12:15 AM, Eric B. Haulenbeek at > [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > > Actually, you can fashion a ground strap out of > most any flexible wire... > > tape one end to your wrist and fasten the other > end to the case... save a > > five spot! > > > > Eric > > > > > > that would be a very dangerous thing to do. > you need atleast 5m Ohm in line with the wire, > because if you recieve an > electric shock you will be dead, because you are > tied directly to earth. Then should you never allow your hands to touch the chassis directly while working on the machine? __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com -- SuperMacs is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | Service & Replacement Parts [EMAIL PROTECTED] | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> SuperMacs list info: <http://lowendmac.com/supermacs/list.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/supermacs%40mail.maclaunch.com/> --------------------------------------------------------------- >The Think Different Store http://www.ThinkDifferentStore.com --------------------------------------------------------------- -- SuperMacs is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | Service & Replacement Parts [EMAIL PROTECTED] | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> SuperMacs list info: <http://lowendmac.com/supermacs/list.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/supermacs%40mail.maclaunch.com/> --------------------------------------------------------------- >The Think Different Store http://www.ThinkDifferentStore.com ---------------------------------------------------------------
