ESD strap and mat guidance

Hi @mark456456

The video in this link describes how to use the mat and the wrist strap.

Scroll down the page to find the video.

Portable Anti-Static Mat.

If you will always be working in the one spot you can wire a permanent earth to the benchtop and connect the mat and wrist strap to it.

It might depend on what earth connection point is available close to where you’re going to be working.

If you have an exposed metal water pipe or tap fitting close by and you know that the water supply to the premises is all metal (at least through to where it is buried in the ground) and is not plastic pipe in places as seems to be the case these days then you can clean a small area of the pipe with sandpaper etc to get a really good conductive surface and clamp a wire to the pipe and run it to the workbench connection point. If the work bench has metal legs you could attach it to one of the legs and also the mat and wrist strap there as well or you could get sophisticated and connect them to banana plug sockets so that you can just plug the mat and the wrist strap in as required.

If you don’t have a water pipe handy and if your household power outlets are of the 3 pin variety i.e. Active, Neutral and Earth (or L1, L2 and earth) then you could wire up a power outlet plug that only has the one wire connected to the earth pin only and run that to the work bench from the wall outlet and then do as above for connecting the mat and wrist strap. That way you only have to plug in the earth connection when you need it. The only downside with this is that it takes up a power outlet.

As long as you (due to the wrist strap - make sure it touches the skin and is not insulated by clothing) and the mat are at the same voltage potential then the equipment that you’re working on which is also on the mat will be at the same voltage potential (as long as it doesn’t have power connected to it) therefore there won’t be any “potential” (pun intended) ESD damage.

Get into the habit of connecting the mat and wrist strap before working on any equipment and leave sensitive components in their anti static bags until you go to install them. Also any boards that you handle try to hold them by the edges and not to touch any components if possible to further minimize the chances of any ESD damage.

Some people say that plugging in the equipment and then touching the metal frame of the equipment is sufficient but if the equipment hasn’t got an external earth connected through the power cable then there is nowhere for the body’s electrostatic voltage to discharge to except through the equipment. But that is just my view.

As long as you and the equipment that you’re working on are at the same voltage potential, via the mat and wrist strap being connected to the same point as it were, there will be no discharge between you or it which could damage the components

Hopefully this is of some help.