Chosen Solution

I wouldn’t be posting if hours of searching yielded the answer(s) I need. My apologies if this is common knowledge. I searched through questions here and was unable to find anything helpful for my situation. To my question: I purchased an ESD mat from a local shop today and a piece that snaps to the mat was included. As well as connecting a wrist strap to this piece, it has a 15’ tail with a metal ring at the end for grounding. How exactly do I ground with this metal loop? Do I connect to ’the ground hole’ on a wall outlet? If so, how? Also, if this is NOT an option in my environment how would I ground? I’m trying to avoid running a copper cord out a window attached to a stake that is driven into the ground…

The ESD association sets the standards for removal of static in electronic manufacturing. 99% of the US manufacturers and 75% of electronic manufacturers world wide use ANSI/ESD S20.20-2007 (written by them)as THE gold standard. For more on their mission visit esda.org The reason they recommend attachment to an electrical ground is the anti static mats have a very high level of electrical resistance. About 100 Meg Ohms. Enough to slow and control the rate of static discharge and for safety! It’s virtually impossible for stray voltages to come thru them or an esd wrist strap. Radiators rust, water pipes change potential. The only truly reliable ground is an electrical ground that has been (easily) tested. Attachment to the center screw of an AC face plate cover is standard industry accepted method of grounding your mat. Incidentally all computers are manufactured in a static controlled environment. It’s foolish to risk taking the chance with static. The manufacturers don’t - for a very good reason - improper static control cost them money and aggravation.

Sorry Allan, you’re wrong. The ESD Association recommends attachment to AC electrical ground. The standard method of attachment is to attach the ring terminal from the mat to the center screw of the grounded AC face plate cover. On occasion attaching to a water pipe or ground rod is a safety hazard and may cause an electrical shock due to the difference in potential between that of the electrical ground and that of the earth ground.

Steve was right when he stated,: “The reason they recommend attachment to an electrical ground is the anti static mats have a very high level of electrical resistance. About 100 Meg Ohms. Enough to slow and control the rate of static discharge and for safety! It’s virtually impossible for stray voltages to come thru them or an esd wrist strap.” It is important as other have said not to hook yourself directly to ground. That’s why these wrist straps and bench mat cords have resistors in them, to limit the current if you do get across stray voltages.

I’ve done a lot of research in the last couple days and gotten several responses from different sources. There seem to be 3 major schools of thought when it comes to ESD safety. (1) Minimal protection is required, if any at all. Plenty of people claim to simply touch objects around them and avoid moonwalking across carpet. That is sufficient to avoid damaging computer equipment. (2) Connecting to the ground of a receptacle is normal procedure and perfectly safe. “The ground” of a receptacle is there for a reason, right? (3) The only safe and reliable way to ground an ESD mat, and one’s self, is to pound a stake into the ground. If this isn’t possible at least connect to an unpainted metal pipe or structural material that leads to the ground. Connecting to any system where there are unknowns carries a small risk, but a risk nonetheless. Even testing the ground of a receptacle may not be accurate enough as there are too many variables. So, it seems that for the simple RAM install on a shoe string budget, the first is just fine. Typical servicing and PC building is probably well suited for the second, especially when working in the same trusted environment. Lastly, when absolute certainty is desired, connecting to unpainted metal pipes or, better yet, creating one’s own ground with a stake driven into mother earth gives the greatest assurance. Anyone doing house calls or working on other people’s expensive computers might be best served by considering the last option despite the extra annoyances that go into it.

I am an aviation electrician. I have recieved allot of training and electrostatic and electricity are kinda a big thing for me. I agree with steve to hookit up to your wall. With the way electricity works there is absolutaly no way the electricity in your house will harm you unless the ground of the house itself is faulty. E;etricity always follows the path of least resistance which is why things short out. If you have a circuit set up to where it goes from the source to a ground it is shorting itself, and if you decided to place a lightbulb in the circuit after the ground the current would still go to the ground and the lightbulb would not get any power. Also if you have the circuit where it goes from source to load, or lightbulb in this case, and then to a ground, the light blb will light. Remove the ground and there is no light, there is no current. but if you simply add a ground before the lightbulb then it will short and you will have no light. With the way an esd mat is made and allong with the strap, they have resistance, especially the wrist strap because it has a resister in it that should measure around 1 mega ohm, anyway with the amount of resistance at hand electricity follows the path of least resistance and you will be safe. Resource http://science.howstuffworks.com/electri… http://www.pfeiffereng.com/Principals%20…

If your wall plugs are not grounded, get it to a water or gas pipe or radiator. I haven’t seen this type but you could run some bare copper wire through the hole and tighten it around the pipe.

ESD Is very real. If you don’t ground yourself, you are likely to irreversible damage the computer. Michael above, has the wrong idea.. I wouldn’t be taking my computer to him to be fixed! You cannot see ESD damage, but it literally blows ‘holes’ through circuit boards on a microscopic level. We all know how tiny circuits are. If you ‘zap’ a board, you wont know about it- it can be very hard to diagnose why the computer is acting up in a strange way. You might blame software, drivers or an incompatibility for that BSOD, or just say ’that computer part is just a dud’, very few blame ESD. At my work, we always use ESD protection; I work on Mac- we use esd wrist strap (to take away static from our bodies) connected to an ESD matt to take static away from the mac, which are then connected to a ground outlet. We use a air filter/ polariser (i might have the wrong terminology) to even take moisture out of the air (moisture can conduct static through the air). We clean the matt with a special spray every day to ensure it remains esd safe. I can’t however share much other knowledge on how to set it up properly with grounding etc, other than to say ‘be careful’… I wish iFixit would create a whole kit (esd Mat, strap, a grounding plug (to make it easy to ground! spray and maybe even an air filter)… and a set of instructions - it’d clear the air a little on how to set up.

A couple of good webpages with diagrams on setting up an esd work station are at: ESD Mat Workstation Setup http://www.esdproduct.com/how_to_install…

If anyone is concerned about possibly getting household AC voltages on your wrist strap, consider this: Standard ESD wrist straps should have a 1 million ohm resistance. If the ground wire were attached directly to 120VAC, you could experience at most 120 microamps of current through your body (and that neglects your resistance, which is usually in the hundreds of thousands of ohms). OSHA claims that most people can’t even perceive currents lower than about 1mA, and we’re talking about 1/8 of that current here. If you have a proper wrist strap, then you’re very unlikely to electrocute yourself, even if you plug right into the hot line.

I’m curious about something here, how do many technicians imagine that an ESD mat is used or required ? It’s not supposed to be connected to live or grounded things to remove household electricity, it’s to discharge the built-up static from ourselves as we move around. As we move, we make up a static charge, any kind of movement where there is friction creates this effect. Rubber and other non-conductive chemicals don’t allow this to happen, or to be more accurate they just reduce the flow of atoms to so few it become next to nothing. A neat test as I use to show students, is to buy one of them $1 screwdriver/mains testers, looks like a flat blade screwdriver but has a red LED - this lights when it senses power, and especially when it picks up static - I have students walk over different surfaces, wearing different shoes, clothing etc. Try bare feet and a nice woolly sweatshirt lol. Anyway, the idea is this, as far as I see it to be (like electricity, there are many ideas of just what it is). . . . You, and your circuit will/may have current in them - certainly you ‘will’ create current as you move while working. This is a danger to any complex circuit using degradable low power components, so you want that spare current to all go away. This is impossible completely because you add more as you touch the circuit, your tools, the floor etc. Friction = power :-( Your ESD mat is a convenient way to ‘slowly’ take away unwanted power - nothing more than that. Your ESD strap on your wrist is the same, but just a personal version of the same thing. You use both (mat and strap), because the circuit will have your static slowly wandering thru it, and if you touch one end of a long circuit to the ESD mat and the other has your fingers on it (as an example) you will flow power thru it (in theory) as you will work like a battery power cell until all your personal static is drained away. The ESD mat slows the flow right down, thereby making the rush of electrons nowhere near so harmful. Keep in mind what electricity is - it’s only dangerous/electrified if its atoms are moving fast enough - if you slow it down, it becomes low power and harmless (again, in theory). The ESD strap instead, drains power from you, more efficiently/quickly onto whatever ‘grounded’ object that you are connected to, than a mat will do - obviously a mat will only be of use if bare parts of the board are in contact with the mat itself. It doesn’t necessarily need to be to a house etc. that you are strapped onto, as static only zaps when it jumps suddenly, but if in constant contact thru a strap/mat, it flows instead, again slowly because of the straps/mats resistance. Try this one - do you get a zap when you touch a car door? or a kitchen sink? Why? because of that sudden zap - power looking for an escape. Now, go to your car door after rubbing your feet all over a carpet, rubbing a curtain etc. Make sure you cover your hand in a towel (dry), put the towel in contact with the door first, press it against it, now slide your hand along the towel onto the cars metal door surface, and…..no zap. The towel takes it away by working exactly the same as a strap would - slows that initial zap/shock. Any strap or mat just needs to ground to something that will logically be big enough to have enough atoms to take the shock, regardless of it actually going to the earths surface - although that’s obviously quite big lol. The reason for using the planet as a ground, is its size - nobody ever sees sparks as they walk across the floor, because the earth gives too much resistance for the foot/floor circuit to work. Here in the UK, we have the ground wire too, which makes it all soooo much easier, but the reality is, you dont need it to be going to actual ground, just something big enough to take it. Sorry for ranting !! I gotta stop drinking so much cola on hot days lol :-)

Is it necessary to switch on a GPO socket with an ESD plug ie., with only the earth pin of the plug wired?. In other words is earth always available?

I’m not sure if this is any help or even enters the argument, but Digi-Key publish an article on their website called" How to Install an ESD Workstation" Some of it contradicts what has been said about not using the House Electrical System ground (UK Earth). It quotes EOS/ESD Standard 6 for this. I have used their installation system for several years. I’m still here and no damage to anything. Fred

Hello all, I was in the military when they discovered that they had early failure rates due to ESD. The discharges were zapping equipment and they would not fail immediately but sooner than they should. They did intensive research with the industry and then the whole electronic industry came out with what ESDS was. Electro static discharge sensitive equipment. They produced guidelines for us when we worked on the test benches. The person named Steve at the very beginning was right on the money. Your test mat should be hooked to a TESTED outlet that is grounded. You can purchase a outlet tester at home depot. Then you hook the ground to the center plate of the outlet box. If you have a test bench the bench also needs to be grounded. If you have it properly grounded then you can ground to the bench. In ABSOLUTELY no circumstance should you ever ground to a pipe. Ground for your electrical system will probably be at a different level than a pipe or even a stake you drive in. Most electrical if no all have a stake to ground all the system to the same place so there is no different potential. The mat and the wrist band to have the 200 megohm resistance as Steve said. I have been in electronics for 30 years and this should be common knowledge but alas some people say don’t confuse me with the facts my mind is made up. Jeremy just go see for yourself at the esd org site and get over the plumbers and idiots opinions. Your safe with that grounding strap it provides you and your equipment with protection if you wire it as Steve described. Chris

Turn the power off to the closest outlet, remove the wall plate and connect the ring to the bare copper wire “ground” the wire could also be green.

My grounding scheme is that all of my ham radio equipment is grounded to a common tie-in point. From the tie-in point the common-point ground goes under the house and then outdoors to an 8’ copper-clad ground rod. The interesting thing is that both the ground rod and the household grounding are at the same potential – however, the radio equipment is separate from the house grounding. The Radio Shack anti-static mat and wrist strap says on its instructions that you should plug the strap into the mat and then plug the mat “to any available ground.” Its next helpful instruction goes on to say, “Or, you can remove the alligator clip and plug the grounding cord’s banana plug into the round ground hole on a standard AC outlet.” I have used both grounding methods and have have never suffered any shock. The thing is that you are THE “end of the wire” holding/carrying a possible negative charge needing to go someplace, thus to ground. IF you have your computer still plugged in, or my ham radio equipment, or whatever you are working on – still plugged in – THEN YOU COULD BE ELECTROCUTED, completing an unknown circuit!!

Hi all, After bad experiences during PC and radios repairing I decided to solve my ESD protection in the kitchen “lab” property. I would like to share my experiences with ESD mats for safe, ESD protective soldering as it can help to others. I looked for long time on the eBay and other shops for possibility to purchase small portable ESD mats including the cables to connect for same el. potential or directly to common ground. All mats which I found were big and expensive or small but expensive or small, not high quality just vinyl and expensive etc. Requested parameters were: two layers, oil, grease and solvent resistant, high temp resistant, acid proof and knife cut proof material. After long time I returned back to Czech market where I found the company where they has exactly what I looked for but unfortunately the mats was too big. Standard size is 80cm x 160cm for high price dedicated for professional industrial usage. So I tried to call them and after some negotiation they promised to cut it for me to preffered size 40x60cm and install the cables and bananas for ground connection. We also reached after some phone calls negotiation an excellent price. Parameters:

  • thickness: 2mm
  • RTG = 10^6 – 10^8 This branded R2 Ultra/Antistat ESD Rubber Mats have two layers; the top one is a blue static dissipative rubber layer laminated to a black conductive rubber bottom layer. Surface resistivity of the top layer is 10^6 – 10^8 and bottom layer is 10^5 – 10^6. This ESD Rubber material offers excellent resistance to oil, grease and most common solvent. These ESD Rubber Mats are very light compared to single layer and three layer mats. After ordering and arrival at home I decided to make several tests: Several oils, greases and different solvents and mat survived without any damages. The flare-up point and it seems to be higher than 1000 C which is corresponding to almost 2000 F. (I was limited by temp sensors and thermometer over here) The burning thru temperature and it survived 450 C for 2mins which is corresponding to 850 F. (I was limited by my soldering station, hi) The max of the temp without any noticeable damage of the top layer. It survived 200 C for 2mins which is corresponding to 400 F. Finaly I tried to cut it using standard knife and make the hole thru using drill and it proved very high resistance. The complete set including the 60x40cm high durability ESD mat, grounding snap points, wristband, coiled wires including the 1MOhms resistors to limit the current, banana socket and aligator clip. The set is ready to use. I never had any ESD issues with this protection when i repaired PC, radios etc. All these tests results are so great that I am really happy with this new ESD mat and I am sure that it will make great job. RESUME: To get best price from supplier we ordered with local friends higher amount of the sets so I have rest of them available for sale. If You would like to get this ESD mats also then let me know OFF-LIST to indians@xsmail.com I am ready to help You with purchasing, repacking and shipping to you worldwide. Hope it will help to some of You as same as to me with safe soldering in the kitchen property… Sorry for a bit longer message and bothering other people but I guess it can help to many of us with ESD issue. PetrO

I dont worry about static. i build computers and have never had any problems. and the computer shop i work at, nobody worries about it, nor has anyone had any problems.

These answers are all over the place and very conflicting. I couldn’t imagine hooking a wristband / mat to the ground of an electrical outlet, even if you have tested it to be safe. At any time, if there is an electrical fault caused by anything (rat chewing through wire, poor electrical work done while installing something, dropping hair-dryer in sink, etc.) on the circuit in your house / office, you’re gonna get 120 AC volts running though the ground wire in your electrical system. It will probably only be momentary till a breaker faults, but if you have a strap around your wrist hooked to an AC outlet ground and such a fault occurs, your gonna get shocked badly. It’s not gonna be like accidentally touching an exposed wire, cause your gonna have that strap around your wrist designed to make the best electrical contact. That type of shock could seriously injure you. Not all mats / straps have a 100 Meg Ohm resister in them. Actually only the more expensive ones have such a resistor. Most that are under $150 have only a 2-4 megohm resistor. That resistor wouldn’t do anything to remedy this dangerous issue. The office I moved into 6 yrs ago had changes made by shotty contractors before I moved in, and I wouldn’t ever think of using the AC ground. While I worked on the maintenance staff at a school, I once went to turn on the light in a shed after someone had earlier installed the light in that shed, and as soon as my fingers touched the metal of the switch case I got shocked. The guy who installed the light made a mistake. If I were to take a strap and wrap it around my wrist and attach it to the ground of that box I don’t think that would turn out well. The truth is that there is no easy answer for this issue. For now my strap / mat is grounded to the fire sprinkler on my ceiling. I know that’s not the best, but it sure has eliminated obvious static discharge I used to get quite often. Before I hooked my band to the sprinkler, I’d have a hard drive, (for example), that I removed from a laptop hooked up to a computer to image the drive, and during the process, if I touched the drive I’d get an obvious static discharge and the imaging process would immediately fail. This occurs even though my office floor is laminate Static discharge while performing even mundane computer repair tasks is a serious issue. Until I get a wire run from a stake in the ground up to the second floor of my building where my office is, I will have to use my fire sprinkler as a ground. AC OUTLET GROUND = BAD. If anyone has any better ideas I’d love to hear them… really! Please! It’s a tough topic!

Derived from my reply to a post above: Something to remember, but an AC utility ground is NOT always ground. I work with high power systems and there is always a lot to consider. Assuming your building electrical is correctly wired per NEC, there is still significant inductance to the point at the main panel where the ground rod or ufer (e.g., the building rebar system) grounds the electrical system. NEC requires main building ground at a single point which is at the service entrance panel (NOT a branch panel). So when you get a severe fault to ground and a large change in current (recall: V=L*dI/dt), you can get a huge potential difference that can kill along the fault current ground path. If your are next to the fault, not much of a problem. But if you are away from the fault and unfortunately along the path of the fault current, there can be a very large voltage on the ground. I have seen grounded metal panels arc against frames that they were “attached” to… An alternative is to run your own dedicated ground to the main panel and stay off the AC grounds. If that is a long way away and you are on a ground floor, get the floor surveyed and pop a hole in the floor. Buy an NEC ground rod (6’ long) and drive into the ground leaving a few inches exposed to tie your ESD mat to. A tie in to an UNCOATED WATER pipe (most modern installations are plastic sleeved and therefore dicey as they are insulating!!!) that is embedded and stubs out from the concrete or a true ufer is also a good idea. Again, per NEC, that pipe should be tied to the AC electrical ground, but your are protected from AC fault currents by the low resistance of the concrete along the length IF it is not sleeved.