Damon Register wrote:
Sid Boyce wrote:
If enough of us tackle such people, perhaps they'll take notice. I've
I doubt it. ignorance is pretty widespread and some seem to believe that ignorance is bliss.
educate both and keep staff honest at least when in view. Perhaps that would impact sales. The motherboard manufacturers pre-package their
you must be from another planet :-) While I agree with you 100 percent, I guess I must also be cynical. The world is full of people who don't like rules and think they are for fanatics. Just look at the countless discussions in this very list from people who top post and get angry if you try to correct them.
At my company we have to take periodic training for ESD handling. Some years ago we had 3M give us a presentation on ESD and it was very interesting. Using just ordinary mosfets, he showed us how the gate current increased after static exposure. Then he did the same demo with the fet in an antistatic bag (their brand, of course) and showed us how the gate current was still the same.
Damon Register
I think 3M is the largest if not the only producer. Antistatic materials will not let static build up, static dissipative materials will disperse the static over its area, so the volts/m at measured is less. In my demos, I used a static meter with different materials to make the point. Your ordinary plastic bags will hold static, the black bags and the clear ones with black (carbon) stripes are antistatic, the orange ones are static dissipative and the static will decay over time, so the reading from an antistatic bag should be zero even when you rub them on carpet tiles or your clothing. Back in the 1970's a bank was experiencing corruptions on one of their machines, our Engineers and Specialists would run extensive tests, scope for hours and find no problems, it only happened when she was operating and they were watching perplexed, then the specialist asked the operator if she was wearing nylon underwear, blushing she asked why, he explained and she said she did, problem solved. Off Topic, then there was the one of the well endowed young lady whose machine kept inserting extra characters, many hours of Engineers's and Specialist's time expended, they decided to watch while she typed, oops, appendages other than fingers were occasionally hitting keys, another one bit the dust. Regards Sid. -- Sid Boyce .... Large Computer Systems Specialist - Retired Hamradio Callsign G3VBV and Keen Private Pilot Aeroplanes, Linux, Computers and Cricket my major passions ===== LINUX USED HERE, A Microsoft-free Computing Environment ====