Alt-BEAM Archive

Message #06748



To: beam@sgiblab.sgi.com
From: Steve M mr_squishee@hotmail.com
Date: Thu, 14 Oct 1999 21:44:27 -0400
Subject: 3904s/3906s & 1381 static sensitive?



> I ordered the usual parts for a photovore a while back from Digi-Key and
> they said that the aforementioned parts were static sensitive. Is this
true?
> I've never heard that before, and I haven't seen any 'bots that are
> static-proof or anything. Does anyone know how to static-proof your
> workstation (or yourself) during bot construction?
> Steven
>
> ______________________________________________________
>


6749 Thursday, October 14, 1999 7:55 PM Re: 3904s/3906s & 1381 static sensitive? beam@sgiblab.sgi.com Elmo
>Hi Steve
>
>You can consider almost every electronic component to be static
>sensitive, its just that some are more so than others. Most of the time
>you wont kill a component even with a nasty big static zap from your
>finger, but every time you touch a static sensitive component (even if
>you dont feel a zap) you are shortening its life span. I have a 1381
>that i zapped when i dropped it on the floor and picked it up without
>static protection. Its worked for about a month after that, but recently
>it died for no apparent reason.
>
>The cheap and nasty way to protect yourself is to make sure you touch
>something like a filing cabinet or your PC's case before picking up any
>components. This will ground you but only for a very short while. Every
>time you move your body through the air your picking up more static
>charge.
>
>A better method is to buy yourself a rubber backed static mat to sit
>your components on. It wont ground you but it will disapate any static
>on your body over a much wider area, and help to keep you and your
>components at the same voltage potential (thats what causes that zap,
>when you and something else are at different voltage potentials). You
>can also get a wrist strap and ground wire which plugs into the earth
>line on your power socket (umm....do you guys in the states/Canada even
>have an earth line on your power sockets?....from memory you only use a
>two prong power socket....not three). Wrist straps are great because
>they make sure that your at ground at all times.
>
>Once you have your robot together its a bit safer becuase there are more
>point on which to discharge and any discharge isn't usually directly
>into one component, plus you have resistors and caps to help disipate
>any charge.
>
>
>Hope this helps
>
>Elmo
>
>
>
>
>
>Steve M wrote:
>>
>> I ordered the usual parts for a photovore a while back from Digi-Key and
>> they said that the aforementioned parts were static sensitive. Is this
true?
>> I've never heard that before, and I haven't seen any 'bots that are
>> static-proof or anything. Does anyone know how to static-proof your
>> workstation (or yourself) during bot construction?
>> Steven
>>
>> ______________________________________________________
>>


6750 Thu, 14 Oct 1999 22:46:13 -0400 [alt-beam] Re: 3904s/3906s & 1381 static sensitive? beam@sgiblab.sgi.com "George Rix" Don't try using your computer as a ground if you own an Apple brand Mac,
they have high-quality (but still non-conductive) plastic casing.
Just so no one fries any parts...
Peace out!

Rob Rix

Don't take a walk, climb a tree =8B an ancient truism, invented last week.

>The cheap and nasty way to protect yourself is to make sure you touch
>something like a filing cabinet or your PC's case before picking up any
>components. This will ground you but only for a very short while. Every
>time you move your body through the air your picking up more static
>charge.



6751 Fri, 15 Oct 1999 12:49:29 +1000 [alt-beam] Re: 3904s/3906s & 1381 static sensitive? beam@sgiblab.sgi.com Jacob Booth At 12:39 PM 10/15/99 +1000, you wrote:
>
>
>Yes, we in the States have a ground wire on our outlets. We're not
>completely backward. :)
>
>I don't remember who makes it, but I use a gray foam pad that has a ground
>wire connected to the nearest outlet. It's made for putting under your
>keyboard and such, I just use it for a bit different purpose.
>
>You might look for one of those...
>

Maybe you could assemble the 'bot in the kitchen sink in a slightly saline
solution to help reduce static problems :)

Don't forget to rinse in distilled water and dry thoroughly before use.

PS I'm joking people, but distilled water has it's place in electronics - I
got a laptop (one week old) that had grapefruit juice spilt into it -
Toshiba wrote it off and said replacement only. I pulled it apart, soaked
it in various tubs of distilled water and cleaned it with a small brush.
Carefully rebuilt it and bingo! A new laptop for free! (everything worked!
including the CD-ROM!). Be warned that I let it dry for 14 days in a warm
cupboard, and that was only just long enough. Water CAN be electronics'
friend too! (I recall postings about using a dishwasher to remove flux from
completed PCB's many months ago... no mechanicals in there please!)

Cheers
Jacob
------------------------------------------------------------------
Jacob Booth BIS, MCP Web http://www.its.mary.acu.edu.au/
IT Services Email j.booth@mary.acu.edu.au
Phone (02) 97392235 Fax (02) 97392924



6752 Fri, 15 Oct 1999 08:17:25 -0500 [alt-beam] Re: PCB etching "John Leo Zimmer" -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

No one has mentioned using a laser printer or copier to make a
circuit board.

I do not have a laser printer available here at home so I print my
circuit with my inkjet printer. (Must be mirror image of the desired
final result. Your software has to provide that.) Then carry it to
the office and "Xerox" it. (Printing double size at home and reducing
it increases the resolution and allows for some touchup or freehand
additions to the origional.) The toner is plastic fused to the paper
with heat. It can be fused to your clean copper with the right amount
of heat and pressure ... too much of either makes a blob, not enough
and it won't stick. Use Mom's iron :-)

Then you throw the thing into water to soak off the paper. And you
have your circuit printed to the copper. Touch up with Sharpie Ultra
Fine point, or other resist. Etch as described elsewhere in this
thread.

DigiKey, etc. will sell special paper for this purpose, but it is not
necessary. I've experimented papers. Try fingerpaint paper. You want
something that disolves easily (coated) and does not fuse excessively
with the toner. In my hands the whole process is very much an art,
rather than science. And trial and error pays off. The results are
much nicer than hand drawn. And once you have a circuit you like and
you've developed the right touch, turning out multiple copies is like
making cookies. Developing the resist is a lot like working in a
darkroom and watching your photo rise out of the blank paper. Great
fun.

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