Static control

[Christmasaddict]

Thanks again to everyone who replied to my question about soldering tips.  Now I am wanting to know specifically what people are doing to be sure of not damaging parts and components with static electricity during the build process.  Do you use mats, grounding straps, etc.  I will be building a Dongle and 3 Lynx Express units.  Thanks in advance. :   

[Dennis Cherry]

Stay away from synthetic materials. Includes clothes and carpeting.  Cotton is fine to wear. Shoes with real hide soles is fine also.

[meman]

Can't tell what what part of the country you are from, but here in Florida I hardly worry at all. If I'm wearing shoes and walk across some carpet, I  may touch the ground jack on my soldering station just as a good measure when I sit back down. Even if you live in a dry area prone to a lot of static, that should suffice...unless you are working on a carpeted area and shuffle your feet a lot. In that case a wrist strap might be in order.
From what I can tell, most of the parts we are using are tough as nails. I've put them in backwards, super-heated them, etc. and had no problems yet once I got things right.

[jnealand]

I don't use any static control and have never had a problem with many LEs, a couple of dongles and a bunch of wireless stuff.  Doesn't mean I won't in the future, but we seldom have any static issues in my house in the Atlanta area.  In fact sometimes the dehumidifier even runs in the winter.

[Christmasaddict]

Well I'm in Alabama so if Florida and Georgia have no problems then neither should I.  Thanks for the input.

[dmaccole]

See the Wikipedia entry

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and note the section "Removal and prevention of static electricity."

Humidity is your friend. If it's humid, your potential for problems goes way down.

Me? I live two miles from the Pacific Ocean, a great source of humidity and preventer of static discharge.

HTH.

\dmc

[Freebird]

Well this is all great information, but for people like me that live in a very dry part of the world ( yes I live in Washington State but the dry part not rainy part) the humidity is normally at 20% or less.  What I have found is a static blanket about 2 x 2' that I lay on the table and all parts stay in static bag until I absolutely need them.  I also wear a wrist strap that I place on my ankle instead to keep it out of the way and ground it to the table. So far I haven't had any issues, Knock on wood, but I take these precautions because getting shocked by my kids as they shuffle their feet across the carpet and chase after me is for their entertainment, not mine..    LOL.

Freebird

[budude]

Well this is all great information, but for people like me that live in a very dry part of the world ( yes I live in Washington State but the dry part not rainy part) the humidity is normally at 20% or less.  What I have found is a static blanket about 2 x 2' that I lay on the table and all parts stay in static bag until I absolutely need them.  I also wear a wrist strap that I place on my ankle instead to keep it out of the way and ground it to the table. So far I haven't had any issues, Knock on wood, but I take these precautions because getting shocked by my kids as they shuffle their feet across the carpet and chase after me is for their entertainment, not mine..    LOL.

Freebird

Just be sure that the wrist/ankle strap has a built in resistor to the ground connection. If it doesn't  (i.e. a straight connection) and you happen to touch high voltage, you'll get shocked even with just a single finger touch.