Grounding??

toby dawg · Post by **toby dawg** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 3:15 pm

So if im making an n64 portable what do i do to ground myself out. Can i wrap tin foil around my rist and use an aligator clip to connect my self from the tinfoil to the n64s ground strip or what?

Kurt_ · Post by **Kurt_** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 3:16 pm

You shouldn't be THAT concerned. Just touch something that hooks into the ground on your wall socket.

If you ARE that concerned, I think you can buy wrist straps that you plug into the wall to ground yourself.

timmeh87 · Post by **timmeh87** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 4:00 pm

connecting yourself to the grounding strip on your nintendo 64 would only work if the power brick is plugged in. otherwise its would make things worse.

tie a wire around a copper pipe, or connect something to the ground on a wall outlet.

or just buy a proper anti static wristband.

and you should be concerned..

Post by **Skyone** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 5:15 pm

Where rubber boots of course. But really, unless you're not careful, you won't be in danger.

timmeh87 · Post by **timmeh87** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 11:48 pm

one mistake people make is the difference between "ground" and "earth ground"

"ground" in most contexts refers to the 0V reference point in your circuit. and
"earth ground" refers to any conduction path into the earth.

now, if you have a static charge built up on you (fact: it takes maybe 20Kv of static electricity before you can feel it spark from your finger, it takes maybe 50v to fry a sensitive chip), then you can fry your electronic device if you allow the charge built up on you to pass through it in any way.

the way to get rid of the charge on you is to touch something of a much lower potential, and allow the electricity to flow out of you. the earth works quite well for this. (its basically a capacitor so incredibly huge that it acts like some soft of black hole for electricity). so before you work on electronics, you need to touch something thats EARTH grounded.

that means if you are touching the (not earth-grounded) 'grounding' strip on your board, you are not accomplishing anything, and could still easily fry the board if you have some charge on you.

some good places to get earth ground:
- water pipes
- the metal case of a computer that is PLUGGED IN
- the metal box around electrical outlets
- the ground conductor of a 3-prong outlet (WARNING: DONT MESS AROUND WITH WALL OUTLETS UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOURE DOING)
- nearby lightning rod (lol)