Anti Static Wrist Straps --- Does any one use them?

[carnageX]

I consider wrist-wraps dangerous - anyone who's ever done electrical work or electronics (building electrical circuits, not just working on PC's) knows that attaching anything metal to yourself is BAD IDEA!!!

The first rule of any carpenter/electrician is No rings, no bracelets, no nothing attached to your hands/wrists.

...They have resistors built in them...and that's why you attach the strap to a grounding source...

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

Even if you don't have the cases grounded you are bringing your self and the computer to the same charge so that there is no shock, it would be neutral between you and the case, just as long as your touching the case for the most part, an unpainted part...

 

[SparkMonkeyHellion]

...They have resistors built in them...and that's why you attach the strap to a grounding source...

a little resistor is hardly comforting when working with high voltage.

That's all I'm saying, I dealt with high voltage long before I got into PC's and so my instincts say "Metal attached to you is a bad idea!"

 

[hikaricloud]

I'd rather hang myself with one of those annoying things. I just caress my case like it's a woman.

EDIT: Possibly the geekiest thing I've said all day...

 

[Poizen22]

also the point isnt to ground yourself, which many of you are over looking, the point of it is to discharge static electricity which can easaly be done by contacting any sort of metal. hense touching the case. there is less of a danger to your more so a danger to your pc parts. on my own time i do not use the bracelet, but i have onced fried a ram stick by just touching it, i ended up shocking it, stick wouldnt work after wards.

 

[Spit-wad]

+ it's fun to get shocked, but not fun to get your components shocked

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

...They have resistors built in them...and that's why you attach the strap to a grounding source...

A resistor only protects on a small scale.... Now imagine something with incredibly high amperage and voltage going through it... That resistor would just be a puddle of lead and tin....

 

[SparkMonkeyHellion]

The highest voltage I've been shocked by was probably by a small voltage multiplier, basically a series of capacitors and diodes adds up to 10kV. That thing is really cool, one time I held one terminal and my brother held the other. He had really short hair at the time, like a buzz cut.

Well, I waved my hand over his head and the tip of each hair started glowing blue. That was freaking sweet. It shocked the bejesus out of him when I accidentally touched his head though.

 

[carnageX]

also the point isnt to ground yourself, which many of you are over looking, the point of it is to discharge static electricity

Which is what grounding yourself out is, as well as making sure any more gained static charge is discharged through the grounding point.

A resistor only protects on a small scale.... Now imagine something with incredibly high amperage and voltage going through it... That resistor would just be a puddle of lead and tin....

Pretty sure a static charge is the least of your worries if you're working with high-scale power sources... Hence why there are grounding rods usually put directly on the source (this is the case when we're working on TV's a lot of the time, anyway). That's why anti-static straps are usually used with computer components because they don't have that high-scale power (excluding power supplies, but that's why they're in a metal enclosure ).

 

[Wildside]

when i mess with my computer, i always unplug my power cable. Static shouldnt be a problem at all with building PCs.