1

I am a novice to electronics, and I am currently building a home workstation. In this question on ESD chairs, the user Sparky256 said the following in his answer:

If you are wearing BOTH a wrist and a ankle/heel strap you take yourself out of the static-source equation, so you can pay attention to other static sources such as plastic containers and plastic tools.

For the ankle strap, can I just take a second wrist strap and wear it around one of my ankles? The problem with heel straps is that, if my understanding is correct, they are not connected to the ESD bench mount, and instead work by making contact with ESD flooring. Since I am at home, my flooring is hardwood -- not ESD flooring (since this is quite expensive and probably excessive).

I would greatly appreciate it if people would please take the time to advise me on this.

The Pointer
  • 1,241
  • 1
  • 11
  • 24
  • 3
    Yes, it's correct that a heel strap is useless without ESD flooring or mats in place. – Dave Tweed Jun 26 '20 at 03:46
  • @DaveTweed Thank you for the confirmation. – The Pointer Jun 26 '20 at 03:47
  • ESD protocols do have some cost, but as a single bench user yours is minimal. By the time you add the cost of wrist straps and possibly heel/ankle straps and anti-static bags and bins and tools (grounded solder irons) you may have spent a few hundred, so a small anti-static floor mat is extra protection at a low cost. –  Jun 26 '20 at 04:10
  • @Sparky256 So just putting a wrist strap around one of my ankles is not a valid substitute? Also, how much coverage of the floor do I need with the mats? Do I only need to cover the area under which I sit, or do I need to cover the entire bench area? – The Pointer Jun 26 '20 at 04:16
  • If you keep your trays of parts and often-used test equipment close by then your mat needs to be no larger then the distance to these objects. Yes you can wrist-strap your ankle but your now tied to your location, and it will pull out if you move without disconnecting it. I sense your trying to keep this budget very small, so just buy what gets you by to start with, then add more later on. NO MFG plant started out with 100% of what it needed up front. –  Jun 26 '20 at 04:24
  • @Sparky256 It is a large workbench, so I am planning to just place equipment (oscilloscope, power supply, parts, etc.) on the other side of the bench, against the wall. So I can reach it all by just bending over the workbench to reach it. In this case, do I need the entire area underneath the workbench to having ESD matting, or is it sufficient to just have matting for the area underneath where I am seated? – The Pointer Jun 26 '20 at 04:32
  • The mat should allow you to reach most things if you have to get up and walk a step or two. If way oversized it is wasted money, but normally you buy pre-cut sizes then trim to fit –  Jun 26 '20 at 04:59
  • @Sparky256 Hmm, I already have one of those large rolls that need to be cut https://www.oritech.com.au/dual-layer-esd-mats-techspec.html, but I thought that these are only for the top of the workbench. Looking at floor ESD mats https://au.rs-online.com/web/p/esd-safe-mats/4661643/, they seem to have a plug and require being plugged into the ESD bench mount to be grounded; but the large rolls that need to be cut don't have such a plug, so I assumed that they were only for the top of the workbench and not for floor use. That is why I thought that I had to buy separate floor-specific ESD mats. – The Pointer Jun 26 '20 at 05:09
  • @Sparky256 I have one of these https://www.oritech.com.au/esd-table-mat-with-ground-cord-techspec.html, in addition to this https://www.oritech.com.au/dual-layer-esd-mats-techspec.html. Do I need to place https://www.oritech.com.au/esd-table-mat-with-ground-cord-techspec.html on top of https://www.oritech.com.au/dual-layer-esd-mats-techspec.html when working on the bench? Because, if not, then could I can take the table mat https://www.oritech.com.au/esd-table-mat-with-ground-cord-techspec.html , plug it into the bench ESD mount, and use it as a floor mat? – The Pointer Jun 26 '20 at 05:15
  • 1
    @ThePointer I don't think table mats are designed for the kind of wear and tear from supporting the pressures of chairs and body weight. You do not need to stack table mats. – DKNguyen Jun 26 '20 at 05:45
  • @DKNguyen Hmm, ok. Thanks for the clarification. – The Pointer Jun 26 '20 at 05:48
  • @ThePointer You've not held an ESD mat in your hands yet but it is similar to a heavy dinner placemat or shelf liner. Far flimsier than the flimsiest rugs or welcome mats I have ever seen. If it's just you alone, you might be able to get away with it if you walked on it barefoot (no need for a ground strap either), but the pressure of your chair wheels will destroy it. – DKNguyen Jun 26 '20 at 05:55
  • @DKNguyen I will be the only one using it, and will be walking on it barefoot or sitting on a wooden stool on top of it (no wheels). So if I just use these https://www.oritech.com.au/dual-layer-esd-mats-techspec.html mats for the flooring and bench top, then they don't require a grounding strap, and the only other grounding strap I need is my wrist strap attached to the ESD bench mount? – The Pointer Jun 26 '20 at 05:57
  • 1
    @ThePointer Stool legs would destroy it too unless you got some weird kind of stool with a single large foot that spread it's weight out over its entire footprint. Floor mats need a ground strap. I meant you don't need a heel strap because you know...barefoot. – DKNguyen Jun 26 '20 at 05:58
  • @DKNguyen Oh, ok. But https://www.oritech.com.au/dual-layer-esd-mats-techspec.html specifically as a bench mat does not require to be connected to any grounding, since the bench itself has an ESD bench mount that I am attached to via the wrist strap? – The Pointer Jun 26 '20 at 06:00
  • I don't understand what you mean by the ESD bench mount. The bench might let you plug in a wrist strap but the table mat needs to be grounded too, whether directly or by sitting on a conductive bench surface that is grounded – DKNguyen Jun 26 '20 at 06:01
  • @DKNguyen https://www.oritech.com.au/bench-mounted-grounding-fixture.html is drilled into the wooden workbench. I am then connected to this via my wrist strap. The bench top is covered in https://www.oritech.com.au/dual-layer-esd-mats-techspec.html, which I cut to size, but this mat itself does not have any plugs to plug into the bench mount (unlike other bench mats, such as this https://www.oritech.com.au/esd-table-mat-with-ground-cord-techspec.html), so I'm assuming that is fine? – The Pointer Jun 26 '20 at 06:03
  • 1
    You need to get a grounding kit for the mat. They screw or rivet a metal snap into the mat which connects to a grounding cable which can then run to the wall or to a banana plug that you can plug into the little port on your bench. – DKNguyen Jun 26 '20 at 06:05
  • @DKNguyen Ahh, ok, that makes sense. – The Pointer Jun 26 '20 at 06:05
  • Be careful about product recommendations. That is out of bounds for us. –  Jun 26 '20 at 09:42
  • @Sparky256 No product recommendations. I'm just confused about what general pieces of equipment I need to make this work. – The Pointer Jun 26 '20 at 09:44
  • Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been [moved to chat](https://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/109890/discussion-on-question-by-the-pointer-heel-strap-vs-wrist-strap-around-ankle). – Voltage Spike Jun 26 '20 at 17:48

0 Answers0