ESD Detector for $2!

There's nothing wrong with building a circuit and poking things with it for fun or out of curiosity.
That's fine! It's a neat circuit that demonstrates the operation of a FET.
Just don't hint/claim it's an adequate means of ESD protection.

bloompyle said:

The problem I face is that I live on the third floor of a dorm. To combat this issue, I bought a dozen pairs of reusable ESD nylon gloves.

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I don't... I don't see how the two are linked. How are nylon gloves going to help your elevation problem?

I don't have an earth ground readily available. This offers me anti static protection without a grounding strap.

Although re-reading my post, I too laughed out loud at its vagueness.

bloompyle said:

I don't have an earth ground readily available.

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I think you're taking earth ground too literally. Earth ground is available even on the highest of skyscrapers. If you have a three-pronged outlet or even a water pipe, you have earth ground.

Clearly a ground screw is the only option here.

One way to avoid static is live somewhere humid, I've never bothered with static prevention and never had an issue

Cheers for living in a humid place! I've never had that problem either. I CAN build up static if I tried really hard though...

wannaburnstuff said:

This may sound like a really, REALLY stupid question....but I'm not really sure how to ground myself? When I fixed up my laptop and upgraded the RAM I simply touched the Chassis a bunch because that is supposed to be the ground.....but with lasers I have never been sure....just try to touch as much stuff that could possibly discharge the electricity before I mess with diodes and drivers and whatnot.....

So if someone wouldn't mind helpin a brother out....I have read all sorts of how to's but I never understand what they mean....


Thanks,
Isaac

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Now, you're quite correct in saying that the chassis is grounded, but it's only grounded IF you have plugged your laptop into the mains. it may sound weird, but because your mains has a ground, it connects to your laptop's chassis, while the live and neutral connects to the circuitry.

For a country which doesn't have a switch at the mains, it may be a problem since you can't ground the device and turn it off at the same time. However, if you can get hold of a mains outlet with a switch, the switch only cuts the live supply, thus allowing you to keep the device grounded when it's plugged in.

Also, technically speaking, any large enough metal object, whether connected with the Earth or not, is good to use as earthing. But it must be really huge, e.g. The railing of a stairwell that runs continuously from the bottom to the top floor (of a several storey building). Nothing beats Earth of course. It's the biggest known mass we have that's easily accessible.

Tw15t3r said:

any large enough metal object, whether connected with the Earth or not, is good to use as earthing. But it must be really huge

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Anvil in your pants - instant ESD protection!

there's nothing wrong with building a circuit and poking things with it for fun or out of curiosity.
That's fine! It's a neat circuit that demonstrates the operation of a fet.
Just don't hint/claim it's an adequate means of esd protection.

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PLEASE NOTE TO ALL USERS READING THIS THREAD. This is not ESD protection, this is just for checking if you are fully protected

Cyparagon said:

Anvil in your pants - instant ESD protection!

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If you have balls of steel, sure!


Anyway, Cube777, you said you have managed to make it really really sensitive now. Can it detect a fully charged battery if brought near to it? There should be small electric fields present, and it'd look really cool if it does that!

^Sadly, it does not. I lengthened the antenna even more (helped a lot more with sensitivity!) but the field of the battery is just to weak

I should have mentioned that there's no easily accessible ground. Unless I stripped a wire of everything but the ground and used that... The furniture is all wood. There's barely enough metal in here, outside of my argon and the metal around the mirrors, to smelt into anything more than a couple grams. The fridge and stove and all that are outside of my room in the common area. Grounding myself in this room would be a challenge.

bloompyle said:

I should have mentioned that there's no easily accessible ground. Unless I stripped a wire of everything but the ground and used that... The furniture is all wood. There's barely enough metal in here, outside of my argon and the metal around the mirrors, to smelt into anything more than a couple grams. The fridge and stove and all that are outside of my room in the common area. Grounding myself in this room would be a challenge.

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Hmm.... Definitely sounds like a challenge. Stick a metal rod into the electrical socket ground and then a wire to yourself from there? Just be sure you know which hole you're connecting to!

Or bloompyle, if you want a new hairstyle I would highly recommend the live socket!

Cube777 said:

Or bloompyle, if you want a new hairstyle I would highly recommend the live socket!

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Hairstyles are out of regs . 3 guard on the top half guard on the side. Every. Haircut.

bloompyle said:

I should have mentioned that there's no easily accessible ground. Unless I stripped a wire of everything but the ground and used that...

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Why not? You could also get a plug ($2 at the hardware store) and just add the ground wire to it.

Is there something special about the transistor used in this? Otherwise I could make it from the piles of random transistors I have laying around already from salvaging... I know this project is cheap so I'll build it either way, but I can just walk out into my back yard...