building surface

[iamlegs]

can i build on a plastic coated wood table or should i avoid it?

[thedangerine]

That should be fine. I have literally built on carpet(like literally the pc on the carpet,) vinyl, wood, a bed, etc. never had any issues. Static really isn't much a concern these days, I wouldn't worry about what your building it on

[ImNotThere]

as said, build wherever, I have lost count of how many PC's i've built on carpets.

[mariushm]

Build on anything you want.

 

It's not hard to add a layer of material that doesn't conduct electricity ... the cardboard board of the motherboard, a newspaper, some sheets of copier paper... .

[IntMD]

I've built my last 4 personal systems on the carpet and/or bed in my bedroom.

[GoodBytes]

Computer hardware are all coated by a plastic protection layer on both sides (hence why the PCB isn't mat color, like it would be if you open old or cheap electrics and look at their PCB).

 

This coating protects it from static shock (to some degree of course), so it is fine. It is an extra cost that manufactures don't mind putting, as it would reduce RMA's and support calls, and help give the company a better image, then seeing a million people complain online that their hardware is not working.

 

That said, I would recommend you wipe the surface with a wet cloth (and dry), to ensure a, not only clean surface, but reduce potentially static, which can occur depending on the plastic composition.

[mariushm]

53 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

Computer hardware are all coated by a plastic protection layer on both sides (hence why the PCB isn't mat color, like it would be if you open old or cheap electrics and look at their PCB).

 

This coating protects it from static shock (to some degree of course), so it is fine. It is an extra cost that manufactures don't mind putting, as it would reduce RMA's and support calls, and help give the company a better image, then seeing a million people complain online that their hardware is not working.

 

That said, I would recommend you wipe the surface with a wet cloth (and dry), to ensure a, not only clean surface, but reduce potentially static, which can occur depending on the plastic composition.

NO, that's NOT TRUE, please stop spreading such misinformation.

 

The copper traces (wires) on circuit boards are covered by a layer of transparent paint to prevent oxidation on the copper layers and to protect the traces from short circuits... oxides formed on the copper traces would cause the overall resistance of a trace to change and that could cause transmission errors... and a drop of water on top of two traces could have enough impurities to cause a tiny short circuit and electrolysis to happen, breaking copper atoms from one trace, therefore damaging it. 

 

It has nothing to do with anti static protection.

 

The actual pins on through hole devices and the pads of surface mounted components are not protected by any paints. If you grab a video card or a motherboard like an idiot and put the palm on the back of a circuit board while being charged with static electricity, the electricity could flow from your palm or fingers directly into the exposed pins, or the contacts of surface mounted components.

That's why it's best to discharge yourself from any static electricity by using an anti static wrist thing properly tied to something grounded, or to periodically touch something grounded (for example, exposed metal of the power supply of your pc, plugged in a grounded mains socket)

 

Touch components by their edges, making an effort not to touch actual pins or solder joints of through hole devices. If you need more contact points, put your fingers on IO connectors (ex bracket or hdmi connectors on video card, the IO shield connectors on a motherboard) ,  on plastic slots (pci-e for example), or grab components from metal heatsinks (which are usually connected to ground or not connected to anything)

 

In the past there was more issues, but in these modern times most components have built in ESD protections, meaning the parts may survive an ESD event, but it's better overall to not rely on this. Some parts have protection up to some threshold, others may have a higher threshold... you could have so much static electricity in you that you could exceed any protection... depends on what you're wearing and your environment (how dry the air is in your room etc)

 

Make a best effort to not zap components, respect the parts, and the most basic and simple things you can do is to install the parts on something that doesn't conduct electricity (cardboard, wood, paper, some plastics) and to discharge yourself from time to time by touching something grounded.

 

 

[GoodBytes]

6 minutes ago, mariushm said:

NO, that's NOT TRUE, please stop spreading such misinformation.

Yes it is true.

Easy to test. Touch the reach pins of your hardware part. If it screws up/freeze/random light blink (if it has any), then it is not protected. Yet, that will never happen with the hardware you buy in the PC space, but will perfectly will with most electronic device, say a cheap DVD player or VCR or whatever you don't mind potentially destroying for testing.

 

6 minutes ago, mariushm said:

The copper traces (wires) on circuit boards are covered by a layer of transparent paint to prevent oxidation on the copper layers

No, that is teh color coating that you see. That is why the traces are green (or red or black), and not coper color as the coating is not transparent.

6 minutes ago, mariushm said:

The actual pins on through hole devices and the pads of surface mounted components are not protected by any paints. If you grab a video card or a motherboard like an idiot and put the palm on the back of a circuit board while being charged with static electricity, the electricity could flow from your palm or fingers directly into the exposed pins,

You are right some pins aren't protected, especially power pins and connectors. But the board is coated for the most part.

 

6 minutes ago, mariushm said:

That's why it's best to discharge yourself from any static electricity by using an anti static wrist thing properly tied to something grounded, or to periodically touch something grounded (for example, exposed metal of the power supply of your pc, plugged in a grounded mains socket)

And yet, it nearly never happens to people who don't take any efforts in protection... Let alone miss use of these bracelets (they ground it to teh case, but teh system is not plugged in to anything).

[Jae Tee]

Just avoid metal. Also if your really worried about static, just touch the screw on the out side of an outlet or light switch as they are usually grounded.

[mariushm]

4 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

Yes it is true.

Easy to test. Touch the reach pins of your hardware part. If it screws up/freeze/random light blink (if it has any), then it is not protected. Yet, that will never happen with the hardware you buy in the PC space, but will perfectly will with most electronic device, say a cheap DVD player or VCR or whatever you don't mind potentially destroying for testing.

This is not indicative of anything. It depends on the skin of the person, how conductive it is, the normal resistance of the skin, lots of other factors. It also depends on the purpose of those pins/contacts and if those pins are in use when you touch them... for example, if you touch one pin that's connected to ground, nothing will happen. If you touch some data pins and short them together, you may see nothing, because the chip may or may not read data at that moment and even if it reads, it may treat that as corrupted transfer and repeat the transfer.

 

4 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

No, that is teh color coating that you see. That is why the traces are green (or red or black), and not coper color as the coating is not transparent.

You are right some pins aren't protected, especially power pins and connectors. But the board is coated for the most part.

All pins and pads where components are supposed to be soldered to are exposed.

What you're probably thinking of is conformal coating, where a protective layer of material is dumped over the circuit board covering everything... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conformal_coating

It's used in some devices designed for long use, industrial etc (gas meters for example), but not on computer parts.

 

4 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

And yet, it nearly never happens to people who don't take any efforts in protection... Let alone miss use of these bracelets (they ground it to teh case, but teh system is not plugged in to anything).

Yeah, you don't hear about it because most idiot buyer doesn't think "oh yeah i zapped it with static electricity" when something doesn't work. They just return it for RMA as "dead on arrival". You don't hear the statistics about such failures from warranty and repair centers.

For the average Joe that buys a motherboard or video card, there's no distinction between ESD damage and DOA (dead on arrival).

Just because you don't hear about it, doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

 

 

[RonnieOP]

2 hours ago, mariushm said:

For the average Joe that buys a motherboard or video card, there's no distinction between ESD damage and DOA (dead on arrival).

Just because you don't hear about it, doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

 

 

And just because you think a part was damaged by ESD and not DOA doesnt mean thats true.  Unless you have evidence of ESD being a major problem then theres no reason to say it is.