The SCAM of Wireless ESD Straps Feat. ElectroBOOM

[JordB]

We put wired and wireless anti-static wrist bands to the test with help from ElectroBOOM. It’s not just about shocking Linus, it’s educational, too!

 

 

 

Buy an iFixit Anti-Static Wrist Strap: https://lmg.gg/4wNU0

Buy a DESCO Wrist Strap Tester: https://geni.us/15lUu

 

Purchases made through some store links may provide some compensation to Linus Media Group.

[MultiGamerClub]

wait.. a minute since upload? Okaaayy

[Levent]

This video is 13 years late.

[Uttamattamakin]

I love Electrobooms content.  It's so grounded.  

 

[vsteel]

There are a few things wrong.

 

1. 50V and less can mess up some electronics. Some spinning rust manufactures are under 5V for their heads, when exposed not in side the drive.

 

2. The resistor is not there to protect you from high voltage, it is to reduce the flow of electrons. ESD damage happens when you have too fast of a flow of current. 1 mega ohm is at the lower end of the required resistance range, upper is 10 to the 9th. There is some math behind the calculations to drain the electrons over time which gives the resistance needed, nothing to do with safety.  If you work around circuits that can cause harm, you don't want a path to ground.  Most electricians have non conductive footwear.  The resistor in the strap is so small that any real amount of current will overpower it and short and you will then have a direct path to ground. 

 

3. If you want the best protection use the ESD straps that have a metal band like an expanding watch band. We have found in testing that there is a 50% fail rate with the cloth bands.

 

4. something people don't know is that modules are more sensitive than singulated parts. Yes there are white papers proving this.

 

5. ESD happens fast, while testing ESD boots holding special measurement equipment I was at less than 150V. I did a small jump, maybe 6 inches in the air and I hit 2000 volts in the short time I was up. Once I hit my charge drained away, losing contact for a second is enough to charge up to amounts that harm your electronics.   When something is in a case, like your computer or laptop, it is much safer, the real danger is when you are plugging in something like a drive or module into your device.  

 

6. ESD not only kills parts, it can also shorten the life of parts or it can cause parts to act odd from time to time. Basically put a ghost in the machine.  ESD doesn't always let out the magic smoke.

 

7. If you want to know more about ESD, read the S20.20 spec and the TR.53 spec.  They are the main industry standards.  Though be careful when looking at ESD items, there are two levels of ESD, the semiconductor/electronics standard and the non arcing standard which allows much more voltage.  They just don't want you to spark and ignite something, frying electronics levels is OK.

 

Source: I do ESD for a major semiconductor manufacturer and work with one of the people who help write the global aforementioned standards.

[Im_J3r0]

Made an account here on the forum specifically for this. Might want to check the bands with a geiger counter. At least the other band had powder that looks suspiciously like radioactive Thorium Dioxide (ThO2) (these products have a slight reputation for containing that) and the product listing did have most of the signs of quackery products that do have this. It isn't Insta-Kill, nor immediately that dangerous but it is indeed something you would not want to wear. I'd also considering it appropriate to just, warn to a wider audience of the dangers of these things, shall the band be radioactive.

 

(Side note; the LTT logistics team , or LTT labs should consider acquiring a Geiger counter to examine at least some of the stuff coming in.)

 

Edited April 9, 2023 by Im_J3r0
Thorium dioxide, not oxide

[Somerandomtechyboi]

22 minutes ago, vsteel said:

it can also shorten the life of parts

Now stuff like killing parts and odd malfunctions are pretty easy to prove (isolate all other variables) but do you have a way to measure this "shortening" of part life? cause usually its pretty damn hard to measure with all the variables and stuff and i dont think you can eliminate every single variable for testing over a lomg period of time

[MartyS]

I was also wondering if any of these bands would have polonium in them like the various anti-static bars and brushes.  But I'm guessing the companies that make these things wouldn't bother since they are pure snake oil.  Even if they had a radioactive source they still wouldn't work as a wrist band, those only prevent static charge from building within range of the source, so they used to put them inside things like a milligram balance where a little static could mess up your measurements.  They are also only effective for about 2 years because the polonium decays so quickly.

 

Love the video, those 2 have such great chaos energy while being both entertaining and educational.

[vsteel]

1 minute ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

Now stuff like killing parts and odd malfunctions are pretty easy to prove (isolate all other variables) but do you have a way to measure this "shortening" of part life? cause usually its pretty damn hard to measure with all the variables and stuff and i dont think you can eliminate every single variable for testing over a lomg period of time

You can but it does take a large sample size and special testing.  It isn't something the average home user can do but when testing a 1000 or more parts and then exposing some to ESD you can show the problem with many many hours of testing and qualifications.  I am talking industrial qualification types of scenarios.

[Somerandomtechyboi]

2 minutes ago, vsteel said:

You can but it does take a large sample size and special testing.  It isn't something the average home user can do but when testing a 1000 or more parts and then exposing some to ESD you can show the problem with many many hours of testing and qualifications.  I am talking industrial qualification types of scenarios.

Oh right theres also just testing on a buncha parts and averaging the results

 

welp thanks for clarifying, usually i take degradation claims with a massive grain of salt as there are some uninformed idiots with horrifically flawed testing methods spreading rubbish misinformation (ex 1.35v vtt max on x58 even though 1.55v is totally fine even for daily)

[Gazah]

Hi Guys, my first post here, but felt maybe it was worth bringing up due to the "serious?" nature. While watching, I noticed that the "glitter band" reminded me of these "negative ion bands" which are covered in the video by The Thought Emporium. These silicone wristbands are laced with a radioactive thorium powder, which can be shed into the surrounding area. Maybe worth investigating?

 

 

[Required]

No wonder in the shitty House who we life and work...

[Rwn]

I'm in the same camp of please check that glitter band for radioactivity, please for our sake of mind check it out.

 

 

[JP Santos]

2 hours ago, Im_J3r0 said:

Made an account here on the forum specifically for this. Might want to check the bands with a geiger counter. At least the other band had powder that looks suspiciously like radioactive Thorium Oxide, and these products have a reputation for that.

Same.  This needs to be examined.  I hope both Linus and Mehdi washed their hands and avoided breathing in any of that particulate.

[JP Santos]

1 hour ago, Gazah said:

Hi Guys, my first post here, but felt maybe it was worth bringing up due to the "serious?" nature. While watching, I noticed that the "glitter band" reminded me of these "negative ion bands" which are covered in the video by The Thought Emporium. These silicone wristbands are laced with a radioactive thorium powder, which can be shed into the surrounding area. Maybe worth investigating?

 

 

100% this.

 

I just created an account on the forum to post this exact video.

 

There's also a follow up video:

 

 

[Quackers101]

2 hours ago, Im_J3r0 said:

Made an account here on the forum specifically for this. Might want to check the bands with a geiger counter. At least the other band had powder that looks suspiciously like radioactive Thorium Oxide, and these products have a reputation for that.

Came to say the same, as many others wanted to warn about. Been a long issue of these items, the white stuff can scatter in your workplace, making it radioactive

 

Maybe not a big amount, but be warned, over time it could cause issues if true and got more of that.

[Thaldor]

Just something to check if you are new to the whole grounding thing. "The charge" is a bit misleading term, the actual term is more closer to difference of potential which should give you the basic concept that wearing a wristband even with a wire does nothing if you haven't connected the wire correctly. Even the $130 device is useless unless you have connected everything correctly.

Correctly connected here means mostly that you have grounded yourself and your tools to the same potential as the PC. So getting extension cord from your bathroom and connecting your PCs PSU to it and connecting your $130 grounding device to extension cord coming from the kitchen is a HUGE NO NO because now, if your house is build wrong, you have the possibility of having yourself and your PC grounded to different "grounds" and still build up difference of potential and *zap*. This is why it is recommended to start with the PSU and the case and attach the PSU to the power plug (leave the power switch to "OFF", the ground will be still connected) and attach your wristband to the PC case, now you are always grounded to the PCs case and so in the same circuit.

 

And if you work with powered on devices, always remember to reach and work with the safe hand only or as my circuit teacher said "bound hand does the work, while other one handles the Playboy". While the voltage moves the current and the current kills, it only kills what it can reach and it seeks the shortest route to the ground. So, working with both hands is a big no because if your left hand is grounded and the right hand touches something with power, all of the current will go from right to left passing through the heart and you're most likely dead. If only your grounded left hand is in the device and you touch the wrong wire, you get jolted enough to empty your bowels and might get some fried skin but at least the current will only move from your fingers to the wristband and it will just hurt like a motherfucker.

[Psi_NZ]

Cool, just came to post about the radioactivity risk around some of the china fake bracelets and I'm glad others have also pointed it out.

 

The main thing of concern in the video was cutting into them if they were the kind that is radioactive and also the kind which had the radiation added in the form of a powder hidden inside. Thankfully they didn't find any powder so it's probably fine.

The very last thing you want is thorium powder all over your work desk, since inhaling any of it puts an alpha emitter in your lungs for the rest of your life.

 

 

[asquirrel]

That white powder in the wrist band may be Thorium. Get a radiation detector that can detect Alpha particles (normal Geiger counters don't do this). If so, it's probably not so spicy that you need to be overly panicked. Just don't sleep with it on, or wear it, basically, ever. Keep it in a plastic bag to contain the radiation. Google around, Chinese rubber with thorium inside is a thing and wearing it long term WILL give you cancer.

[jakejet64]

Hey everyone. I'm just a human being. I have no idea what all of this means. Please. The violence needs to be redirected. I'm almost completely blind, even just trying to wrap my head around all of this hurts too much.

[GLAAD]

these 2 together bring me much joy

[CerealExperimentsLain]

By far, LMG's kinkiest upload.

[manikyath]

14 hours ago, vsteel said:

. The resistor is not there to protect you from high voltage, it is to reduce the flow of electrons. ESD damage happens when you have too fast of a flow of current.

ESD damage happens when this current flows to a sensitive component, the purpose ofthe strap is to flow the current somewhere else.

14 hours ago, vsteel said:

1 mega ohm is at the lower end of the required resistance range, upper is 10 to the 9th. There is some math behind the calculations to drain the electrons over time which gives the resistance needed, nothing to do with safety. 

except.. it *is* about safety. if you touch something that's charging you up, you dont want a dead short. the resistance choice is something that will reduce currents to safe values from actually current-carrying sources, but still dissapate the relatively small capacity of an electrostatic charge.

 

14 hours ago, vsteel said:

The resistor in the strap is so small that any real amount of current will overpower it and short and you will then have a direct path to ground. 

current is a result, not a cause. if there's a high resistance there simply cannot *be* any current.

the type of resistor that is inside those straps will happily take mains voltage and more.

in fact - if electroboom put discharge resistors across the caps in his magic wand, it's probably this exact type of resistor.

 

14 hours ago, vsteel said:

 

3. If you want the best protection use the ESD straps that have a metal band like an expanding watch band. We have found in testing that there is a 50% fail rate with the cloth bands.

except they said the very reason why the metal bands would be potentially unsafe (and in my line of work, anything metal on the hands is straight up a no-go.

 

since you validate yourself as a source - i'll do too: battery repair technician, my work day is in an ESD safe workshop. but since we deal with voltage sources that'll gladly do "welding" current levels at higher voltages... we take the "not conductive" thing VERY serious..

[ImorallySourcedElectrons]

13 hours ago, JP Santos said:

Same.  This needs to be examined.  I hope both Linus and Mehdi washed their hands and avoided breathing in any of that particulate.

Now I'm not sure what thorium oxides would emit, but alpha emitters are pretty effective at static control.

[dogwitch]

16 hours ago, CerealExperimentsLain said:

By far, LMG's kinkiest upload.

oh it was so easy... i never bother to meme it.... it was solid  gold.

also about the radioactive thing.

every bother and their brother ref it. if people dont bother to read comments. thinking person is the first to ref it.

i see that often on reddit and yt comments.