anti-static wrist strap, how do they work?

[Romano]

So I found this review on amazon and made me think if my current anti-static wrist strap works well, did the test and there was no electrical path through the grounding wire as Bruce A. says in his review, if it was good it should have one right?

 

Please help me understand what's happening here, I ended damaging mine doing several tests and cutting the cable to see if it had electrical path, good thing they are cheap but wanted to post this here for answers, don't want to buy another one just to have the same result

 

help!

 

Edited December 28, 2016 by Godlygamer23
Corrected image upload.

[W-L]

5 minutes ago, Romano said:

So I found this review on amazon and made me think if my current anti-static wrist strap works well, did the test and there was no electrical path through the grounding wire as Bruce A. says in his review, if it was good it should have one right?

Please help me understand what's happening here, I ended damaging mine doing several tests and cutting the cable to see if it had electrical path, good thing they are cheap but wanted to post this here for answers, don't want to buy another one just to have the same result

help!

It depends if the unit has a 1M ohm resistor since many built that in place as a safety if they use a mains type grounding system for their ESD devices. However you should be able to measure that with a multi-meter and see if there is a resistor inline. 

[Godlygamer23]

All a wrist strap is, is a wire with a snap on one end(in your example) or just a contact on one end(the wrist strap part) that connects to a piece of metal to dissipate any static electricity that may build up, as our bodies are effectively capacitors. 

[Godlygamer23]

2 minutes ago, W-L said:

It depends if the unit has a 1M ohm resistor since many built that in place as a safety if they use a mains type grounding system for their ESD devices. However you should be able to measure that with a multi-meter and see if there is a resistor inline. 

Another reason why they might have a certain amount of resistance is to avoid the static shock that could be felt normally.

[Godlygamer23]

10 minutes ago, Romano said:

Please help me understand what's happening here, I ended damaging mine doing several tests[.]

I'm confused as to how you could possibly damage it from performing tests. 

[SCHISCHKA]

First we need to understand voltage which you can look up in wikipedia but TLDR voltage is not a magic number; Its a measure of electrical difference, which i was taught in physics is termed 'potential difference'. So if i hold each probe of a meter in each hand i might get a reading of a couple of millivolts; this is the electrical difference between my hands. It does not mean my hands hold that value of electrical power it means this is the difference of electrical power between them.

 

Static electricity such as walking on carpet with socks can generate hundreds or thousands of volts above the environment around them. If you are statically charged and then touch an integrated circuit, the potential difference can do some damage to the microscopic circuitry.

 

Your power transmission system requires that your house is connected to earth; that means somewhere in your house or builiding there is a large copper stake driven into the ground. This is essentially an electrical reference point to the planet we live on. An anti static wrist strap is just a copper wire that connects you to earth. So if any static electricity comes into your workbench or your body it will travel through your houses earth wire instead of frying your semiconductors.

[ivan134]

26 minutes ago, Godlygamer23 said:

All a wrist strap is, is a wire with a snap on one end(in your example) or just a contact on one end(the wrist strap part) that connects to a piece of metal to dissipate any static electricity that may build up, as our bodies are effectively capacitors. 

Sometimes I like to climb into my case and pretend I'm a capacitor.

[mad dudy]

wouldn't wrapping a copper wire around your wrist and the other end around any metal do the same?

[Romano]

I'm dumb but, all this means the anti-static wrist strap of that guy perfectly works? or nope?

[Godlygamer23]

2 minutes ago, Romano said:

I'm dumb but, all this means the anti-static wrist strap of that guy perfectly works? or nope?

Most likely, yes.

[Romano]

1 minute ago, Godlygamer23 said:

Most likely, yes.

F*ck that means I broke mine for good

 

 

why the tester don't moves when I put it both edges then?

 

 

[Godlygamer23]

1 minute ago, Romano said:

why the tester don't moves when I put it both edges then?

Not sure what you're asking here.

[W-L]

4 minutes ago, Romano said:

F*ck that means I broke mine for good

why the tester don't moves when I put it both edges then?

 

 

Set it to continuity check if there is anything, if it gives nothing then put it to ohms to see what the resistance is that should be extremely high if there is a resistor inline. 

[Romano]

2 minutes ago, Godlygamer23 said:

Not sure what you're asking here.

Sorry, what I wanted to ask was this:

 

 

why there's no lecture there?, doing what's above in that image should mark something in that screen?

[Romano]

6 minutes ago, W-L said:

Set it to continuity check if there is anything, if it gives nothing then put it to ohms to see what the resistance is that should be extremely high if there is a resistor inline. 

like this? 

 

 

 

[W-L]

4 minutes ago, Romano said:

like this? 

 

Yes but that meter is only capable of a max of 200K ohms but should basically just have it hit the limit of the scale. 

[Romano]

2 minutes ago, W-L said:

Yes but that meter is only capable of a max of 200K ohms but should basically just have it hit the limit of the scale. 

in my case it don't moves, this means mine was working well and I'll have to buy a new one since these things really works, that's correct?

[W-L]

1 minute ago, Romano said:

in my case it don't moves, this means mine was working well and I'll have to buy a new one since these things really works, that's correct?

Does it move if you just touch the leads together for continuity check, your meter can't measure the ohms if there is an inline resistor. 

[Romano]

6 minutes ago, W-L said:

Does it move if you just touch the leads together for continuity check, your meter can't measure the ohms if there is an inline resistor. 

[Godlygamer23]

4 minutes ago, Romano said:

[removed]

My first thought is that the resistor is in the connector body itself where the clip is.

[Romano]

I'm reading and reading and this is becoming worse, I always used my anti-static wrist strap in a painted surface of my case, never with the PSU connected/plugged (also my wall sockets don't have ground wire) in I guess all this time I been lucky about not frying my pc parts

[Godlygamer23]

1 minute ago, Romano said:

I'm reading and reading and this is becoming worse, I always used my anti-static wrist strap in a painted surface of my case, never with the PSU connected/plugged (also my wall sockets don't have ground wire) in I guess all this time I been lucky about not frying my pc parts

The static electricity that people generate(depending on humidity) is not usually enough to kill PC parts. It could damage them though, and many motherboards nowadays will come with components that can protect the delicate circuitry against ESD.

[SCHISCHKA]

6 minutes ago, Romano said:

I'm reading and reading and this is becoming worse, I always used my anti-static wrist strap in a painted surface of my case, never with the PSU connected/plugged (also my wall sockets don't have ground wire) in I guess all this time I been lucky about not frying my pc parts

your antistatic wrist strap should be plugged into your house earth