Simple way to check for antistaticness? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / projects

author: lpc32
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 20, 2014, 08:21:24 pm
content: Is there a good way to check, without special gear, if something is antistatic or how much charge buildup there is?

author: Rerouter
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 20, 2014, 08:29:50 pm
content: wear a piece of clothing you know generates a large amount of static charge, grab some foam pellets, rub the material with the item of clothing and see if the foam sticks to the material, (shredded paper could be used instead, but i find foam a better indicator)

author: madshaman
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 20, 2014, 09:51:04 pm
content: Antistatic foam will still build up a charge and stick, but not nearly as much as regular foam; it's also usually pink or green (but that's no guarantee); there's the black stuff too, but that's conductive and I'm assuming not what's being asking about.You kind of do need special gear to know how much charge there is, and there are a number of ways to do it.The easiest method I know is to build yourself an electroscope (this won't give you charge but field strength).You can also build a device which charges a plate to null-out the electric field of a test plate between the first plate and the test surface, that tells you the field strength at the test plate's distance.To convert the field strength into a charge, you'd need to know what the thing is made of and its geometry, but the thing being locally a plane or a sphere makes it simpler.A method that *might* work for conductive objects is to discharge the object through a resistive voltage divider hooked up to a DSO, the integral under the trace should be proportional to the charge in the object. This is probably unwise unless you know you can build a jig and circuit to protect your scope's inputs.

author: T3sl4co1l
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 20, 2014, 10:12:42 pm
content: Does a cat count as "special gear"?Tim

author: FrankenPC
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 20, 2014, 11:20:48 pm
content: Quote from: T3sl4co1l on May 20, 2014, 10:12:42 pmIf you do a cat based static mat test video, I'll give you a huge thumbs up.

author: lpc32
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 20, 2014, 11:37:44 pm
content: I guess an electroscope beats the rubbing+sticking method.Anyplace with more details on such a plate device?I guess a cat doesn't count as special gear. I probably have a few lying somewhere around here. The question is how to connect it to a multimeter to get some actual measurements.

author: Legit-Design
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 21, 2014, 01:52:45 am
content: Quote from: lpc32 on May 20, 2014, 11:37:44 pmhttp://www.edn.com/design/analog/4417628/Detect-charged-bodies-with-electronic-electroscopehttp://amasci.com/emotor/chargdet.htmlare these of any use? Havent tried either of those. Dave has shown something with 7 segment displays in his videos. Probably some kit from silicon chip or similar?But maybe those count as special gear, shouldn't be too expensive to build tho. Anyone know article about similar device on silicon chip or other electronics magazine?

author: lpc32
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 23, 2014, 07:24:21 am
content: Thanks.