Page 420 - Hacking Roomba

Appendix A — Soldering and Safety Basics 401

Handling Static-Sensitive Components

Static electricity is the bane of the electronics hacker. The zap you get on a doorknob after
shuffling your feet on the carpet is a heavy-duty example of the static that can completely
destroy a sensitive electronic device. All IC chips and similar devices are static sensitive and you
can damage internal parts of chips without knowing there’s even static electricity around.
There’s a lot of technology to help dissipate static electricity, but the most important thing is
how you handle the devices you’re working with. Static electricity likes to travel to ground,
so if you have a grounded pipe or metal computer case, touch it periodically to drain any static
build-up. Figure A-21 shows a grounding strap you wear on your wrist and plug into the
grounded hole of a standard AC socket. They sell for a few bucks at Jameco. These are useful
when you’re moving around a lot but want to be sure you can’t zap an expensive component.
The WiMicro in the picture is over $100, so a little bit of prevention could save you a lot of
money, not to mention hours of debugging a dead part.

FIGURE A-21: Grounding strap for yourself, plugged into ground socket