3 ms·

I have a power cord that has everything but the ground wire cut and the single ground part of the plug plugged into the wall. Near my keyboard, I have the othe

by e40 8y ago

I have a power cord that has everything but the ground wire cut and the single ground part of the plug plugged into the wall. Near my keyboard, I have the other end of the ground wire exposed. Before I touch my keyboard, I touch it. In the winter, 9/10 times I discharge a little shock. I've ruined keyboards and computers with my shocks, and since I installed this setup, zero problems. I set up a coworker with this, after he killed his laptop by shocking it.

rleigh 8y ago
In my old office, one of the girls got a humidifier to combat the dry air during wintertime. It also seemed to help with the amount of static buildup maybe by making it easier to dissipate. Not a fix by any measure, but it did seem to help a bit. Anyone else tried this?
- Moru 8y ago
  Yes, a cold water with vibration humidifier. Everything is now covered by a thin layer of white dust from the water. We have medium soft water. A little less chocks I guess but we can't have this white dust everywhere so can't say for sure.
  - loco5niner 8y ago
    Like an oil diffuser? I think I've read to use distilled water to avoid that problem
  - rleigh 8y ago
    We're in a soft water area, so that wasn't a problem! And the type we used heated the water, so most residue would stay within the humidifier.
DoctorOetker 8y ago
you could attach a resistor to the ground wire, and touch the other electrode of the resistor, with 2 resistors appropriately chosen (so that you don't fry the MM), you can put a multimeter across one of them and observe the discharge, or alternatively build a simple circuit that lights a LED as long as the voltage across the resistor is higher than some value... Discharging doesn't need to hurt.. That said, depending on the setup (type of ground system and electronics) it is not necessarily safe to touch the ground from an outlet!

3 ms·

I have a power cord that has everything but the ground wire cut and the single ground part of the plug plugged into the wall. Near my keyboard, I have the othe

by e40 8y ago

rleigh 8y ago
In my old office, one of the girls got a humidifier to combat the dry air during wintertime. It also seemed to help with the amount of static buildup maybe by making it easier to dissipate. Not a fix by any measure, but it did seem to help a bit. Anyone else tried this?
- Moru 8y ago
  Yes, a cold water with vibration humidifier. Everything is now covered by a thin layer of white dust from the water. We have medium soft water. A little less chocks I guess but we can't have this white dust everywhere so can't say for sure.
  - loco5niner 8y ago
    Like an oil diffuser? I think I've read to use distilled water to avoid that problem
  - rleigh 8y ago
    We're in a soft water area, so that wasn't a problem! And the type we used heated the water, so most residue would stay within the humidifier.
DoctorOetker 8y ago
you could attach a resistor to the ground wire, and touch the other electrode of the resistor, with 2 resistors appropriately chosen (so that you don't fry the MM), you can put a multimeter across one of them and observe the discharge, or alternatively build a simple circuit that lights a LED as long as the voltage across the resistor is higher than some value... Discharging doesn't need to hurt.. That said, depending on the setup (type of ground system and electronics) it is not necessarily safe to touch the ground from an outlet!