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Arcade board PCB form factor and enclosure

brandon.arnold said:
Pretty sure he was joking. But +1 to the very real threat of static. I have fried a motherboard with the static that collected from my body.
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Yeah, he knows I was joking, that's why he said static can go as high as you like!

Note for any newbies out there, static electricity can kill your PCBs! Be carful! Some dumb ways it has happened to others:

1. Leave the PCB on carpet when powering on, poof.
2. Touch PCB after walking across carpet in a dry environment, poof.
3. Pulling the PCB out of an anti-static bag, but with conductive on the outside, putting PCB on bag and powering on, poof.
4. Just bad fucking luck, poof.
 
I'm extra careful with PCBs these days. I only rub one balloon on my head and between my legs before handling them now.
 
Hammy said:
Ah yeah....
But he's also correct saying it's over hyped - handling (switched off) stuff never had a problem.
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It really depends, lots of more modern parts (late 90s+) are more resilient. If you see tons of DIP ICs, 7400 logic, etc though, it is very easy to kill with ESD. That said, there are easy ways to mitigate it without going nuts: only handle by the edges of the board when possible and ground youself before touching it and you'll be fine. If you have carpet in the place you use your stuff, be extra mindful about discharging yourself.
 
I tend to be rather paranoid about static and use a static discharge plate to discharge myself before handling PCBs (plate is grounded). The one I have also gives you a very loud beep if you are over 500v when touching it! It is both disconcerting and illuminating in equal measure, knowing that - had I not discharged - that might have gone to the PCB components instead. Sometimes it beeps, sometimes it doesn't, so quite intriguing trying to guess if you are carrying a static charge or not (it's akin to the tension when playing the board game 'Operation'). Adds to the rock and roll excitement of our hobby. I also use anti-static gloves if I'm going to be handling a lot of PCBs. This may or may not have the additional benefit of creating an illusion to others of me knowing what I'm doing :)
 
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