Grounding yourself using phone charger.

[trickzter182]

Hi, so i'm gonna build my pc this week. I'll be assembling my pc on a wooden table and in a wooden floor.

I'm kinda paranoid about the ESD thing that could fry my components.

I know there's alot of ways to avoid this, such as buying an anti-static strap, the psu-case method and the like. With those examples, im wondering if i can use my phone's charger to keep myself grounded?

I will connect my phone's charger to an outlet, then i will touch the other end of the wire (the one that you connect your phone with).

Will it work? I know i sound stupid, but i just wanna know if is okay.

Thanks!

 

[smackers_12]

I dont think it will work you would actually have to touch the grounding pin of the connector I think. Just buy a strap or plug your psu in and touch that.

 

[Pr3di]

I`m not sure where you are located, but in most parts of Europe, there`s a 3rd pin of the cable that goes in to the socket mainly for grounding. Hence, I`m not sure if you can do ANY grounding with a 2-pin cable/charger.

If you have the PSU, just connect it to a grounded wall socket, and touch it every once in a while, mainly before parts directly, like GPU, CPU, RAM.

 

[RazerZ]

Just touch the insides of the metal case occasionally and you will be grounded. There's a very low chance of ESD damage in any case.

 

[WyomingKnott]

No, you cannot ground yourself with a phone charger. Period.

In my book, grounding is like buying fire insurance. The odds are that you will be wasting your money; your home will not catch fire and the insurance company profits. But if there is a fire, you'll be glad you had the insurance.

Therefore, I work with an antistatic mat and wrist strap grounded to the PC chassis. There's a big old resistor in the circuit somewhere to keep me from getting nasty shocks.

For personal building, how extreme you go in dissipating static electricity is a personal choice.

 

[trickzter182]

Ok so it wont wok. I guess ill use the strap or case method.

But what if the outlet in my wall only has 2 pins. I usually connect my psu to an avr then avr to wall outlet with 2 pins. Will it work?

 

[trickzter182]

The avr is 3pins though and also the psu plug is 3pins

 

[WyomingKnott]

If you use a grounding strap to your PC but the PC is not grounded to earth (provided by third pin in the wall socket), your potential will be matched to that of the PC and the PC should be safe unless 1) The you-and-pc system has a high voltage differential from ground, and 2) the system gets grounded - like you touch a radiator. But you described a mostly wooden environment.

Seriously, though, if your wall outlets are not grounded get an electrician to put in new ones. Or the landlord, if you are renting. Not just for this, but for general safety.

 

[RazerZ]

Not sure what you're trying to do here with the charger and avr...

You're trying to get rid off any static build up, which is why you touch the inside of the case so that the electrons will flow to a ground and your charge becomes neutral.

Either touching the metal part of the case or using a wrist strap will work fine. Personally I believe paying for a wrist strap is a false sense of security, but I'll leave that up to you.