OT - getting shocked by everything!

ok, this is just a curiosity post. but around the winter months im always getting shocked by everything i touch. car doors, appliances, other people and my COMPUTER GEAR!

G5 - METAL, mackie faders - METAL, promax firewire drive - METAL, caldigit duo - VERY METAL
so on and so forth...

this is getting CRAZY! i'm regularly seeing nearly half inch arcing from my finger to mixer and the caldigit drive.

has anyone ever heard of shocking a drive or device to into disfucntion. i have this fear that im just going to zap the whole system one day...

yep.

do you have laminate flooring?

do you have the heating on high?

are you wearing rubber shoes?

I used to arc the same way at a production company i used to work for.

it was the laminate flooring storing static charge like a huge capacitor then my sneakers transferring it to me then me to the earthed equipment.

i felt like Electroman

*Zap*



For instant answers to more than one hundred common FCP questions, check out the LAFCPUG FAQ Wiki here : [www.lafcpug.org]

It can totally damage things, but the static energy usually travels over the surface and not through metallic things. Touching the metal case of a G5 does no harm at all since the case is connected to the building ground through the three-prong power plug. This is one of the reasons it's there.

Should you, however, manage to touch a signal pin on the headphone jack for example, you can cause your G5 to become landfill.

Take your shoes off. The human body can retain an intense static charge for a minute or two if you're wearing rubber or plastic soled shoes. Regular cotton socks conduct just enough to drain the charge before you hit something. Barefoot is better.

Increase the humidity. Buy a cheap humidity meter:

[www.bacharach-inc.com]

...this is the one I have. Use distilled water for long life. Minerals build up if you use tap water.

Even leaving a tea kettle simmering on a hotplate in the room helps enormously. When I lived back east, I put a spray humidifier in the furnace for winter time. The humidity used to go down to 10% and I could pick up a piece of paper by waving my hand over it.


There is a joke--almost not a joke--that you can suppress this problem by dragging a conductive strap on the ground behind you where ever you go. They used to make these for cars before they wised up and started making conductive rubber for tires.

Buy conductive Rebocks.

Koz

A friend at work wears a special thing on her shoes that supposedly discharges static constantly so it doesn't build up on you. I'll see what I can find out if anyone's interested.

Scott

<<<I'll see what I can find out if anyone's interested.>>>

Go for it. If socks or feet works, this should too. Anything that forms a conductive path to the floor, usually around your shoes.

You can get this effect with plain aluminum foil. Wrap your shoe with aluminum foil and leave a tail long enough to wrap wround your bare leg under your pants. Packing tape it to your leg. The foil won't last very long on the bottom of your shoe, but I bet most of the sparking goes away.

Koz

Quote
Koz
Wrap your shoe with aluminum foil and leave a tail long enough to wrap wround your bare leg under your pants. Packing tape it to your leg.

Uh. You wear that often, Koz? Cause, I gotta tell you.. reeeeeal attractive. I can see the girls from Traffic flocking to the fabbo spark-free editors dressed like that.

i have either wood or concrete floors at home and office and mostly leather seating... its not like i should be generating a ton of static...? and crap, im in HOUSTON - we OWN humidity!

<<<reeeeeal attractive.>>>

Just a proof of concept. I'm not advocating hitting the neighborhood watering holes like that. Besides, if wearing it on your feet doesn't work, you can always wrap it around your head to keep the bad guys in the black helicopters from reading your thought waves.

<<<we OWN humidity!>>>

You as a group, but I bet you in particular are trying to edit in a 10% humidity room or house. Buy a humidity meter to find out. You can even make one with parts from Sav-On Drugs. Google your brains out (after you take the foil off your head).

Koz

Editors. We're an electrifying bunch.

So I guess we all need to start editing in our underwear and install lovely fountains in our rooms!


www.derekmok.com

LOL Derek - that sounds almost risqué!



For instant answers to more than one hundred common FCP questions, check out the LAFCPUG FAQ Wiki here : [www.lafcpug.org]

There's nothing like a nice bubbling fountain's white noise (or is it pink?) to wash out the babbling of an unfocused producer. Works for the Mob in movies so it must be true.

ak
Sleeplings, AWAKE!

> that sounds almost risqué!

What? People in underwear dancing around gushing white fountains?
Can we say...Caligula?

Back to the topic, though...I get static all the time in my car but never in the lab or at home. And the lab is dry as a bone. Same shoes, same clothes. I wonder why?

Oh, and for the record, I don't edit in my underwear. I'm a swimming-trunks man.


www.derekmok.com

Check the earth on the engine and the battery under the hood is securely attached to the bodywork.



For instant answers to more than one hundred common FCP questions, check out the LAFCPUG FAQ Wiki here : [www.lafcpug.org]

You'd miss a static kiss though... nothing like it. LOL

<<<attached to the bodywork.>>>

But more importantly, it's possible to buy non-conductive tires--usually on sale. That makes you and the car a 2000 pound Tesla generator. Look into getting a static strap installed. It attaches to the rear of the car and drags lightly on the ground behind you. No more sparking when you hand the expressway toll taker the ticket.

Koz

...also useful for lightning conducting if you regularly get hit in your car.

Although most cars would act a a rudementory Faraday cage and keep you safe from the strike.

Vic do you plug yourself in then before a kiss? That's shocking behaviour from a fella such as yourself!



For instant answers to more than one hundred common FCP questions, check out the LAFCPUG FAQ Wiki here : [www.lafcpug.org]

<<<rudementory Faraday cage and keep you safe from the strike. >>>

Not so rudementary. A car is an excellent place to sit out a lightning storm. The leading edge of a lightning strike is a microwave pulse and obeys all the strange and weird laws of microwaves--will not go around corners, won't sink inside metal objects, etc.

It's when you get out that can be the surprise!

Koz

...Rudementary in that is not designed (first and foremost) with that in mind...

Koz, I now have visions of you with huge electro-afro emerging from a DeLorean after travelling through a lightning storm!

"One point twenty one gigawats! One point twenty one gigawats! Great Scott!"
[www.gotwavs.com]





For instant answers to more than one hundred common FCP questions, check out the LAFCPUG FAQ Wiki here : [www.lafcpug.org]

For most editing stations this static shock stuff is relatively harmless, but if you spend any time in a master control suite in a broadcast facility (office based or mobile truck), or near a satellite uplink site, then it becomes more problematical. I have seen switchers and TBC's go nuts with an errant spark from a careless tech or director (less likely). And, I've seen uplink glitches from these same static warriors.
And, while most of these places have the requisite static absorbing mats underfoot, there always seems to be a way...
From these experiences, I always make it a habit, (particularly in the winter), of touching the rack frame or other grounded source as I sit down to edit. Old habits...

FE Meek

OK, here's some info on the static discharge devices for shoes. Here's a link for McMaster-Carr for a couple of devices. Unfortunately, I can't get a URL for the exact page, but they're on Catalog page 801, called Reusable Shoe Strap and Disposable Heel Strap. The spec says "Ideal for mobile personnel working on a conductive floor" which makes me wonder if it even works like you need it to if you're scuffing along on a carpet. Shrug. If anyone takes the plunge, let us know how they work.

Scott

It's true that if you walk into a room with nylon or high-order polyester carpeting, you're pretty much hosed after your first step. There's no place for the charge to go and in a dry area, it will generate new charges like a bad credit card.

There are sprays that claim to suppress the problem.

I personally make it a point to touch the director or producer before I sit down.

Some floors will do that, too. Dirt, by the way, is your friend. A good layer of dirt will upset the static barrier on the surface of the floor. I make it a point to keep a good thick layer of dirt on all my floors at all times. I haven't had damage from a static shock in years.

Koz

Someone has got to get a picture of Koz in his Uncle Martin outfit walking on his dirt floor.

Michael Horton
-------------------

well, im glad to hear from everyone that im not alone. i thought i was going all mutant or something...

Hey, Ben, you didn't get the point Koz was making: you shouldn't plug yourself in before a kiss; you want the spark, don't you see? LOL