Where to plug earth?!

[sean87]

Hi all,

So I bought a ESD protective pad for my workbench. It comes with some sort of aligator clicp that should be connected to earth ground I beleive. Can I just plug it to a earth terminal of a wall socket?

[amateur_25]

If you have anything that has a metal casing on it i.e. pc chassis that should be connected to the earth ghround usually via an IEC connector at the back.
So just clip onto the case. People who repair pc's do the same when they're handling the sensitive components such as the cpu. You could use one of these
but they take a press stud fitting. shouldn't be too hard to find a cable for it I would think.

http://compare.ebay.co.uk/like/350514169416?var=lv&ltyp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&var=sbar&cbt=y

[PA0PBZ]

Can I just plug it to a earth terminal of a wall socket?

Yes.

[vk6zgo]

Can I just plug it to a earth terminal of a wall socket?

Yes.

BUT be very careful that it is the earth terminal.

Also,if you use a mains plug with the wire connected to the earth terminal inside,make sure that the ESD earth wire cannot contact either of the other two terminals.
I've seen these earth wires just roughly wired into a normal OZ type power plug with no strain relief so the wire can just flop around inside the plug---AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!

[Neilm]

Can I just plug it to a earth terminal of a wall socket?

Yes.

BUT be very careful that it is the earth terminal.

Also,if you use a mains plug with the wire connected to the earth terminal inside,make sure that the ESD earth wire cannot contact either of the other two terminals.
I've seen these earth wires just roughly wired into a normal OZ type power plug with no strain relief so the wire can just flop around inside the plug---AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!

Seconded - I was working on a project at work (here in the UK) that was designed to run from an inverter. I was doing some testing and plugged it into the mains. No problem, until I realised that I hadn't connected the earth. I quickly rectified this, plugged it in, touched the metal case and OUCH it hurt.

Turned out  that the building had been mis-wired, the earth lead was connected to the live phase rather than the neutral.

Neil

[Psi]

Turned out  that the building had been mis-wired, the earth lead was connected to the live phase rather than the neutral.

Was the busbar earth-neutral link between earth and phase ?

"mis-wired" is such an understatement.

That building would have been a death trap

[Neilm]

Turned out  that the building had been mis-wired, the earth lead was connected to the live phase rather than the neutral.

Was the bus bar earth-neutral link between earth and phase ?

"mis-wired" is such an understatement.

That building would have been a death trap

I have no idea - once I realised that I was getting shocks due to the earth not being earth, I stopped work and told my boss. The building had been vandalised and set on fire a few months before, so I guess that the fault had been introduced in the repair. I do know that it affected every socket in the unit so it wasn't a case that the ring main had been swapped over as there were several different ones for parts of the unit.

Neil

[ftransform]

Turned out  that the building had been mis-wired, the earth lead was connected to the live phase rather than the neutral.

Was the bus bar earth-neutral link between earth and phase ?

"mis-wired" is such an understatement.

That building would have been a death trap

I have no idea - once I realised that I was getting shocks due to the earth not being earth, I stopped work and told my boss. The building had been vandalised and set on fire a few months before, so I guess that the fault had been introduced in the repair. I do know that it affected every socket in the unit so it wasn't a case that the ring main had been swapped over as there were several different ones for parts of the unit.

Neil

Sounds like people love your workplace 

Consider wearing a bullet proof vest there.

[quarks]

In my opinion, you should spend the money for one of these special connectors. They are not expensive and ensure that you cannot accidentally kill yourself while hooking up and have at least 1MOhm resistance between you and ground.

[free_electron]

dig a little hole in the backyard. insert a freshly cut and stripped piece of copper. plant in direct sunlight , water weekly... after a few months this copper wire will sprout new copper wires. these are now organically grown earth leads...

[ftransform]

I wired mine esd mat to the center screw on the outlet. I don't know if euro outlets have one though.
Much better then a plug because you need a screw driver to change it, so its unlikely to get messed with.

You can always use a voltstick if you are paranoid.

And I wire my wrist strap to the GND banana jack on the power supply.

[cybergibbons]

Turned out  that the building had been mis-wired, the earth lead was connected to the live phase rather than the neutral.

Was the bus bar earth-neutral link between earth and phase ?

"mis-wired" is such an understatement.

That building would have been a death trap

I have no idea - once I realised that I was getting shocks due to the earth not being earth, I stopped work and told my boss. The building had been vandalised and set on fire a few months before, so I guess that the fault had been introduced in the repair. I do know that it affected every socket in the unit so it wasn't a case that the ring main had been swapped over as there were several different ones for parts of the unit.

Neil

Could it have not just been a lifted earth? These are fairly common and don't notice, but phase to earth is rare, and would have required nothing else to use earth, or someone else would have got a belt.

[nanofrog]

I made an adapter that ties an additional wire into the ground pin, and plug it in a GFCI (nothing to mess with in the outlet itself to access safety earth). Essentially this (http://www.idealindustries.com/prodDetail.do?prodId=61-176). The ground wire out of the adapter then connects to a grounding block. Rather easy and inexpensive to make.