Antistatic mat

[GoatZero]

does anyone here know of a way to test is the mat is doing its work?, i have my grounding point and mat conected to mains earth however sometimes i unplugit by mistake, and i dont even notice, how can i test the "antistatic" in the mat?

[nanofrog]

does anyone here know of a way to test is the mat is doing its work?, i have my grounding point and mat conected to mains earth however sometimes i unplugit by mistake, and i dont even notice, how can i test the "antistatic" in the mat?

ESD Workstation Monitor (example)

[GoatZero]

does anyone here know of a way to test is the mat is doing its work?, i have my grounding point and mat conected to mains earth however sometimes i unplugit by mistake, and i dont even notice, how can i test the "antistatic" in the mat?

ESD Workstation Monitor (example)

Is there a way to test the mat without having to pay 160 USD? a DIY monitor maybe?

[rolycat]

does anyone here know of a way to test is the mat is doing its work?, i have my grounding point and mat conected to mains earth however sometimes i unplugit by mistake, and i dont even notice, how can i test the "antistatic" in the mat?

ESD Workstation Monitor (example)

Is there a way to test the mat without having to pay 160 USD? a DIY monitor maybe?

A multimeter would work fine. The resistance between one of the snaps on the mat and ground should be just a few megohms. If you wanted a dedicated visual tester, a simple LED circuit with a high impedance input  should do the job.

[G7PSK]

The grounding plug that I have has a 1 meg. resistor for each of the 3 attainment points, so you get 1 meg between terminal and earth pin and 2 meg between two terminals. That makes it 4 meg ohms between my wrist strap an the ESD mat.

[nanofrog]

Is there a way to test the mat without having to pay 160 USD? a DIY monitor maybe?

Sure. Check eBay if you're after a ready-made product (used or Chinese clone), or even look for circuit designs online & build one yourself (impedance monitor that indicates high, low, pass; add an audible signal if you want if it's not within pass range <750k - 10M is what they're commonly designed for Pass range IIRC>).

A multimeter would work fine. The resistance between one of the snaps on the mat and ground should be just a few megohms. If you wanted a dedicated visual tester, a simple LED circuit with a high impedance input  should do the job.

If GoatZero was to do so each time before starting work on the bench, absolutely.

But the way I read that post (forgetfulness of what's plugged into a mains socket or not), it seemed a continuous monitor would help with this issue better than a spot check method/device (still has limits, such as needing a working battery). One with an audible alert would be better than just an LED indicator IMHO, as the sound is a "hey, you unplugged the ground" reminder. 

[zapta]

Is it important to actually connect to ground or is it sufficient to have the mat, strap, solder iron, etc at the same potential?

[JohnnyGringo]

Is it important to actually connect to ground or is it sufficient to have the mat, strap, solder iron, etc at the same potential?

And you, hence the wrist strap.

[rolycat]

Is it important to actually connect to ground or is it sufficient to have the mat, strap, solder iron, etc at the same potential?

Without such a connection the whole system could reach a high potential with respect to ground. That's fine until you introduce anything that is grounded, like a scope probe, or a USB cable. It's really not a good idea.

[Dave Turner]

I plug my Grounding plug into the same distribution strip that all my equipment plugs into. The plug has an inbuilt 1Mohm between the earth pin and the external clip. The cord that connects this clip to the splitter clip on my ESD mat also includes a 1Mohm resistor. Between the splitter clip and the wrist-strap there is a 2Mohm resistance.

I bought my ESD mat from www.PCValet.co.uk 1200 x 500 x 2mm for approx £50. Solder resistant etc. just as Dave advises, except I prefer the grey rather than the blue. 

[Kjelt]

So what to do if your entire workbench is behind an isolation transformer?
The only thing I could think of is still to make sure that the new virtual ground point is high impedance coupled to the real ground, thus to have two high voltage 1/2W resistors of 560k to earth ground.
It would still be safe since through 1,2M no lethal current can flow and it remains ESD safe.

[KJDS]

The resistance of an antistatic mat is non-linear with voltage. Think of it as islands of conductors in a sea of insulator. Once the voltage applied is enough to break down the gaps between the conductors it becomes a good conductor to dissipate static. A charge decay meter is the most accurate way of determining its effectiveness.

http://www.idbsystems.co.uk/ESW/Files/ID-489_New_Data_Sheet.pdf

[Avotronics]

I plug my Grounding plug into the same distribution strip that all my equipment plugs into. The plug has an inbuilt 1Mohm between the earth pin and the external clip. The cord that connects this clip to the splitter clip on my ESD mat also includes a 1Mohm resistor. Between the splitter clip and the wrist-strap there is a 2Mohm resistance.

I bought my ESD mat from www.PCValet.co.uk 1200 x 500 x 2mm for approx £50. Solder resistant etc. just as Dave advises, except I prefer the grey rather than the blue.

Ditto. I got mine there, they aren't bad quality. 2M total resistance also.

[zapta]

Desco has a ground only plug with banana socket. There are similar products for other socket types.

http://desco.descoindustries.com/DescoCatalog/GroundingHardware/BananaPlugAdaptors/09838/#.UpfbAmRDuPA