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How should I protect from electrostatic charges?

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Doctorkong:
Hello, I'm new here and I knew about this forum from the Youtube channel EEVBlog.

I'm looking for some info about how to protect my device but I really don't know how to get more info because maybe I'm the first one to ask about this problem.

I collect old videogames cartridges (like Super Nintendo, Sega Megadrive etc..). As you know some of them are getting really rare and expensive and since some of them are 25 years old today, I'm trying to find a way to protect these in the best way I can.

For most of them I don't want to be too meticulous but some of them are really rare and I don't want to let them to be ruined.

I'm going to protect them from UV light and electrostatic charge. To protect them from UV I use a rigid acrylic box that is made of PMMA. But, what should I do for electrostatic charges?

These cartridges are circuit boards with chips and a small battery (for saving game) in a plastic external shell. I was thinking about using antistatic bags but I have some doubts:

1) there are so many types that I don't know what to choose from.
2) do these bags protect the board even though it is included inside a plastic shell?
3) if I put this cartridge in a ESD bag and then in a PMMA box is it risky?

Sorry for my questions but I really don't know who can help me with my problem!
Thank you very much!

CopperCone:
This is complicated but shorting out all the io is a good start. Like when they sell ics they are usually jammed in black conductive foam. Then you handle the lossy foam and its a bit better. Otherwise you just wanna ground yourself

JS:
They should be protected already as they lived 25 years in this ugly world, so not extreme measurements should be needed. Shorting the output contacts might drain the battery as you don't know how they are connected, but it will keep them safe, so for games without a battery might be fine.

For games with batteries, yoou could look further to what you need or keep them connected to something wich provides ESD protection, but you would need a lot of connecrors to keep all your games protected. One option could be to have them in metalized bags as the ones components come in, and good be good to provide some grounding inside your plastic box, so all stay at gound potential and when you take them out aren't charged.

You should be careful while handling, that's the most risky moment, keep your consoles grounded, and ground yourself while handling. So now your ganes are stored at ground potential, your console is at ground potential when connecting the games and also are you while handling. Bare foot and antistatic floor mat or conductive floor could do. If you don't want to be bare foot, there are ESD safe shoes, ESD safe shoe accesories, with a band from inside to the floor or the classic wrist strap wich is kind of ok working on the bench but not so much to move around.

JS

C:
CopperCone's
& JS are good.

You learn and use good static part handling.
For example to move part from one conductive pad to second, you
Touch pad then while keeping touch pickup part.
Touch second pad then while keeping touch place part.
Each touch puts you at same charge as pad so you and part stay at same change.

Anti-static areas could be ground but are often a high resistance to drain the charge and not spark it.
A ground strap that would connect you to ground has a 1M series resistor. A ground mat has a high resistance surface.
 
 

Doctorkong:
Thank you so much. My question is: do you think that using a ESD bag ITSELF can damage the circuit board?
I don't know, maybe it can become dangerous for the circuit board if it is in contact with the circuit itself or with the plastic shell of the game.
I'm asking that because I really don't know the proprieties of those bags except that they are made like a Faraday cage. Can those bag become dangerous in some ways?

I don't own so many rare games. I would like to use the best method I can to preserve 3 or 4 of them so I can pay something more for a better protection since I don't have hundreds of games to protect.

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