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How to test if I am grounded properly to work with electronics?

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SoulReaver009:
Hello people of "EEVBlog"!,
I am new to electronics. Been fascinated by it for a while, have studied physics (not Electricity, yet, but its my next unit). I got a multimeter and an Ardist DIY kit for my birthday and I am very excited to start testing, experimenting, and building!

I have been googling and youtubing a little bit, watching some reviews on my multimeter, and reading my manual and such.

For some reason I cannot find a video or webpage to test and confirm if I am properly grounded.

I can only work in my room, and it has carpet, so I am very nervous. I cannot work anywhere else, sadly.
I watched a youtube video that said to plug in a 3-prong laptop charger, and then connect the alligator clip of my ESD anti-static wrist strap to the outside metal part of the charger (the part that goes into the laptop).

Lots of people have commented that it works and i believe them. If you know other ways to ground, I would be interested. Would also be cool to test each method of grounding, and compare results.

Being the experimentalist that I am, I would like to have a procedure to test and confirm (as closely to absolutely, as possible) if I am indeed grounded, or at least within a safe range to "work with electronics". please forgive me if my terms or sayings are inaccurate or wrong. I am new to this!

Can't wait to hear back and get started!!

jonpaul:
Bonjour cher Monsieur

If,you restricted your first projects to low voltage, eg 5, 12, 15V battery or wall transformers powered, you have no issues with ground.

If,you build,mains powered or high voltage equipment then there is,a potential shock hazard.

To test a,ground, measure the resistance between earth ( cold water pipe, electric box grounded housing or,metal conduit) and the ground under test, should be under 25 Ohms, really near 0..1 ohm.


for info on safety ground, see Mike Holt.com or a professional electrical forum.


Bon courage

Jon

james_s:
Most modern stuff is pretty robust so if it's just hobby circuits I wouldn't worry about it too much, if you're working on expensive gear, production circuits that will go to paying customers or handling old CMOS ICs then ESD control is far more important. You can wear a static dissipating wrist strap if you're worried about it, and ESD bench mats are readily available.

SoulReaver009:
I would like to know how to test my body to confirm i am grounded.

surprisingly, I cannot find any procedures on this anywhere.

I thought it would be one of the first steps in testing, and tinkering with electronics.

While, your message to me does reassure me, I would also like the joy of testing and confirming it.  I am surprised there is no easily findable procedure on this.

SoulReaver009:
How do I test myself tho?

I am surprised to not find any procedure on how to do this.  I would've thought this wouldve been the first thing your taught, in testing and tinkering.

Kind of like how, print "hello world" is the first thing ur taught when learning to program. haha

If you know of a way to do this, I would greatly appreciate it. 

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