Brownouts, shorts, explosions and the unix pc.

[Floyd Davidson]

In article <1991Jan6.050124.6838 at csn.org> wouk at alumni.colorado.edu (Arthur Wouk) writes:
>on the other hand, my 3b1 (and my vcr) both went crasy during a very
>cold period during which i wore a lot of synthetics and generated a
>lot of static electricity. i got kernel parity errors just from
>brushing the keyboard (and my vcr clock stopped several times just
>from touching the case.)
>
>is this common in dry climates (near 0% humidity.)


In one word: yes.

The lower the temperature the less water vapor the air is able to hold,
hence, lower relative humidity as the temp goes down.  Less humidity
causes more problems with static electricity.

There are several things that can be done to reduce the effects:

	1) Increase the humidity (humidifier, boil water on the stove, etc.)
	2) Don't where synthetics.
	3) Place metal grounding plates, straps, etc. where useful.
	4) Spray rugs etc. with an anti-static solution.

Be careful with the idea of grounding plates etc.  They should NOT be
directly grounded.  About 5Mohms is right I think (but not positive).
My computer desk has a metal  (aluminum) piece of trim along the front
that my arms rest on everytime I relax at the keyboard.  It is grounded
through several 1 Meg Ohm resisters in series.

There are many suitable anti-static solutions.  You can buy one
labeled as such and pay for the label.  You can use something like
409 cleaner (that is what I use) diluted.  Or go to a photo store
and buy a small bottle of FotoFlow.

Floyd

-- 
Floyd L. Davidson                                  floyd at ims.alaska.edu
Salcha, AK 99714                    paycheck connection to Alascom, Inc.
 When I speak for them, one of us will be *out* of business in a hurry.