I have not thought about ESD will doing MCL projects?
All my years has been point to point and have not worked with SMD parts.
What type of part should one be careful with?
Larry – N7LUF
Well, going by the book is watching out for static electricity, at any component that has a terminal called “GATE“, that will kill them. (IE: J-Fets, MOS-FETs some ICs that contain the same FETs in them as well etc.) Wear a grounded wrist strap, and use a static safe work surface. Hopefully your soldering iron tip is also grounded.
Static charge can easily go to hundreds or even thousands of volts, so I’d be cautious with any
semiconductor. When the humidity is low in the winter, it’s just terrible.
A note of caution here: some cheap and cheerful Chinese soldering irons (obviously of a questionable quality) would cause this as well because of some small amount (but some times large amount) of voltage would be present at the tip simply because they aren’t properly grounded. There are numerous videos on YouTube that highlight the issue alongside some solutions to solve it.
However in all this years that I occasionally touched and worked with the “above mentioned” it never happed to me. But it doesn’t mean to say it wouldn’t at some point. :)).
I remember, in the old days some manufacturers would sell you FETS, MOS-FETS J-FETs (The TH not SMD) with all terminals shorted by a wire.
@ovi4 Thank you, I know Paul had said about making a video about ESD.
Patreon is a learning tool for new folks to learn about electronic and I believe this is a needed subject to be taught.
I may have destroy some parts over the years that I did not know if I had or not.
I have seen YouTube videos on ESD, but I do not remember what can be damaged and mostly how to setup a stations.
I do have a Hakko soldering stations, but have not setup a ESD station to ground the parts and myself to ground.
Larry – N7LUF
@ovi4 You know I have been building the The Ultra Probe Demodulator – Amplifier.
I am now worrying if I may have damaged it by ESD.
Looking at the parts the only one that I may have wound be the IC1: CD74HC4066, (CD74HC4066M96) .
Looking at the data sheet The ’HC4066 and CD74HCT4066 contain four independent digitally controlled analog switches that use silicon-gate CMOS technology to achieve operating speeds similar to LSTTL with the low power consumption of standard CMOS integrated circuits. These switches feature the characteristic linear “ON” resistance of the metal-gate CD4066B. Each switch is turned on by a high-level voltage on its control input.
What do you think?
Larry – N7LUF
@larry_n7luf Well…for now, I would carry the project to completion first and give it a go to see if it works and take it from there. ESD damages are however rare. And todays components are “kind” of…more resilient to ESD than the old ones.
@ovi4 I was wondering today of all of Mr. Carlson projects, which ones should a person be careful of the parts from ESD.
I know he talked about the Ultra Probe about how to solder the gate of Q10: J310 part and have some of the others installed before this part.
He said a lot of people have destroyed this part.
Larry – N7LUF
I always kind of went with the idea that anything that had a small junction (IC’s, some transistors) would warrant some care. Also, if it is the last one you have….. mega ground straps 🙂