How bad is it to store PCBs in bubble wrap?

ifkz

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I just read that storing PCBs in bubble wrap is considered a bad idea. Is the danger of static discharge very high? I have been storing my PCBs wrapped in clear bubble wrap inside cardboard boxes. I am always very careful to touch metal before I handle them. Have I been putting my games at risk?

EDIT: I guess it can't be too bad. Bob has always sent PCBs wrapped in clear bubble wrap and he has been in the business for a long time. Still, I'll feel better once they are all in anti-static bags.
 
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I've gotten PCB's in clear, pink and green bubble wrap. They always get removed from it and put either in a large antistatic bag or if i don't have any of those they just go straight into the usps flat rate box and onto the shelf (retrohacker also gave me the idea to put a piece of cardboard in between boards if i wanted 2 in 1 box, this works especially well for soundboards).

I guess the pink is suppose to be ESD safe, but i'm not sure about the green... time to google.

edit: the only esd safe stuff is the pink unless it's labeled otherwise (according to google).
 
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It is bad practice certainly, the clear bubble wrap can hold a static charge (which is why it often attracts dust) and as such it is a risk to the board. How much of a risk is another matter. Any board you buy nowadays has probably had a period of rough treatment in the past anyway.
 
Depends on the board.

Besides, you've seen how all my board were just stacked haphazardly with nothing on them - and a majority of them worked when we tested them...
 
Most 'old' boards use TTL- rather than CMOS components. CMOS technology is somewhat more delicate / susceptible to electrostatic discharge than TTL, so most of the time you'll be fine.

Having said that, it doesn't hurt to be cautious :)

-Y
 
I just have to laugh, people put these in the dishwasher and the question asked is if it's ok to bubblewrap them lol

The two are not contradictory, putting a board in the dishwasher does not expose it to thousands if not millions of volts which is what static shocks are.
 
every single board, with exception to the broke ass MK T-unit board I got (and subsequently replaced) came in bubble wrap.

every single one of my games worked.

I handle my boards in a VERY dry aired building where you would think static discharges would happen constantly.

so, I'm just saying...

I would venture to say the Japanese stuff would be more sensitive than anything due to how much more sophisticated of boards they are versus the American stuff, but that's about it.

that's about all I have to contribute to this. if people can pull out monitor chassis and do some harlem globetrotters shit with them, I think bubblewrap isn't going to kill your games. and to the chap that mentioned he received 2 boards DOA, I doubt it was cause of the bubblewrap. look at my VAPS sometime, I have a lot of shit.
 
It's a good thing all those mice that were walking around and shitting on the boards I find in most cabs had little anti-static wristbands on....
 
Just remember that ESD can produce damage to parts, not just outright failures. You can easily shock to something without knowing it, and it could fail due to the ESD event 6 months later.

There's no point getting freaked out about ESD (none of us are going to invest in ionizers for our benches), but basic precautions (touch the cabinet's ground before grabbing the boards, keep boards in some kind of static safe bag or wrap when not in the cab, etc) are worth doing in order to minimize the likely hood of breaking these things.

I personally do have an ESD mat on my bench, and I keep static bags on hand that I always keep boards in when moving them around. But that's just me.
 
I'm in the middle on that one. Known non-working boards don't get much anti-static love. Many are over thirty years old and who knows where they have been or what conditions they have faced? But once I pour time into repairing a board and it is burned in and working, it goes into an anti-static bag. Also rare PCBs working or non-working as well.

Bill
 
I just have to laugh, people put these in the dishwasher and the question asked is if it's ok to bubblewrap them lol

Conductive things (like water) don't present a static hazard, dry insulators do. And some materials like latex ballons and thin sheeting (plastic or cloth) act like capacitors and store charge. Personally, I'd store the boards naked before I'd start mounding up bubble wrap.

That said, I wrap stuff in non-ESD bubble all the time and ship it. But if it's a bare board, it gets stored in a stat bag if I have one.
 
The problem is you will never really know how many failures are caused by ESD, or just plain ol' worn out devices. ESD events can shorten the life of chips, no doubt.

I'd say if you spent $$$ fixing a board then spend the extra buck or two and get a static bag to put it in. I ship all my repaired boards in static bags. Do the best you can.
 
Thanks for all of the responses, my 100 count order of 2ft x 1ft anti static bags comes in today. My project for the night will be to move everything into them, carefully, touching a lot of metal between sets.
 
For a cheap and dirty static grounding solution, just connect some wire from your skin to a the central screw or a ground lug in an electric outlet. Obviously, you need to make sure that your ground isn't floating and that you have the basic knowledge not to electrocute yourself, but it's handy and it works.
 
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http://www.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=41700
 
Put a 1meg resistor in the middle of that wire and you'll minimize the shock potential and still bleed off static.
 
Put a 1meg resistor in the middle of that wire and you'll minimize the shock potential and still bleed off static.

Yea, but if I was going to put that much effort into it I'd probably walk out to the truck and get my ground strap... :)
 
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