Quote:
Originally Posted by PhilBot
That had got to be one of the most condescending replies I've ever received on Chief Delphi.
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Nothing was or is intended to be condescending.
Everything in a system is somehow grounded. Apparently your system is using a floating ground. Fine. Others who post have no idea what that is. If that makes you angry, well, I am sorry. But ABS does not eliminate a bad grounding problem and resulting static discharge currents.
Failures created by static electric discharges are not eliminated by isolation. For example, in their early days, Apple computers would crash because static electric discharges would flow through their plastic keyboard. Those failures were eliminated by painting keyboard interally with an electrically conductive paint. And connecting that paint to the chassis ground.
Early IBM PCs also had this mistake. They also assumed plastic would isolate electronics. A fundamental difference between PC and AT style keyboards - a chassis ground wire was added so that non-conductive plastic did not conduct static currents into digital circuits.
Again, nothing was condescending other than your nasty reply. We often found the most advanced designs compromised by overlooking these concepts. In one case, they used a new floor wax that created static electricity. Then operators touching a plastic switch crashed the computer controller. We discovered a switch, normally chassis grounded, was electrically disconnected by an expoxy paint. Painters in later versions had painted the inside of that switch panel. Neither techs nor electricians understood why that interior surface must not be painted. So static discharges were connecting to the controller via thick ABS plastic on the mushroom switch.
Isolation alone does not avert intermittent crashes created by static discharges. That says nothing about anyone's emotions. The mistake is often overlooked even by geniuses. ABS isolation alone does not avert the resulting currents.
Any tech painting a surface that was not previously painted or forgetting to add a critically important tab or wire can create problematic static electric discharges through ABS isolation. Please only read what was posted rather than insert your emotions. You should have known that isolation alone does not avert static electric discharge currents into electronic controllers.