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Member's Forum Top Members Secret Santa - Unwrapped
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  • christmas
  • secret santa
Related

Top Members Secret Santa - Unwrapped

spannerspencer
spannerspencer over 9 years ago

I don't know if everyone's aware, but there's a private section of the element14 Community for the Top Members, who are brought in by invite (as decided upon by the existing Top Members and the element14 team), where they discuss matters around the direction of the Community, where they help out with beta testing Community updates, and even test out new products, RoadTests & Reviews-style. But mostly they just go waaaaaay off-topic and descend into rants and raves about which Minion avatar is the strangest, or who has the biggest... soldering iron.image

 

Anyway, in December the Top Members all gathered together around the eggnog tree to exchange techno-gifts, which we (The Management) facilitated to some degree by way of distribution. Now, I know the Christmas season won't get into full swing again until late August, but their Secret Santa gifts are now arriving upon their workshop doorsteps.

 

So I'd like to invite those Top Members to give us all a big unveiling of what they got, who their Secret Santa was and why they chose the gifts they did, and for the whole Community to join in with a few ideas on what these insane elite engineering eccentrics ("improved" meaning for IEEE?) can do with their hot tech gifts.

 

Merry Christmas!

 

 

Hmm? Oh, to become a Top Member is simple, but not easy. All you have to do is make a fantastic contribution to the element14 Community by way of great projects, insightful blogs, helpful suggestions (in Feedback and Support particularly) and generally spending all your free time on here enjoying yourself image  Trust me, these guys see everything that happens, so your efforts aren't going unnoticed image  Keep it up, and you'll be a Top Member in time for this year's Secret Santa!

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Top Replies

  • clem57
    clem57 over 9 years ago +12
    Thanks to Element 14 and Spanner for the great idea of a secret Santa! Well firstly, I had moved recently and had no idea anything would come. But then this arrived: I was as eager to find out what was…
  • Workshopshed
    Workshopshed over 9 years ago +11
    A big thanks to Element14, Spanner and my Secret Santa. A huge and heavy 21Kg box arrived this week whilst I was away. I opened it up this afternoon. www.youtube.com/watch Given that I was not really looking…
  • Problemchild
    Problemchild over 9 years ago +11
    Thanks for my Secret Santa Pressies.... here's me opening mine www.youtube.com/watch
Parents
  • Problemchild
    Problemchild over 9 years ago

    Thanks for my Secret Santa Pressies.... here's me opening mine

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  • COMPACT
    COMPACT over 9 years ago in reply to Problemchild

    I noticed the mat had ESD labelled on it - Does that stand for Extra Sensory Deception?

     

    Does the mat enable you to work flat out?

    Or does it give you a good connection to your work?

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  • COMPACT
    COMPACT over 9 years ago in reply to Problemchild

    I noticed the mat had ESD labelled on it - Does that stand for Extra Sensory Deception?

     

    Does the mat enable you to work flat out?

    Or does it give you a good connection to your work?

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  • Problemchild
    Problemchild over 9 years ago in reply to COMPACT

    You unroll the mat and work on it.

    The mat it's self is antistatic and has a stud to connect a wire to your mains earth via the supplied plug

    The wrist strap is the same and should have a resistor of the order of 1MOhm to keep any currents low incase you touch some nasty voltages not just static!

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  • COMPACT
    COMPACT over 9 years ago in reply to Problemchild

    The 1MOhm resistor is to control the ESD by limiting the current between two points.

    It's not designed to be a safety measure from mains voltages.

     

    So always take the proper safety precautions.

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  • Problemchild
    Problemchild over 9 years ago in reply to COMPACT

    the 1M in the lead is usually there as an anti prat measure to make sure you are not the lowest resistance root to earth when you start playing with your powered toys then you touch something at a high voltage otherwise you are probably a better(or as good as) earth than the real thing....Yum yum who's cooking tonight

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  • COMPACT
    COMPACT over 9 years ago in reply to Problemchild

    No, that's not it's primary purpose - it's a secondary safety purpose.

    The emphasis is on being the D in ESD - "Dissipative".

    image

    When working with 240VAC or 500DC or above, personnel grounding should not be used instead alternative methods such as ionisation can be used.

    This horizontal ESD ionizer is perfect for bench top esd ionization for static control photo

    image

    image

     

    And also don't believe that components are ESD protected as soon as they are in-circuit either!

    That's why Electronic Equipment is usually packed in ESD Shielding Bags.

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