Help me solve static electricity problem

12-12-10: Heyraz
Anyone with knowledge of Capacitors? What would happen if the chassis of each component were connected in starfish pattern through capacitors to one central ground point and then on through another capacitor to a common ground? Would the capacitors act to absorb the static discharge and then slowly release them to ground? I'm not 100% sure how caps work but they seem to behave like water hammer arrestors sometimes.

That's an imaginative thought, but I don't think it would help. Basically a capacitor acts like an impedance whose value decreases as frequency increases. So it would shunt high frequency energy to ground, within the constraints presented by the inductance of the associated wiring. But the safety ground wiring that is already present will do the same thing, except better since it will conduct low frequencies in addition to high frequencies.

A device called a Transorb is commonly used for dealing with brief but large voltage spikes, but determining how to best apply one within a particular piece of equipment would be problematical.

One approach that I think might work in many cases is a variation of Kijanki's earlier suggestion, about lowering the impedance of the path between each chassis and a common ground point (such as the screw on a wallplate, or the chassis of a power conditioner). But my suggestion would be to do that with braided rf ground straps, rather than heavy gauge wiring, connected in a star pattern as Kijanki suggested. That would present a path for the extraneous currents that is truly low impedance at high frequencies. Industrial distributors such as Digikey carry ground strap material, but typically in large quantities. It is offered in smaller quantities by a number of eBay sellers -- search under "ground strap."

Regards,
-- Al

Isn't static at very high voltage?
Would a cap simply look like a resistor to a very high voltage...even if the current were essentially zero?

We had static problems at work and a bigtime solution in the form of HV electrodes protruding into the airflow...it was a top to bottom 'laminar' flow ROOM.
We also had a little gun....called a 'ZeroStat' which was effective in the reduction static charge on say....Teflon Cassettes, used to hold silicon wafers. The static would attract dust like a mad dog.

http://www.2spi.com/catalog/photo/zerostat.shtml

Isn't static at very high voltage?

Yes.

Would a cap simply look like a resistor to a very high voltage...even if the current were essentially zero?

It would look like some combination of capacitance, inductance, and resistance, with various resulting overall impedance magnitudes and phase angles at each of the many frequency components of the static discharge. But since those impedances together with the impedance of the connecting wires would be higher than that of a heavy gauge wire by itself, and much higher than that of a braided ground strap, the capacitor would serve no purpose.

Re the Zerostat, keep in mind that what we are trying to de-staticize here is the person!

Best regards,
-- Al

Thanks for the response. I'm not really sure how a capacitor might work in this situation is why I asked.
I was wondering if there was a way to "grab" the static discharge absorbed by chassis and pass it to electrical ground before it got into the signal causing a loud pop without potentially creating a ground loop between any components.
This was a "Hail Mary" idea of mine for Vhiner's problem. I imagined at least one of his components was highly susceptible to this problem because I have taken some real painful shocks in the past and never heard anything through my speakers, much less engaged protection circuitry. My approach was to search for a simpler, more user friendly way to manage this problem other than remembering to discharge oneself before touching anything. I was also looking for a solution that would work whenever an unfamiliar guest reached for the volume control. Believe it or not, I briefly considered metallic doors that would force the user to discharge themselves to ground before touching any equipment. As sure as I am that would work, even I wouldn't do it myself.
Other than wearing rubber soled shoes, a grounding strap, remembering to discharge oneself to ground, or treating oneself, carpeting and furniture to reduce static buildup, is there any component, device or circuit that could replace the "capacitor idea" in my previous design to absorb and pass the discharge to ground without creating a ground loop or other ill effect?
Why are some components less susceptible than others, and can that be applied here?

Buy several cans of Static Guard and hose down your carpet. Seriously. I did that once and it worked. For a day. But it worked.