I’ll be holding a beginners class on the Raspberry Pi. It will focus on getting your Raspberry Pi working and how to create and backup SD cards. There will be examples of some of the things that can be done with the Raspberry Pi.
Russell Ward
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Do you have a date and time for the class? THX
Calendar says Wed, March 11th, 7am-8:30am.
Is the class really supposed to be that early in the morning, or is that a typo?
Nathan
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Question - I got a RPi a few months ago but in reading up on it I was getting the impression that they are easier to damage with errant static than other boards. For instance, I usually just slap my Arduino on a table and plug things into it without much care, but I have heard that you really shouldn’t even plug in an RPi without a properly insulated enclosure. Is there any truth to this? I haven’t played much with the board as I haven’t had a chance to print out a case for it yet.
More on topic, I would love to take this class! (assuming that’s supposed to be 7pm, not 7am)
Generally, bare PCBs are not designed to be handled directly. The drier it is, and the more insulative the environment, the more likely damage will occur. That being said, I’ve been using bare RPis on and off for years and never had a problem. If you seem to be shocking things with your fleece pullover, you might want to wear something else while fiddling with it though. And if it’s dry, always touch some other large metal before handling the board. That zap is better going into a metal filing cabinet than the USB connector of the RPi!
If you want to be extra careful, get a good anti-static mat, (I recommend the blue Statico brand from Altex) a wrist strap, and a grounding cord called Qube off Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0060AG7W4/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
JAG
If anyone would like to stress test it with static, use the Wet/Dry (dry only please!) vac in workshop with the wood cyclone attachment. 
Van de Graaff generator…
It’s pretty close already…
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Yes the 7:00 AM start isn’t what I had in mind. I have requested to change it to 7:00PM to 8:30 PM on March 11.
SRichardson3D - I don’t think that the Raspberry Pi is any more sensitive to static than other high density circuit boards - or any less sensitive either. Before I had my first case I drilled holes in masonite to mount the board. That was more to prevent it moving around than concern about static. The Arduino is made with the same complexity of chips. An anti-static mat isn’t a bad idea, it depends on your pain threshold for a zapped board. Looking at Amazon prices for anti-static mats you could buy a couple of Pis for the price of a mat.
Russell
It has been moved forward 12 hours on the calendar to 7:00pm to 8:30pm.
.
Thanks,
Steve
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Looking at Amazon prices for anti-static mats you could buy a couple of Pis for the price of a mat.
The 12" X 24" anti-static mat at Altex is $25 which from what I can see is the same or less than what you would pay for a RPi2 in general.
http://www.altex.com/Statico-3-Layer-Static-Dissipative-Matting-12-x-24-W8971-1224B-P139962.aspx
And it is considered a generally good work practice to have one anyway for working on a lot of different electronics such as your PC. The problem with ESD is that the damage can accumulate over time, punching through gate oxides, causing random errors in RAM, etc. and this is becoming more of an issue as the technology nodes shrink.
ESD can cause random and unexplained glitches, it is not always a matter of the board fully functioning vs. being dead. Also, the threshold for damage with regards to electronics is much lower than what we can perceive as a static discharge. Only about 350 V is needed to destroy an active device, but humans don’t typically perceive a feeling of shock until about 3500 V. (applicable to static discharge only, not a true AC/DC source like line voltage or a battery)
But the reason we don’t notice so much is because we tend to go through new electronics so fast that other kinds of damage (like dropping your cell phone) or cool new features will compel you to get a new [fill in the blank gizmo] before the ESD damage noticeably compromises the device.
But Russell has a good point - I don’t see why the RPi would be any more or less sensitive in general than other boards and I often work on a PC by just clipping an anti-static strap from my wrist to the metal case of the computer with no mat. Straps are pretty cheap and I do like them for inserting expensive RAM sticks or high end video cards.
I was just suggesting a setup if your peace of mind is unsettled by handling your projects with no protocols in place.
JAG
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Darn, I would like to come to the class, but I will be out of town on business. I have a Pi B+ and am having issues with getting the 1 wire temperature sensors to work.
As for the static discharge, I did notice that the ESD mats in the electronics lab did not appear to be grounded. I will look in on them this evening and check. The mats won’t work very good if they are not grounded.
I did burn out my first Pi B+, but it was not due to ESD, but due to the heat sink on the main processor sliding a little bit and hitting one of the capacitor next it, shorting it out and blowing the voltage regulator.
The time has been changed to 7:00 PM to 8:30PM on Thurs. March 11.
Russell