[PilotMgr] Serial port/ESD issues

[skod@xxxxxxxxxxxx (Scott Griffith, ISES-LLC)]

On Jan 4, Ernie Brouwer wrote:

> I had problems early on (with my Palm Pilot -- I don't have a Visor) and
> it turned out that it was due to my frequent plugging and unplugging from
> the serial port (at the time, to take the cradel home with me).  Since I
> purchased a second cable for home use, I only have `grounding' issues (I
> need to ground myself before I put the Palm in the cradle).  Still, even
> though I've "killed" both of my Sun's serial ports over time, they've
> eventually come back (don't know how exactly).

Sounds like me. Here in the Denver area, the low humidity in the
winter leads to some pretty impressive ESD problems. In the last 12
months, I've killed 4 serial ports on my desktop Ultra 5 while
dropping my PalmIII into the cradle, and none of them have "come
back". Consider yourself extremely lucky: U5 motherboards get
_expensive_ when you have to replace them for dead serial ports...

It's odd, but the PalmIII has been undamaged by this. Since both ttya
and b on my current motherboard have both gone on to that great
modempool in the sky, I'm now using an Antares PCI dual serial port
card. That has (so far anyway) been much more robust in the face of
the local ESD environment, in addition to letting me run a tad bit
faster. I also now have my Palm cradle, my mouse, my keyboard, the
wrist rest on the edge of my desk, and even my *desk chair* liberally
spotted with carefully grounded copper tape strips now. I've lost
count of the number of cans of Scotch antistatic fabric treatment that
I've used up on the chair and carpet... It looks (and smells!)
absurd, but I can't afford to nuke machinery at that rate.

I routinely draw arcs as much as 10mm long to my grounding strips when
I first sit down after a trip down the hall, and for some reason the
cats won't let either my wife or I pet them very much during the
winter. I'm extremely familiar with ESD, but hadn't expected the
problem to be as big as it is when we moved here. I hadn't thought of
serial ports as consumable items!

-skod

--
Scott Griffith, Improbable Solutions Engineering Services LLC
Who didn't have _anything_ to do with the Sun 386i...
Nope, not a bit. Nothing at all. Not me, nosir. Nope.
Return Path : skod@xxxxxxxxxxxx
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