Definitely, I really underestimated static electricity in my build! In the end, it only cost me a Jackpot… I could have gotten some serious electric shocks or damaged more equipment. I actually got off pretty well!
I had thought about the coil… But since it’s embedded in the PVC, I figured it must be insulated and wouldn’t do the job… I’ll see if I try just that. Not sure I really feel like breaking another Jackpot…
One thing’s for sure, I’ll also look into what I can do for the cyclone & bucket! In the end, everything will be grounded!
Charge accumulation and dissipation in insulators is a funky story.
Because your dust collection hose is an insulator, even wrapping it with a conductive wire (or grounding the internal wire) will mean that there are areas right next to the wire that have less charge accumulation, but in between the wire will still charge up.
The whole idea is to bleed off the charge as best you can and provide a path for the charge to go somewhere besides through the controller electronics.
The method these charge up is triboelectric, chips moving through the hose and rubbing against it works like a balloon on a cat. Even just air moving through the insulators will charge them up.
I tried wrapping a cyclone bucket in foil and then promptly zapped myself good, the inside was still charged even though the outside was wrapped in foil and grounded. This is the big offender for me in my setups.
I keep meaning to revisit this, but having a grounded dust collection hose and then being mindful that the cyclone is a sure zap (discharging myself if I get zapped before I handle anything electronic in the system) has kept me from having problems with my systems.
If I do revisit my setup, I’m going to try inner and outer wraps on the cyclone bucket and bleed wires to try and reduce the charge accumulation.
Some forum members have experimented with using laundry anti-static spray on the surfaces of the dust collection system. They’ve reported some success, but I personally have never tried that.
You want to ground the bleed wires to an AC ground, not to the power supply returns.
I also put a 10K ohm resistor in series as a safety measure, with the resistor right at the tie point for the ground wires to the AC 3rd wire.
Thank you so much for all these details! Clearly, you have much more knowledge than we do in this field. I’ll take all of this into account while thinking about my new setup!
