Static Discharge. My mistake but curious for some input.
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Here is a topic that should be addressed more. ESD kills. I've had experiences with it many years in the past. Doesn't matter how professional you are, it's only a matter of time that you'll run across it, and it can make for a bad day (even if there are no effects until months later).
So anyways, I did something and felt like an idiot. I have this case for my Pi 3 that exposes the CPU which I have a heat sink applied. My Pi was plugged in and I was updating the repositories when I moved it with my hand. My finger touched the heat sink and I felt a small shock.
The heat sink is aluminum. I'm no expert on the elements but I know that aluminum isn't that good of a conductor. Is it possible that my Pi might still be ok, or do you guys think it's going to just die off before spring gets here?
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@qix77 actually aluminum is a good conductor. Not as good as copper though. If it was a terrible conductor you wouldnt have zapped yourself. Tons of houses have been wired in aluminum. The only downside is it oxidizes really easy. They have dielectric grease that they put on the wire ends where they plug into circuit breakers. A lot of circuit boards have aluminum traces. However, at the worst case a heatsink is attached to ground so you have a far less chance of damage than many other circuits on your board. But still something i would try to avoid it if possible. But it probably isnt any worse than zapping yourself on a metal computer case.
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@edmaul69 Thanks for the information. I wasn't aware that aluminum was that good of a conductor. The heat sink is like most available for the Pi. Just with a glue that sits on the CPU. It could be weeks or months before I notice it's damaged. Thankfully, the Pi 3 isn't expensive (I have two) so replacing it won't be a problem. It's just that I hate having to deal with damage to an otherwise perfectly good Pi.
For my other Pi 3, the entire case is aluminum. I suppose the case itself acts as ground. Knowing me, I'm even going to be careful with that.
I guess I'm paranoid about the whole matter from experiences I had back in the mid 90's. It's just that moment when you feel the discharge and the words "Oh s**t." just comes out by instinct. lol...
I'll update this if/when I start to notice anything indicating hardware damage.
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