Grounding by touching a ground lead

[rasen58]

Main Question or Discussion Point

Is it possible to sufficiently ground yourself just by touching the negative lead of a wire coming from a power supply once?

 

[jerromyjon]

No you need to stay connected to be grounded, and it needs to be to Earth ground.

 

[berkeman]

Is it possible to sufficiently ground yourself just by touching the negative lead of a wire coming from a power supply once?

If you are wearing a wool sweater on a dry day, you will charge back up within a few seconds of moving around after touching the ground lead. If you're not doing anything that charges you back up, it will take a while for any charge to build up on you again.

BTW, it's good practice to ground yourself though a large value resistor like 1 MegOhm. This reduces the possibility that you can get shocked badly if you happen to be connected to some other voltage. ESD control wriststraps, for example, contain such a current-limiting resistor.

 

[davenn]

Plus, the negative lead from the PSU may not be grounded ( ie. its " floating")