Safety; Power Supply; Esd - Observator Instruments OMC-045-II Technical User's Manual

OBSERVATOR
Instruments

3 Safety

3.1 Power supply

The OMC-045-II is protected against reversed polarity of the power. For the 9 – 24 volt connection there
is an easy accessible fuse. When the fuse melts it needs to be replaced with a "5A T 230 V 5 X 20" type.
If the OMC-045-II is power with 3.6 Volt, then it is secured by a SMD fuse. If the SMD fuse is defect, it
has to be replaced by the service department of Observator Instruments.

3.2 ESD

Warning: The OMC-045-II is sensitive to ESD. This discharge has to be avoided by working ESD safe
and in an ESD save environment.
ESD stands for Electro Static Discharge.
Everybody knows the static discharge that you feel when you step out of a car, brushing your hair and the
sparking sound when you take of a sweater. Also lightning is an electro static discharge. For people is
ESD harmless (except for lightning). It can charge up to 40.000 Volt and discharge in a few nanoseconds,
but still then it is harmless for humans. However for some electro components and prints, this is different.
These components are sensitive to discharges. A discharge of 10 Volt can already damage a component!
Consequences
Research proves that ESD is a costly problem in companies that work with electro technical components
and prints. The consequences for a company are:

Higher costs by failure and/or damage

Not reliable products

Dissatisfied customers, bad reputation and market loss

Higher service costs (repair / replacement)

More disturbance
Also the electro static discharge (spark), can have the following consequence:

Fire

Explosions

Electromagnetic interference (EMI)

Heat

Light

Sound waves

Attracting dust particles
Like lightning is for a tree, ESD are for IC's (Integrated Circuits / Chips). Inside the IC the ESD makes a
little explosion which can cause short-circuit and/or the disconnecting of a line. Because components get
smaller and smaller, the lines also get smaller inside the IC's. The sensitivity of these chips only
increases, the smaller they become. Damaged IC's doesn't have to be defective right away, but as longer
the product is in service, the bigger the damage can get without seeing it. We call this a "Pregnant IC".
The damage occurs not by the supplier, but by the customer, when the product is used in the field.
Technical User Manual
OMC-045-II
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