ESD protection

[nbigaouette]

I've bought a megadesk back in December 2022 and have been using it just fine since.

Except that it seems that it is quite sensible to electrostatic discharges (ESD). After having left the desk and coming back, I touch my laptop and get a static shock. This is normal per se, but when doing so my megadesk resets; I hear its chime that you normally hear when you plug it in / give it power.

I suspect the ESD travels through the ground from my laptop to the power strip to the megadesk and it then resets.

This was mostly an annoyance until recently when I was playing with PCB designs. I realized the megadesk might be susceptible to ESD. I checked the kicad schematics and yes, there is no TVS diode. I think this would be important to have since ESD events can fry the board... I'm relieved mine survived all those resets.

On another topic, I was wondering why you used two LDOs instead of a single buck converter? Is it just a mater of simplicity/price? Since the whole package consumes such a tiny amount of power the LDOs are sufficient? Thanks!

[gcormier]

There's been a few revisions since, I think the most recent should have better resiliency to ESD. There was also a user who contributed a better fuse setting to eliminate some issues, IIRC it was brownout.

Yes the power consumption is so minimal that LDO is much cheaper. A dual output buck or a single buck and another LDO would be more expensive and make board space much more tricky. The 12V does most of the work thermally, in the bigger package, and the 3V is smaller as it has such little load.

[nbigaouette]

Great to know that later revisions are more resilient! Hopefully mine will survive those events...

Thanks for the LDO clarification. It does make a lot of sense. Also, using a buck would require extra components (resistors, capacitors, even inductors for some models) which takes precious space.