Check if your IKEA chair is compatible with your screen • Hacker News Board

Re: Check if your IKEA chair is compatible with your screen

#21

Post by Paul-Craft » Fri, Apr 28, 2023, 4:46 PM UTC

freitzkriesler2 wrote: post #5

Wow, I can't believe this. I have a Markus Ikea chair and a dual screen setup with a USB c hub connecting them all. The screen likes to turn off all of the time and it drives me nuts. A good smack quickly fixes it. I never considered the chair. Mind blown with static discharge.

> Mind blown with static discharge.

You might want to look into some extra shielding for your mind. I hear having it blown by static discharge too many times can cause brain damage. ;)

In all seriousness, yeah, this is crazy! IMO, IKEA should either recall and fix, modify the design of, or stop selling these chairs. ESD can seriously damage equipment, and I could easily see there being cumulative effects from something like this.

Re: Check if your IKEA chair is compatible with your screen

#22

Post by Kiro » Fri, Apr 28, 2023, 4:52 PM UTC

Anyone have a non-Mastodon link?

Re: Check if your IKEA chair is compatible with your screen

#23

Post by yborg » Fri, Apr 28, 2023, 4:54 PM UTC

One of my first jobs 30+ years ago was ESD testing automotive and consumer electronics. I would spend a week with a discharge gun methodically running different discharge energies and waveforms both directly onto the devices as well as onto radiators at various distances from the device under test, as well as any cabling/harnessing that attached to the device.

Then the design team would figure out the reason for any resets or operational anomalies (or damaged components) and put whatever additional suppression was needed. Sometimes this required rerouting of traces to reduce coupling or redesign of the ground plane. It's a tricky business and expensive if you want to do it right. I suspect that your average $120 display does not see this kind of testing.

Re: Check if your IKEA chair is compatible with your screen

#24

Post by caaig » Fri, Apr 28, 2023, 4:57 PM UTC

It truly is ESD day https://www.theregister.com/2023/04/28/on_call/

Re: Check if your IKEA chair is compatible with your screen

#25

Post by khazhoux » Fri, Apr 28, 2023, 5:01 PM UTC

Lately, I’ve become a fan of analog chairs. No Wi-Fi, no camera, no GPU. Besides the retro appeal, I actually find myself to be more creative!

Re: Check if your IKEA chair is compatible with your screen

#26

Post by amelius » Fri, Apr 28, 2023, 5:02 PM UTC

Are these chairs allowed in hospitals? Any heart-lung machines with IKEA chairs next to them?

Re: Check if your IKEA chair is compatible with your screen

#27

Post by gumby » Fri, Apr 28, 2023, 5:04 PM UTC

khazhoux wrote: post #25

Lately, I’ve become a fan of analog chairs. No Wi-Fi, no camera, no GPU. Besides the retro appeal, I actually find myself to be more creative!

I prefer the “walled garden” approach where nobody can plug just any old USB unapproved device into my chair.

The manufacturer does not publish a kit of approved USB devices on its website.

Re: Check if your IKEA chair is compatible with your screen

#28

Post by vidarh » Fri, Apr 28, 2023, 5:04 PM UTC

When I was a kid we had to return my Commodore 64 for repair several times, only to be told that once they got to it, after it had been waiting at the store for a few days, there were no problems with it.

Turned to be a result of storing the C64 on a bench under the "large" 26" CRT... When it was kept away from it for a while and had a chance to discharge, everything was ok. But after a while near the TV, it started "typing" gibberish of its own accord.

Re: Check if your IKEA chair is compatible with your screen

#29

Post by gumby » Fri, Apr 28, 2023, 5:05 PM UTC

Paul-Craft wrote: post #16

etiam wrote: post #3

Remotely related, my screen makes a noise, somewhere between static and a whine, while displaying certain text files. Minimizing or closing the editor stops the noise, getting the text back on display restores the noise. I suppose it's some sort of resonance phenomenon.

Perhaps a silly question, but does turning it off and back on again also resolve the problem? I can occasionally hear such noises from monitors, and have always thought it was some kind of interaction with the phase of the AC power and some kind of internal physics of the monitor. Generally, turning it off and back on again fixes it for me.

In the old CRT days that could be plausible, but in these days of lcds and switching power supplies it seems less likely.

But as this article describes, you never know!

Re: Check if your IKEA chair is compatible with your screen

#30

Post by mlyle » Fri, Apr 28, 2023, 5:08 PM UTC

yborg wrote: post #23

One of my first jobs 30+ years ago was ESD testing automotive and consumer electronics. I would spend a week with a discharge gun methodically running different discharge energies and waveforms both directly onto the devices as well as onto radiators at various distances from the device under test, as well as any cabling/harnessing that attached to the device. Then the design team would figure out the reason for any…

Cars are a terrible ESD and EMC environment and safety critical at the same time.

Computer equipment usually does pretty well, especially after installation (when there's good ground path everywhere and it's in a chassis). Between ferrite beads and TVS, there's a pretty good amount of protection, and I've seen pretty few ESD anomalies-- a reset or two when touching connectors long ago is about the extent of it.

RFI and EMC is another matter. When I was operating a 100W 30MHz transmitter indoors briefly, the computers around did all kinds of wacky stuff. Flashing screens, random mouse clicks (from wired mice), transmitting packetstorms on their own, etc.