HD200 manufacturing update suggestion

[ojosch]

I notice every time (or almost every time) I walk up to my HD200 unit and touch it, I discharge a spark of static electricity as my finger touches its chassis. The problem I see though, is that the unit itself lacks an Earth ground. The only paths I can see as potential grounding paths are through the component signal wire's grounds (to my TV set which is not grounded either- does not have 3rd prong) and this may be an isolated ground anyway even if the TV were grounded, or through the Ethernet wire (which could damage a NIC on either end if static electricity tries to discharge through that). And since the power feed is only a low DC voltage 2 wire connection from the secondary side of the transformer, and the primary side of that transformer is only a 2 wire AC 110v feed, I just can't see any other way that static can safely discharge without causing a potential risk to system board damage (someone correct me if I am wrong).

I would recommend that they use a transformer with a 3 wire AC supply, and the secondary winding's negative wire of the DC feed should be grounded to Earth, or if the transformer was internally mounted in the HD200 and the 3-wire cord was plugged directly into that unit, so that the chassis would have a direct ground to Earth to protect against static discharge.

Just my 2 sense. Perhaps this is why I get these weird symtoms that others don't seem to be having? Perhaps my unit has been damaged. I am, for now, going to fabricate my own wire to fit on a screw of the HD200, and ground the chassis directly to my surge protector's 3rd prong, just so I know that my spark is traveling directly to ground w/o discharging through the main board and finding a ground on its own.


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