The last few days I have been having an issue with my BitZero. I would whip it out placing on the corner of my part. Jog to set the pin in the hole. While jogging, I noticed the indicator light flashing in no pattern. I “ASSUMED” my hand pressure was causing issues. Checked internals, found nothing wrong.
Long story short, if I touched it while using the mouse I could get it to flash. Traced it down to my hand on my metal table holding the mouse, touching the BitZero with my other hand at the same time. Everything is grounded, Everything, even the metal table. Fingered out that I am grounding the table to the BitZero through my body.
The reason we can be shocked is because our body is conductive. Some people have a higher resistance than others. The really dangerous part of electrocution is when you are shocked you are holding wired in your hands and the path goes from one hand to the other and right over your heart. All electrocution is dangerous but a path over your heart is the most dangerous because the 60 cycles interferes with your hearts natural rhythm and can kill you if you are not disconnected from the electrical source.
So grounding your BitZero through your body is not surprising to me. We are natural conductors. Just some are more resistant than others. During the winter when humidity is low some are shocked when touching a grounded object while others are not.
Personally I hate getting shocked when touching a light switch. I worked on electronics all through my career and have been shocked very few times because I am very adverse to being shocked so I am very careful. I always unplug things when I work on them because just dropping a screw driver can be quite shocking, literally.
I was a computer nerd tech when they first started, working at Boeing with electronic components, and amatuure electrician. Well aware that I can be the best path to ground. Still use my wrist strap when poking in electronics areas.
This is the first time I have noticed this happening with my BitZero in the years I have had it.