WARNING
The DECam CCDs and electronics are highly sensitive to electrostatic discharge -- much more so in fact than typical CCD cameras mounted on small research-grade telescopes. During observing runs with a DECam engineering CCD on the CTIO-1m, we have destroyed a DECam CCD and fried the electronics more than once.
Therefore, we request that, in general, those not involved with the installation/de-installation or maintenance of the PreCam camera follow these two rules:
Do not touch the PreCam dewar!
Do not touch the monsoon crate!
There is, however, an exception to these rules. Since PreCam's vacuum is not behaving as well as we'd like, the observers will need to hook up the vacuum pump on a regular (daily?) basis. While that's not connected to any electronics (and the dewar itself is grounded), it's still worthwhile to keep ESD in mind when the pump is being connected or removed. An ordered checklist will soon be provide here describing how to perform this operation in an ESD-safe manner. In the meantime, we request that PreCam observers familiarize themselves with the ESD procedures we learned on the CTIO-1m runs (see in particular the ESD Procedures document in DES-doc#3818, although the information in DES-doc#4242 may be interesting as well.)
Many thanks for your help and your understanding.