Mylar tape on Teres has lots of static.

Doug, with acrylic platters grounding the platter makes a big difference. With the wood platters it does not matter as much. I think that the reason is simply that wood builds up a lot less static. But even in the case of a wood platter grounding the bearing helps reduce static.

Thanks for your help guys.
I am thinking that the static is caused by the belt slipping on the motor pulley at start up. Considering the weight and size of the platter in comparison to the motor pulley, I doubt that static can be avoided
The static doesn't really bother me as long as it is not harmful. I can see the need for cleaning though, since I was surprised by the amount of dust and other foreign debris on the platter and belt
One question though is how to ground the bearing in the 340?.
Doug, Thanks for the link. I will look at it soon and try the new belt config.
Again, thanks guys

I am thinking that the static is caused by the belt slipping on the motor pulley at start up.

Start your platter manually with a finger push, not by pushing the motor's "On" button. Less belt slippage and wear, less strain on the motor, more fun showing off one of the nifty features of Chris's controller. :-)

Don't stop the platter manually though. That increases belt slippage/wear and may jar the motor position. Push the "Off" button and let the platter coast down.

Thanks Doug. This has been my normal procedure. I started it once with the switch and could tell there was a strain.

I encountered some static build-up issues with my tape drive setup, re Teres 145. Lots of acrylic in that setup. Also my tt stands on a Neuance platform, which may or may not be a contributor.

Searching for ways to reduce or eliminate my static build-up problems, I found that different belt materials made a difference. Fwiw, vhs tape was the least problematic. Holographic mylar seemed to build up --some-- static. Probably the worst was clear vhs leader. Static city.

I tried different grounding methods. Firstly, grounding the bearing to the power supply helped. Disconnecting the charger (running straight from the battery) helped reduce static. This is preferred anyway. Sound is perceptibly better straight from the battery than with the charger connected during playback. Could wire in a switch for that, but unplugging the power plug at the smart charger circuit board is effective.

Also, creating a ground link from the motor controller inside the pod to the building ground seemed to reduce the static problem. That is a ground strap to the third leg on the 115 volt socket at the wall.

Using anti static laundry spray on the carpet around the player helped. Keeping anti-static laundry softener sheets, the kind you toss into the dryer with the laundry, around the player helped.

Making sure of the truest possible alignment between motor pulley and platter, to improve belt tracking, helped. But none of those actually solved the problem.

Switching back to silk drive did eliminate the problem entirely for me. That is how I drive it now. Fwiw, silk has a nice sound compared to tape. Your preferences may be different than mine.

Getting back to the mylar belt static issues:
At its worst I saw instances where static build-up was great enough to cause motor controller errors, such as switching off... or on.... at the wrong times.

Probably my situation is aggravated by the cheap nylon carpet in my room. Barefoot is better than wearing socks. Winter. Low humidity. Part of the problem.

-Steve