Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Huh, I had no idea that cables would have their shield grounded at both ends... Single point ground is such a standard in electrical design that the guidance is generally "do otherwise only if you have the ability to make many prototypes to nail RFI issues".




It's a high-speed vs low-speed thing.

If you're building an audio cable your signal will peak out at a few kHz, so the cable acting as an antenna and picking up a signal in the MHz range isn't an issue. Similarly, you're not transmitting anything significant either. But a ground loop can easily ruin your day.

If you're building a cable for multi-gbps data transmission, that ground loop noise might as well not exist - it's basically DC. But ground your shielding at only one end, and suddenly you're ruining everyone's wifi!

Building a device which needs high-speed data on one side, and analog audio on the other side? Good luck...




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: