Grounding shielded hookup wire in box?

[Rip Van Woofer]

Thanks to the example of the estimable Dan Banquer, I will be using RG174 shielded coax as hookup wire in my forthcoming power amp projects. I found some in small quantities at AllElectronics.com. (As yet, I haven't found double-shielded RD174 - not sure when one is preferable over the other, anyway...)

The question: should I ground the shielding in all cases, in some cases, or not bother? If I ground it, what's a good practical way to do so? I am envisioning 22ga. or so hookup wires running from each shielded hookup's braid shielding to a star ground and it ain't a pretty sight! Gotta be a better way!

Dan: I have your grounding article but for a dull, liberal-arts mind like mine it takes some re-reading for it all to sink in!

Like I've said before: it's taken me a lot of effort to work my way up from "chimpanzee" to "trained chimpanzee" as far as electronics goes!

-Rip Van Woofer: pursuing the truth in audio even if it kills him...

 

[Dan Banquer]

Shielding & Grounding

When you use the RG 174 for signal wiring from the RCA connector to the board. The braided shield is to be connected to ground on the board and the ground connection on the RCA Jack. If you take a close look at the pictures that we took of the SCPA 1 you will see ground plane that covers nearly the entire top side of the board.
When I do a prototype I use copper clad perf board which is a pain in the butt because I have to mill out each connection hole but the advantage is I have ground plane everywhere.
In any case Bruce: you should give me a call one of these evenings so we can sit down and hopefully make you understand this. As I love to say: "grounding: easy in theory, hell in practice."
d.b.

 

[Rip Van Woofer]

...If you take a close look at the pictures that we took of the SCPA 1 you will see ground plane that covers nearly the entire top side of the board.
When I do a prototype I use copper clad perf board...
d.b.

Ah, there's the rub. I'm using premade single-sided PCBs from Rod Elliot with the component drawing silkscreened on top. No ground plane on top.

I haven't looked closely at the boards but there should be a ground (in addition to circuit common). So maybe I'll wrap and solder thin wire to the exposed braid as you show in your shielded speaker cable design and connect them to a pin or something at ground on the board or nearby. Ditto at the RCA end, except to a chassis ground point. Sound like a plan?

Do I even need to ground both ends since all grounding is ultimately connected to the chassis ground (not counting the "floating" circuit common)?

Might take you up on that phone call....

 

[Dan Banquer]

Grounding

Bruce: If you can e mail me a picture of the PC board that would be great. Other than that, it would help greatly if you gave me a call during the evening.
d.b.