Hi,
Bit of a newbie and apologies if this has been answered - I did search but couldn't find an answer.
I'm building a little passive rca input switch. It has a rotary switch and I'm fine wiring it up. The chassis is aluminium and the rca plugs screw into the back (which I believe grounds them to the chassis?)
What I'm confused about is whether I need to run a copper wire through the rca plugs as a bus bar or not. I've looked at others have built - some have a copper wire going through that doesn't seem to be connected to he chassis, some that do, and some that don't have any wire.
What I'm building (or trying to build) is like this:
DIY Audio Electronics from Zynsonix.com: Custom RCA Switch Box for Audio
So what's confusing me is something like the 3rd picture: there's a ground wire going through all the rca posts but it doesn't seem, based on the photos, to ground to the chassis. Is that right? Also does the rotary switch need any kind of wired grounding?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Bit of a newbie and apologies if this has been answered - I did search but couldn't find an answer.
I'm building a little passive rca input switch. It has a rotary switch and I'm fine wiring it up. The chassis is aluminium and the rca plugs screw into the back (which I believe grounds them to the chassis?)
What I'm confused about is whether I need to run a copper wire through the rca plugs as a bus bar or not. I've looked at others have built - some have a copper wire going through that doesn't seem to be connected to he chassis, some that do, and some that don't have any wire.
What I'm building (or trying to build) is like this:
DIY Audio Electronics from Zynsonix.com: Custom RCA Switch Box for Audio
So what's confusing me is something like the 3rd picture: there's a ground wire going through all the rca posts but it doesn't seem, based on the photos, to ground to the chassis. Is that right? Also does the rotary switch need any kind of wired grounding?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
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Connect all the grounds in each channel together, including the output. A buss wire is a simple way.
All the grounds of the RCA jacks should be insulated from the chassis by the plastic washers
between the jacks and the chassis. Check this with a DVM.
You can connect each buss wire to the chassis through a wire, or through a low value resistor of 10R to 100R.
Usually the selector switch is unshielded, other than by the chassis itself. Sometimes the selector switch
grounds the unused inputs, but this is usually not necessary, so it needs no ground wire.
Connect all the grounds in each channel together, including the output. A buss wire is a simple way.
All the grounds of the RCA jacks should be insulated from the chassis by the plastic washers
between the jacks and the chassis. Check this with a DVM.
You can connect each buss wire to the chassis through a wire, or through a low value resistor of 10R to 100R.
Usually the selector switch is unshielded, other than by the chassis itself. Sometimes the selector switch
grounds the unused inputs, but this is usually not necessary, so it needs no ground wire.
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Ok thanks, so as per the photo but then connecting to the chassis body, right?
I assume just standard copper wire will do?
I assume just standard copper wire will do?
It's possible that doing the wiring that way could cause hum in your system.
It's best to keep the two channels' grounds separate. Then connect each ground bus wire
to the chassis with an individual resistor of a value between 10R and 100R.
To keep things simple, you could wait on these ground resistors until you see if there is
any noise, hum, etc. caused by leaving them out. But, I would not connect the grounds
of the two channels together. Use a separate ground wire per channel. This is standard practice.
From the article it appears that they recommend shorting the RCA body ground to the chassis,
and not using insulating washers. This is definitely not standard practice.
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Ok many thanks for your help. This is becoming clearer now.
So....
No ground for the rotary switch.
RCA washers in use to separate RCA ground from chassis body.
I will run one copper wire across all the left channel inputs & output.
Another separate copper wire across all the right channel inputs & output.
Both these wires need to be connected at some point to the chassis. Can these two wires be joined together at this point at the same grounding? Or do I need two separate points of contact to the chassis?
Do you recommend screwing the ground into the chassis or is there a preferable method I.e. Soldering (again I've seen some crazy stuff including blu tack)
So....
No ground for the rotary switch.
RCA washers in use to separate RCA ground from chassis body.
I will run one copper wire across all the left channel inputs & output.
Another separate copper wire across all the right channel inputs & output.
Both these wires need to be connected at some point to the chassis. Can these two wires be joined together at this point at the same grounding? Or do I need two separate points of contact to the chassis?
Do you recommend screwing the ground into the chassis or is there a preferable method I.e. Soldering (again I've seen some crazy stuff including blu tack)
I would attach all the RCA connectors directly to the chassis (no plastic washers) as per Muncy, Ott, Brown & Whitlock. But I would also use a solder lug on each one and connect them all with a bus wire. Then I would connect the Main Audio Common (aka ground) tat the bus wire.
Connect each bus wire to the chassis ground with separate resistors (10R to 100R value)
to reduce potential ground loops. Bolting the grounds to the chassis is good practice.
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