Grounding One Jack or Both?

[Joben Magooch]

I’ve noticed lately a lot of folks’ builds where they’re only connecting a ground wire to one of their in/out jacks rather than both.

I’m assuming the thinking here is that the other is grounded thru the enclosure and it’s to avoid potential ground loops?

Just curious as to if there’s any “rules” or suggested guidelines here or if it’s just more of a “test it out and adjust accordingly” type of thing. I’ve always just grounded both jacks with a wire and haven’t ever noticed any obvious issues but never really gave it much thought one way or the other, either.

 

[Robert]

For prototyping/testing, one is good enough.

I'm a firm believer that both jacks should be grounded in a finished pedal. I don't believe there is a production pedal out there that relies on the chassis to ground either jack.

The ground loop argument doesn't make sense because if you rely on the enclosure to ground the other jack it's still a separate path to ground, with more resistance than a wire.

 

[jimilee]

I’m just lazy and it seems redundant.

 

[Giorfida]

For prototyping/testing, one is good enough.

I'm a firm believer that both jacks should be grounded in a finished pedal. I don't believe there is a production pedal out there that relies on the chassis to ground either jack.

The ground loop argument doesn't make sense because if you rely on the enclosure to ground the other jack it's still a separate path to ground, with more resistance than a wire.

Now if I put 2 boards in the same enclosure I’ll run the ground to the input from one board and the ground from output of the other and not touch the other 2 (figure both boards will have grounds bussed through the power connector)

 

[Zanshin]

This is an Warlow clone I bought from Reverb. It’s a PPCB board so I won’t post more details because the maker might visit this board.

I was getting a ton of RFish noise on my pedal board which is usually pretty quiet. I tracked it down to this pedal and it happened even when bypassed. I opened it up, noticed the missing ground wire for the output. I added the clear wire you see in the pic to ground the output and then it was dead silent. I assume the paint is stopping the enclosure from getting grounded.

The tone stack switch is also not the right type haha. The good side of the story is this pedal was partially responsible for me getting back into DIY again.

It seems silly not to wire both to be sure.

 

[Chuck D. Bones]

You're not going to get a ground loop inside a metal pedal enclosure. It's all so close together that the area inside any loop is tiny and besides, the enclosure shields out external EM fields.

Grounding is a black art. For every grounding rule, there will be exceptions. I like to think of the pedal board and enclosure as one big-ish single-point ground. Ground one jack, ground both, it doesn't matter. If your jacks come loose you'll have other problems besides grounding. It's important that the pot bodies are grounded because they are in close proximity with the resistance element and could couple noise into the circuit. I had this happen on my Brown Betty before I started sanding the inside of the enclosures. When you have a lot of current, like in a 100W amplifier, then the grounding layout becomes critical.

 

[Feral Feline]

Effective-Grounding sounds like wheelbuilding, another black art.

You have to centre the hub, on two different planes, done by tensioning the spokes. Not centred on X-axis and the wheel "hops", Y-axis it wobbles.
Tension needs to be even all around though, uneven tension makes the wheel go out of true or even come apart.

Too little tension, a "soft" build, it goes out of true quickly and/or comes apart. And even.​

Too much tension, and the wheel could taco/fold come apart or go out of true after hitting a pot-hole/bump/etc not to mention a harsh ride. Remember, even.​

Spoke length and thus tension differs from pattern to pattern: radial-laced, 2-cross, 3-cross — offset to accomodate disc-brakes &/or cogsets.

Real fun: rear-wheel with radial non-drive side with 2 or 3-cross drive side:

(NOT my wheel)

Most bitchin' and bitchiest I've ever built was a three-cross twisted for gits & shiggles:

(NOT my wheel)

The twists make proper tensioning a PITA, 'cause the twists load up with tension that gets released on the trail and not on the wheelstand,
kind of like how both Smarties AND M&Ms will melt in your mouth — AND in your hand.

Wow... Looks like... I've heard of people that solder the twists once the wheel is built and trued, but ...
... does heat-expansion/contraction from the soldering/cooling affect the build?

@peccary, Check out these crazy lowrider wheels!

I always had a tough time getting the hop out of my builds. The lowriders make me want to lace up some rims again!





I return you all to your regularly scheduled PEDALMANIA!
May you all remain well-grounded.

 

[Chuck D. Bones]

Way to stay on-topic, Feral.

 

[Big Monk]

I've gone kind of out there on grounding.

Not really though. I've gone to what I think is best practice with respect to grounding but sometimes I don't know:



I isolate both jacks and use a PCB mounted Cliff brand EMI/RFI washer, grounding right to the enclosure at the input jack. Ground plane is a given on the board and I also tend to use shielded wiring to the I/O on the board, routed down low and to the edge of the enclosure.

The Tayda masking service is a direct result of a request I had to Hugo to have an unfinished spot near the Input jack.

Is it too much? Probably, but I wanted to cover all my bases once I started selling stuff.

 

[Coda]

I've gone kind of out there on grounding.

Not really though. I've gone to what I think is best practice with respect to grounding but sometimes I don't know:

View attachment 70575

I isolate both jacks and use a PCB mounted Cliff brand EMI/RFI washer, grounding right to the enclosure at the input jack. Ground plane is a given on the board and I also tend to use shielded wiring to the I/O on the board, routed down low and to the edge of the enclosure.

The Tayda masking service is a direct result of a request I had to Hugo to have an unfinished spot near the Input jack.

Is it too much? Probably, but I wanted to cover all my bases once I started selling stuff.

Tayda Masking Service is the best thing to happen this century so far…

 

[bhcarpenter]

Grounding is a black art.

I’ve always suspected this is the case. Good to have it confirmed by the man

 

[Big Monk]

Tayda Masking Service is the best thing to happen this century so far…

When I originally reached out, it was literally to get a 3/4”x3/4” square masked.

It turned out to have other benefits the way Hugo decided to do it.

 

[Gordo]

The wheel hijack was the best thing ever!!! Totally out there and yet pulled right back in. Well played sir!!!

I've always used the input jack as the central point but is kinda meaningless in a small metal enclosure. But I need to respect my own standard dammit. I'm kinda with Jimi, it's a wire I don't really need. And truthfully, by the time jacks start falling out of my pedals I have some serious problems anyway.