Universal Color Codes for Wiring?

[HamishR]

I use red for the voltage supply or the pot which controls the decapitation circuit. Black is ground, because when you're buried in the ground that's all that you can see. I rarely use green because I gave up smoking that stuff years ago. Yellow is for gain or the mucous suction circuit. Occasionally the mucous release circuit or any kind of infection. Blue is for in and out because the world is a cold, cold place. And I use white for tone controls because they control the colours and white is all the colours of the rainbow mixed.

 

[vigilante398]

I use red and black like others, green for input and blue for output, and the rest for various other things (jumpers, switches or LED wiring if needed). Reasoning is that I just felt like it.

This is exactly what I did for years. Eventually I dropped the green and blue and used black for ground and red for "not ground" so I only had to buy two colors.

Now I only buy black wire and everything is black.

 

[KR Sound]

Whatever color is closest.

 

[Nostradoomus]

i still do black and red for power but I use purple for everything else usually. I'm going full purple though, there's no reason not to.

 

[GAStan]

Nope, for example, when it comes to electrical wiring the black wire is hot.

In my day job I work on Industrial Instrumentation. The sensors, or Transmitters as we call them, are +24vdc powered and in the wiring connecting them to the main control system black is +positive. The other color, typically white, is -negative. This can vary from facility to facility but in my experience Black +positive is most common.

Once you get inside a transmitter it's anybodies guess. I usually see Red as +positive but not always.

So to answer the OP, in my personal experience, there is no universal standard.

 

[GAStan]

I wonder if keeping the two separate negates the need to make a clean power stage with a polarized cap. Like if current leaks into the main ground plate causing unwanted noises like pot scratching.

No it doesn't. The input filter helps clean up noisy a noisy input power supply.

Keeping current off ground is more of a safety measure at higher voltages, not a huge concern with our pedals but very important with anything using wall voltages such as a guitar amp. It can also help in shielding from external noise to a degree.

 

[pricklyrobot]

…+24vdc…black is +positive. The other color, typically white, is -negative…

That color coding would make sense to an electrician (in the US anyway), since in 120/240V black is always a hot and white is your neutral (which is the closest thing AC has to a -negative).

But even the National Electrical Code only specifies colors for ground (green or bare) and neutral (white, or gray for higher voltage). Everything else is up to local authorities.

Black, Red, Blue is almost universal throughout the US for 120/208-240 A,B, and C phases.
277/480 is less standardized. Brown, Orange, Yellow is common, but here in Austin, TX it’s Brown, Yellow, Purple

“No rules is the first rule!”