Grounding things

CavityCr33p · 03-31-2005, 02:53 PM

What all should be grounded and where to is my question. I've read numerous posts saying ground everything to one point on the car chassis, and then I have read that you need to ground the inverter (neg cable) to the neg battery terminal.

From what I understand is that the

PC case
PC power supply
AMP
Inverter

All need to be grounded, any suggestions on this?

ddn · 03-31-2005, 02:59 PM

Everything should be grounded to a solid ground, it doesn't matter where if its a good ground. Grounding the inverter to the battery terminal is redundant, it doesn't hurt to do it there, but it doesn't matter.

I would also give your display a good ground, as well as anything else powered for that matter. When I first cobbled everything into my truck to test some things out, I realized my entire system (PC, display, power) was grounded through the cable going to my headunit AUX-in. Don't even ask how this came about...can you imagine the ground loop I was getting? It sounded like a turbo.

CavityCr33p · 03-31-2005, 03:47 PM

How would you recommened grounding the display?

rubicon · 03-31-2005, 04:02 PM

To follow-up on ddn: grounding isn't critical, really, as long as (as (s)he said) you have a solid connection. Whats recommened is to keep grounding cables as short as possible - tie to a point on the chassis right next to whatever you're trying to ground. Don't run wire all over the place, in an effort to come up with a "grounding block" or some such like. You'll end up with a ground loop condition similar to what ddn mentioned.

As for your display, you should be able to just ground it, again, to the vehicle's chassis, once you've identified what cable(s) are to be grounded.

Oh, and CavityCr33p, following up on your initial post: all things that are DC-powered need to be grounded in some way, shape, or form. AC is a little different, but not much.

Mad Ad · 03-31-2005, 04:41 PM

Indeed- ground to anything thats metal that is attatched to the body or chassis of the car.... if in doubt, test it with a multimeter in resistance mode (or a continuity tester)

dont pay attention to the Hi-Fi nuts that insist that the only good ground is using these grounding kits that run extra ground wires back to the battery, its one of the more insane wastes of money ive seen for a car.

sansoo24 · 03-31-2005, 05:46 PM

Although if you have lots of wires that need to be ground in the same area a Distribution block isnt a bad way to go. Like mutltiple amps for example. I have four amps using 2 gauge power wire. So i got a 4x1 block. 0/1 gauge in and 4 2 gauge outs. It wasnt necessary but it did help clean things up and made taking the amps out for any reason a real breeze. And one thing you will learn about wiring. The cleaner and more oganized it can be the better off you are. Trust me. I once wasnt this way and have crossed many power and grounds together. Makes a cool spark but not good on anything.

CavityCr33p · 04-05-2005, 09:25 AM

Awesome, thanks for the heads up! I hope this might help some other people with this bump!

CavityCr33p · 04-05-2005, 09:49 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by joshthepilot

Kids and to their parents room cause their room is just too much fun to be grounded to.

Being a parent of two young children, I completely agree. I still remember being grounded to my room, I was like "No!!!! Don't ground me to my room!, well, Ok...if you have to...."

Sit back and played Mario Bros for hours on end.

imaxorz · 04-07-2005, 10:53 PM

So anything thats DC have the plus going to plus, and the minus going to something metal close by?

Chase_UK · 04-08-2005, 03:00 AM

Adding to this, if the mobo is in a non-metallic case, should it be grounded directly (via a wire) to the PSU and HD?

lastberserker · 04-08-2005, 03:08 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by Chase_UK

Adding to this, if the mobo is in a non-metallic case, should it be grounded directly (via a wire) to the PSU and HD?

Same question: I'm assembling my stuff in a home-brewed non-metallic case.

Pyrotek · 04-08-2005, 06:18 AM

I built a small wood/plexi case for my mobo and ran into the ground issue. What solved it for me was grounding the mobo, hdd, and psu to my ground block. I used some 12awg that I had extra from the install, prob overkill but eh.

yonu · 04-08-2005, 06:36 AM

ok question what is the best way to go about grounding the psu and modo just connecting a wire to it or what?

-zip- · 04-08-2005, 08:24 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by imaxorz

So anything thats DC have the plus going to plus, and the minus going to something metal close by?

I want to know this too, is this what you guys call ground? the negative (usually black) wire pluged into the device?

-zip- · 04-09-2005, 11:48 AM

any answer on the ground being the negative or do you run a seprate wire for ground would be appreciated