Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

You ever deal with an Oscilloscope with a ground-loop problem?

You're not teaching electrical theory in 10 minutes. No sir, no way. I'm going to guess that it takes you more than 10 minutes to adequately explain what a ground loop is, even if the other guy is reasonably trained in electrical theory.

EDIT: Recognizing a ground-loop, understanding where it comes from (Oh, X device isn't grounded and my Y device ground is the Oscilloscope's ground right now), and finally solving it (switching to AC mode if you're cool with capacitive coupling).

And it can be rather dangerous / fire hazard / electrical hazard if you made a stupid choice (ex: connect X's ground to Y's ground. Are you sure there's no serious voltage difference here? After all, if there wasn't a voltage difference, you probably wouldn't be having a ground loop problem to begin with)



Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: