V16 audio shields - ground location

Post here anything about a more technical nature not directly related to a product - installation questions or solutions, anything you think may help others as well. Floobidust - a term sometimes used by us nerds to categorize anything that does not fit into a category. Sort of a wild card.
Forum rules
Please keep your posts friendly and on topic. No politics or discussions of a controversial nature not related to our favorite subject of flying and avionics. Offending posts may be removed or moderated.
Post Reply
drancourt3
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Oct 02, 2023 1:33 am

V16 audio shields - ground location

Post by drancourt3 »

Hello,

I just got a V16 radio and currently making the harness (I'm new to that radio)

On page 15 of the installation manual, it shows that the shields of the audio wires should be grounded on pins 2,11,13 (headphones or microphones). I was a bit surprised and expected the shield to be grounded on the aircraft ground or power supply ground. Are both options equivalent ?

Thanks

David
rainier
Site Admin
Posts: 647
Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2020 7:03 pm

Re: V16 audio shields - ground location

Post by rainier »

The shield should be grounded on one side only (so no current can flow through the shield). The shield should connect to a ground that is referenced to the most sensitive piece of equipment - as that equipment will use that ground as reference.
In this case the most sensitive piece of equipment is the radios microphone input. So we would like to use the same ground this uses.

Consider what could happen if you use another ground. Lets say the radios ground differs form that of the shield from a high frequency point of view. If the ground is physically far away and just dependent on how your ground are wired and what kinds of equipment are connected it is highly likely that the grounds are different - what I mean is if you connect an oscilloscope you will likely see a surprisingly complex signal between the shield and the ground of the radio. Since the shield is capacitively as well as inductively coupled to the cores it shields - this signal will easily couple to those cores and they will be seen as actual signal at the microphone input.

If you use the microphone input ground (or any signal ground on the radio which is the same) then this does not happen.
Post Reply