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I'm new to electronics, and still wrapping my head around "common" and "ground." The schematic is:

enter image description here

My question is if ALL the solid black grounds/commons end up at the one going to the cap/resister to chassis?

I keep debating if the power supply grounds/commons get tied together, then all the signal commons/grounds get tied together separately following the cap/resister to chassis ground.

Null
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Dave Rausch
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  • By the schematic they all go to that capacitor and resistor and then to the chassis. I did not understand the second part of the question, could you rephrase it? – jDAQ Aug 01 '19 at 02:28
  • Is there ever a point where AC and DC goes to separate grounds? – Dave Rausch Aug 01 '19 at 02:30
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    In this circuit there isn't, in other circuits you might have the GND not connect directly to the transformer (I assume you are calling the transformer secondary "AC"). – jDAQ Aug 01 '19 at 02:34
  • look at https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/421876/ground-common-and-earth-ground-confusion and https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/123906/ground-vs-earth-vs-common-vs-negative-terminal – jDAQ Aug 01 '19 at 02:35
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    I was/am calling it AC, thanks for answering my questions! Still wrapping my brain around circuit design, and it's very exciting! – Dave Rausch Aug 01 '19 at 02:38

1 Answers1

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The use of a specific symbol, a horizontal bar, for the common ground, is intended to communicate that these are indeed all one node, which means are all connected by wire.

It doesn't communicate whether there's a link between all the PSU grounds, and a link between all the audio grounds, and then these are linked. It leaves the topology completely undefined. It could be a star ground, a single long serpentine wire, whatever.

You may well find there's an audible difference for how the ground connection is actually routed. You may find that current pulses in the power supply section induce voltages in the audio section for one ground topology and not for another. This is not controlled by the diagram, but left up to the knowledge of the wireman. There may be some text to accompany the diagram which clarifies this.

You are right to ask these questions.

Neil_UK
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