Wiring sensors that require power?

[thatpurplestuff]

I'm playing with a couple of ideas regarding digital sensors in my Skeeball machine and these Sharp Digital Distance Sensors http://www.pololu.com/product/1134 are one option that I'm floating around.  I've done a lot of reading and think I've got a basic understanding of wiring possibilities for these sensors, but I'm still not positive that I understand correctly.  I've mocked up a couple of diagrams of circuits that I think would work.

First, here's what I think(?) is a functional parallel circuit:

On this circuit, would it also work to run each ground individually back to the LEDwiz GND instead of stringing them together?  Is the above image technically a series circuit because the ground wires are all connected in a series?

Second, here's what I think(?) is a functional series circuit:


If both of these examples would actually work, would either of them be better than the other?  My main concern is that I've really only wired LEDs and standard button switches... I've never wired anything that requires power that also has an output and it seemed strange to me to have both the voltage and the output share the same ground.  I sincerely appreciate any help you guys could provide!  Thanks in advance!

[DaOld Man]

Both of those circuits are parallel.
I don't see any problems with wiring either way, although the second one might be neater.
Also, make sure your sensor switches the output (blue wire) to the ground (black wire) when activated.
I cant tell by looking at them, but some sensors switch the positive to the output.

Edit, if these sensors switch the positive to the output when activated, you can add a couple of quad inverter chips to flip the signal back to what the GP Wiz needs.

[ed12]

there is a builtin digital switch
note the arrow's
1=nor logic
1=nand logic
we use nor logic >ground<
both way's would be fine

ed

[thatpurplestuff]

Ahh thank you guys for the clarification.  Obviously I still have some learning to do regarding circuits but at least I know I'm going in the right direction haha