questions about wiring block ground method...

[Distortion]

I'm going to be using a wiring block for my ground wires, so I went to radio shack to check them out and pick up a few buttons/switches/wires etc, when I realized that I think I misunderstood the concept of a terminal wiring block.  Could someone please briefly explain to this engineering inept how one would wire their ground wires through a wiring block to an I-PAC?

[Smittydc]

Some people use the block to simplify the wiring process, because of space issues, or to allow control panel swaping.

Basically, all the wires from your controls go into one side of the terminal block.  Then a set of wires comes out of the other side of the block and go into the IPAC.

An example of how and why:  My control panel is very small, there is no room for the ipac on the panel itself, and I wanted to be able to swap in different control panels.  So, I wired all the controls into the terminal bloc, then connected a male DB-25 (RS-232) cable to the other side.  The DB-25 plugs into a female DB-25 that is connected to the ipac (which I've mounted on the side of my cabinet).  The upshot of all this is when I want to swap control panels I just unplug it and plug in a new one.

[Distortion]

I understand what you are saying for the use of the switch connections, but what I was asking about was the ground wire connections.  I was thinking that there was a way to wire each and every ground wire into a block and have one wire coming out the other end to connect to my ground connection on my i-pac/keywiz

[rampy]

I'm guessing you bought the wrong type of strip... you bought a terminal strip when you really wanted more of a grounding rail type strip thingie...

let me see if I can dig up some pics to illustrate the difference...

rampy

EDIT saw you other post... uhm... if you HAD bought a regular terminal strip you can use a jumper thingie like this http://www.radioshack.com/searchsku.asp?find=274-650 to make it go all grounds to one side of a large stripdoubling up maybe) and then just run wire on the opposite side to the ipac/etc.

I didn't use this method - I used the daisychain "ground loop" method... uhm.. mre to follow still...  

EDIT2 or not.. can't find what i was looking for on radio craps lousy site...

looks like romid has a good explanation of what you are trying to do, but looks like we still need a better explanation of the ground loop method...  link coming from older thread... stay on target

[Distortion]

I haven't bought it yet, that's why I was asking, cuz I was confused about the types of wiring blocks.    If you could find some illustration and tell me what to go into radio shack and specifically ask for I would be quite grateful.

[romid]

Ground is also referred to as "common"-- the reason behind this is that for the most part, connections use the ground wire as a reference point.  This pretty much translates into that fact that all the ground wires need to be touching each other.  You can achieve this in several ways.  For example:

wire1-----|
wire2-----|_____ground             This is the block idea
wire3-----|                                   you are thinking of...
wire4-----|


or you can do it like this (more convenient i think)
   |------------|---------|----------|----------|
wire1      wire2    wire3     wire4     ground


now that i look at these ascii pictures, i realize an actual picure would probably be more helpful...  I will try to find one for you.

[rampy]

HEY! we discussed this already and there is a crude picture in that thread... (I'm still looking for a picture one guy always puts up (oscar?) that shows this pretty well)

brb.  here's the other thread where oscar posts this pic that says it all =P



rampy

PS hint black is ground/common

[TazMan]

Would this work with one of thos RS terminal blocks?

[rampy]

Would this work with one of thos RS terminal blocks?

that's what this does... I'm sure there is a strip made for this, but can't think of the proper name to search for it (and I should be searching a real electronics part store and not RS, to boot)

[TazMan]

Rampy:

"grounding rail type strip thingie"

Ya mean that's not the proper terminology  

[ErikRuud]

Check this old thread about gounding These are what you want.

[mpm32]

I think it's called a ground rail.  At least that's what they're called in your house electrical panel.  They are just a solid piece of aluminium with a series of holes.  Perpendicular to the holes, there are threaded screws to hold down the wires.  There are no barriers between each terminal point.  Home depot sells these although they may be a little big for electronics.  I would think that there is a similar equivilent for your application.

[MinerAl]

Not a high tech solution, but:

Get yourself a thin inch long bolt, a nut for it, and a bunch of washers...

Put each stripped ground wire (from the switches, and the iPAC)  between 2 washers, and tighten it down.

Voila!  Ground block.

[OSCAR]

HEY! we discussed this already and there is a crude picture in that thread... (I'm still looking for a picture one guy always puts up (oscar?) that shows this pretty well)

brb.  here's the other thread where oscar posts this pic that says it all =P

rampy

PS hint black is ground/common

Uh-oh rampy, you are going to get the EE's all upset again by bringing that up!  

[Distortion]

Check this old thread about gounding These are what you want.

yes, that's what i was looking for. thank you.

[Shadowfire]

If you're considering swappable control panels, molex connectors are the way to go.

I'd strongly suggest molexes instead of barrier strips anyways, they're much neater.