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(Part 2)

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Andy
Latest  28 MAR , 2017  
Pye has been an editor
and technical writer
Part 1 considered the principles of how screened serving UK
WILL SCADA REMAIN
RELEVANT AS INDUSTRY cables work to avoid interference from electric and manufacturing industry
ADVANCES? magnetic fields. We now look at some more practical for nearly 40 years. He
 29 Oct , 2018   is currently Managing
details.
(https://www.theautomationengineer.com/automation- Editor of Controls,
news/will-scada-remain- Drives and Automation
relevant-industry-advances/) How to connect screened and editor of
Environmental
WILL PRIVACY RIGHTS
STYMIE AI?
cables Engineering, two leading
bimonthly titles. Andy is
 25 Oct , 2018  
Basics
(https://www.theautomationengineer.com/automation-
a Cambridge University
graduate in Materials
news/will-privacy-rights-
As described in Part 1, we need the screening to be Engineering. In the
stymie-ai/)
effective over a very wide range of threat frequencies. 1970s, prior to entering
EEF: NEARLY HALF UK the technical publishing
For screened cables to be effective at high frequencies
MANUFACTURING industry, he worked for
COMPANIES HAVE it is essential that the screen be connected directly to a consultancy
EXPERIENCED CYBER the reference pole (“0V” etc.) at both the sending and organisation where he
ATTACKS became an international
 21 Oct , 2018   receiving ends.
authority on asbestos
(https://www.theautomationengineer.com/automation- substitution and edited
The use of a pigtail to connect the screen reduces the
news/nearly-half-uk- a major materials
manufacturing-companies- screening effectiveness by allowing noise current in
selection system for
experienced-cyber-attacks/) the screen to inject a noise voltage into the signal engineers.

NIDEC’S INVESTMENTS circuit. For a truly galvanically isolated circuit this may
PREDICT THE FUTURE OF be unimportant, because the isolation minimises the
AUTOMATION
 19 Oct , 2018   noise current which circulates and flows in the pigtail.
However generally pigtails should be kept to a
(https://www.theautomationengineer.com/automation-
news/nidecs-investments- minimum. For wide band data circuits pigtails must be
predict-future-automation/)
 avoided, which can be achieved by clamping the cable
CIRCUIT SWITCHING
NETWORK USERS screen directly to the chassis or reference or ground
SETTLING ON PURPOSE-
point.
BUILT PROTOCOL
 17 Oct , 2018  
Why would you not connect both
(https://www.theautomationengineer.com/automation-
news/circuit-switching-
ends of the screen?
network-users-settling-
purpose-built-protocol/) There are guidelines in circulation which recommend
connecting the cable screen at only one end. It should
be clear from the above that this defeats the high-
frequency screening benefit of the screen. In the past
these guidelines were applied to some kinds of simple
Search electrical control circuits which are inherently immune
to high frequency interference, to avoid ground loops
– see below. It can also prevent  power system fault
currents from circulating in cable screens, but this
SUBSCRIBE!
should properly be achieved by ensuring adequate
Subscribe for updates from
equipotential bonding in the power system.
The Automation Engineer.
In power distribution systems there are certain
Name:
applications where power cable shields must not be
connected at both ends, in order to avoid touch

potential hazards during faults or lightning activity; as
Email: in TT distribution systems.  This does not apply to the
motor cables of variable speed drives.

Whenever signal cables pass outside of buildings and

SUBMIT outside an equipotential bonding area, consideration

must be given to safety during electrical faults and
lightning strikes when potentially dangerous
differential ground potentials may exist.
TAGS

AC drives Single sided analogue circuits

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drives/) agriculture
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artificial intelligence
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intelligence/)

Automation
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automation in Figure 4: connection of simple single-ended analogue
industry interface

(https://www.theautomationengineer.com/tag/automation-
The simplest kind of analogue interface is shown in
Figure 4. This is adequate for many general
in-industry/)
applications. From the foregoing explanation, you will
 see that this arrangement has some weaknesses,
automation
which may be acceptable where control at high
technology precision and wide bandwidth is not required.

(https://www.theautomationengineer.com/tag/automation-
The dashed lines in the controller and drive indicate
that the 0V connections of the controller and drive are
technology/) usually connected to ground, either directly and
automotive industry intentionally or because some equipment in the
(https://www.theautomationengineer.com/tag/automotive-
system has 0V and ground connected internally. In this
industry/) blockchain case there is a risk of disturbance from the following
(https://www.theautomationengineer.com/tag/blockchain/)
sources:
book review
(https://www.theautomationengineer.com/tag/book- High-frequency noise current causes a noise
review/) careers voltage drop in the inductance of the pigtail
(https://www.theautomationengineer.com/tag/careers/)
connections to be coupled into the analogue
control systems
signal. This may cause errors if the analogue
(https://www.theautomationengineer.com/tag/control-
systems/) control techniques circuits are susceptible. It can be minimised by
(https://www.theautomationengineer.com/tag/control- keeping the pigtails as short as possible, to
techniques/) control
minimise their inductance. The use of grounding
techniques drives
clamps directly on the cable screen at both ends,
(https://www.theautomationengineer.com/tag/control-
techniques-drives/) fixing it to the chassis, can eliminate this entirely.
digitization This is shown in blue in Figure 4.
(https://www.theautomationengineer.com/tag/digitization/)
Low-frequency noise current causes noise
drive and motor voltage drop in the cable screen resistance (and
technology also in the pigtails, but the cable usually has the
higher resistance). If the frequency of this noise
(https://www.theautomationengineer.com/tag/drive-
is within the bandwidth of the analogue circuit
and-motor- then it is disturbed – for example, pickup at
technology/) 50/60 Hz causes vibration in a servo drive at
50/60 Hz. This is the “ground loop problem” and
drives
is more difficult to cure. Possible solutions are:
(https://www.theautomationengineer.com/tag/drives/)
Connect the 0V or ground terminals at both ends
drives save energy by a low-resistance power grounding cable to
(https://www.theautomationengineer.com/tag/drives-
reduce the voltage drop.
save-energy/) drive Use a balanced (differential) analogue signal
technology circuit (see below). This is the best method.
(https://www.theautomationengineer.com/tag/drive-
Make either the analogue output or input circuit
technology/) electric motor
galvanically isolated, to avoid current in the
(https://www.theautomationengineer.com/tag/electric-
motor/) electric vehicles screen.
(https://www.theautomationengineer.com/tag/electric-
vehicles/) energy Balanced analogue circuits
(https://www.theautomationengineer.com/tag/energy/)
engineering job Precision analogue circuits often provide differential
inputs, and sometimes differential outputs.  They are
(https://www.theautomationengineer.com/tag/engineering-

featured
job/) commonly provided for precision controllers such as
servo drives, and also for sin/cos shaft encoders. When
(https://www.theautomationengineer.com/tag/featured/)
used correctly these give excellent suppression of low-
future of frequency interference. In conjunction with a screened
cable this can achieve immunity over the entire noise
automation spectrum. Figure 5 shows how to use a differential
analogue input. Note that the signal cores would
(https://www.theautomationengineer.com/tag/future-
normally be a twisted pair, which further improves
of-automation/) noise immunity by making the route of the two
IIoT conductors as well-balanced as possible.
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industrial
applications
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applications/)
industrial automation
and control
(https://www.theautomationengineer.com/tag/industrial-
automation-and-
control/) industrial
automation Figure 5: Connection of differential analogue input
technology In this case we have a single-ended controller output
(https://www.theautomationengineer.com/tag/industrial-
and a differential input. By using two cores in the
automation- screened cable we can connect the inverting input
technology/) industrial directly to the reference pole of the controller
energy efficiency analogue output. Any low-frequency voltage induced
(https://www.theautomationengineer.com/tag/industrial-
in the cable screen is therefore rejected by the input,
energy-efficiency/) industrial whilst the screen still gives its excellent high-
ethernet
frequency rejection. The differential input cannot
(https://www.theautomationengineer.com/tag/industrial-
reject common-mode voltage at the high frequencies,
ethernet/) industrial
beyond its bandwidth, where the cable screen works
robot applications
best. The two techniques combined give noise
(https://www.theautomationengineer.com/tag/industrial-
rejection over the whole spectrum.
robot-applications/)
Grounding clamps as in Figure 4 can also be used to
Industry 4.0 avoid the high-frequency noise coupling caused by the
(https://www.theautomationengineer.com/tag/industry-
pigtails.
4-0/) internet of things If the controller also offers a differential output then
(https://www.theautomationengineer.com/tag/internet-
the AI- core can be connected to the AO- terminal
of-things/) Leroy-Somer
(https://www.theautomationengineer.com/tag/leroy-rather than 0V at the controller. A special case is if the
somer/) manufacturing controller offers a “virtual earth” output, where the
(https://www.theautomationengineer.com/tag/manufacturing/)
AO- terminal is not an output but a sense input. In that
manufacturing case the AO- line must be connected to 0V at either
automation solutions one end or the other, it must not be allowed to “float”.
(https://www.theautomationengineer.com/tag/manufacturing-
automation-solutions/) Digital circuits
manufacturing Digital circuits are not susceptible to disturbance from
the kind of low-level low frequency errors caused by
sector ground loops. High-frequency interference in a data
(https://www.theautomationengineer.com/tag/manufacturing-
link can cause bit errors which are normally detected

sector/) marine industry and rejected, but if they occur too often the channel
 may close down or give inadequate performance. Shaft
(https://www.theautomationengineer.com/tag/marine-
industry/) motor control encoder circuits for speed/position feedback are
(https://www.theautomationengineer.com/tag/motor-
particularly inclined to cause noise and vibration in the
control/) motors presence of high-frequency noise. In both cases
(https://www.theautomationengineer.com/tag/motors/)
correct management of the cable screen is essential.
motors and drives
Data links often use a high bit rate. For rates above
(https://www.theautomationengineer.com/tag/motors-
and-drives/) programmable about 1 Mb/s, the cable has to be correctly terminated
logic controller in its characteristic impedance in order to avoid data
(https://www.theautomationengineer.com/tag/programmable-
errors from reflections. To maintain matching, only
logic-controller/) robotics
short lengths of exposed cable cores can be tolerated.
(https://www.theautomationengineer.com/tag/robotics/)

variable speed drive The most widely used digital interface for basic local
(https://www.theautomationengineer.com/tag/variable-
data transmission is based on the RS422 and RS485
speed-drive/) standards, which have differential transmitters and

variable speed receivers. The cable type is not directly specified, and
in principle it might be unscreened provided it has the
drives correct characteristic impedance, but usually screened
cable is preferred.
(https://www.theautomationengineer.com/tag/variable-
The use of a balanced circuit means that injected noise
speed-drives/) is rejected to a considerable degree because it is in the
common mode, i.e. it affects both the lines equally and
therefore does not appear as a signal. However the
CATEGORIES
transmitters and receivers have limits to their
Automation News common-mode range, so errors do occur if the noise
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voltage is too high, or too fast-changing, as well as if
news/)
asymmetry causes the common mode noise to be
Education coupled into the series mode. The standard line-driver
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chips used in most ports have a common-mode range
of about 5V and give major errors if this is exceeded.
Insight
This can be increased by using galvanically isolated
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ports, but this is costly.
Markets & Sectors
Figure 6 shows how to arrange a basic RS485 port
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sectors/) connection.

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Figure 6: Basic RS485 data connection (2 nodes only
shown)

In Control Techniques equipment the reference

terminal is shown as “0V” in Figure 6. In other
equipment it may variously be called “G” or “GND” for
ground, “SC” for screen, or “reference”. Sometimes it is
left unconnected, or even not provided.  This may be
successful for short links, or where the ports have
well-designed galvanic isolation.  Generally it is far
preferable to connect 0V to the cable screen.

RS485 allows for multi-drop connection of multiple

ports. The effect of the minor impedance  mismatch at
each port as well as the injected noise from each pigtail
makes the arrangement increasingly sensitive to
disturbance as the number of ports increases.
Complete communication protocols using high data
rates, such as Profibus, use defined hardware which in
that case requires direct clamping of cable screens in
the connectors to avoid pigtails, and the correct
termination impedance network to be connected at
the end nodes only.

Terminals and connectors

Many industrial connectors are designed without
proper provision for the management of cable screens
because they were not intended to be used at high
frequency. For general applications it is usually
tolerable to connect the screen through a short pigtail
to a connector pin. However it is far preferable to pass
the screen connection through the conductive body of
the connector so that it continues to surround the
signal conductors, as is always the case for a radio
frequency connector. If a signal circuit passes through
multiple connectors, each with its pair of pigtails, the
injected noise at each connector accumulates.

One way of managing screen connections is to clamp

the screens together or to a common metal part.
Hardware for this is available from suppliers of screw
terminal blocks. The idea is illustrated in Figure 7.
Figure 7: Connecting screens at a terminal block or
connector

The purpose of the clamp is to avoid pigtail screen

connections, and therefore avoid the injection of the
noise voltage which would appear at the pigtails. It
links the screens with the minimum of stray
inductance. The small area of exposed unscreened
conductor at the terminals here is much less important
than the pigtails. The reason is that the unscreened
conductors are only exposed to electromagnetic fields
in the immediate vicinity of the terminals, whereas the
pigtails would be carrying noise current which has
been collected along the entire run of the screened
cable.

Usually the clamps would be fixed to grounded metal

parts, but this is primarily for safety reasons. The EMC
benefit is the very low inductance link between the
two cable screens.

Ethernet
Ethernet is an exception to all of the above. Modern
Ethernet does not need screened cable, but relies on a
very well-balanced unscreened twisted pair cable in
conjunction with galvanically isolating balanced
transformer coupling to give excellent common-mode
noise immunity. Also it does not use a multi-drop
structure, so the tendency to accumulate noise current
at multiple nodes is also avoided.

Ground loops
Having looked at the resistance effect in Figure 3 we
are well placed to understand why in some
applications it is advised not to connect the cable
screen at both ends. The error voltage IR would not
appear if the screen were only connected at one end
because there could be no current in the screen. This
advice might be given in order “to avoid ground loops”. 
However the cable will have lost all of its magnetic
field screening capabilities, which means its high-
frequency screening capabilities. This advice is only
correct in a very particular situation, when all of these
apply:

Differential ground voltages at low frequencies

(e.g. mains) are present, or stray magnetic fields
at mains frequency.
The circuit uses analogue signals which are
sensitive to small perturbations at mains
frequency.
The screen is only required to protect against
electric field coupling, at low frequencies.

The most common case for this is within analogue

audio systems, where even a small level of mains
pickup causes an irritating “hum”. It may also apply in
servo controllers with analogue interfaces, but there it
is better to use a differential interface as explained
above.

Double screened cable

Double-screened cable is sometimes recommended,
especially with shaft encoder interfaces where there
are typically three balanced pairs of data cores which
are screened as pairs, possibly some power cores, and
an overall screen.

In principle only one screen is needed for each data

pair, and it could be either the overall screen or the
individual screens. However the benefits of double-
screened cable are:

The outer screen can be fixed to the motor and

encoder body, resulting in high noise current in
the screen which can be returned to ground at
the drive without entering the encoder interface
circuit 0V terminals
The 0V terminals can be kept isolated from
ground – if this is required by the system design
 – whilst still providing an overall high-frequency
screen connected to ground.
Ground loop current can be restricted to the
outer screen alone.
The impedance of the individual pairs is well
controlled because of their individual screens

Figure 8 illustrates how this would be connected (two

channels shown for clarity).

Figure 8: Connection of double-screened encoder

cable

Reference
Henry W Ott: Electromagnetic compatibility
engineering: Wiley: ISBN 978-0-470-18930-6

Another recommended
book
Tim Williams and Keith Armstrong: EMC for Systems
& Installations: Newnes: ISBN 9780750641678

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ONE RESPONSE

ANGEL GUERRERO says:

8th May 2017 at 8:31 pm

(https://www.theautomationengineer.com/technical/shielded-

cables-signal-circuits-part-2/#comment-1446)

this is very usefully information that many people

need to read.

Reply

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