17/12/2022 11:42 Coda Effects - Ground loops and guitar pedals

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GROUND LOOPS AND GUITAR

PEDALS
THEORY

Yesterday, I received an email from a beginner

that decided to make his first guitar pedal. I
always enjoy this kind of emails and answering
questions is part of the game. This time, he
asked me a question that I had several times:
"my circuit is noisy, could it be a ground
loop?"

Ground loops are part of the legends and myths

around DIY guitar pedals. When asking about
noise in a setup, it is the most common answer,
and is supposed to be the main cause for hum,
hiss or other noises that you can have on your
first circuits.

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So I decided to write a post about it, starting

from the begining:

What is the ground?

The ground connection is the reference point of
the circuit, with a 0V potential. On schematics, it
is represented by these symbols:

It is very important that the reference point is

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the same in
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all the circuit,
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so all the ground
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connections should be connected together!

To make it easier, lazy PCB designers like me

usually add what is called a "ground plane". It is
a large conductive surface that is connected to
ground and allows easy connections of grounds
together.

On this picture, you can see the ground plane

between the components and the tracks. I
circled a pad of R21 that is connected to the
ground plane:

You can clearly see the cross-shaped pad that

connect it to the ground plane.

So what happens if you do not connect the

ground connections together? By doing that,
the reference point is not the same in every
ground connection: you create a potential
difference that is to say a voltage! Most of the
times your circuits will not work, so pay attention
to it!

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Most of the times, ground is connected to

"earth". This is the third plug that is usually on
your power outlets. It avoid electrocutions by
connecting metallic parts of the device to
ground.

However, it sometimes happens that earth

connections are not connected to each other.
This can cause a slight difference between the
two grounds reference point, creating a small
voltage between the two grounds!

Even if this difference is generally quite low,

it is sufficient to generate a current if you
connect these two grounds with a jack! This
current will generate noise, usually modulated
by the frequency of your outlets (50 or 60Hz
depending where you live): it is a ground loop!

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In this case, the ground loop would be caused by

your electrical setup. This happens quite on lot
on crowded pedalboards in houses with old
electricity installations.

However, the same thing can happen between

your effects pedals! Sometimes, each pedal can
have a reference point that is slightly
different and create current in the ground!
This is why it is generally better to use power
supplies with isolated outputs.

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However, even
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with theSHOP
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best power
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supply
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available, ground loops can still happen between
the grounds of the jacks. You understand that it
is no simple solution! 

This is why it is important in to design pedals

that do not have this kind of problem.
But how to do it?

Ground loop and star wiring

Ideally, multiple path to connect two different
grounds should be avoided. If many paths
connect ground together, it can create
potential differences that will generate noise!
That is why a ground plane should not be divided
in several parts.

A good practice that I always recommend for

your DIY pedals is the "star wiring": connect all
ground connections in one point, most of the
times at the negative pin of the power supply
jack.
This is what I recommend in my post about
guitar pedal wiring.

Ground and antenna



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As you see,STEP
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everything
BY STEP
is very BUILDS
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simple...ABOUT
So let's
add one more level of complexity: did you know
that the ground connection can behave like
an antenna?

That is why it is very important to connect the

enclosure to ground. By doing so, you create a
Faraday cage that prevents the circuit from being
parasited by outside electromagnetic fields. A
metallic enclosure is thus a must to make
guitar pedals. Avoid plastic enclosure and use
aluminum enclosures like Hammond enclosures
for instance.

This can also be a huge problem when mixing

analog and digital circuits. Indeed, the high
frequencies used by digital chips can be received
by the analog ground and create noise. It is thus
very important to separate analog ground from
digital ground physically and connect them only
in one point.

This was one of the main difficulty that I

encountered when I designed the Montagne
Tremolo circuit board. It was quite a lot of work
to solve it out!

There it is, I hope that everything is clear for you

now! If not, post a comment!

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To go further
Very detailed post about issues from
ground connections and potential
solutions
Great video about ground loops
Nice post about noise in a guitar rig
Ovnilab post about power supplies

Icons used to desig the diagrams in this post are from the Noun Project and are

protecte under the Creative Commons License.

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