[sdiy] Hey all: first post

[Bob Weigel]

Jesse,
   Units that send a signal through a single wire always have a common 
ground to the circuits involved.  Sending signals from two individually 
powered units is another story (you tend to get some hum problems when 
the house grounds aren't just right so obviously people always use two 
conductors for that sort of thing).  But 'modules' implies that they are 
designed to be plugged into some kind of structure that has a wiring 
harness to deliver appropriate ground lines to each piece.  -Bob

Jesse Yoder wrote:

>Hey all.  This is my first post on this thread.  I subscribed the
>other day and have been enjoying just lurking and reading the
>messages.  I have been doing electronics as a hobby for at leat nearly
>10yrs now, and while I'm not an EE, I have done my share of building
>projects.  I am currently putting together plans for a modular
>analogue synth using other peoples schematics and I have what may be
>considered a stupid question.
>
>In many schematics I have looked at, the inputs and outputs of each
>module are shown as simply one wire in/out.  I had been unsure, but
>had decided that it must be implied that the other node of the jack
>would go to the common gorund.
>
>However, I have been doing some digging and have noticed people using
>banana plugs rather than phone jacks to connect some modules; also, I
>have noticed designs which seem (at least to me, with my limited
>electronics expertise) to not make sense to complete the circuit with
>a jack connected to common ground.  So my "stupid" question is this:
>in the following schematics (and in modular analogue synths in
>general) are phone plugs using only one wire, or am I supposed to
>connect the jacks to common ground?
>
>Some schematics I've been looking at:
>http://www.musicfromouterspace.com/analogsynth/keybrdcontroller.html
>(no jacks, and no explanation of whether the jacks should be
>"grounded")
>http://musicfromouterspace.com/analogsynth/norgate_adsr_001.html
>(another schematic from the same site, with jacks inserted and
>grounded)
>http://www.abacom.com/~ivanohe/synth/ivanohe1e.html (A guy using
>banana plugs [those have only one wire, am I correct?])
>http://www.sowa.synth.net/modular/vco4m.gif (a schematic with jacks -
>implied that they should be "grounded")
>http://hem.bredband.net/bersyn/VCO/VCO%20Buchla%20core.gif (no jacks at all ...)
>
>You get the idea.
>
>Hope someone can help.
>thanks in advance
>~~Ponyboy
>
>
>
>  
>