??? 07/02/06 23:28 Read: times |
#119536 - Shielding Responding to: ???'s previous message |
I think the basic rule of routing signal wires is to keep them away from high current conductors! Shielding is always a good idea from the aspect of EMC - so the wires don't act like an antenna. Grounding the shield at one end creates an antenna therefore it can radiate or receive signals we don't want. The historical reason for shielding at one end was that differences in the ground potential at both ends would induce a signal into the signal conductors. This is a problem if the signal is analog like audio, but for a differential signal like RS485, you need to have a fair potential difference to create a problem, and if you do, you have a problem anyway as currents shouldn't be flowing in your earth system except in fault conditions. Running signals near high current conductors is a recipe for problems - one installation ran a RS485 shielded cable in parallel with a 3phase feed to the refrigeration compressor - each time the compressor fired it caused the equipment to restart as the signal induced was substantial. I do not recommend connecting the RS485 0v to the shield or to earth - the shield is earthed for shielding purposes, the 0v is for ensuring both pieces of equipment are at the same potential. |