Herzog
E DI G
U U D
CILLOSCOPE
ME SURE ENTS
Making scope measurements across ungrounded
com.potients can present some problems. Here are
the reasons-and some answers.
WHEN we measure a voltage in a cir- are the possible had effects of connectin g
cuit, we don't always take into account both leads of a test instrument to un-
what we are actually' measuring. For in- grounded points.
stance, we might say that a power supply's Of course, occasions such as this do not
output is .50 V dc with 0.7.5 V ac ripple; occur often; but when they do, knowing
or the output signal at a transistor ampli- the proper procedure can make the job
fier's collector is .5 V ac. In these, and just easier and prevent undesirable effects such
about all voltage measurements, what' we as overloaded circuits and noise pickup.
really mean is that the povver supply's out-
put is 50 V de with respect to ground (or Not a Simple Test. Measuring a voltage
chassis common); the ripple is 0.7.5 V ac between two ungrounded points is not al-
with respect to ground; and the amplifier ways a Simple matter. Assuming that an
output is .5 V ac with respect to ground. oscilloscope is heing used, one does not
Thus, what we are really measuring is the merely connect the test probe and ground
voltage at a given point-s-with respect to a lead at opposite ends of the ungrounded
common point. component-certain precautions must be
Since a voltage is the potential difference observed. Consider the following examples.
between two points, the two points have Assume that we have a conventional
to be identified. For convenience, we gen- scope which has a three-wire power cord.
erally use chassis ground as the second For safety, the scope chassis is tied to the
point. third wire and ground. Because the signal
But what if we want to measure the input "ground" terminal is also common
voltage across a component both sides of with the chassis ground, it too is tied to the
which are above ground? This presents a third wire in the power cord. Now, let's
problem-many problems, in fact. Obvi- say we're testing an ac/dc radio or a trans-
ously, one difficultv is the lack of a con- Iormerless TV receiver; the chassis being
venient, easy-to-get-at chassis for a con- tested is tied to the low side (ground) of
necting point. More important, however. the power cord. So we have the situation
MAY 1973 67
TRANSFORMERLESS
RAOIO OR TV
This, of course, could severely disturb the
W circuit operation and possibly damage the
components in the network. The same
SCOPE
ground problem could also occur with a
scope that has a 2-wire power cord if the
low side is tied to chassis ground.
Now, assume that we have a scope with
a three-wire power cord and we're testing
a TV receiver with a power transformer
and a conventional 2-wire ac connection.
As shown in Fig. 2, the low side of the
ac line is connected to the chassis through
a large resistance (commonly 2.2 meg-
ohms). Of course, not all equipment have
this resistance-some are entirelv isolated
-hut it is important to know \;"hether it
is there or not. With the circuit shown in
Fig, 2. there is an ac shunt effectively
placed across part of the circuit under test.
~~~--~~::::::::~:~----_...
LINE The uc path inside the receiver is from
_ EARTH
- GND point Z to the chassis, to the transformer
Fig. 1. In transformerless circuit. secondary, through stray primary-to-secon-
scope ground return on point V can dary capacitance, to the transformer pri-
create a short across V·Z element. marv, to the ac line. This nc shunt can
cause problems, especially with high fre-
shown in Fig. 1. The chassis are tied to- quency measurements. (For all of the
gether through the power line system. above situations, tieing the ac line to an
As long as the scope's ground test lead ungrounded point can introduce noise into
is connected to the tested chassis (point Z the circuit.)
in Fig. 1), the chassis are tied together, Still another problem is encountered if
the grounds are tied, and we have a good. the scope does not have its chassis tied
safe test setup. Notice, however, what hap- to the power line ground. In this case, con-
pens when the scope's ground test lead is necting the scope ground lead to a point
connected to a point above ground poten- above ground could make the chassis "hot."
tial (point Y in Fig. 1). The portion of the So there are several undesirable effects
circuit between Y and Z is effectivelv that we want to avoid-de shunt, ac shunt,
shorted out by the ground circuit through noise pickup, hot scope, etc. Let's examine
the two chassis and the power line ground. ways to make ungrounded measurements.
SCOPE
,,~
"HIGH"~"LOW" -
S02
~'J~-_~~::::::~:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
LINE ....J
68 POPULAR ELECTRONICS Including Electronics World
Conventional Scopes. The only way to SIGNAL A HI
get ideal ungrounded measurements is with SIGNAL A LO
AMPUFIER
#1
OUTPUT= A
I
_ 71
____________ .1
izes the currents through the loop, thereby mode input signal amplitude to the am-
allowing the differential amplifiers to nul- plitude of the difference signal displayed
lify loop current effects by common mode on the scope is known as the common
rejection. mode rejection ratio. The higher the ratio,
It is not correct to tie both shields to- the better the differential amplifier.
gether at the probe end and also connect
them to the chassis. This makes a circuit
for ground currents through the shield and Fig. 5. Conventional scope (A) dls-
can create measurement errors because of plays. both signal and hum, while a
voltage difference at the scope. It would differential scope (B) displays only
also be wrong to leave both shields uncon- signal across the load resistor.
nected at the probe ends. This would per- I.OV
CONVENTiONAL
mit the shields to act like antennas to pick OSCILLOSCOPE
up noise. O.6V
The probe tips represent a high imped- t + - - - - - - - - i f - - < l SIGNAL IN HI
ance to the circuit being tested and do not
introduce excessive loading as did the con-
.---l--oSIGNAL IN t,o
ventional test circuits shown in Figs. 1 and
2. Since the scope chassis is not tied to
a signal high point, there is no ac line noise
introduced.
tial scope is used as in Fig. 5B. In test Fig. 6. (A) Signal with hum; (8) hum
probe A, is the combined signal and hum; alone; (C) signal with hum rejected.
while the hum alone is in probe B. The
scope displays A minus B or only the de- of a dual-trace scope can be used for dif-
sired signal across the resistor as shown ferential measurements. The common
ill Fig. 6C. The amount of hum that is mode rejection of such a scope, however,
rejected depends on the scope's common is less than that for a differential amplifier
mode rejection ratio: and if the latter is scope. Nevertheless, the ability to reduce
good, the resultant signal would have neg- common mode signals to even a small de-
ligible hum. gree would be all that is needed for making
As we have pointed out, the A - B mode a good measurement. <$>
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