I'm in a country (Philippines) where our wall outlets only has the LIVE and the NEUTRAL conductors. So, obvious question is where does my amplifier's ground go?
If I want to avoid shock, should the ground just remain inside the chassis and NOT CONNECTED to the chassis?
Or should I find a way to bring that Ground Connections to Earth? Question is how?
Any suggestions that would not ELECTROCUTE me is appreciated :cheesy:
PS: I was actually starting the build, but then that part crossed my mind.
Don't mix same name but very different concepts or you will be in danger.
1) Circuit ground: it's the one shown for party in the schematic, all grounds are joined by wires or tracks , even the chassis metal itself, and at least in one point they are connected to chassis.
There's different ways to do this, the bad ones will cause hum or stability problems but no danger in them
2) Electrical safety ground: in 3 wire wall plugs , the 3rd (ground) wire is firmly connected to a properly grounded metal bar at your home or , worst case, at the Electrical Company transformer or distribution box.
It uses a green/green yellow wire *exclusively* and is also firmly connected at a single special point in your amp chassis.
You do NOT have 3 wire outlets so you have no specific grounding wire.
One of the mains wires is connected to ground but you do NOT use it as a safety ground, because plugging the wall plug the wrong way will GUARANTEE your chassis will be hot and deadly, so you simply connect both power transformer wires (through mains switch and fuse) to wall plug and that's it.
Avoid using "death caps" for hum reduction, if any add a grounded terminal to the amp chassis and if available connect it to a cold water tap or similar available ground.
yeah, I do understand those two different grounds
Common practice for establishing the earth ground in homes here (midwest USA) is to drive a pointed copper ground spike several feet into the ground, then clamp a thick, single-strand uninsulated copper ground wire to it with a non-ferrous metal clamp. The other end of that wire goes to the ground bar (bus) inside the electrical panel, where all the circuit breakers are). We have three-hole outlets, and that third hole, which accepts the ground prong, is connected to the green wire in the wiring, and the ground bar in the panel, and eventually the ground stake driven into the ground outside.
I have heard that some older places connect a ground wire to a water pipe, but you'd need to make sure it was a metal pipe with a fair amount of soil contact...I've seen plenty of metal pipes fed by buried PVC plastic pipes!
Yes, you need *good* contact bwith the real ground, which here means themPlanet Earth itself, no kidding.
So you need a metal rod, they are sold at Electrical supply shops:
not a "nail" but a 2 meter, 6 feet long thick copper plated steel rod:
(http://k27.kn3.net/932435382.jpg)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hpln4xjdWyA
best is pushing them into real black humid earth; if not a concrete floor may do, but it must be kept humid always ... although being that long it usually reaches real earth anyway.
oh yeah, got it