Strobe Grounding

[avi8tor50]

OK-this goes out to all of you electric gurus!

The strobe power pak has a power ground (associated with power input). There is also a note to be sure to ground the base plate. Finally, the three shielded wires that go to the strobes have the shielding wire ground.
The pak itself is mounted to a painted surface so to be sure that it is a solid ground I have run a wire from one of the screws that goes thru the base plate and spliced it with the shielding ground AND the power ground. These are all connected locally to the body of the a/c. Does this sound ok?
Do I stil need to ground the strobes locally at the actual strobe itself, that is, does the shielding need to be grounded out at the wingtip as well or will this set me up for a ground loop? I do NOT have a ground running all the back to my grounding plate on the fw.

All help will be appreciated.

[az_gila]

Originally Posted by avi8tor50

OK-this goes out to all of you electric gurus!
......
Do I stil need to ground the strobes locally at the actual strobe itself, that is, does the shielding need to be grounded out at the wingtip as well or will this set me up for a ground loop? I do NOT have a ground running all the back to my grounding plate on the fw.

All help will be appreciated.

Usually not, especially if the manufacturer says not to...

The usual ground rules for a shielded cable is to ground the shield at one end only, and preferably at the noise generating end - the power supply in this case. Sounds like your connection description is OK...

gil A

[jdeas]

Do not electrically tie any part of the strobe to the wing. If you send and return the strobe power on the twisted pair cable back to the power supply and only tie the shield at the power source you should get the best isolation.