shielded banana cable with ground question - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Homer J Simpson
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 15, 2023, 10:37:00 pm
content: Question regarding dual banana jack cable that has ground provisions on both ends.What is the gain and or benefit of a banana cable that has the shielding / grounding provision vs one that does not ?What voltages / currents would the shielding and grounding make a difference and by how much ?Usage example - connecting a power supply to a DMM.[ Specified attachment is not available ]

author: Benta
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 15, 2023, 11:12:00 pm
content: Quote from: Homer J Simpson on August 15, 2023, 10:37:00 pmNone at all. And how would you know that the prong spacing fits your instrument? There's no standard for that. Solution looking for a problem.

author: sleemanj
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 16, 2023, 12:06:11 am
content: Quote from: Benta on August 15, 2023, 11:12:00 pmThere is a usual spacing between typical pairs of banana sockets, 19mm (0.75"), it's common enough that you could call it a defacto standard.Eg measure the Com and Volts sockets on your multimeter, majority will be 19mm apart.

author: David Aurora
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 16, 2023, 01:31:44 am
content: Quote from: Benta on August 15, 2023, 11:12:00 pm1. I can almost guarantee it's 19mm, basically every manufacturer in the world agrees on this (hence companies like Neutrik making dual banana connectors that meet that standard)2. Benefit of these cables depends on what you're doing with them. This is exactly the kind of cable I would use with various bits of test gear on my shelves (e.g. balanced audio signal generator, attenuator boxes, assorted meters, etc)

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 16, 2023, 02:25:26 pm
content: Quote from: Benta on August 15, 2023, 11:12:00 pmWhy provide such an actively anti-helpful answer?1. The fact that these exist indicate thereisa use for them.2. As others have said, 3/4” (~19mm) is the de-facto standard for banana jacks on most things. It’s what you find on test gear, speakers, etc.

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 16, 2023, 02:26:17 pm
content: Quote from: Homer J Simpson on August 15, 2023, 10:37:00 pmA tiny bit of info can be found on that cable’s datasheet:https://www.pomonaelectronics.com/products/cables/coaxial-and-rf-cables/double-banana-plugs-shielded-balanced-line

author: tszaboo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 16, 2023, 03:40:51 pm
content: I was calibrating some power supplies a while ago, and the way the leads were connected definitely made a difference in the noise measurements. It's supposed to have max few mV of noise under full load. Having cables like this make the test setup foolproof, otherwise I had to swap cables for different tests.

author: abeyer
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 17, 2023, 09:12:28 pm
content: You can read about some cabling setups for measurement using the shield & guard terminals here:Modern Precision Multimeter Measurements(The details of "What voltages / currents would the shielding and grounding make a difference and by how much?" are left as an exercise for the reader)

author: Tomorokoshi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 17, 2023, 09:23:17 pm
content: Great. Now there's another cable I need to get.