Dumb question about ground wire

[XtraSmiley]

So, I have a new Battletoads machine, which is a converted Pit Fighter. It has a switching power supply (Happ one). So on the ground terminal, it has two green wires connected. One is run to a metal control panel latch (which is just screwed into the wood) and the other one (a much thicker gauge wire) was connected to something, but I forgot to what.

What is the best thing to connect the ground wire to? Monitor chassis? Control panel? What?

Thanks guys.

 

[XtraSmiley]

44 views and no answers?

I'm thinking to a piece of metal, but can it loop to the monitor chassis without issues?

 

[adgenet]

Some photos would help point you in the right direction.

 

[XtraSmiley]

Some photos would help point you in the right direction.

A wire coming off of a switching power supply. The wire goes into FG or Frame Ground. I'm just asking where most people connect this wire. I think monitor chassis is the biggest piece of metal, but I'm not sure, control panel as well, but is that safe?

 

[adgenet]

Well, I'm not at all familiar with CRTs or CRT cabs, but my understanding on what a properly wired up switching power supply would be is: Three prong AC plug GROUND to FG, and FG to all metal items, especially those exposed to somebody outside of the cabinet like coin doors, control panels, and the monitor frame. Signal ground and FG can be tied or left floating as desired (beware of ground loops if you tie them together though). Please don't take my word for it though. I hope somebody with CRT experience can chime in to confirm.

As for another piece of advice, which you are probably already aware of: For something as important as a ground, I would only trust a securely mounted connection (Wire with a properly crimped terminal, attached with a bolt/nut to a cleaned/exposed part of bare metal. I've seen some very poor work in this regard, stripped wire twisted onto painted metal, oxidized wire wrapped around a sheet metal screw tapped into wood, you name it.
Assuming your cabinet was set up correctly before, you may be able to look around and find where/how it was originally attached.

 

[rolins]

Some photos would help point you in the right direction.

A wire coming off of a switching power supply. The wire goes into FG or Frame Ground. I'm just asking where most people connect this wire. I think monitor chassis is the biggest piece of metal, but I'm not sure, control panel as well, but is that safe?

The earth wire should be daisy chained from the frames of the PSU, control panel, marquee, iso transformer, and monitor. They should all be connected to the earth pin on the IEC connector.

 

[adgenet]

The earth wire should be daisy chained...

I may be totally misguided and incorrect, but I disagree with this approach. I'm under the impression that the correct method is for grounds to be run straight back to a single point whenever possible.

 

[rolins]

The earth wire should be daisy chained...

I may be totally misguided and incorrect, but I disagree with this approach. I'm under the impression that the correct method is for grounds to be run straight back to a single point whenever possible.

The way i do it is all the grounds are connected to the GND/COM of you PSU, and the metal frames of you PSU, monitor, CP, etc are connected to FG (Earth).