Audio Wiring Guide 92

Hiding out of the shot in Figure 2.2.16 is the rest of the 20-foot guitar cord
that I m testing. The result is seen in Figure 2.2.17 . Our invisible 20-foot
guitar cord measures out to 1.5 a nice, healthy reading.
In general, your resistance readings should be 2 or less, unless you re
measuring a very long wire run. Higher readings may indicate cold solder
joints, defective wire or tarnished connectors.
But this has all been much too safe and tame. Let s measure something a
little more lethal!
Just to be sure you remember those acronyms I ll say it the long and
boring way: Set rotary function selector to volts AC ( Figure 2.2.18 ). We re
going to measure some plain vanilla 120 VAC from my wall outlet.
Figure 2.2.17 Twenty-
foot cable resistance.
Figure 2.2.16 Test 20-foot cable.
Figure 2.2.18 Set the RFS to VAC.
DEMO : Purchase from www.A-PDF.com to remove the watermark
2.2 Using a DVOM or DMM, and what is it anyhow? 93
OK, I lied we re measuring the same 120 VAC ( Figure 2.2.19 ), but I found
it a lot easier to bring an extension cord and a couple of female three-way
AC splitters up to the camera table than it would be to show where the
whole mess plugs into the wall outlet. Same voltage, same current it ll still
kill you if you mess up.
Notice that the test leads are fully inserted, and my hands are well away
from any possible contact points.
The actual reading of my nominal 120 VAC is shown in Figure 2.2.20 . It s
a tad high, at 121.9, but well within spec. Typical US house AC readings
will vary from as low as 105 VAC up to 130 VAC. Electrical power supply
companies are not known for delivering ultra precise power but for us in
the US, it s there all the time, like the air we breathe. Could you imagine the
quality of life in a country where that is not a given?
So now you have some idea of measuring resistance to check your wiring.
And you also (I hope) know how to measure 120 VAC without hurting
yourself.
You can check to see if there s electrical power for lights and soldering irons,
maybe even some fans to blow the rosin smoke away.
Figure 2.2.19 Measure 120 VAC.
Figure 2.2.20 The 120
VAC reading.
Audio Wiring Guide 94
Figure 2.2.21 Set the RFS to VDC.
Figure 2.2.22 A 1.5 VDC source.
Figure 2.2.23 Test AA battery.
Figure 2.2.24 AA battery voltage.
There s one more test I want to show you DC voltage. To do this, we have
to invoke the RFS again. That s Set rotary function selector to volts DC
( Figure 2.2.21 ). I just had to say that to make sure.
Now we need some DC electricity what can we use for a source? How
about an AA size ashlight battery, a great source for VDC ( Figure 2.2.22 ).
Just open up your Maglite and ip one out.
In Figure 2.2.23 I m testing the AA battery, but wait I ve made a mistake
and reversed the test leads. Normally the red lead would go to the positive
terminal. What will happen because of this? Look at the reading in
Figure 2.2.24 . Aha! See the minus sign? Also the Auto , DC and V ?
So my measurement is accurate, but inverted because I ipped the test
leads another thing to look out for.
2.2 Using a DVOM or DMM, and what is it anyhow? 95
There s also a caveat that since a DVOM does not put a real-world load on
the battery, as a light bulb would, the DVOM will give a falsely high reading.
Real battery meters have built-in loads. Test a bunch of dead/semi dead
batteries and you ll soon get an idea of what your particular DVOM can
show you. At the very least you can sort out the totally dead batteries with
a DVOM.
This concludes my incomplete introduction to the world of DVOMs, how to
use them, and why to use them. There s a lot more to say about them, but
that info is already out there you just have to go look for it.
If I ve given you a taster and made you want to learn more, I ve done my
job. As I said at the beginning, Google on using a DVOM or using a
DMM if you want to learn more. The truth is out there , but I don t have
room here for all of it just enough to whet your appetite.
2.2
Balanced and unbalanced
audio and AC power
After much skull scratching and soul searching, I decided to combine
several concepts into one section, because they are so intimately
interconnected. No, not that intimately, they re just good friends.
So in this section I ll talk about unbalanced and balanced audio, unbalanced
and balanced AC power, and the best ways to wire and clean up the sound
(and picture) of your studio/disco/home theater/whatever.
Unbalanced/balanced audio
Let s start with audio; a nice, simple bit of audio a sine wave. Some of you
may have seen a sine wave on an oscilloscope or in a picture. They all look
more or less like the one in Figure 2.3.1 .
2.3
Basic sine wave
0V (zero volts) Reference line
V (plus volts) peak
V (minus volts) peak
Amplitude
(volume)
Past Future
Time line (Hertz or cps)
Figure 2.3.1 Basic sine wave.
Since the sine wave is AC (alternating current), it will start at 0 V (zero volts),
rise to a positive peak, then reverse itself, cross the 0 V reference line again,
and rise (inversely) to its negative peak. Or it will do what Ive shown here:
start negative and ip positive. And it will keep doing this, over and over,
until we get bored and turn it off.