Ground plane worth the effort on simple builds?

[bwanasonic]

I've been planning to have some boards made thru ExpressPCB (double-sided), and have redone a couple of my layouts with traces on top and a ground plane on bottom. Is this overkill for simple boosters and fuzzes, etc. ? It doesn't cost any extra so I figure what-the-hey. But  I'm wondering if there is a sort of threshold-of-complexity, or particular circuits that merit it.

Kerry M

[aron]

I would do it. That's kind of how I wire my stuff anyway with perboard. Common ground running on the bottom.

[petemoore]

Can't say...ground plane is easy to get going in a metal box...

[cd]

Can't say...ground plane is easy to get going in a metal box...

Do you even know what a ground plane is?  It has nothing to do with a metal box.  With a ground plane PCB, you use a double sided PCB and one entire side of the PCB is used for ground, instead of small traces here and there.

Is it overkill in a simple fuzz/OD circuit - I would say yes, but if you're not blowing an inordinate amount of time or $$ implementing it, what the hell.

[mlabbee]

I think it depends on what you're building and how compact you want to get.  I think it would be a waste of valuable real-estate.  I've used the ExpressPCB miniboard service and being able to route signals on both sides of the board can really make routing easier, more flexible and can save a ton of room (not to mention eliminating the need for jumpers).  If you just want easy and you're not trying to save space, go for it, but bear in mind that you can jam more than one circuit on to those boards if you try, which can make the price that much more economical.

[mikeb]

If a ground plane is 'free' then I would always use one, except in the case of a single-stage circuit (eg transistor / FET booster) where it would be easier to simply wire it on perf rather than do a PCB.

Mike

[aron]

Code Select Expand

With a ground plane PCB, you use a double sided PCB and one entire side of the PCB is used for ground, instead of small traces here and there.

It sounds cool! Apparently I didn't understand what it was either!  :oops:

[Hal]

you use less etchant....

but more sharpie :-D :-D

[Thomas P.]

As I understand it you have to use a doublesided board with groundplanes on both side to get a lower inductivity - especially with digital audio.

[DDD]

Groundplane is a great thing to considerably reduce unwilling capacitive feedback on the PCB. If you have possibility to use it without extra costs, do it without any hesitation.

[R.G.]

...sigh...

Groundplanes are great for RF circuits, problematical for audio. They may or may not be an advantage, depending on what the circuit does. In simple circuits, they offer no advantages whatsoever. In high impedance circuits, they offer the possibility of treble loss by increasing capacitance to ground everywhere.

There is no substitute for knowing what your circuit - including building techniques - are doing electronically, and no simple answer to "is it better to...?"

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

Just adding a ground plane is not worth while for the average pedal. All my commercial stuff is double sided, but that is because there isn't much call for single sided in the factory, so it is a big deal to them to change over to do single.
I DO have some ground plane around critical areas like A to D and D to A converters. Note that a ground plane isn't automatically a magic wand, it still helps to know WHY you are doing it.
Somethng that usually doesn't help anyone, is the "mock ground plane", that is a ground plane with slots cut in it for stray runs that didn't fit on the other side! come on, it isn't a plane if it is cut up!!

[R.G.]

Somethng that usually doesn't help anyone, is the "mock ground plane", that is a ground plane with slots cut in it for stray runs that didn't fit on the other side! come on, it isn't a plane if it is cut up!!

Actually that does help someone - it helps the board manufacturer and wave solderer. Putting interrupted plane of about the same density as traces on the rest of the board helps prevent warping and differential etching problems when making or wave soldering the board by keeping the differences between the copper and board material about even over the whole surface of the board.

Helps in processing, does nothing, as you suggest, for the circuit, but improves manufacturing yield.

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

That's a good point RG, I hadn't thought about board warpage! (plus, I posted my reply b4 i saw yours).
One mistake i made once was to have a ground plane with some of the 'relief' things (whatever they are called, look like a circle wiht crosshairs) around the holes in a doublesided plated thru hole board.
And the resuslt was, the ground plane sucks so much heat while you solder, that life is significantly bad... but not as bad as if you have to DEsolder a component, which is then damn near impossible.
And another thing about ground problems, remember the same sort of shit applies more or less to the supply line! or lines, if it is a +- power system. So what if the ground is tied down, if the rails are bouncing & full of shit!! "there's your trouble right there lady :wink: "