grounding ?

[clamup1]

in arron's what to do if it dosent work thread, he states:

When you have everything gathered, but before posting, get the specific information you'll report.
1.Hook up the DC power to the circuit (no input signal or amp needed) and clip the meter black/negative lead to signal ground.

is the signal ground the black wire that comes off the board?

[glesconz]

Hi, Im a newbie at this, too so dont take this as gospel!!!! But, after reading the thread I would imagine he means clipping the black lead ( the lead coming from the COM or -ve on your Digital MultiMeter) to the ground(or sleeve) connection on the input socket of your project.

Somebody who actually knows their stuff will prob be able to give you a better answer...

Cheers,
Glenn

[ianmgull]

It is the black wire if that's the color of wire you used for ground 

Usually all of your grounds connect together. That means that the ground on your input jack connects to the ground on your battery and also the ground pads on your PCB or anywhere else there is a ground.

It sounds like you are trying to measure votages for debugging. What I personally would do is first verify that all your grounds are connected. How to do this? Put your meter in continuity mode and make sure that all of the grounds are connected to all of the others.

After you do this, then you can put "meter black/negative" lead anywhere that is grounded; although I would use the output jack as it offers a large lug to clip on to.

[petemoore]

  tracing through the PS...first time around is always a good idea
 Most effects use NPN, negative Gnd: Battery black wire to -, battery red to +.
 ..and testing that no-short exists between +/- is always recommended before applying power.

[clamup1]

thanks for the replies. i was grounding my meter on the - side of the bat and getting juice on the ground on my board. this project has been a pain but a good learning experience.