(DG) ACU-300 Ground - why is it important?

[JBuss]

Hi,

I'm in the process of installing an ACU-300 (for solenoids) with rudder sensor, P70Rs and Tiller.

I have a hard time finding a decent connection for the ground pin. The documentation states, it should be connected to ship's ground (which is the steel hull, to which I don't have access at the location where the ACU is mounted) or directly to batterie's minus pole with a thick cable (wich is very complicated because the batteries are located somewhere else and there is no space to route a thick cable).

At the moment I've connected ground to minus of the ACU's power terminal. So ground is connected to batterie's minus (2,5qmm2 cable in 24V system), but not with a dedicated, direct cable.

Q1: Can you explain what's the reason the ACU has a ground pin in the first place?

Q2: What consequence could occur when Ground is simply connected to minus of ACU's power terminal?

Thanks!

[Derek - Raymarine - Moderator]

Hi JBuss,
Thank you for your enquiry.

The ground connection is provided to meet EMC requirements, more information about this can befound when you click here , normally the ground is connected to the RF ground of the boat - which is something like a dynaplate, ( a sperate plate on the outside of the hull underwater specifically for this purpose - but not all boats have them)

To be honest, if you do not experience RF interference, ( typified by unstable data, erratic performance, vhf 'noise'), then the ground is not required.

regards

[JBuss]

Derek,

thank you very much for the answer, it's really helpful!

[Derek - Raymarine - Moderator]

Hi JBuss,
you're welcome!

Thanks