For the sake of not incorrectly connecting my power supply and damaging my board I'm going to ask a relatively dumb question. Is ground on my board the negative terminal on my battery? Explicitly should I connect the ground to the negative terminal of the battery?
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1\$\begingroup\$ FYI, in case you ever need a split supply (e.g. +/- 4.5V supply for an op-amp powered by a 9V battery), here are some circuits for a buffered, low-impedance VGND at half the battery voltage: tangentsoft.net/elec/vgrounds.html \$\endgroup\$– Eryk SunCommented Feb 14, 2011 at 17:06
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4\$\begingroup\$ You can pick any point in a circuit and call it ground. It's just a label. Did someone else design the circuit? Did they label a point ground? Did they show how the battery or batteries are connected to it? \$\endgroup\$– endolithCommented Feb 15, 2011 at 15:48
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1\$\begingroup\$ A shared ground/(-) terminal is especially important when 2 or more electronic devices are communicating with one another. \$\endgroup\$– user115538Commented Jul 1, 2016 at 6:41
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4 Answers
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Yes - just remember that your ground in that case will only be relative to the battery. If you go to connect this to another device (serial interface, etc) you need to link the ground lines so they're a common ground.
So long as it is isolated, you're fine.
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6\$\begingroup\$ As a bonus, if you have 2 batteries in series, you can use the middle terminal as ground and have a positive and negative supply from the 2 other battery terminals. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Feb 14, 2011 at 16:38
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\$\begingroup\$ @Robert wouldn't that put the ground at non-zero potential? Is that ok? \$\endgroup\$– AgosCommented Feb 14, 2011 at 23:58
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6\$\begingroup\$ @Agos - The potential is relative. Ground is an arbitrary designation. In a situation with split rails, as long as the voltage between the rails is fixed, the overall potential of the entire circuit can move up and down without any negative effects. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Feb 15, 2011 at 4:52
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The ground pin on the microcontroller is two things: (1) a voltage reference, and (2) a current return.
Voltage Reference: Voltages don't really exist at single points, voltages are differences between points. This means that to speak sensibly about some single point in a circuit being at a given voltage, it has to be relative to some other point in the circuit. The common convention is to pick one node in the circuit and call it 'ground', and then all voltages are specified relative to that. With a microcontroller, the ground pin is the reference against which the inputs are 'measured' to determine whether they are high or low.
Current Return: All the current that flows into a micro-controller has to flow back out again somewhere. You're certainly aware that current flows into the +5V pin. Note that some current will flow out various pins as signal outputs, but then some outputs will actually admit current into the chip. Input pins can also source or sink current. Regardless, whatever current is left over is expected to flow out the ground pin of the micro-controller. In essence, the supply current is returned to the supply through the ground connection.
So when your power supply is a battery, it makes perfect sense to connect the (-) side of the battery to your system's ground pin. Notice that this isn't just a voltage reference though; it is also the supply return. In practical terms, what this means that the wire you use to connect (-) to the board's ground should be at the same size as the wire you use to connect (+) to the board's power input.
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\$\begingroup\$ You tried to explain, not just state the answer. "current...has to flow back out again somewhere". Yes, by common notation current is flow of positive ions. But as humanity found out it is electrons that usually flow, we have not started to connect ground to positive. Why? \$\endgroup\$ Commented Nov 27, 2021 at 9:21
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The potential is relative. Ground is an arbitrary designation. —Fake Name
This is something I worked out recently, only then realising why the hydraulic analogy was causing me cognitive dissonance. If a "voltage supply" was a waterfall, the image of a 12m top-to-bottom waterfall stuck in the middle of the sky, somewhere above my 5m waterfall which started 5m above the "ground" just didn't make any sense.
And then I tied the negative pin on my Arduino (powered by a 12V wall wart) to the drain on the transistors I was using to switch current to my LED strips and the circuit worked.
answered Feb 15, 2011 at 15:08
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The answers that say “ground” is arbitrary are correct. One thing to keep in mind is that all the stuff surrounding your circuit is connected to earth (the planet). So, say you have your circuit in a metal box.
If you connect the - terminal of your battery to the box, then the - bus of your circuit will be more coupled to the earth than other nodes in the circuit. So, signals originating outside your circuit that get in ( radio waves, for example, or 60 Hz hum) will cause currents to flow in your circuit that exit at the - terminal. In this case, it makes sense to regard your - battery as “ground”.
