ECC Forum

Early on in my bcs config, i ran some extension wire that I jumpered from to a temperature probe inside my refrigerator, i immediately noticed fluctuations of 1-2F on that temperature probe on on none of the others. We discussed it and at the time determined i was getting interference from the refrigerator condenser which the wire was routed near. The solution posited at the time was to use some shielded wire(what i was using was just normal copper wire). I bought the wire, and took a long time(until it got warm enough this was a problem) to install it. I installed it tonight and my temperature probe in my refrigerator is rock steady IN PARTICULAR when the fridge is running. So I thought I would share. The wire I used was shielded audio wire from radio shack as shown in the picture, and I will be using it for ANY extension runs for my temperature probes. It has a copper shield, and under that a foil shield, condenser has no affect on the wire running the exact same path as the old wire(down the drain tube). Ah progress, my fridge was getting cycled weirdly before because it would flucuate outside of the temperature range even with a 6 degree fluctuation. No more!

Picture for your shopping convienence!

So, do you connect the shield to ground , or is the wire itself enough to prevent interference..?

Its best to connect one end of the shielding wire to ground. If you connect both ends to (different) grounds, there is the chance that some amount of current will flow through the shielding which negates the benefit.

I did neither, and got benefit...is that possible?

Yeah, you should see some improvement in EMF interference from the shielding, even if its not grounded. However grounding one end will give the best results.

But if its working as expected, that's all that matters.