Hi, I have a project I'm working on for a snowmobile. The project is to measure the exhaust gas temperature of the engine and for the most part I have all the bits working but I ran into one major problem last night that I need help with.
The power comes from the engine stator which produces 12VAC, I then rectify and regulate that down to 12VDC and 5VDC which powers a micro controller and other componenets. The thermocouple gets connected to the microcontroller via a digital converter. All works fine when I connect to my computer using the USB 5v, but last night I finally put the project on the snowmobile and it seems I smoked some components. What I now believe happened is this....
the mains from the snowmobile stator are grounded. When the thermocouple touches the exhaust, this is also grounded so I essentially have a ground loop. I'm wondering, what is the best way to isolate the AC from the DC circuit? A 1:1 isolation transformer? Would a set of diodes work? Or is there another suggestion?
Thanks in advance!
The power comes from the engine stator which produces 12VAC, I then rectify and regulate that down to 12VDC and 5VDC which powers a micro controller and other componenets. The thermocouple gets connected to the microcontroller via a digital converter. All works fine when I connect to my computer using the USB 5v, but last night I finally put the project on the snowmobile and it seems I smoked some components. What I now believe happened is this....
the mains from the snowmobile stator are grounded. When the thermocouple touches the exhaust, this is also grounded so I essentially have a ground loop. I'm wondering, what is the best way to isolate the AC from the DC circuit? A 1:1 isolation transformer? Would a set of diodes work? Or is there another suggestion?
Thanks in advance!