Electrical Noise, Ground Loops, and USB Communication

There is a lot of buzz around the grounding of Chinese lasers. It is generally in reference to earth ground and the safety of the machines.

I have been down many rabbit holes about why or why not to add an additional earth ground to the machines and I want to touch briefly on it to provide some basis for the main topic, which is the dropout of device communications, which causes jobs to stop in progress and other erratic behavior.

The bottom line is IF all of the below conditions are met THEN you do not need an additional earth ground and adding one may in fact cause many more problems. If all of these apply to your laser engraver then you do not need additional earth grounds:

1. The electrical systems in the location of your laser have 3 prong plugs that are compliant with current electrical codes.
2. The ground wires and lugs in the laser engraver have good continuity to the ground prong of the 3 conductor power cord.

If all of these conditions are met then you have sufficient grounding for your laser engraver.

Thunder Lasers do not suffer the same grounding and wiring issues that plague the cheap clones. We have proper wiring, terminations, and grounding and ground straps to ensure continuity between doors, panels, etc...