Floating Voltage

Floating voltage....

Grounded voltage...

http://forum.allaboutcircuits.com/threads/floating-vs-grounded.10670/

A floating is generally produced from the output of a transformer.

...or a dry cell battery...

Assume two electrical leads; if you can measure a voltage from either lead to ground, you have a "floating voltage".

WoodwardDL, it is actually just the opposite, you wil measure 440 ac coming out of a transformer and measure nothing from any of the lead to ground. to make it a fixed voltage you have to reference one of those leads to ground by connecting it to ground. Now you will get 440 ac measuring from ground to the other lead. standing on the ground and touching that lose lead will fry your shoulder socket and fuse it together.

I did not read anywhere that he was talking about mains voltages. He might have meant the DC supply in an RF receiver, for instance. In such a case, a floating voltage will measure some value to ground on both terminals.

@WoodwardDL, even in a DC circuit the designer will give you a reference point from where he measured the referred voltages in his circuit and those voltages are all fixed voltages according to the diagram. A voltage can only be floating if you do not know the reference point for measuring the voltages.Even in a DC circuit if the output of the PSU is not tied to neutral or Earth, all the voltages there are floating. It means that it will not allow lethal current, like an electric fence and pulse to the plug of an car. If you hold onto the car that pulse can be lethal. The power in the old television sets were 1/2 way floating and could kill you with the other wave that were fixed. In a transmitter circuit the signal travel through the atmosphere with reference to the ground plane the earth. Why would you measure DC voltage in a RF receiver to ground, to know what. It is an Engineering principal that in design we calculate to achieve what we want or plan to achieve. in Faultfinding we know what there should be and check if it is right, especially in DC/signal circuits where you have reference DC voltages that must be right before you can add the ac/signal that ride on the reference DC. I will give you the advantage of the argument if you do not have the correct information handy that any measurement can mean anything.

!/2 wave Floating in a television set.