Shared Sensor Grounds

I'm using a 61pin Autosport bulkhead connector for my engine sensors. As a rule, I have been running a dedicated signal ground to each sensor (through the connector), hence having to splice the signal grounds out first on the ECU (Nexus R5) side first. I'm running out of pins... I have 4 sensors mounted close to each other, so I'm wondering if it is acceptable to share a signal ground between the 4 of them? I know it would work, but would like to follow best practice where I can, as a rule.

Cheers,

Pappy.

I would run a single wire for each of the Sensor 5V and Sensor 0V wires through the bulkhead connector, and then splice them from there, pins on a Autosport connector are too rare and expensive to waste.

Thanks Stephen. Splices either side of the connector then!

I guess the main thing I need to be careful about here is potentially current limitations on the pins. If it was for power and power ground I would definitely spread the load out over multiple pins as required.

I'd also need to check current requirements for signal ground, although I'd expect signal ground for sensors would be very minimal. Would like to hear others opinions on this?

Cheers,

Mark.

I do the same as Stephen for the same reasons.

Sensor ground and 5V current loads are very low. 1 pin for each is usually more then enough

You can run more sensors off a small gauge (18 to 20 AWG) wire than you would likely ever have installed in a car and still have head room.

So running one or two sensor ground wires through the bulk head connector and then splitting off on the engine side is both acceptable and good way to save pins for future additions.

The same goes for the 5V reference for those same sensors.

Thanks as well to Tyson and Chris. Excellent advice from everyone. It's great to learn from you guys knowledge and experience.

I will probably need to use more than one signal ground as the Nexus ECU has a number of connectors, and the documentation recommends to keep the signal grounds for sensors running from the same connector together, and I'll have a mix of ECU connectors mapping through to the same bulkhead connector. Same for 5V sensor power as noted.

I'm going to have fun fitting splices under the boot :)

Cheers,

Mark.

PS. I just re-watched Simons 1st module on splicing and he covered there as well. D'oh.