As above, what are the disadvantages, risks and dangers involved in modding a class II switch mode power supply i.e. a double insulated laptop charger that is ungrounded to have the dc- output shorted directly to earth?
I know this question has been asked countless times before here, but I did not feel that there was a satisfactory conclusion.
Some of the threads I have reading with more elaborate answers are listed:
How to safely ground a switching power supply with floating outputs?
What does the Y capacitor in a SMPS do?
What I gather now is that what the mod essentially does is bypassing the y-capacitor and I will probably lose all of the EMI insulation class II designs provide. My primary concern here, though, is safety, not just in normal operation but when a fault occurs e.g. loose/frayed wires, shorts.
I may be very wrong, so please correct me where I'm totally mistaken.
Not so necessary background information:
I want the power supply output dc- to be referenced to earth to stop the tingle/small shock from touching devices with metal casings powered by such power supplies. I have scouted around for grounded power supplies that supply 15V but they are hard to find and expensive.
Best Answer
It's fine, there will be a slight leakage to earth but that leakage should be much lower than with many class 1 power supplies.