In a hobby project I am using shielded cable to connect capacitive sensor's electrode (see https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/189916/capacitive-touch-not-working-at42qt1011 ) to the AT42QT1011 (there are two cables ending with electrodes going in separate directions). Usage is proximity (millimeters), electrodes are insulated.
However, I left the shield disconnected (using only wires inside) as connecting to ground will make strong capacitive coupling with the ground – something which will render the sensor useless.
The question is, where to connect the shield? It is not particularly annoying that IC senses thru the shield, but what is the right thing to do?
(I have already settled on using particular cable, but may be there are better choices for cabling capsensors?)
Best Answer
To be honest, the best way to do this is not to run the capacitive sense signals over any distance. Local cap sense ICs connected over distance via a digital bus is the way to do this most robustly. Anything else and you're having to fight making the outside of the cable insensitive to touch without placing a large capacitive burden on the cap sense signal itself.
There are ways around this (including capacitively coupling the shield to ground) but none are as reliable as just having the cap sense IC where you need it and most involve a tradeoff against proximity sensing. The increased cost normally pays itself back quickly in system robustness and reliability.