Electronics > Beginners
My first scope is arriving but my home (old) doesn't have mains grounding
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Electro Detective:
RCD/GFCI needs an Earth/ground reference to work,
otherwise an imbalance between the Live 1 and Live 2 conductors (Active and Neutral) during a fault won't do anything after passing through the internal sensing coil

They are not magic, they need a solid three wire system AND be tested with an external RCD/GFCI tester to ensure they will work.

The TEST button on RCDs tests the RCD internals, it does not guarantee a trip on a real incoming fault,
nor do most users test it regularly (if at all) anyway. 

Don't learn it the hard way  :scared:

I would suggest to have a local MCB breaker and or glass fuse in a plastic CAT friendly box (not the meow kind  :D)  to power your gear, so it trips before the main breaker,
and maybe saves you and or the gear
especially if the RCD isn't in the mood to play 'save the mancave dude"   :popcorn:

Mechatrommer:
equipotential as Ian.M posted is the term, i googled "localized ground" and got disappointed. attached is probably okaish for lab that needs "localized virtual ground". a warning beeper may help to safety when the virtual ground raised to alarming level, this should make your lab a partial faraday cage. ymmv.
bjbb:
There is too much bad information in this thread. And unless you are able to provide solutions for TT, IT, and TN distribution systems, do not say anything. Perhaps Dave should find an engineer from an accredited body to explain this stuff in one of his interview videos.

North American jurisdictions all have something to similar to article 250 of the NEC (NFPA70) for grounding/PE interface requirements. In Europe, reference your harmonized national standard per IEC60364, and BS7671 for the UK. Read the appropriate reference now.
Electro Detective:

Whatever the local distribution 'system' is, I'd be very hesitant to assume anything electrical has been done right in any 'built to a price' multi-storey building

with 'hurry up/anything goes'  and or  'make it up as you go...'  snafu Earthing,

much less any real 'R' testing to see if RCD and circuit breakers will work on a fault on ALL floors.   

i.e. if you wanna play with electronics involving AC, better get a leg up on safe electrics that power it first    :scared:

Kalin:
I am not an engineer but I am an electrician. Some people have weird ideas in this thread. An RCD or GFCI is a very good idea since if current that flows out through L1 and doesn't return on L2 wil cause it to trip. This is the danger with having no group d at the out let since you can become a path to ground just by touching the metal enclosure of the device. The danger in not having a grounding means at your outlet is that you could have damage or a fault in your device or dut and energize something that shouldn't be, if supplied from a grounded outlet this would cause your breaker or fuse to trip and deenergize the circuit. Since you don't have that the next best thing is to detect when current is flowing outside of the intended circuit and deenergize at that point. This is what an RCD/GFCI will do.

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