Connecting teensy, motor driver, and sensor grounds

[cheekysquid]

Hi, I'm new to electronics and am designing a board for a robot. My confusion is if a battery, buck regulator, teensy, IR sensors, and motor drivers can all be grounded to the same plane. Should the input and output ground of the buck regulator also be connected to each other? Thanks for any help.

 

[MarkT]

Most buck regulators aren't isolated so the grounds are already connected - which do you have?

 

[cheekysquid]

Its just one off amazon, its a full board and not just the chip.

https://www.amazon.com/MP1584EN-DC-...0e-49eb48cbf5f0&ref_=pd_gw_ci_mcx_mr_hp_atf_m

This one specifically if you were wondering. Does this affect how all the other grounds are connected?

 

[MarkT]

The MP1584 on that board is not isolated, so all the grounds should be common. I'd keep the buck regulator and motor drivers far from the sensors on the board to reduce noise transfer.

 

[cheekysquid]

Ah, I see. Does this mean that everything can share a single ground plane as long as the buck regulator and motor drivers are physically farther away from the sensors?

 

[MarkT]

Yes, though sometimes you might want to segment the groundplane into several sections, typically digital and analog, when the analog side is sensitive to low levels of digital noise (audio being a good example).