Talk:Electrical termination

Wrong

This is just wrong, and needs attention, preferably from someone with an RF background. --Nagle 04:24, 25 March 2006 (UTC)

I don't know if it's the same subject, but Terminator links here referring to the resistor or resistor/capacitor cluster on the end of a transmission line to prevent signal reflections. A fuller (but by no means full) treatment is at Termination; if you move that information here, please replace it there with a link to this page. Hairy Dude 15:57, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

Good idea. Done. --John Nagle 05:08, 14 April 2006 (UTC)

Infinite resistance

The part about "infinite resistance" is wrong. I'm going to just delete that sentence. Peter 01:22, 23 December 2006 (UTC)

Two topics

This article is about two topics: Electrical termination and Signal termination. Should we do a split? ~Kvng (talk) 14:34, 3 September 2016 (UTC)

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Noise sensitivity

I found this uncited statement in RS-485, "Termination resistors also reduce electrical noise sensitivity due to the lower impedance." There is no mention of that here. Can anyone provide support for this statement? ~Kvng (talk) 13:46, 23 July 2018 (UTC)

Johnnydc has added a link to Brownian noise and claims this explains the relationship between impedance and noise. I don't see it but if it is or were covered here, this is still an WP:ASTONISHING link. ~Kvng (talk) 17:39, 8 August 2021 (UTC)

Series termination

I have created a Series termination redirect to this article even through the topic doesn't appear to be covered here. Hopefully we can fix that. ~Kvng (talk) 19:07, 4 December 2019 (UTC)

Purpose explained, methods not explained

This article explains the purpose of termination well, and shows a couple of examples of methods of termination, but it doesn't explain how a resistor or a handful of active components reduce signal reflection. Where are the resistors or active components connected? How do they reduce reflection? -- Steve98052 (talk) 18:26, 8 September 2025 (UTC)

Reflections in transmission lines occur where there is an impedance mismatch. Without termination, the end of a transmission line has a very high impedance (open circuit) and this is a mismatch with the characteristic impedance if the transmission line. A terminator is a device added to the end of the line which has the same impedance as the line.

I have made an improvement to the lead. Let us know if more work is needed. ~Kvng (talk) 14:41, 11 September 2025 (UTC)

I think linking Signal reflection and Impedance mismatch has clarified the lead here to the extent that's reasonable for the scope of this article. Nice work.

I can't say I understand those two articles enough to answer my question, but maybe that's because the electronics used to reduce signal reflection resist simple explanation because they are inherently complicated. -- Steve98052 (talk) 18:10, 13 September 2025 (UTC)

Maybe an analogy would help. Think of the point where a highway reduces from two to one lane as an mild impedance mismatch; the traffic jam that precedes it is the reflection. In the extreme case of a highway ending, everyone has to turn around a go back the way they came; an obvious reflection. This analogy doesn't do well at explaining how termination works but hopefully it's a start. ~Kvng (talk) 23:00, 15 September 2025 (UTC)