crackle thoughts

[GringoRojo]

Longish post, but bear with me...

When out with a buddy on his GSA and my wife on her F650GS recently they both said I had crackle when transmitting bike to bike. It only seemed to occur after adding a zumo 660 to my bike so I bought a cheapish isolator from a hongkong ebayer (via another link in here) adding it to my set-up.
but that didn't seem to work, so I tried rerouting the autocom headset cable and the zumo cradle cable away from the right side under the tank past the coils to the headstock and over to the left side.
riding home tonight with Mrs Gringo it seems that that hasn't worked either.
our icom radios are powered from the autocom via a battery replacer lead. my autocom is under pillion seat wired into a switched live and the -ve terminal of the battery, zumo direct to battery under my bum. but still getting crackle when talking - actually I can hear the crackle when Mrs Gringo is transmitting which made me wonder if it was her setup that was a the problem, not mine.
She doesn't have a gps, only the icom in a bar bag and the autocom fitted in the space behind the battery on her F650GS wired into a powerlet plug which she plugs into the socket beside the key only when we are riding together - could the autocom placement be causing the crackle from her bike, not mine? she finds it almost impossible to hear me even when I'm shouting and my radio is almost at full volume.

any thoughts?

 

[Schtum]

I've got a similar problem when trying to make take and make phone calls via Bluetooth on my Navigator IV whereas Bluetooth navigation instructions are fine. I think that comms is not the Zumo 660's strongpoint. In fact, I'm reminded that I intend to phone Garmin support about it this week. I've already posted at length about it on the Garmin Forum and had no response from them.

I'm not clear if you're using a Bluetooth connection but from what I've read it seems that Garmin have gone from the rock-solid Parrot Bluetooth chip in the nuvis to a Motorola chip in the Zumos - ironic since I couldn't get it to pair with a Motorola SLVR.

 

[andyclift]

This probably won't help now Autocom has changed hands but I had problems with my 660 and Autocom told me that they had to redesign the isolator (the box that takes the mic/ear from 660 to Autocom) as they discovered the internal electronics of the 660 was different to the 550. They changed my Version 2 box for a version 3 FOC and all my problems disappeared.

 

[GringoRojo]

interesting so far

Schtum, don't think it's a bluetooth problem as the phone isn't always paired to the zumo, although I will make sure the bluetooth settings are disabled when I try it again tonight to be sure.
I'm also gonna try each bike's icom against a motorolla pmr to rule out the battery replacements.

I bought an autocom isolator from ebay but realised it's got a four pole 3.5mm jack so probably meant for the newer kits - Autocom's website is irritating me with it's long term but still non existent promise of a retro kits & accessories list. the one I bought is part 1285 - that wouldn't happen to be the one you've recieved Andy?

 

[rjsmith26]

Here's my experience

08 GSA - came with a bmw nav III on it. Wired in to beak canbus gps plug.

Fitted autocom from vfr800. Wired into back of mini din power socket under seat. Bluetooth from Nav 3 to autocom. Everything great. Tunes into autocom via 3.5mm jack from iphone.

Decided to upgrade nav 3 to zumo 660.

660 arrived - replaced Nav III and wired zumo into beak canbus.

Bluetooth and audio leads connect zumo to autocom.

Fire up bike and I have a "buzz/crackle".

Decided may be an earth issue, rewired autocom, its bluetooth adapter all to to the gps canbus socket.

No buzz - all i quiet.

I think that if you wire different kit onto diff parts of canbus network the earth is inconsistent and as such you somehow pickup noise.

I think isolators will fix problem but as a bike is not a huge object its seems simplest to wire everything from one point.

Hope some of this may help with your crackle.

 

[psbeee]

AutoCom crackles

Just to add my tuppence-worth - I had headset crackles; found the fault was chewed up headset loom where the fly lead was getting caught in the BMW helmet face lift lock pins. So I was recommend to contact Sam Wray at Chainspeed.com - drove down this weekend, good run through Brecon’s from Evesham. Sam re-wired the helmet loom, and ran the fly lead out from back, so fault wouldn't re-occur. Also found a connection fault in my nearly new coiled extension cable, which he replaced, all at really fair prices. Whilst there we were chatting and Sam is ex Autocom, now set up on his own. He knows everything there is to know about bike comms kit, and supplies all their kit. Might be worth giving him a call or email. Sam Wray contacts at Chainspeed Ltd, are +44 (0) 1994 484428, or [email protected] or just www.chainspeed.co.uk. Cheers, Paul