Engine whine and interference with an Active7Smart and an 08 GSA

[stevekdavis]

Hi Everyone,

I've been battling this for a while and have put up with it but now I have some new custom monitors every whistle and pop is very audible.

The problem is I can hear engine whine and whistling on my Autocom headset even with no audio connected (I spent ages going down that route with isolated audio cables etc.) I can also hear what I can only describe as a pinging/chirping type interference when I apply the front brake.

I have a rather old Active 7 Smart sitting in the plastic bucket under the seat (not on top of the tray) and powered from an accessory fuse/relay box powered from the back of the accessory socket under the seat. I have an Autocom bluetooth dongle plugged into the phone socket and the positive feed fed from the fuse box. The two units are strapped together.

The rider headset lead comes out at the front right of the saddle and the passenger comes out at the back of the front seat, currently it's not connected to a headset and it tucked under the rear seat on top of the housing.

I have a Zumo 550 powered from the front accessory socket with an autocom isolated audio lead running under the plastic cover on the left of the tank. The interference is present even with this lead disconnected from the Zumo end.

I have the interfence without the fuse block too.

This unit has followed me from a Suzuki DL1000 where there was also interference so I suspect the unit itself isn't shielded very well.

Any ideas? any sort of filter I can apply to the positive or negative feed? Lead box around the unit?

It seems that if I lift the unit out of the box under the seat the interference reduces but doesn't disappear. I guess it would if I moved it far enough away.

Do the newer units tolerate noise and interference better? I don't really want to shell out £100's more on a new unit and end up with the same issue (not even sure the headsets and bluetooth are compatible.)

thanks

Steve

 

[GSrich]

Hi Steve,

Just to be clear you are hearing the noise when you are just running the comms stand alone as in no connections into the phone or music sockets?

Where have you earthed the comms to as well?

Rich

 

[Boon]

Inductive coupling creating crosstalk on your wiring harness and comms.

As Rich says .....earth is your friend.......... as is shielded wires and if that doesent solve it .......LC filter it out.


The fact that it diminishes as you take the kit away from the bike points to inductive coupling, your comms wiring is acting like an antenna picking up 'noise' on your bike wiring,try earthing everything ......... I mean everything with its own good earth connection before you try filtering.

Filtering DC means an LC network to decouple noise spikes on the +rail these are cheap to buy but I would expect the interference to be a varying 'whine' with engine speed and not affected by proximity of comms leads to bike.

you can also 'choke' induced noise on cabling by using ferrite rings or clamp on chokes.......not usually beginner friendly at RF but maybe worthwhile at LF .

you mention isolated audio cables........try again but use good shielded ones once you have earthed everything..........then if its still there buy a cheap ferrite ring or clamp on ferrite choke from maplins and fit it on the cable just where it leaves the bike to connect to your body harness. one turn round the choke ,listen ,if still there try 2 etc untill you find the point where it 'chokes' the interferece frequency.

good earthing with good shielded cabling makes a big difference......this is where I'd start


good luck

 

[stevekdavis]

Hi Steve,

Just to be clear you are hearing the noise when you are just running the comms stand alone as in no connections into the phone or music sockets?

Where have you earthed the comms to as well?

Rich

Hi Rich,

Thanks for responding. Yes, there's interference with no zumo connected, I'll check at lunch without the bluetooth connected to the phone input also but am sure it's there with just the unit and no other connection.

The negative feed is coming straight from the battery.

Steve

 

[stevekdavis]

I've just spent 30 minutes playing around and have made the following findings.

I disconnected the zumo at the zumo end and the noise was still there. Removed phone (Autocom bluetooth module) and music connections from the unit itself and the interference goes completely. Unit is therefore ok

Plug the phone/bluetooth back in and a small amount of interference is back, plug the music line back in (still disconnected at the zumo end) and a lot of interference is back.

I traced the audio cable (an Autocom filtered lead) and had strapped the big block (presumably the filtering gubbins) to the manual holder at the bottom of the tank. Moved this block away from the top of the battery and the lions share of the noise goes away (so much for filtered ), I've temporarily poked this around the side now where the front seat catches are.

That still leaves some ignition whine coming over the bluetooth module. Is it worth buying an audio filter lead for this connection too (it seems to be a standard 3.5mm jack plug) The only way of affecting this noise was to disconnect the 3.5mm jack, moving the bluetooth module around made no difference.

Thanks

Steve

 

[GSrich]

Hi Steve,

What are you like at soldering as I can send you a part that will wire onto the main power lead for your comms and also you can wire the power feed from the dongle to. This part will clean up the power signal and make the BT connection a lot quieter.

Rich

 

[stevekdavis]

Hi Rich,

I can get by with a soldering iron Haven't burnt or melted anything I didn't intend to

Would this be instead of an audio filter lead for the bluetooth or as well as?

Thanks

Steve

 

[GSrich]

Steve,

If you could PM your address mate I will get a part sent out in the post for you. The part itself will wire onto the power feed and no other parts would be needed.

Rich

 

[Wapping]

Steve,

If you could PM your address mate I will get a part sent out in the post for you. The part itself will wire onto the power feed and no other parts would be needed.

Rich

It works, too. So worthwhile doing as GSRich requests.

 

[Ravenbyrne]

Steve,

If you could PM your address mate I will get a part sent out in the post for you. The part itself will wire onto the power feed and no other parts would be needed.

Rich

Hi Rich,

Very same problem as Steve...... assumed there wasn't much I could do to stop it, I use a AutoCom 300 duo with bluetooth tongle and 550 zumo.

Is it ok to pm you.

Thanks

Brian

 

[stevekdavis]

Steve,

If you could PM your address mate I will get a part sent out in the post for you. The part itself will wire onto the power feed and no other parts would be needed.

Rich

I now have a reason to subscribe unless I can PM as a mere mortal?

 

[stevekdavis]

PM sent

 

[GSrich]

All PM's are welcome and I will reply to them as soon as I can

Rich

 

[stevekdavis]

Just wanted to say a massive thanks to Rich. The part turned up the next day and I fitted it to the bike today. All the alternator whine has now gone completely!!

It's also helped with the noise I was getting from my Puxing radio with a 12v batter elimminator as I wired that to the output side too and all the interfence seems to have gone from that (was getting a squeaky fart noise before when the radio was keyed and it seemed to be becuase the radio was bike powered)

Cheers

Steve

 

[GSrich]

Spot on thats good news

Rich

 

[Ravenbyrne]

Another happy biker............. the part arrived today... thanks a million Rich.

Will fit it to my moto tomorrow.

Thanks again,

Brian

 

[SPL]

I have the same issues with my SuperPro AVI - maybe the same part can solve them too - Rich, I'll PM you...

 

[GSrich]

replied

Rich