 |
 | Home | Contact Us | FAQ | Search & Site Map | Link to Us |
 | Sign In | Join | Other 45 Sites in Network |
Car Forum / Driving, Maintenance, Tuning / Car Audio / February 2004Serious Noise Problems, XM Radio
Using a Terk XM Commander hooked up to my C90 HU via an XA-300 aux input selector. Anyway, I've tried hooking up the power, accessory, and ground wires in multiple different locations and have a very LARGE electrical interference (alternator whine, noise with headlights, turn signals, etc) problem I can't seem to get rid of. I've used different RCA cables with no change to eliminate those as a possible source. It did this before when using the FM modulator as well. I'm not sure what to try next??? Tony  SignatureWhat's more likely? That an all-powerful mysterious god created the universe and then decided not to give any proof of his existence? Or, that he simply doesn't exist at all? And that we created him so that we wouldn't have to feel so small and alone. -Eleanor Arroway, Contact Let a professional look at it and give an opinion? > I'm not sure what to try next??? Masterson wrote: "Let a professional look at it and give an opinion?" Uh....next please. What do you think I'm online asking for in the first place? Tony SignatureWhat's more likely? That an all-powerful mysterious god created the universe and then decided not to give any proof of his existence? Or, that he simply doesn't exist at all? And that we created him so that we wouldn't have to feel so small and alone. -Eleanor Arroway, Contact > Let a professional look at it and give an opinion? > > > I'm not sure what to try next??? ummmmm.... re read my post....."look at it"..... Cause you would need to post pictures if you wanted us too. > Uh....next please. > > What do you think I'm online asking for in the first place? > ummmmm.... > > re read my post....."look at it"..... > > Cause you would need to post pictures if you > wanted us too. What good would pictures do? Tony's as competent as any installer at troubleshooting. He'll come to a solution eventually, just as Nick did in the previous thread. That's the way you learn. > What good would pictures do? Mark....you missed the point. >>I'm not sure what to try next??? He asked.....I gave my thoughts on what he should try. have you been able to figure out if its the xa-300 or the xm commander causing the noise? if you disconnect the xm tuner and leave the xa-300 does the noise go away? if you unplug the rcas between the xa-300 and the xm tuner does the noise go away? try tracing the source unplugging one thing at a time to see the exact source. sounds like a really bad ground, maybe of the units has a bad ground inside. > Using a Terk XM Commander hooked up to my C90 HU via an XA-300 aux input > selector. Anyway, I've tried hooking up the power, accessory, and ground [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > > Tony It's not the XA-300. It was doing this before I got that, when I was using the FM modulator...I just didn't want to mess around with it just now. I'm guessing the XM tuner has a bad ground inside, because it's not the RCA cables. Tony SignatureWhat's more likely? That an all-powerful mysterious god created the universe and then decided not to give any proof of his existence? Or, that he simply doesn't exist at all? And that we created him so that we wouldn't have to feel so small and alone. -Eleanor Arroway, Contact > have you been able to figure out if its the xa-300 or the xm commander > causing the noise? [quoted text clipped - 23 lines] > wouldn't > > have to feel so small and alone. -Eleanor Arroway, Contact This could possibly be an alternator problem, but before you get it checked out. Check to make sure your battery and alternator are grounded well on clean metal, and your battery connections are good and clean. Also, where are your RCA's in relation to the power cable? If you don't allready know, they shouldn't be run together. You could for example run the RCAs up one side and the power cable up the other side of the vehicle. Let us consider the grounding issue. "The best way to ground your equipment is to have a single ground path to the negative side of your vehicle's electrical system for all your equipment. That means connecting the ground terminals of the head unit, primp, equalizer, crossover, and power amplifiers together. Then you have to route that common heavy guage ground to a point on the vehicle body or frame that you're certain is part of the negative side of the car's electrical system. The best ground point of all is the battery itself." Reference (High Performance Car Stereo, By Joe Pettitt) There is actually more in this book that is related to this, but I hope this helps. Let me know if you need more info. Troy carbudgetaudio.com "Budgetaudio" <budgetaudio@aol.com> wrote in "The best way to ground your equipment is to have a single > ground path to the negative side of your vehicle's electrical system for all > your equipment. That means connecting the ground terminals of the head unit, [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > Performance Car Stereo, By Joe Pettitt) > Troy > carbudgetaudio.com Yes you should ground everything to the same point, it is giant and makes up a large part of your car, It is called the Chassis. Running everything to one ground point is usually a wasteful endeavor. Your chassis is essentially one giant wire. I have never had to resort to grounding everything to the same point. The trick is to make sure you have a solid ground to chassis. The mere fact of running long ground wires all over the car is a problem in and of itself. Wire does have a voltage drop associated with it, which causes ground potential and then the buzz. The voltage drop of the chassis is usually insignificant considering it's "wire size" is huge. Les yeah but he is running high end stuff that has been working fine and just adding the xm tuner is creating horrible noise. it sounds like the noise is so bad that there is almost no ground to the xm unit and its throwing noise into the rcas don't sound like major stuff like alternator if things have been working fine before the xm tuner. Z Gluhak wrote: "yeah but he is running high end stuff that has been working fine and just adding the xm tuner is creating horrible noise." Yes. True. "it sounds like the noise is so bad that there is almost no ground to the xm unit and its throwing noise into the rcas" Agreed. "don't sound like major stuff like alternator if things have been working fine before the xm tuner." Agreed again. I just put a noise filter in-line with the RCA cables and it took care of 90% of the problem. I would still like to solve the issue rather than just hide it. I appreciate everyone's advice! Like Z Gluhak said, my system is well grounded with zero noise. It's the XM receiver that's not cooperating. I took it out from behind the dash and set it on my lap while I tried all sorts of grounding and power locations. I also tried several different RCA cables. I believe the unit is bad, but thought maybe I'd missed something & wanted some second opinions. The filter seems to have done the trick for now. Unless someone comes up with a better idea, I'll just go back to Circuit City and ask for a new XM receiver. I already spoke to them on the phone and got nowhere. It's an hour drive, so I wanted to do everything possible before making the trip. Thanks everyone. P.S. Sorry I snapped at you, Masterson. I had pretty much lost my temper trying to fix the stupid thing and didn't mean to be an A-hole. Tony What's more likely? That an all-powerful mysterious god created the universe and then decided not to give any proof of his existence? Or, that he simply doesn't exist at all? And that we created him so that we wouldn't have to feel so small and alone. -Eleanor Arroway, Contact >> P.S. Sorry I snapped at you, Masterson. I had pretty much lost my temper >>trying to fix the stupid thing and didn't mean to be an A-hole. Not a problem Tony.... I also didn't realize that Circuit City was an hour away. (not that they are professionals). Glad you got most of it figured out. Masterson wrote: "Not a problem Tony....I also didn't realize that Circuit City was an hour away. (not that they are professionals). Glad you got most of it figured out." I wasn't expecting Circuit City to provide "the answer" because quite honestly, I'm assuming most of their installers are pretty inexperienced (as would any "big-box" electronics retailer). I was hoping they would say "Hey, bring it in and we'll let you try another receiver". Well, that didn't happen. Next time I'll just show up with my receipt and they can look at my install and draw their own conclusions. Tony SignatureWhat's more likely? That an all-powerful mysterious god created the universe and then decided not to give any proof of his existence? Or, that he simply doesn't exist at all? And that we created him so that we wouldn't have to feel so small and alone. -Eleanor Arroway, Contact > >> P.S. Sorry I snapped at you, Masterson. I had pretty much lost my > temper [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > > Glad you got most of it figured out. |
Reply to this Message |
 Sign In
 Join
 My Latest Posts My Monitored Threads My Blog My Photo Gallery My Profile My Homepage Start New Thread Enable EMail Alerts Rate this Thread
|
©2008 Advenet LLC Privacy Policy - Terms of Use
This website includes both content owned or controlled by Advenet as well as content owned or controlled by third parties.