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Old April 29th 10, 10:32 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Darryl Ramm
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Posts: 2,403
Default radio interference

On Apr 29, 1:44*pm, John Smith wrote:
To be clear, since the TruTrak uses a solid state gyro, it does not
contain a motor to spin a gyro.


I don't know the TruTrak, but I suspect it uses an oscillating piezo
crystal, which implies a pretty high frequency electronic circuit, which
might or might not interfere with the radio.


I don't know what MEMS gyro sensor is in the TruTrak but may only be
10s of kHz or so. And with very low drive current so not much power
involved, and the oscillator electronics tends to be integrated onto
the sensor assembly so not much chance for harmonic leakage.

If the device is putting out RF, specially on the power supply leads I
am much more prone to think of a failed DC/DC (switchmode) converter
where the power involved is much more significant than the oscillator
circuit inside the MEMS sensor, and possibly chopped at a higher
frequency, and all conveniently close to the input wiring to leak back
if something has gone wrong.

Diagnosing the culprit here should be straight forward.

Darryl