Noise issues with Oudie 2 in a couple different aircraft

Is anybody else having noise issues when the Oudie is hard wired
to ships power. I know two aircraft that have the squelch turned on
to try to drown out the noise on the radio. I believe it is from the
Oudie while it is being charged. I recently added the Oudie to the
aircraft and now the radio will not cancel out after receiving a
transmission. I have tried wrapping the wiring of the oudie and the
gps cables to try andshield them but it isnt helping. After I turn off
the Oudie the radio returns to normal. Thanks, Doug

You might try ferrite beads (baluns) on the power cable to the Oudie
*and* on the power lines to the radio.

Or replace the Oudie with a Dell Streak 5 (sorry).

Dan Marotta

On 7/18/2014 10:19 PM, Doug Mueller wrote:
Is anybody else having noise issues when the Oudie is hard wired
to ships power. I know two aircraft that have the squelch turned on
to try to drown out the noise on the radio. I believe it is from the
Oudie while it is being charged. I recently added the Oudie to the
aircraft and now the radio will not cancel out after receiving a
transmission. I have tried wrapping the wiring of the oudie and the
gps cables to try andshield them but it isnt helping. After I turn off
the Oudie the radio returns to normal. Thanks, Doug

You did not say what you are using for a power converter. That is the first place to look, cheap power converters make lots of noise.

I had the Oudie powered through the supplied 12V to 5V interface cable supplied with the Oudie. I used a Y power cable from the battery to connect to the interface cable and the other side of the Y to ships power. I did not have the Oudie powered from the aircraft bus bar.

I used the Oudie supplied interface to power the Oudie and the Nano from the aircraft battery and also to move data between Oudie and Nano. Task data to the Nano and GPS data from Nano to Oudie, and final retrieval for final Nano igc file from Nano to Oudie. Nano on the USB side and the Oudie on the RJ 45 plug.

No noise on the radio.
Hope the helps.

BillT

On Friday, July 18, 2014 9:19:00 PM UTC-7, Doug Mueller wrote:
Is anybody else having noise issues when the Oudie is hard wired

to ships power. I know two aircraft that have the squelch turned on

to try to drown out the noise on the radio. I believe it is from the

Oudie while it is being charged. I recently added the Oudie to the

aircraft and now the radio will not cancel out after receiving a

transmission. I have tried wrapping the wiring of the oudie and the

gps cables to try andshield them but it isnt helping. After I turn off

the Oudie the radio returns to normal. Thanks, Doug

Besides adding the ferrite beads as already suggested, you should take a look at the power distribution. Ideally, all power returns (sometimes erroneously called "grounds") should come to a common single-point ground. Daisy-chaining these returns to various instruments will couple electrical noise from one to others. Have that single point connection as close to the battery as possible, with the lead going to the battery as large as practicable.
Tom

On Friday, July 18, 2014 9:19:00 PM UTC-7, Doug Mueller wrote:
Is anybody else having noise issues when the Oudie is hard wired

to ships power. I know two aircraft that have the squelch turned on

to try to drown out the noise on the radio. I believe it is from the

Oudie while it is being charged. I recently added the Oudie to the

aircraft and now the radio will not cancel out after receiving a

transmission. I have tried wrapping the wiring of the oudie and the

gps cables to try andshield them but it isnt helping. After I turn off

the Oudie the radio returns to normal. Thanks, Doug

Not an Oudie but the closely related Avier. I had used this last year without issue, just reinstalled it and now the radio breaks squelch with it on. After some tracing I have discovered it is the unit itself, radiating modulated RF, mostly down its data/power cable. Disconnecting the cable at the PDA end solves most of the problem. Disconnecting at the vario end sometimes solves it. Just touching a screwdriver (as an example) to the shield of the Avier mini-usb plug causes it with no other cable plugged in. Seems to be related to the LDC screen driver, as it is dependent to a large extent on what is being displayed on the screen. Switching the (switching) power supply to it on and off makes no difference. I was able to mitigate most of it by careful reroute of the data/power cable keeping it away from the radio and close to other conducting material. But it is a bit black magic. I didn't have a ferrite to try and will try that next opportunity.

Ferrite beads ARE magic.
Jim

On Sunday, July 20, 2014 5:29:59 PM UTC-7, jfitch wrote:
On Friday, July 18, 2014 9:19:00 PM UTC-7, Doug Mueller wrote:

Is anybody else having noise issues when the Oudie is hard wired



to ships power. I know two aircraft that have the squelch turned on



to try to drown out the noise on the radio. I believe it is from the



Oudie while it is being charged. I recently added the Oudie to the



aircraft and now the radio will not cancel out after receiving a



transmission. I have tried wrapping the wiring of the oudie and the



gps cables to try andshield them but it isnt helping. After I turn off



the Oudie the radio returns to normal. Thanks, Doug



Not an Oudie but the closely related Avier. I had used this last year without issue, just reinstalled it and now the radio breaks squelch with it on.. After some tracing I have discovered it is the unit itself, radiating modulated RF, mostly down its data/power cable. Disconnecting the cable at the PDA end solves most of the problem. Disconnecting at the vario end sometimes solves it. Just touching a screwdriver (as an example) to the shield of the Avier mini-usb plug causes it with no other cable plugged in. Seems to be related to the LDC screen driver, as it is dependent to a large extent on what is being displayed on the screen. Switching the (switching) power supply to it on and off makes no difference. I was able to mitigate most of it by careful reroute of the data/power cable keeping it away from the radio and close to other conducting material. But it is a bit black magic. I didn't have a ferrite to try and will try that next opportunity.

Ditto. Same issue with the Avier/Vertica2. I did try the ferrite beads as well and it did nothing. Sent in my antique Dittel radio to Nick in Florida who charged me $175 and sent it back with a clean bill of health, could not find anything wrong with the radio. I was going to mess with the internal squelch than but when plugged all in; it all worked!
Talking about magic?!
6PK

On Wednesday, July 23, 2014 5:49:00 PM UTC-6, 6PK wrote:
On Sunday, July 20, 2014 5:29:59 PM UTC-7, jfitch wrote:

On Friday, July 18, 2014 9:19:00 PM UTC-7, Doug Mueller wrote:



Is anybody else having noise issues when the Oudie is hard wired







to ships power. I know two aircraft that have the squelch turned on







to try to drown out the noise on the radio. I believe it is from the







Oudie while it is being charged. I recently added the Oudie to the







aircraft and now the radio will not cancel out after receiving a







transmission. I have tried wrapping the wiring of the oudie and the







gps cables to try andshield them but it isnt helping. After I turn off







the Oudie the radio returns to normal. Thanks, Doug







Not an Oudie but the closely related Avier. I had used this last year without issue, just reinstalled it and now the radio breaks squelch with it on. After some tracing I have discovered it is the unit itself, radiating modulated RF, mostly down its data/power cable. Disconnecting the cable at the PDA end solves most of the problem. Disconnecting at the vario end sometimes solves it. Just touching a screwdriver (as an example) to the shield of the Avier mini-usb plug causes it with no other cable plugged in. Seems to be related to the LDC screen driver, as it is dependent to a large extent on what is being displayed on the screen. Switching the (switching) power supply to it on and off makes no difference. I was able to mitigate most of it by careful reroute of the data/power cable keeping it away from the radio and close to other conducting material. But it is a bit black magic. I didn't have a ferrite to try and will try that next opportunity.



Ditto. Same issue with the Avier/Vertica2. I did try the ferrite beads as well and it did nothing. Sent in my antique Dittel radio to Nick in Florida who charged me $175 and sent it back with a clean bill of health, could not find anything wrong with the radio. I was going to mess with the internal squelch than but when plugged all in; it all worked!

Talking about magic?!

6PK

I also had occasional radio noise issues. When I unplugged the Vertica 2, the radio noise interference stopped. I then plugged the V2 back in, moved the 12V power converter over to the far side of the panel and all the noise issues stopped. With the V2 again plugged in, I moved the power converter again close to the radio, the noise interference started.
Now I have the 12V power converter moved to its new location....no noise interference on the radio.
I did try the Ferrite couples from Radio shack and they didn't help.

Best, #711.

Adding 2 Czech Korun:
Cheap switching power supplies work best in the "circular file".
Proximity and relative angle always play a part. Wires at right angles to each other tend to induce less. Parallel and close wires are a recipe for induction.
Another common wiring error is to use wires that are too long and keep the excess coiled up. If you must coil excess wire use a "figure eight" pattern.. Better yet, shorten the wire.
The use of a "star point ground" as mentioned earlier is very good, but the length of the wires that are not common (from the star point to the instruments) is best if short. The ground potential between instruments is then less.
Metal instrument panels will provide another ground reference to some instruments, and poor wiring elsewhere might give you entertainment you weren't looking for. For example old Cambridge CVA audio modules (I seem to remember suffix of 10) were a problem in metal panels. Using the push to talk indicated lift. Dave Ellis described that fix (cut a trace on the circuit board) decades ago.
Many but not all aircraft radios have balanced microphone inputs. Essentially, the microphone has a positive, a negative and a ground connection. The radio cancels out the noise induced on the + and - wires, so connecting all three wires from the microphone to the radio helps keep noise down in the microphone circuit.
Jim