DAB and reception

cheechy

cheechy

A2OC Donor
Spent today removing a no name dab and replacing with a pure highway 600. Whilst the old one was connected to a glass mount aerial I was forced to move to front wire stick on due to pure properitary plug system. I also enquired about adapters to take to the glass mount but nothing available.

Anyways irrelevant I thought. Reviews good and I tested before all fitting in place. I was getting 5 to 6 bars with 100% quality on all stations.

Installed into my connects under the cover in front of the gearstick as before. System is that power is via usb, with 3.5mm cable from the pure unit into a a/b switch, then into a interference reduction unit, to connects2 unit then into the head unit.

Reception now awful. I suspect interference has been introduced somewhere. Testing was without a/ b switch but also no engine all be it I tested without engine on in the same location as before and it’s much worse.

Anything to suggest to reduce interference or should I look to jimmy rig the glass aerial into the setup?

Mighty frustrating this...if anything after ripping out the old unit I now have worse reception :(

Cheers
 
Yes I suspect my previous dab could have been improved feels to me like a power supply might be causing issues... might need to remove one by one to find out if any are introducing feedback
 
cheechy said:
Spent today removing a no name dab and replacing with a pure highway 600. ..
Mighty frustrating this...if anything after ripping out the old unit I now have worse reception :(

I'm about to fit one of these picked up while there was a decent deal on the prices around New Year - still at the installation planning stage. Having a problem getting my head around the concept of fitting the magnetic lead that obviously won't stick to the bodywork - what was your solution to this? Could it be that you've not got a clean connection that is causing some of the interference?

Apart from this, I note that you're using the "connects" lead to plumb this into the head unit. I was thinking about picking up the handbrake surround with the tray / slots for satnav switches as a means to source a power connection from the lighter socket and hide the wiring underneath, although I wonder if I'm not now over-complicating things.
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I wedged the grounding part via a washer then stuck down with tape on the n/s a pillar at the top under foam - its pressed hard against the bodywork but I do get that it might not be tight enough despite my best efforts

I did think about mounting a bolt on the pillar in some of the holes but was struggling to think about how I'd get a nut behind to tighten.

I took power from the fusebox for info via USB power connections piggy backed onto various circuits. I think I may have to experiment by disconnecting the Dashcam - I think when I tested earlier the dashcam was unplugged now i think about it. I read around more since I posted and people do seem to have issues with dirty power supplies
 
My radio reception was terrible (non DAB) when I used a USB power adapter in the cigarette lighter. Seemed to be caused by the unit itself rather than any items that were plugged into it.
 
My Highway 600 works like a dream, with no interference and almost complete-country reception (drops out over the high bits of the A66, but that's it).
I'm no RF engineer, but I know you can't use an FM aerial with a DAB set, so I suspect trying to cobble the old car aerial into the Highway won't work. In keeping with the A2 tradition, have you got a good earth on the main black box for the Highway? I drilled into the extrusion that runs down into the A pillar, scraped the paint off, used a star washer, self-tapping screw and Vaseline to get my earth point (obviously you can't use the magnetic earth thing they give you with the kit)

Best of uck

Mike
 
Just to verify the old DAB unit and aerial was a DAB aerial not an FM aerial. Will try the USB power first when I go into the car a little later (easy to try) and go from there. Agree that I'm also not convinced by the earthing onto the chassis in my car so might retry as you've described Mike.
 
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I have used the magnetic earth lead that came with the kit, it's resting on a bolt that holds the open sky in (only metal I could find) I had to extend it a bit as it's only a short wire. reception is excellent with no interference, maybe being mounted at the back is helping with that.
 
steveb said:
I have used the magnetic earth lead that came with the kit, it's resting on a bolt that holds the open sky in (only metal I could find) I had to extend it a bit as it's only a short wire. reception is excellent with no interference, maybe being mounted at the back is helping with that.
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How did you extend out of interest?
 
With a piece of normal wire, pushed into the earth / terminal and just wrapped round the aerial terminal as see if it works measure. I only fitted it Friday. I will make a proper job of it now I know it works
 
steveb said:
With a piece of normal wire, pushed into the earth / terminal and just wrapped round the aerial terminal as see if it works measure. I only fitted it Friday. I will make a proper job of it now I know it works
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So you extended by using a wire against the magnet?
 
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We have similar issues, the DAB interface sits under the plastic in front of the gear stick and is powered by USB from the head unit, the DAB aerial is plugged directly into that via a converter to get to the correct jack plug. The aerial is a through the glass type mounted on the rear panel of the open sky and it works to an extent, but as you drive the reception becomes less and less with crackling making it unusable. I had a few emails with DABonwheels and they say a fixed aerial rather than a glass aerial may improve things, so now we are considering drilling the glass of the open sky panel.
 
Kleynie said:
We have similar issues, the DAB interface sits under the plastic in front of the gear stick and is powered by USB from the head unit, the DAB aerial is plugged directly into that via a converter to get to the correct jack plug. The aerial is a through the glass type mounted on the rear panel of the open sky and it works to an extent, but as you drive the reception becomes less and less with crackling making it unusable. I had a few emails with DABonwheels and they say a fixed aerial rather than a glass aerial may improve things, so now we are considering drilling the glass of the open sky panel.
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I have heard that it is impossible to drill a hole in the oss glass as it is toughened glass and just shatters



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
depronman said:
I have heard that it is impossible to drill a hole in the oss glass as it is toughened glass and just shatters



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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We've got a few spare panels, some aren't usable so we'll most likely try it on one of those first, and then if it works, apply it to my roof.
 
I have a pair of all glass doors into the conservatory which are (have to be) toughened glass. My point is the hinges are bolted through holes in the glass. However if these holes were drilled before the toughening process is an unknown. Incidentally the term 'toughened' glass is ill named as it is actually softer than ordinary glass to enable an accidental fracture to safely crumble into "sugar lumps". I would try (if you have a spare panel) to make holes but not drill but grind with a diamond tapped drill from screwfix and the the like for £10 ish. The key would be to keep it wet with a stream of water to remove heat.

Andy

Edit. Just checked and prices have doubled since I last bought one!, and go by the name of tile drill. Toolstation have non diamond tip tile and glass drills for just a few pounds but the consensus on the internet is with Paul, don't try.
 
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Only other solution I guess is via a hole in the roof.

Confirmed btw that reception improves with dashcam unplugged so will need to review all usb transformers installed to see which ones can stay.

After that it's review earthing point to try and improve... last throw will be trying to use dab glass mount with highway 600 but that will destroy the existing aerial so is a last resort. I note I can buy another but cost is around 15 quid... For a wire attached to a plug :)
 
Andrew said:
I have a pair of all glass doors into the conservatory which are (have to be) toughened glass. My point is the hinges are bolted through holes in the glass. However if these holes were drilled before the toughening process is an unknown. Incidentally the term 'toughened' glass is ill named as it is actually softer than ordinary glass to enable an accidental fracture to safely crumble into "sugar lumps". I would try (if you have a spare panel) to make holes but not drill but grind with a diamond tapped drill from screwfix and the the like for £10 ish. The key would be to keep it wet with a stream of water to remove heat.

Andy

Edit. Just checked and prices have doubled since I last bought one!, and go by the name of tile drill. Toolstation have non diamond tip tile and glass drills for just a few pounds but the consensus on the internet is with Paul, don't try.
Click to expand...

I have a couple of those drills and the suction pad to hold the drill in place on the glass. I've drilled glass before, but it is an unknown, like you say.

Ian
 
cheechy said:
So you extended by using a wire against the magnet?
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No, the magnet has a short wire on it with a lucar connecter which is meant to push on the terminal on the glass mount arieal. i mearly extended this wire. The wire with the round magnet on the end at the antenna is a push fit on the antenna so easy to extend
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Today I pretty much proved that RFI is killing dab reception in the car. Unplugged everything and used the supplied usb 12v plug in to power the highway 600 and reception , even with the stick on windscreen aerial was massively improved.

I then rigged up temp cables from the dab and dash cam to the 12v USB adapter and thought “job done” but alas no. Plugged the dashcam into the adapter and rfi surge was huge. So not only are the usb power supplies spewing rfi but the dashcam itself is doing likewise even when the power supply to it isn’t!

I had thought about taking the aerial to the NS window but that’s a big job if it doesn’t work as I’ll need to mutilate the aerial that comes with the dab. Aside from wrapping the dashcam in tin foil (!!) any other options people have tried?

At least I’ve figured out what’s going on now just need to find a solution :)
 
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