Insight needed into radio inteference

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landyacht.318
landyacht.318 Solar Expert Posts: 82 ✭✭✭✭
in General Solar Power Topics #1
Well more like inteference with TV channels below 6.

Here's the situation. I've got my SB2512i mounted 6 inches above the IPN pro remote inside my camper van. The 2512i is inside the grounded to chassis metal electrical box which itself is contained within a 1/2 inch thick teak box. I have a ferrite ring on the output leads. The IPN remote is mounted ungrounded inside a teak box.

When attempting to aquire channel 6 at night, placing my hand on the face of the 2512i charge controller vastly improves the picture quality. Placing my other hand inside the cabinet near the back of the box helps a little more. If I place my hand on and infront of the IPN pro remote the Picture quality takes a dive.

Partially covering the 2512i with aluminum foil helped slightly. If I attached a 6 foot lead to the aluminum foil reception improved more. If I touched the lead to a known good ground reception faltered.

What is going on? Should I try ungrounding the 2512i's electrical box?

Any Ideas? Channel 6 is good for my sanity.
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  • mike95490
    mike95490 Solar Expert Posts: 9,583 ✭✭✭✭✭
    #2
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    Re: Insight needed into radio inteference
    landyacht.318 wrote: »
    Any Ideas? Channel 6 is good for my sanity.

    Just wait for analog TV in US to be displaced with HD TV. You think ch 6 is bad now, wait till you try to watch DTV with less than a 95% perfect signal.

    You are already on your way diagnosing the problem, knowing which box your hand shields, and which it conducts. Do you only have 1 ferrite ring, or 1 on each lead ?
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  • landyacht.318
    landyacht.318 Solar Expert Posts: 82 ✭✭✭✭
    #3
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    Re: Insight needed into radio inteference

    My leads from the controller to the battery/ shunt are twisted together, about 15 twists per foot. I have the ferrite ring covering both twisted wires on the controller side as well as the battery/shunt side. Removing them seems to make little if any difference in noise levels.

    Taking the fuse out of the controllers' lead cancels all the noise and I get a good signal, but then I lose all my settings. Not a desirable option. I am not eagerly awaiting digital broadcast TV.
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  • niel
    niel Solar Expert Posts: 10,300 ✭✭✭✭
    #4
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    Re: Insight needed into radio inteference

    it seems you have found it. it is radiating after the controller like as if the wires and such after the fuse were an antenna. it may help using something like a .01uf ceramic disc capacitor across the plus and minus of the controller output leads along with the ferrites, but placed inside the controller casing. if this works some then you can add even more capacitance if you like by either adding more capacitors or get one with a larger value of the same type ceramic discs. the pv input leads may also be radiating, but i doubt that is your problem. try physically moving the 2 apart from one another and use an outside antenna for the tv that can use the 75 ohm coax cable to help prevent the radiated energy from the controller getting to the tv. it may be a case that you will have to live with it too short of getting another controller or another tv that'll bypass the vhf problem by receiving the uhf dtv.
    also please be very sure you have good clean connections for both the solar setup and the tv setup as bad connections can cause some problems like this too.
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