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I got one of these yesterday:
http://www.amazon.com/Google-Nexus-One-Retractable-Charger/dp/B002W52DVK/
I was playing some audio through the aux jack connected to my car's speakers. As soon as I plugged in the charger, the audio was distorted. It sounded very electronic/mechanical; hard to explain. As soon as I unplugged, the audio went back to normal.
Is this how all car chargers operate? Or is this one defective?
Does anyone know of a similarly priced car charger that doesn't have this issue?
your car audio system and charger are sharing ground. I don't recall the exact solution...so search forum... solution is on the forum.
EDIT: I just remembered... change the ground on your car stereo.... just attach it to some other metal piece.
arkavat said:
change the ground on your car stereo.... just attach it to some other metal piece.
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Sorry, attach what?
Not too knowledgeable about car stuff.
Paul22000 said:
Sorry, attach what?
Not too knowledgeable about car stuff.
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your car audio system should have bunch of wires in the back. Look in the user manual, one of them will be "ground wire". It is either attached to the "ground" wire coming from your car or just attached to nearest metal piece. usually a screw etc... in the vicinity of the audio system. Just remove the wire and attach it to some other metal.
If you don't want to mess with your car audio, do the same thing to charger outlet. try to locate the wires coming into the charger outlet. One of them is ground. change it's location.
If you are not too comfortable with this, just as your car mechanic to do it. it is fairly easy if you already know which wire is what... so it should be an easy task for him.
So all car chargers with the N1 will behave this way?
Paul22000 said:
So all car chargers with the N1 will behave this way?
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Lord I hope not, I was in the market for a good car charger too..
ChillRays said:
Lord I hope not, I was in the market for a good car charger too..
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the problem is not with N1 but rather with the electrical arrangement in a particular car. I do not have this problem,but, unfortunately for paul, all chargers will cause this interference.
Isolate the Ground!!! It's not rocket science, and it sure as hell ain't the n1....
So there's definitely 0% chance that it's the charger and getting a different one wouldn't make a difference?
I tried just plugging in the power, without any audio playing, and the speakers play a lot of metallic interference garbage. Unplug/plug in, plays weird sounds every time.
Paul22000 said:
So there's definitely 0% chance that it's the charger and getting a different one wouldn't make a difference?
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Try this to know for sure:
1) don't connect charger, and play music through car speakers
2) use charger and play music through battery powered speakers
Both should turn out ok.
For information about ground loops see this pdf:
www.ebtechaudio.com/findloop.pdf
I tried just plugging in the power, without any audio playing, and the speakers play a lot of metallic interference garbage. Unplug/plug in, plays weird sounds every time.
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A ground loop is simply an antenna formed by the cable from ground, to your phone (charger), to your radio, and back to ground. The noise you're hearing when you don't play music is random noise from any and all radio waves that might pass through this giant loop antenna.
Think of all the stuff that emits RF noise: ignition/sparks, power supplies, phones, BT, wifi, electrical mains and poor connections. All these faint signals are picked up by your giant ground loop and amplified by your radio.
There are also some audio ground loop isolators, but I don't know how well they work.
www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062214
I know this thread is old and dead, but I just wanted to thank arkavat and xdZKu7 for their answers. I've had interference since I got my car and plugged my DHD into the aux in, and it's been driving me mad for ages. The sound is crystal clear until I plug the charger in and then I get some nasty alternator whining. I searched and found this thread last night, today I went with arkavat's answer and I found the cigarette lighter's ground wire and earthed it nearer by, now the alternator noise is gone almost entirely. I'm going to look into what I can do to reduce ground loop antenna noise also, although it's bearable for now. Thanks guys.
I bought the "official" OEM HTC micro USB CC C200 at amazon.
And it works fine. No problems with audio and navigation so far.
I want to use the SGS in the car. My radio has a line in, and I want to charge the SGS through the official charger.
When I connect the Galaxy S to the charger, there is a small voltage (0.3 volt) between the line out ground and the ground of the car.
The radio input ground is at 0 volts.
Now the question is: do people just connect this up, or is that a risk and should I make an audio cable with some capacitors in series?
jutezak said:
I want to use the SGS in the car. My radio has a line in, and I want to charge the SGS through the official charger.
When I connect the Galaxy S to the charger, there is a small voltage (0.3 volt) between the line out ground and the ground of the car.
The radio input ground is at 0 volts.
Now the question is: do people just connect this up, or is that a risk and should I make an audio cable with some capacitors in series?
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I can't comment about whether it is safe or not, but I have the car charger (cigarette lighter) and have listened to my music many times with no problems through the audio line-in. I did notice a slight humming noise when listening, which can be annoying at times, but other than that everything was fine.
Hopefully someone else can answer in more technical terms.
~Gregory
I've tried it with many aftermarket chargers - it works but there is this noise that drives me crazy, only when power is plugged in. I'd love to get rid of it somehow... If anybody knows - please share information on this.
If you're like me, you use your Fascinate as an audio source for your car stereo. I have done a LOT of research into the whine sound and know it is from the alternator and I have seen things to go inline with the audio, but this degrades sound, which I definitely did not want. So, without further delay, here is the link:
http://n4maa.us/alternator.htm
It is from a HAM radio guy and this puts an inductor (which causes frequencies only below a certain point to pass through) and a capacitor (which smooths out the electrical current in this case - many that have built speakers before know that this is a high pass filter as well - which means that in this "kit" it takes frequencies above a certain point and they go to ground if my electrical schematic reading is correct (If I'm wrong, lemme know!)).
To sum it up - this gets rid of the whine you get when trying to charge or cradle your phone in your car while it is hooked to the aux in of your stereo.
You'll have to find a way to put this inline with the electrical supply to your device (like get an extension cord for a cigarette lighter plug with male on one end, female on the other and splice this in the middle. NOTE: the red wire attaches to the wire that feeds the tip of the cigarette adapter. the clips or outside of it is the ground, which is the line the black wire goes to. That said, if you have issues, just reply to this thread.
when I get a little extra time I'm gonna give this a try, that whining drives me absolutely crazy.
mlarma said:
If you're like me, you use your Fascinate as an audio source for your car stereo. I have done a LOT of research into the whine sound and know it is from the alternator and I have seen things to go inline with the audio, but this degrades sound, which I definitely did not want. So, without further delay, here is the link:
http://n4maa.us/alternator.htm
It is from a HAM radio guy and this puts an inductor (which causes frequencies only below a certain point to pass through) and a capacitor (which smooths out the electrical current in this case - many that have built speakers before know that this is a high pass filter as well - which means that in this "kit" it takes frequencies above a certain point and they go to ground if my electrical schematic reading is correct (If I'm wrong, lemme know!)).
To sum it up - this gets rid of the whine you get when trying to charge or cradle your phone in your car while it is hooked to the aux in of your stereo.
You'll have to find a way to put this inline with the electrical supply to your device (like get an extension cord for a cigarette lighter plug with male on one end, female on the other and splice this in the middle. NOTE: the red wire attaches to the wire that feeds the tip of the cigarette adapter. the clips or outside of it is the ground, which is the line the black wire goes to. That said, if you have issues, just reply to this thread.
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Wowsers! That's a BIG filter - probably overkill for your phone or other music player. Not that it won't work, but you could probably experiment with smaller (cheaper, stealthier) components and still get rid of the wine. Might be interesting to build one in an Altoids box or something, maybe ...
For reference, my 100-watt ham radio draws slightly less than 20A when transmitting at full power.
I heard the whine sound comes from the wires current (the Power and RCA cables) running side by side ...I got rid of it just by running power on left side of car (cuz my batt is located in front left) to the amp then RCA on right side ...got rid of it and haven't heard it since...
2 Kicker CVRs 12'
Monoblock 750.1 Kicker amp
Custom sealed box tuned
Sony deck
Yellow Cap batt
5 Ferad Massive cap
Sent from my GB MIUI Fascinate
Anyone know how to relieve the whizzing I hear when playing audio through the headphone jack while charging through the cig lighter? You know, its kind of a high pitch whine that goes up and down in pitch with rpms. Is there a filter? My jack is connected through the back of the head unit via USA spec pa12.
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74Eldo said:
Anyone know how to relieve the whizzing I hear when playing audio through the headphone jack while charging through the cig lighter? You know, its kind of a high pitch whine that goes up and down in pitch with rpms. Is there a filter? My jack is connected through the back of the head unit via USA spec pa12..
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Buy one of these to cut out the electrical interference.
Thanks. Yeah I actually took the big leap and googled it after I posted this. Guess i was just bored initially. I ordered something similar. Its called a ground loop isolator and they generally run $10-20.
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Ground loop isolators are kind of a bandaid fix for a larger problem with installation and actually slightly lowers the output of your input device. The noise is actually caused by a difference in voltage between your audio system and the lighter port you plug your charger in to. It can usually be fixed by changing the cigarette lighter ports ground and power wires to the same power and ground wires the radio uses (If the noise is only heard when listening to audio from the phone, and not when listening to AM or FM). External amplifiers complicate maters significantly, but generally, ground all audio devices at the same point, and keep power and signal wires separated by at least 6"
I have an Xtrons PF75ATTAR and it has developed a fault. It boots up fine and everything works as it should however there is no sound.
I have reinstalled the original Audi head unit and this works fine so the fault seems to lie with the Xtrons unit.
I contacted Xtrons and as I am not the original purchaser they can offer no support at all and suggested I buy a new unit. It is just still within 12-months warranty so I am trying to get hold of the guy I bought it from to see if he can arrange an RMA, however I need to try other options just in case I can't get hold of him or he won't cooperate.
I am not much of an electronics person (I have a soldering iron and a multimeter....) so I am not sure how to troubleshoot this.
The unit has a 'dongle' between the audio out on the rear of the head unit. This is encased in heat-shrink and I am not sure what it does, but is inline with the audio outs so I am wondering whether it might be this that is at fault?
Any help is appreciated
Andy
ADB100 said:
I have an Xtrons PF75ATTAR and it has developed a fault. It boots up fine and everything works as it should however there is no sound.
I have reinstalled the original Audi head unit and this works fine so the fault seems to lie with the Xtrons unit.
I contacted Xtrons and as I am not the original purchaser they can offer no support at all and suggested I buy a new unit. It is just still within 12-months warranty so I am trying to get hold of the guy I bought it from to see if he can arrange an RMA, however I need to try other options just in case I can't get hold of him or he won't cooperate.
I am not much of an electronics person (I have a soldering iron and a multimeter....) so I am not sure how to troubleshoot this.
The unit has a 'dongle' between the audio out on the rear of the head unit. This is encased in heat-shrink and I am not sure what it does, but is inline with the audio outs so I am wondering whether it might be this that is at fault?
Any help is appreciated
Andy
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Hi there, do you have any pics of this "dongle"?
I'm just wondering if the speaker outputs have been converted to a low level output so they can be used as a line-in on an amp. If this is the case then the speaker outputs will have been spliced and effectively diverted from the loom which would result in no sound until you either use the converted outputs into a separate amp or reconnect them to the original wires so that you use the standard speaker outputs from the head unit.
I may be well of the mark here but seeing as I have just completed an install in my friends van with this same "spliced" setup, its worth checking out.
sirleeofroy said:
Hi there, do you have any pics of this "dongle"?
I'm just wondering if the speaker outputs have been converted to a low level output so they can be used as a line-in on an amp. If this is the case then the speaker outputs will have been spliced and effectively diverted from the loom which would result in no sound until you either use the converted outputs into a separate amp or reconnect them to the original wires so that you use the standard speaker outputs from the head unit.
I may be well of the mark here but seeing as I have just completed an install in my friends van with this same "spliced" setup, its worth checking out.
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I didn't take these pictures myself, however this is the dongle.
It was working fine for about 6-months and I haven't changed anything. I got in the car one day and there was no sound. After about 20 minutes I started to hear some pops and feint audio. I stopped the car and turned the ignition off for a minute or so and then started it back up and the sound returned. The next time I got in the car there was no audio and stopping and starting didn't fix it.
ADB100 said:
I didn't take these pictures myself, however this is the dongle.
It was working fine for about 6-months and I haven't changed anything. I got in the car one day and there was no sound. After about 20 minutes I started to hear some pops and feint audio. I stopped the car and turned the ignition off for a minute or so and then started it back up and the sound returned. The next time I got in the car there was no audio and stopping and starting didn't fix it.
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Ok, that's not what I was thinking....
That looks like the breakout for your line-out, do you run an amp with your head unit or just use the internal amp?
Your description of pops and feint audio with eventual lack of audio sounds like something has blown
sirleeofroy said:
Ok, that's not what I was thinking....
That looks like the breakout for your line-out, do you run an amp with your head unit or just use the internal amp?
Your description of pops and feint audio with eventual lack of audio sounds like something has blown
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My car has a Bose amp (factory fit).
Any ideas how to troubleshoot?
ADB100 said:
My car has a Bose amp (factory fit).
Any ideas how to troubleshoot?
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Ok, I'm not familiar with Audi setups but I'm guessing the Bose amp still requires a 12v remote to switch it on, usually a blue wire from the head unit. Could be worth checking that for 12v on ignition.
My PX5 unit effectively has 2 blue remote wires, one called "ANT" and one called "AMP SWITCH" or something like that..... might be worth swapping those over if you have two like I do.
How is audio supplied to the amp? Is it via the line out RCA's or via the loom/harness?
Another thing to look at, and I know this will sound super silly but on my unit a couple of the connections on the rear are similar to one another and it could be relatively easy to plug something into the wrong port. I did it and wondered why my USB didn't work! I'm sure this is not the case but still worth checking.
sirleeofroy said:
Ok, I'm not familiar with Audi setups but I'm guessing the Bose amp still requires a 12v remote to switch it on, usually a blue wire from the head unit. Could be worth checking that for 12v on ignition.
My PX5 unit effectively has 2 blue remote wires, one called "ANT" and one called "AMP SWITCH" or something like that..... might be worth swapping those over if you have two like I do.
How is audio supplied to the amp? Is it via the line out RCA's or via the loom/harness?
Another thing to look at, and I know this will sound super silly but on my unit a couple of the connections on the rear are similar to one another and it could be relatively easy to plug something into the wrong port. I did it and wondered why my USB didn't work! I'm sure this is not the case but still worth checking.
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The audio is supplied to the amp via a quad-lock connector. So the audio from the rear of the unit connects to this dongle on one side, out the other side of the dongle are four female RCA's. These are connected to four male RCA's that connect to the quad-lock connector. There are two blue wires labelled 'AMP-CON' that have male/female push-fit connectors and these are connected together - I am guessing this is the 12v to switch the amp on? There is also another blue wire labelled 'ANT' with a push-fit connector. This is connected to a green wire coming out of the antenna facra cable.
It was working and nothing has been disturbed so I am fairly sure its not been wired up incorrectly. I think something has broken...
I'll check with a multimeter that I am getting 12v on the AMP-CON cable from the back of the amp first.
Andy
OK, so armed with multimeter I decided to have a play with this earlier. It does appear that the AMP-CON wire is not delivering 12V and therefore not turning the Bose amp on.
If I disconnect the 12v wire from the dual fakra antenna adapter the sound kicks in, however the radio reception is dreadful. I believe the 12V wire is there to power an antenna signal booster integral to the car. If I measure the voltage with the 12v wire disconnected from the fakra adapter its 10.something volts, if I measure it with the 12v wire connected its 0.something volts. Is it likely this fakra adapter is faulty? It looks like a passive component?
Cheers
Andy
ADB100 said:
OK, so armed with multimeter I decided to have a play with this earlier. It does appear that the AMP-CON wire is not delivering 12V and therefore not turning the Bose amp on.
If I disconnect the 12v wire from the dual fakra antenna adapter the sound kicks in, however the radio reception is dreadful. I believe the 12V wire is there to power an antenna signal booster integral to the car. If I measure the voltage with the 12v wire disconnected from the fakra adapter its 10.something volts, if I measure it with the 12v wire connected its 0.something volts. Is it likely this fakra adapter is faulty? It looks like a passive component?
Cheers
Andy
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Ah good, I'm glad that you've narrowed it down! As far as I'm aware, these wires are 12v switched and are there simply to provide the signal for whatever device to turn on. If the AMP-CON wire has no voltage, you may just be able to use the same wire you use for your Antenna. I have done this before where I used the 12v switched wire from an antenna in the boot instead of running a remote wire the full length of the car.
I would be curious to find out why the AMP-CON wire does not supply voltage, it could be down to a broken wire somewhere or even a dodgy solder within the unit.
sirleeofroy said:
Ah good, I'm glad that you've narrowed it down! As far as I'm aware, these wires are 12v switched and are there simply to provide the signal for whatever device to turn on. If the AMP-CON wire has no voltage, you may just be able to use the same wire you use for your Antenna. I have done this before where I used the 12v switched wire from an antenna in the boot instead of running a remote wire the full length of the car.
I would be curious to find out why the AMP-CON wire does not supply voltage, it could be down to a broken wire somewhere or even a dodgy solder within the unit.
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Hi, thanks for taking the time to help out. I don't think I described the cabling correctly. The AMP-CON and the ANT come from the same pin in the connector that plugs into the rear of the head unit (one wire comes out and then it splits into two and there is a bit of heat-shrink around the join. If I disconnect the ANT cable from the green wire that comes from the fakra adapter there is sound and the cable goes +10v. If I connect it back up there is a low 'thud' as it makes contact, the sound stops and the voltage drops to 0.something. It seems the fakra adapter is dragging the voltage down, hence why I think this adapter might be faulty.
Andy
I have the same issue now. We’re you able to resolve this?
I am also having this issue.. My HU turns on. Everything works perfectly... Just no sound. None at all. No factory amp. In a 2002 Silverado. I don't know if its the internal amp or what. Ideas?