Hi All,
just got the second part of this car kit turn up today from totalpda
The kit does not come with a window mount so you will have to source one, but the fixings do have the standard "AMPS" pattern 4 hole screw mounting, so pretty much anything on the 'bay will "do"
There are 2 cables - one for 12/24v DC, terminated in two open wires , and an antenna cable with the usual ..er...FME(?) trailing plug attached to it . The base plate also comes with an in-line fuse holder to make things safer, but you have to provide your own scotch-loks or terminal strip ! theres no provision for connection to an external microphone or line in of the car stereo (Ive been *****ing to carcomm since the HTC TYTN for the latter) However,I have a bluetooh enabled stereo now so this no longer bothers me
The antenna coupler is (I assume) capacitively connected (via an air gap) to the radio antenna but produced a very useful 5dBm CPICH power improvement when wired up to a tri-band band glass mount antenna (verified in the Desires extended engineering hidden menu)
flaws? well just one major goof!
A few times I have used the rear facing camera on my phones, suitably cradled, to capture video of bad driving or other crimes committed in front of me .
no chance of doing that now! the antenna booster section obscures it totally!!
overall though - rather good - although I would have liked to have seen composite video out so i can feed the sat nav output into my flip up TV screen like I "jury rigged" my old htc raphael
hope that helps someone out there - any questions just ask and I will try to answer them
regards
Rob
--
MW0CQU
Photos would be good, thanks
Photos would be good, thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
a fair point, well made ;-)
ok lts see if this will work:
First pic - The empty cradle straight on
the two wires are DC power and antenna cable as described above
Second pic - A side view. odd angles due to door pillar and me being too lazy to unstick the mount. The antenna bulge is part of the "front" plate the back piece is thin and rectangular in section. the whole concept of the multi-basys is to have interchangable front pieces as you change phones over time.
Third pic - Phone fitted , showing a Map
Fourth pic - showing the flaw in that you can put the unit horizontal but you cant use it to video things happening in front of you as the antenna bulge obscures 50% of the view of the camera
hope that helps
Cheers
Rob
--
MW0CQU
All - My S3 got wet and went into a bootloop. I sent it to Samsung and they sent it back without fixing it claiming that it was too expensive to fix. It is up to me to fix it myself.
I managed to resolve the bootloop problem by opening it up and letting it air out. (see other thread for details)
Question - the only problem I have now is that when I rotate the bezel, it doesn't register anything on the watch. The connector/ sensor seems to be dead.
Anyone know how I could fix this? Do I need a new entire display unit (Samsung Gear S3 frontier (SM-R760) Display unit complete grey GH97-19658A) or is there something else I should try? A part to replace?
I did take off the bezel and I cleaned it. (did it very carefully as there are pieces that can be easily lost)
The watch works well and I can do almost everything without the bezel working but would like to get it working to 100%.
Thanks for any ideas people may have.
Same problem
same problem on my Galaxy Watch. Any update on how to fix?
redbeard07 said:
same problem on my Galaxy Watch. Any update on how to fix?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I took mine apart again hoping I could get the bezel to work but no luck.
I assume the sensor connects to the top part of the watch. There are two connecters that attach to the main part of the watch, a big one and a much smaller one. Perhaps the smaller connector is the problem.
Not a super big deal but I would love to get my watch working at 100%.
Any Samsung techs with an idea?
I figured out that my problem was just that I was wearing a watch band with a magnetic clasp. If the magnet was too close to the watch, but bezel wouldn't work. If I switched bands everything was fine.
redbeard07 said:
I figured out that my problem was just that I was wearing a watch band with a magnetic clasp. If the magnet was too close to the watch, but bezel wouldn't work. If I switched bands everything was fine.
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Click to collapse
You sneaky son of a gun. That worked.
For what it's worth: the bezel sensor is a set of 3 hall effect sensors. If you take the bezel ring off the watch (various youtube guides show how) and look at the underside, you'll see 24 indents and 8 of these (1 in 3) will be a different color. If your watch isn't registering anything, these magnetic spots may be de-magnetized.
https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Samsung+Galaxy+Watch+Teardown/117519 <-- explained here (see step 15 ... and if you look closely at the bottom right of step 8 first picture you can see the 3 hall effect sensors in place)
On my watch it sometimes didn't register the bezel turning. I thought it might just be gummed up. I eventually noticed that it would miss 3 "clicks" in every rotation.
Now I finally understand why: one (only one of eight magnets) has become de-magnetized and the hall effect sensor won't read it as it passes across.
Now I just need to work out how to re-magnetize the one spot.
V
Since few days ago, I started to experience somo problem with the USB DAB+ adapter. Sometimes it was not detected at both cold or hot startup. Then, since yesterday the DAB adapter is not detected anymore by the HU. It was correctly working before I switched off the car. After few minutes, I started again but no more connection to the adapter is performed.
I know that some GS units, has problem with USB at low outside temperatures. This is my case during winter, but now we have more than 25°C and, when it happens, I found that all USB are not working.
The adapter is connected to the rear of the HU (OTG) USB port. In this case, all the other USB are working, thus it could be the adapter or a bad connection.
Any ideas ?
Thanks
Car was sitting under the sun for the whole day. I checked several time if DAB was working again, without success. No it started to work again...
I doubt that this is a temperature related issue. Maybe a loose wire. Have you checked all physical connections?
realzoulou said:
I doubt that this is a temperature related issue. Maybe a loose wire. Have you checked all physical connections?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Found the issue. All 4 pins on the usb were disconnected. Probably vibration and temperature variations caused it. Resoldered and it is working again.
I discovered another interesting thing. When the radio screen is off the signal is max but when is on, then the signal is attenuated a lot. Probably the screen controller is generating interferences on the same DAB frequency. One solution could be to move the dongle far from the head unit and to use some metal sheet as shield. I will test better the issue, switching off the screen in the few places were in my city il loss the signal. The screenshot below are taken from my Note 10 running dab app inside the car. Anyone has similar experience?View attachment 5029233
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"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
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"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
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View attachment 5029231
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Good that you found the problem and were able to fix it.
For the noise that a screen backlight can cause to the DAB signal, see the posts from @DrRobin in the DAB-Z thread, especially post#2424
His unit is a Xtrons TA709IPL
realzoulou said:
Good that you found the problem and were able to fix it.
For the noise that a screen backlight can cause to the DAB signal, see the posts from @DrRobin in the DAB-Z thread, especially post#2424
His unit is a Xtrons TA709IPL
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Moving it won't help much, without suppressing the noise, noise will travel down the cable.
Supress by decoupling via capacitors and inductors on the supply lines and supply for the USB, at the source.
marchnz said:
Moving it won't help much, without suppressing the noise, noise will travel down the cable.
Supress by decoupling via capacitors and inductors on the supply lines and supply for the USB, at the source.
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Click to collapse
Did you solve theproblem in this way ?
I have a px5 xtrons too.
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royalhawk2002 said:
Did you solve theproblem in this way ?
I have a px5 xtrons too.
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Click to collapse
Offering suggestions to an electronic problem. I'd start with obtaining an oscilloscope and measuring noise in various parts of the device. No doubt the chinese have cut corners to save the last cent, usually power supply noise suppression.
marchnz said:
Offering suggestions to an electronic problem. I'd start with obtaining an oscilloscope and measuring noise in various parts of the device. No doubt the chinese have cut corners to save the last cent, usually power supply noise suppression.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can see from the pictures below that with the screen light at max the signal strength is low and the opposite with the screen light at minimum. I found a schematic that was related to a sdr based dongle with similar problems. It was encapsulated in an aluminium encloser with good results. The resistance is 1Mohm.
More info here:
https://m.imgur.com/a/pQ8dM
View attachment 5029471
View attachment 5029473
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I moved my DAB dongle to the boot, rapped it in copper tape and earthed it really well. I also added ferrites to the lead, this helped, but didn’t fix the problem.
I then used a spectrum analyser and found a strong signal at DAB frequencies coming out of the front of the head unit when the screen was on, same as you found. THe noise is then picked up by the antenna.
Wrapping copper tape round the head unit on the metal part just near the front and connecting to the metal of the car cut the noise out of the head unit, see my earlier post for details.
I have two different Xtrons units in different cars, one is noisy (fixed with the copper tape) and the other is clean, it must be the backlight circuit.
DrRobin said:
I moved my DAB dongle to the boot, rapped it in copper tape and earthed it really well. I also added ferrites to the lead, this helped, but didn’t fix the problem.
I then used a spectrum analyser and found a strong signal at DAB frequencies coming out of the front of the head unit when the screen was on, same as you found. THe noise is then picked up by the antenna.
Wrapping copper tape round the head unit on the metal part just near the front and connecting to the metal of the car cut the noise out of the head unit, see my earlier post for details.
I have two different Xtrons units in different cars, one is noisy (fixed with the copper tape) and the other is clean, it must be the backlight circuit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. Could you please provide a link to your post?
Did you add ferrites to the usb or to the car harness?
My antenna is on the roof, a shark fin type, with GPS, fm radio and dab. It is very far from the head unit...
In any case I don't think the issue is on the antenna, because I did some test with the dongle attached to my note 10 and a different antenna.
The interesting thing is that with this setup I have an unstable signal while I seat inside the car, when the head unit is on, but instead I have full signal going around inside my house. I was expecting that in the car was better because I am out in front of my house.
See the picture for the setup.
I will do other tests in the afternoon, if I can.
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View attachment 5029625
Moved the dongle in the box helped a bit. Now I have a better signal strength but is not the max. Same dongle, with same antenna connected to my note 10 with HU switched off, give a much better signal.
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Here the interferences, with screen on and off. Exactly on the dab frequency...damn!
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Hi,
Here is the link
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=81667595&postcount=2465
(In case the board won't let me post a url, it is on this forum)
topic=81667595
page 247
postcount=2465
I put a clamp on ferrite round the USB cable at both ends, but in hindsight this didn't do anything.
I think your problem is exactly the same as mine, the head unit backlight emits noise at DAB frequencies, you could test that, connect your DAB dongle to your Note 10 with the Xtrons head unit off, it works correclty. Now switch the head unit on and see the signasl drop on the Note. Now turn off the display on the head unit, signal comes back.
Wrapping the head unit with copper tape and earthing it really made the difference in my car.
Good luck,
Robin
DrRobin said:
Hi,
Here is the link
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=81667595&postcount=2465
(In case the board won't let me post a url, it is on this forum)
topic=81667595
page 247
postcount=2465
I put a clamp on ferrite round the USB cable at both ends, but in hindsight this didn't do anything.
I think your problem is exactly the same as mine, the head unit backlight emits noise at DAB frequencies, you could test that, connect your DAB dongle to your Note 10 with the Xtrons head unit off, it works correclty. Now switch the head unit on and see the signasl drop on the Note. Now turn off the display on the head unit, signal comes back.
Wrapping the head unit with copper tape and earthing it really made the difference in my car.
Good luck,
Robin
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the info. I already made the tests you suggested and everything is confirmed. I will try first to identify and shield the internal power supply for the lcd, I have a schematic and I have an idea on where is located. Then, if it doesn't work, I will proceed to shield the head unit. I will do pictures to help other users.
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royalhawk2002 said:
Thanks for the info. I already made the tests you suggested and everything is confirmed. I will try first to identify and shield the internal power supply for the lcd, I have a schematic and I have an idea on where is located. Then, if it doesn't work, I will proceed to shield the head unit. I will do pictures to help other users.
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Click to collapse
That is fantastic. I have 2 Xtrons units in two cars, an older Android 8, that doesn't cause any interference and the newer featured in the post which creates terrible noise around 200MHz. I did some looking and found that LEDs and their PSU can be noisy at these frequencies, so I guess the later Xtrons units are just a problem. It is not good that they sell a head unit and DAB stick that creates so much noise to make it useless, I did contact them and sent them my findings, but didn't get any sensible response.
Since the noise was coming out of the screen I thought it would be difficult to get rid of unless I put a screen rfi filter on and then the touch screen probably wouldn't work. I did notice that if I touched the metal case of the Xtrons unit with my hands the noise dropped a little, so assumed that it wasn't very well earthed. I tried the copper tape not really expecting it to work, but had to take a piece of tape to bare metal to get a good earth. It took a couple of goes to make sure the head unit and cradle were really well earthed, but the results were fantastic, the noise dropped away to almost nothing on my spectrum analyser.
Unfortunately I didn't get any screen shots from the analyser, but used a SDR-Play to view the spectrum, although a cheap DTV USB stick would also show the same thing if you have one available?
DrRobin said:
That is fantastic. I have 2 Xtrons units in two cars, an older Android 8, that doesn't cause any interference and the newer featured in the post which creates terrible noise around 200MHz. I did some looking and found that LEDs and their PSU can be noisy at these frequencies, so I guess the later Xtrons units are just a problem. It is not good that they sell a head unit and DAB stick that creates so much noise to make it useless, I did contact them and sent them my findings, but didn't get any sensible response.
Since the noise was coming out of the screen I thought it would be difficult to get rid of unless I put a screen rfi filter on and then the touch screen probably wouldn't work. I did notice that if I touched the metal case of the Xtrons unit with my hands the noise dropped a little, so assumed that it wasn't very well earthed. I tried the copper tape not really expecting it to work, but had to take a piece of tape to bare metal to get a good earth. It took a couple of goes to make sure the head unit and cradle were really well earthed, but the results were fantastic, the noise dropped away to almost nothing on my spectrum analyser.
Unfortunately I didn't get any screen shots from the analyser, but used a SDR-Play to view the spectrum, although a cheap DTV USB stick would also show the same thing if you have one available?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes I have the sdr dongle that I am using for my tests. See pictures in above posts. In any case I am thinking to shield the backlight psu with a sheet of metal soldered on the nearest ground point. I will try also to use shielded wire as much as possible inside the unit, exchanging the actually installed, if not shielded. Another test I would like to do is to change the source of the antenna amplifier power...actually is connected to the wire coming out from the hu...probably the 200 mhz interference is transferred to the outside antenna with that wire, contributing to attenuate the signal.
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Today I had the time to make the work. So I did;
1) locate the LED power supply. The problem was not in the power supply, but the LED panel itself. I did some measurements with the spectrum analyser and I found that the highest strength of the interference was coming from the around the screen where the led strip is located and not near the power supply.
2) Noted that the lcd controller board is mounted on the back of the screen without any shield. Then I decided to shield first the board and connect it to the chassis.
3) I put a plastic foil molded on the board to insulate it from the shield. Before that, I fixed a screw on one of the board holes that are connected to ground.
4) Then I put some aluminium tape all around the board, also on the plastic sides of the screen frame. The screw in step 3 was connected to the aluminium shield.
5) connected a wire from the screw in step 3 to the chassis.
6)Covered almost all the unit with aluminium tape, taking care to make all the strips touching one to the other in order to have one whole shield as result.
7) switched on the unit and...no more interferences found even at max screen intensity.
Hereafter some pictures. Now i have the signal strength to max. Hope it helps. I want to thank @DrRobin for the suggestion.View attachment 1
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This is brilliant that you found this source of interference and actually fixed it.
I have a GS px5 unit now with the same problem but I have installed a powered roof antenna which now gives me full signal.
I did once try a shark fin antenna on the roof but it didn’t work which must be because of the interference and I would actually still like to have a shark fin antenna so I think I will do this shielding that you two guys have done.
Did either of you try just shielding the back of the screen to see if that fixed the problem before you installed your ground connections and covered the whole units in tape? The reason I ask is because it is the cheap LED lights that they will have used that will be causing the problem. If they would have used some certified LED lights then they would have had shielding on them and wouldn’t have caused any problems.
ab1702 said:
This is brilliant that you found this source of interference and actually fixed it.
I have a GS px5 unit now with the same problem but I have installed a powered roof antenna which now gives me full signal.
I did once try a shark fin antenna on the roof but it didn’t work which must be because of the interference and I would actually still like to have a shark fin antenna so I think I will do this shielding that you two guys have done.
Did either of you try just shielding the back of the screen to see if that fixed the problem before you installed your ground connections and covered the whole units in tape? The reason I ask is because it is the cheap LED lights that they will have used that will be causing the problem. If they would have used some certified LED lights then they would have had shielding on them and wouldn’t have caused any problems.
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Look at points 1 to 3 and to the second picture above.
I have a shark fin antenna, for fm, dab and GPS and it is working well
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