Dashcam Kills DAB Radio Reception

Mike55

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Hi
I'm own a VW MK7 Golf SV and some time ago fitted a G1WH from SpyTec, to the inside top of the rear hatch. It has worked well, but a few days ago decided to give the DAB part of the radio a try out and found it did not work. After much testing the fault is with the G1WH, power can come from any of the 12v sockets the car has or even a battery pack. Once the working G1WH gets within about 3 feet of the rear screen the DAB radio dies. I also tested various USB leads with and without ferrite ring cores attached and several 12v to 5v adaptors.

The radio interference that the G1WH is radiating would seem to be the problem, is this just the G1 range or does it affect all or most dashcams? Has anyone fitted a dashcam to a similar setup and not had problems with the car radio FM/DAB? What would be the make/model of the dashcam?

Last I note the local VW dealers are selling Nextbase range, would anyone know if those have a similar problem, hopefully VW would not be selling them if they had.

Thanks

Just checked with local VW dealers and they have no idea if the Nextbase they sell will kill the DAB radio, they only have two in stock and have never fitted one to the rear screen.
 
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I have a 2017 Audi A3 with the DAB-antenna integrated on the rear window and I use a Thinkware F770 without any problems whatsoever. Fitted only the supplied ferrite core.
 
Hi Thanks for the info, after much checking and reading various forums it would seem the "fault" is with both VW and Spy Tech (UK consumer law,(who ever made the G1WH in my mind)).

VW designed an aerial system that uses the rear screen heating element and the surrounding area of the rear hatch that can be "JAMMED" by such things as Dash Cams being mounted to close. Apparently some have had the same jamming effect when a dash cam is mounted to the front screen!

The makers of the G1WH build a dash cam that can jam car radios.

The "its not my problem again syndrome seems to be at work here".

Just an idea I wonder just how many car and dash cam manufactures actually test their equipment with each other!

My local VW dealer sells Dash Cams and yet when asked if they will adversely effect the radio reception on their cars and on mine in particular said "sorry sir we have no idea, we have never put one in the back" so next time I'm there I will take one from the show room and test it in my car.

Wrapping the dash cam in several layers of aluminium foil, with a hole for the lens (that worked by the way) or buying another dash cam seem to be my only two options.
 
On the same topic here I must say SG9665GC was tested by some UK customers in their cars with DAB radio working and has good feedback. I think last customer had Skoda Octavia which is VW group car and has DAB antenna in the rear ( top 3 stripes of heating elements ?)
 
...it would seem the "fault" is with both VW and Spy Tech....
Not just VW and Spytec. Have the same issue (to varying degrees) with my wife's Honda with Spytec sourced A118-C, Black Box brand G1W-H, SG9665GC, and BlackSys CF-100. Also in my vehicle on select FM frequencies but since I use satellite radio or USB media 99% of the time I don't care.
 
Not just VW and Spytec. Have the same issue (to varying degrees) with my wife's Honda with Spytec sourced A118-C, Black Box brand G1W-H, SG9665GC, and BlackSys CF-100. Also in my vehicle on select FM frequencies but since I use satellite radio or USB media 99% of the time I don't care.

USA Sirius is different from UK DAB
 
you'll remember we did a lot of work on fixing that initially

Yeah, a lot of test and try, tune-up etc, but eventually all works fine, at least with those customers cars who were helping us with beta-tests and so far no DAB radio intereference reports from other customers as well.
 
USA Sirius is different from UK DAB
Yes, I'm aware of that. I guess I should have made it clear that I was referring to radio interference in general can be an issue when installing any kind of electronics - never did get a 100% satisfactory solution with my wife's car :(, just one that was acceptable to her :).
 
Yes, I'm aware of that. I guess I should have made it clear that I was referring to radio interference in general can be an issue when installing any kind of electronics - never did get a 100% satisfactory solution with my wife's car :(, just one that was acceptable to her :).

Yeah, there are no system fit all scenes. Many other individual variations may play role. At least so far SG9665GC works fine with those UK customers DAB radio fitted cars I am aware of.
 
that's a little bit hard to believe, where did you find such a woman :p
I got real lucky.
She also does not like to spend money as a hobby. She's actually gone 'shopping' for 3 hours and bought absolutely nothing. ThumbsUp.jpg
 
EMI and RFI are inherent in every electronic circuit to some degree. Doesn't matter whether SIRIUS, DAB, FM or whatever- in the right situation you'll get interference. No cam and no car is immune though some cams and some car receivers are better than pthers. About all you can do is try and see what results you get- eventually you might find something that works.

The real problem is the receivers which should reject all unwanted signals but doing that well gets very complicated and very expensive, so most receivers are simply made to a standard which is acceptable to most people and no more. Those who need more (like us Ham Radio nuts :p ) are ready to pay several thousands for that kind of performance, but you just can't sell car receivers at those prices because people wouldn't buy them. So we get what we have- a compromise that's usually good enough.

Phil
 
The SG9665GC prevents the dab reception in my car when mounted on the rear screen where the aerial elements are (BMW F30). I just mounted the cam on the high brake light mount instead and works out even better as it's more discreet.
 
The real problem is the receivers which should reject all unwanted signals but doing that well gets very complicated and very expensive, (...)
Since we're talking about digital receivers, working with data, not with frequencies, any type of post filtering it's virtually impossible to do. The external interference raises the noise levels of the digital signal's reception, creating errors that go beyond the maximum error correction the receiver can handle.
 
Frequencies are involved and relevant. There's the intended receive frequency you want-that should have filtering above and below. The interfering frequencies cna be choked similarly or shifted in frequency to a better spot. The overall idea is to reduce the strength of the interference without reducing the wanted signal. At lower levels there will be less of the digital stream affected so the error correction have less work yo do and therefore be more effective. There can also be more powerful error-correction software developed.

Yet in the end such solutions will work only with specific items and scenarios, not all of them, so a DAB safe cam might be a no-go for FM and vise-versa. And a receiver that does well with an Ambaraella chipset might have problems with a Novayek chipset. It's all based on cost and practicality :rolleyes: The more electronics there are nearby the more problems you're likely to encounter- interference can be coming from a car next to you or even from a LED billboard beside the road :eek:

Separation, then shielding and isolation of stray signals, then additional filtering designed for the situation taken in that order is the best approach. Just don't expect it to work in all situations because it can't; such is life in the 21st century ;)

Phil
 
Frequencies are involved and relevant. There's the intended receive frequency you want-that should have filtering above and below. The interfering frequencies cna be choked similarly or shifted in frequency to a better spot. The overall idea is to reduce the strength of the interference without reducing the wanted signal. At lower levels there will be less of the digital stream affected so the error correction have less work yo do and therefore be more effective. There can also be more powerful error-correction software developed.

Yet in the end such solutions will work only with specific items and scenarios, not all of them, so a DAB safe cam might be a no-go for FM and vise-versa. And a receiver that does well with an Ambaraella chipset might have problems with a Novayek chipset. It's all based on cost and practicality :rolleyes: The more electronics there are nearby the more problems you're likely to encounter- interference can be coming from a car next to you or even from a LED billboard beside the road :eek:

Separation, then shielding and isolation of stray signals, then additional filtering designed for the situation taken in that order is the best approach. Just don't expect it to work in all situations because it can't; such is life in the 21st century ;)

Phil
Filtering is irrelevant to DAB reception because the interference isn't interfering (pardon the redundancy) with an audio signal like in analog FM broadcasting, is interfering with the data that the frequencies carry. So, what happens if the interference or one of its harmonics fall right inside the DAB band, very close or right on top of the DAB frequency(ies)? If they put a rejection filter there it'll also reject the DAB signal. Moreover, the DAB antennas must be able to receive the whole DAB band, therefore they can't put any type of filtering above because then the radios may not be able to receive all the frequencies available or different frequencies when you travel to a different region of the country.

Since some dashcam manufacturers seem to care little or nothing about producing interference-free products, the more viable solution, as you said, is to shield and isolate the source.
 
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