Edd

I am getting a lot of interference, engine noise and HDD whine, when using the Mstation. The RCA is run down the centre tunnel along with the RCA for the head unit so it can't be caused by that. Is it possible that the remote lead transmits engine noise etc. At present I have the Remote lead running down the left side of the car which is where the amp power is running as well. Any ideas before I pull the whole thing out and start rerouting wires.

Cheers

Edd

nom

Well, the center tunnel does cause interference, metal things whirling round & all...
Have you checked that it's not coming from the power supply? That's where I'd have thought it would come in from. Remember that most amps have some fairly serious interference-removing stuff in their power stages; I doubt that the mStation has very much at all! You could try putting in one of those el-cheapo caps from Halfords just before the power gets into the mStation (I'm presuming that you're taking the power from a splitter that goes to the amp?) Worth a go - I think they're only a couple of quid

Edd

Thanks for the reply Nom. The power for the mstation is run down the left hand side of the tunnel and is taken from the same source as the power for the head unit. The only thing I can think of is to reroute the remote control wire for the Mstation. Do you have a MStation and if so how did you route your cabling.

nom

I've had no problems at all with it - it has it's own power cable that comes from a fused & cap'd run from the dash, run down the left of the car (with the amp cable). The 'remote' runs down the right with the line-level stuff. Speakers run left on the left, right on th right.
If you want to check to see if it's the cabled remote, why not just disconnect the remote from the unit & then use the buttons on the unit to see what happens? As the RCA is from a different output, you should see if it's the remote or not. I still think it's the power cable

globbits

I'm with nom, on this one.

My Mstation's wired up using the FM-modulator for the moment, 'coz I haven't got the silly stereo built yet, and I'm getting lots of buzz and alternator whine.

To see if the interference is on the RCA's, disconnect the RCA's at the Mstation end. Then, listen to the RCA input, at normal listening levels - if you've still got the buzzing 'n stuff, it's on your RCA. If the buzzing isn't there, it's from the Mstation - which means it'll be supply-based.

The supply to the stereo isn't much cop anyway - small wires and no suppression. You'll need to put some form of smoothing capacitor across the supply though - that's your basic answer. Depending on how silly you want to go, you could put a silly (1/2 Farad or 1 Farad) capacitor across the supply to the stereo - which would smooth out the supply. But, I doubt you want to go that far

If not, just get a biggish (a few hundred microFarad) capacitor from Maplin or wherever, and connect it across the supply connections as close as you can to the Mstation. That should help

Richard

12LEE

Check out some of the HDD noise discussions w.r.t. the NEOCar (aka mStation) in the forums at http://www.funmp3players.com

chiark

Final thought - could it be noise from the fuel pump? This runs when ignition is on (but not when on ACC)

Edd

Cheers for all the replies. It appears that there is a fault with the head unit so I am having to return that tomorrow. According to the Neo website you are supposed to turn the volume of the MStation to full and then use the head unit to lower or raise that volume to the AMP. My head unit was not controlling the output to the amp, that and the fact that the Mstation music was also trying to play over the top of the tuner and CD when it should only be heard when you switch to the AUx source on the head unit.

Cheers

Ed

Fizz

iTrader: (1)

Not a pioneer head unit by any chance?

Edd

No it was an Alpine CDA 7876RB

sfag

I am also geting a slight whine when I acelerate. But more annoying is the fact that the reception quality of the other fm stations is now awful. Have I done something wrong witht the modulator installation ??

nom

When the mStation is on, it whacks out the radio. This seems to be the case when using the RCA cable as well - I have noticed in the past that some hard drives create a lot of radio noise, & this must be one of them! Anyway, switching the mStation off should return the Radio to normal, whatever. Unless the connection isn't very good, of course

Edd

Finally got my Head unit back today. Alpine technical support are a waste of time. They had me setting the head unit up incorrectly. For anyone else out there with the same or similar unit, the switch on the underneath of the head unit, marked Norm EQ/Div, must be set to Norm. Once you have done that and connected everything up again make sure you reset the head unit. Finally Switch the AUX input on in the setup menu and also make sure that the MStation volume is set to maximum volume.

Whole setup works perfectly now with no interference.

Ed

Great~taste~Bloke

I had noise on nine until I decoupled the signal with isolating transormers also changed the earth to closest point!

a11xrt

I know this sounds real simple but I've been involved in a lot of sound offs over the years and this sounds like an earthing issue.

try taking the earth from all the components direct back to the battery ie head unit, m-station, amp - also try earthing the newly installed components in different places.

hope this helps

a11xrt

you may want to read this


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

WARNING!
There are some Version 1 mStations still available that are being sold at cut prices but we advise strongly against purchasing these items for the following reasons:


Version 1 has a massive problem with "Noise"; this is caused by the flow of electricity travelling the wrong way around the circuit board. THIS FAULT CANNOT BE FIXED!
The wired remote control is on a heavy-duty cable, which makes it hard to install in a vehicle. There is no "Back Lighting" on this display and the plug that has to be installed / removed every time the mStation is taken out of the car docking bay will easily break just before the wires go into the plug and is extremely hard to fix.
The units runs an old version of "Firmware" which is the computer operating system which has several running faults and we do not support later versions of firm ware for V1 units.
If a version 1 unit goes wrong under warranty it will have to be sent to the repair centre in Holland because Procell Media Ltd DOES NOT SUPPORT VERSION 1. Customers will have to stand expensive shipping costs.
If the customer requires to use the mStation in there home, the V2 home kit will not work with V1 car kit so they will have to try and get hold of V1 home kit, which are few and far between, and also the price of the V1 home kit is £149.00 retail an extra cost of £40.00

it was took from this web page http://www.audiotools.co.uk/ah/hms.shtml

a11xrt

(edited to remove potentially slanderous/libellous post)

[Edited by chiark - 3/21/2002 9:55:47 AM]

MattW

Sounds like sour grapes to me because you can get em cheap.

I've upgraded my firmware to 1.43 and it works fine.
I don't have any problem with noise.
I agree the connector may be a bit flimsy, but I'm careful.
Wired remote is hard cable - so what?
No backlight - granted this is a pain in the ****.
if it goes wrong I was planning on binning it anyway - I assumed there was no backup for it.
Home kit - Mine plugs into the supplied cradle which is installed into a spare docking bay.

Just my 2p


Edited to say - these people want £400 for a new v2. No wonder thay don't want you buying a v1 for £200


[Edited by MattW - 3/20/2002 4:43:24 PM]

12LEE

Just to be pedantic...

The manufacturer of mStation haven't gone bust.

The thing's manufactured by a Taiwanese firm called SSI. They are best known for enclosures, etc. They market the product in the US under the "NEO" brand.

Traxdata secured exclusive distribution rights for the device for all countries excluding the US last year. For whatever reason, their business model didn't work and now the contents of the warehouse are doing the rounds of remarketing companies, eBay vendors, etc.

In speaking with SSI recently, they let me know that some companies have already taken on distribution for some European countries. Currently, to the best of my knowledge, no-one in the UK has taken on that role. Maybe it's because of i) the size of the addressable market, and ii) the amount of ex-Traxdata stock still needing to be mopped up. Procell media, one of the early mStation retailers, are now selling "NEO" branded units sourced from the US.

SSI have shown a new unit, the "NEO55" which is a DIN-sized Tuner/Amp/HD/CD combo. It's pretty neat but unfortunately doesn't have an RDS tuner and there aren't currently any plans to offer it with one.

My interest... watch this space for a banner ad (hope that's ok webmaster!) but if you can afford to wait 4-8 weeks before buying an mStation-type device at grey-market mStation money, it's going to be well worth it.

Cheers

Lee.

(edited for dud spelling!)

[Edited by 12LEE - 3/20/2002 4:55:06 PM]

chiark

Lee, thanks for clearing that up. I'll reply to your mail soon

al1xrt, I've edited your post as it is potentially slanderous or libellous - can't remember which. I'm sure you can see why.

sfag

I got rid of my fm interference and the accelerator whine by powering the mstation from a power source in the boot (where the mstation is located)and in turn powering the fm modulator (which is at the front of the car) from the mstation. Now if I turn the mstation of from the wired remote the whole mstation unit goes off. Ie it does not go on standby. The whine is gone because the power to the remote is small. It was easier than separating the power wire from the audio leads. I do have to remember to manually switch off the mstation when I turn the ignition off.

sfag

ps I forgot to add the mstation is now earthed in the boot near where it is located.

chiark

Hi all, I received this from Audiotools and thought that it would interest you. (I checked with the author that he was happy for me to post this verbatim)

>AudioTools.co.uk was interested in a few comments made by some of your
>members in the following thread:
>http://www.scoobynet.co.uk/bbs/thread.asp?threadid=77500
>
>The information supplied on our web site regarding the mStation Version 1
>is
>direct from Procell Media via internal release. AudioTools.co.uk /
>AudioHardware.co.uk does not directly sell the mStation and we too were a
>little sceptical about the information received, as some of your members
>also seem to be, but we can confirm that the V1 problems / bugs are
>correct.
>The information provided by ourselves on the web site is meant to assist
>potential buyers of the mStation products and is in no way scare mongering.
>If people choose to buy the V1 mStations then they are more than welcome to
>do so but AudioTools.co.uk decided to release this information simply to
>make customers aware of the problems so that they could then decide for
>themselves.
>
>In your thread MattW states: "I've upgraded my firmware to 1.43 and it
>works
>fine." - We're not saying that the firmware can't be updated, what we are
>saying is that by doing so you void your warranty on a V1. Obviously if
>Matt
>is prepared to "bin" the unit if it breaks than he's not going to care if
>he
>updates the firmware, breaks the leads or paints it pink for that matter.
>Others might not have the luxury of £600 to play with though and it's those
>people that we are trying to help.
>
>After reading the thread we feel that the wording in our feature does sound
>a little over-the-top so we will be changing the "Warning" title to
>something a little less threatening.
>
>I hope that you can relay some, if not all, of the information here to your
>members and maybe clear a few doubts amongst them.
>
>Best Regards,
>
>Mark Baxter
>---------------------------------------
>AudioTools.co.uk
>http://www.audiotools.co.uk
>For all your PC audio needs.

MattW

May I say well done to Mark from Audio Tools for taking an interest.

My feeling is that the mstation was overpriced at £600. When the unit was first advertised I was VERY interested, but not at that sort of money. Once they had come onto the market at £200 I snapped one up, granted, there was very little support for it and the supplier would probably not be interested if the thing broke.

You may well find the proper price considering a good supply, new features, good support etc would be around the £400 mark but I'd expect that to settle at around £300 over time. This of course very much depends on any competition.

Mark, if you read this, thanks for taking interest, when mine breaks I'll have another one- Can't live without the bloody thing now!!

PS - Looks great sprayed pink





Edited to say - did n't realise Audio Tools were not a supplier. Apologies for the slapping.

[Edited by MattW - 3/25/2002 8:30:40 PM]

Edd

Richard

Just tore out all of the wiring this morning. The head unit, ie CD and radio play fine through the amp no engine noise or whine, and the rcas are routed down the central tunnel just the same as the rca for the MStation. I have rewired the Mstation without routing the wires, ie I have laid them across the top of the seats and directly wired the power from the battery. The problem I get is that when you start the Mstation up you hear the HDD boot up and then get a continuous whine from the HDD. I am going to request a new car docking station because I think this is at fault. We shall see.

Edited to say "if it was just engine noise I wouldn't mind because I could track that down and supress it. This noise is coming from the HDD of the Mstation before the engine has even been started."


Cheers for the replys.

Ed

[Edited by Edd - 3/7/2002 10:51:47 AM]