What's new
Van's Air Force

Don't miss anything! Register now for full access to the definitive RV support community.

Interference between AeroLed Pulsar and GTN650

bullojm1

bullojm1

Well Known Member
I recently swapped out a Garmin 430W for a GTN650. The one kink I haven't been able to work out is my squelch breaks nearly constantly on the COM side of the GTN650. At first I thought the squelch level was too low, but I slowly increased it to 100% and it still broke to the point of being annoying.

On my last flight I started turning off electrical items to see if I could isolate it to electrical interference. As soon as I turned off the NAV lights (using AeroLED Pulsar), the squelch breaks stopped.

I did not have this problem with my Garmin 430W, and my COM2 (ICOM 210) doesn't have this issue either. Has anyone else run into this?
 
Mike - sorry to hear you're experiencing this issue. If you do a search here you'll find several posts where users have had troubles with noise from the AeroLEDs nav/strobes. I've posted one here where the grounding technique is highlighted.

http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=70743&highlight=aeroled+nav+strobe+grounding

The GTN may be a more sensitive receiver than the GNS was. Whatever the cause, the first place I would look is at the grounding of the wingtip units themselves. The AeroLEDs wiring diagram MUST be followed in order to ensure satisfactory performance.

As a side note, I'm one of your acolytes in using the Baja Designs landing lights. Thanks for doing the legwork that convinced me to go this route!
 
I too had the same issue.... Can't find my post on it....
Aero led has some filters that will fix the problem. They ended up upgrading my lights to the newer model since mine weren't that old.
Just give them a call, they know exactly what to do...

BTW, I also used your Baja Designs technique for my landing lights (slightly modded).
 
Check the grounding

AeroLeds I think has changed the instruction on grounding the unit at the wings. Only ground at the panel. Check it out. I have them (not flying yet), just bought them about 2 months ago and the instructions says to ground the unit frame at the wing. But other people have reported problem. So don't ground at the unit.
 
The GTN may be a more sensitive receiver than the GNS was.[/QUOTE said:
The GTN-650 has proven to me to be an inferior receiver as it has RFI issues in the comm band and GPS receiver. But that is a different story.

Had the same problem with my GTN-650 and AERO Led Nav/strobes. The fix was two fold:
- Call AERO Led and make sure you have the latest version - the one that has the inline filters. Mine did not but they replaced them for free.
- The fix that took out 90% of the RFI was to mount a piece of aluminum on the inside of the wingtip under the Nav/Strobe. I made it out of .032 material cut to fit the inside of the wingtip. Perhaps 5" by 3" or so, whatever fits. The Nav/Strobe mounting plate screws hold this plate in. Take the ground wire from the Nav/Strobe and attach it to a mounting plate screw such that it is a short as possible. Run your feed cable ground to this same screw.

Carl
Click to expand...
 
Mike,
Sorry to hear you are having the problem. Just a note to let others know, I have the gtn650 and the AeroLED's and I have had no issues at all. I grounded the way they recommend and have no interference. I did have noise in my Nav from the HID Duckworks landing light but have fixed that by going LED.
 
I just removed my Whelan Nav/Strobes and installed AeroLed lights. I have absolutely no noise on my GTN 750 or GTR 20.

I was able to ground the wingtip lights per the instructions. I was not able to ground the mounting plate on the tail light but that did not cause any issues.

I am very happy with the new lights. Total amp draw with both the Nav & Strobes turned on is 2A. The Nav's alone are less than 1A.
 
Thanks everyone for some wonderful background on this issue. I bought my LED's back in 2009, and have flown with them for over 5 years and nearly 400 hours. This is the first issue I have had related to them. I went out to the hangar tonight to try to isolate the issue further. Turns out the tail LED and the green NAV lights don't cause any interference. The RED led seems to be the main culprit. I will give Dean at AeroLED's a call later this week to see what some possible solutions to my issue are.
 
The solution to my GTN650 noise issue ended up being relatively simple to solve. As soon as I narrowed the interference coming from the left (red) AeroLED nav light, I put a 2.5 uF capacitor between the LED Ground and Power wires. Voila! Noise gone in the GTN650. Thanks for all that chimed in, it really helped to get this fix in quickly.
 
bullojm1 said:
Thanks everyone for some wonderful background on this issue. I bought my LED's back in 2009, and have flown with them for over 5 years and nearly 400 hours. This is the first issue I have had related to them. I went out to the hangar tonight to try to isolate the issue further. Turns out the tail LED and the green NAV lights don't cause any interference. The RED led seems to be the main culprit. I will give Dean at AeroLED's a call later this week to see what some possible solutions to my issue are.
Click to expand...

Interesting......

It appears that I have a small amount of noise with the strobes on. I didn't hear anything with the NAV lights enable. Unfortunately, from inside the cockpit, I don't have an easy method to isolate the left, right, or tail light assemblies.

It's not bad enough to do anything now, especially since I have to move to another airport for six weeks due to my airport closing temporarily. I'll talk to Dean at OSH.
 
Is everyone aware of the Garmin SB on this topic? There is a software upgrade out specifically to improve the GTN squelch characteristics. SB 1526.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top