Earlier this year, I had an Avital Remote Start with Security system installed by a shop in my EX. This system has been working without a problem. In the past week, I installed a Joying radio to replace my factory head unit. In the last few days, I have noticed that

1. My remote start doesn't function unless I am standing right beside the truck and hitting the buttons.
2. My remote lock/unlock doesn't work most of the time. The only time it has worked is when the remote is very near the driver side door keypad, I'd say within a couple of feet from the door.

Yesterday, I went back to the shop that installed the Avital unit, and the tech said it has to do with some interference coming from the radio. The best option he gave me was to move the receiving antenna for the Avital (currently installed behind the rear view mirror on the windshield) to another location and try.

This morning, instead of moving the antenna, I removed the harness from behind the radio to check this theory. Voila. Everything with the remote unit functions as usual. I had mounted the external mic for the Joying radio very close to the Avital antenna. Even after I moved that mic away, the remote functions were impacted. The next step that I am going to try is to remove the hardwired GPS antenna which I suspect may be causing this.

Other than this, I am out of thoughts for troubleshooting. Has anybody else experienced this? Any other pointers to troubleshoot?

MODS: Please move this thread to other appropriate forum, if necessary, as I wasn't sure of where to post this question.

 

When the Joying radio dies, and it will, replace it with a higher quality unit that does not have the RF problems.

I went through 3 Joying units before I grew tired of tearing my dash apart and moved on. Thanks to Amazon without loss of funds. They really are very poorly made.

 

Thanks for the heads up. It's been less than 10 days since I received mine. Hoping it will last longer, or Amazon Prime to the rescue. What did you replace the Joying with?

 

A Pioneer Android Auto unit and could not be more pleased with it. Just works very well and the android integration works great, the maps are easy to read and OK GOOGLE works as it should.

 

+1 on the pioneer AVIC units. They are excellent and android auto (if you have an android phone) is getting better and better all the time, so your features are getting better all the time too; for example they just added Waze for navigation. They also work with the apple equivalent but I don't know anything about it.

 

That is a drawback of cheap Chinese electronics. They pay no attention to RF interference, noisy power supplies, etc. However, I had trouble with two different Avital systems in cars past and both had issues with the remote not always working. My installer always blamed it on my Kenwood deck or my cell phone charger or whatever else. I put as much faith in Avital as I do Joying. :-)

 

Is the case of your Joying grounded?

It's not a transceiver so it won't (shouldn't) be putting any power out on the input antennas/coax. There might be something inside the case creating RF but if the case is grounded none of that will get beyond the case... this is assuming it's a metal case.

If you do suspect it's happening through an antenna simply disconnect that antenna and retest.

 

The radio is in a metal case. I will try again with a dedicated case to chassis ground wire. The GPS antenna removal did not make any difference.

 

First suggestion is get rid of that unit if you can still get your money back.

Second, if you have to (or want to) keep it for whatever reason you could possibly try copper tape.


https://hollandshielding.com/Mu-copper-tape

Back in the day it was fairly common to find copper tape used as shielding for electronics. I remember a couple high end manufacturers that had a head unit made of copper instead of metal for fidelity reasons.

As you can see in the amazon link, and as I learned moments ago, apparently the guitar world also has a use for copper tape.

What I would do is cover the entire radio with copper tape and then poke out the holes for ventilation etc,.

Good luck to you

 

Copper tape will shield well but it still needs to shunt the energy to ground. I think it would be overkill for a metal case though, just grounding the case should be sufficient. Temporarily alumnium foil can test the effectiveness of additional shielding and if that works, then invest in the copper tape.

 

From my basic understanding of things,

Electronics are designed with multiple ground points, so unless the Joying unit has a floating ground or terrible design (Both are very possible with Chinese quality control and design) grounding the case shouldn't make that big of a difference.

You are already grounding to the vehicle at least once while wiring the unit up.

However, having multiple grounds won't hurt anything so feel free to ground it to your frame if you feel like it

 

Yes you're right, but that's the circuit side of things.

EMI shielding is a different beast and specifically works when using a ground that is not otherwise carrying current. You may check the case and find that it is grounded but if that is through the power ground then when the radio is active that ground is carrying current so it's not good for EMI shielding.

If the case is already grounded ideally you want to either break that ground and run a separate one to avoid ground loops, or provide a separate shield like the copper tape you mentioned with a separate ground going to it, and insulate it from the power ground.

 

I have no experience with the Joying units, but wonder if the WiFi portion of that radio could be causing interference?

 

Folks
All good pointers. I will try these out this weekend and report back.

 

Well, all the videos and instructions say to connect constant +12V to the ACC and BATT wires. That was the root cause. The constant 12V to the ACC was keeping the head unit powered at all times, even when the keys were removed from the ignition. Moved the ACC to a switched power coming through the harness. This took care of all the issues.