I/S radio issue.

[John Schmidt]

The radio on the trike sounds fine when in accessory mode, but turn the key on to start/run the bike and it becomes quite garbled. Does it even if the bike isn't running...just turn the key forward as if to start the bike. Turn the key to the rear into the accessory position and it clears up. What the heck is going on with that, anybody ever have that experience?

[0leman]

John, could it be the capacitor?  Not sure it would cause that problem if not running though

[Bagger John - #3785]

Which capacitor are you referring to?

[Pluggy]

In accessory position, are the headlights off?  Probably.  In run position are the headlights on?  Probably.  If you have LED headlights, remove those and try run position and the noise may go away.  Call if you wish to discuss.

[John Schmidt]

In accessory position, are the headlights off?  Probably.  In run position are the headlights on?  Probably.  If you have LED headlights, remove those and try run position and the noise may go away.  Call if you wish to discuss.

Hmm...never thought of that & they are LED. When I hold an LED flashlight...or just about anything LED, I can always hear a faint hum coming from it. I've also noticed if I'm parked on the couch while on the phone, some folks get a lot of humming feedback until I move away from a nearby table lamp. I'll try removing the headlight relay to kill the lights, getting at the bulbs is a real PITA.

[Pluggy]

I can move a portable radio towards the LED headlight on my motorcycle.  The closer the antenna is to the light, the more RF noise is picked up.  Obviously we can't solve this by adding capicitors or other filtering to the motorcycle wiring as there is no connection between the bike and my radio.

Possibly shielding of some sort could eliminate this effect.

[The emperor has no clothes]

This should help.

http://www.valkyrieforum.com/bbs/index.php/topic,101870.0.html

[John Schmidt]

I also recalled just a bit ago how I was getting a loud snap or pop at regular intervals, not affected by rpm. It was yesterday & I didn't have the radio on, didn't seem to affect the way the bike ran so headed for the gym. On the way home I had the radio on and it was garbled but no pop noise. Got home and tried the radio again...still messed up. So just now I thought I'd check and sure enough, my left bulb is out completely and when I turned on the wireless it was clear on both key positions. Can't tell you how thrilled I am to have to replace a bulb on an  Interstate. @*&$@*

Makes me wonder if it was a bad LED or bad connection/wire somewhere.

EDIT: Trying to get to the backside of the left headlight bulb is nearly impossible for me without removing the fairing or at least setting it on the fender. Loosening the upper mounting bolts and tipping it out doesn't give me enough room. To add to the fun, removing the right side speaker panel snapped off one of the tabs that go into the center section at the top. Anymore trouble and I'm going to seriously consider selling the I/S trike conversion and look for a tourer...or possibly remove it from the I/S and move the kit to the old bike which is a Tourer. I'm tired of working on this fool thing, I just want to ride it but issues keep cropping up. If they continue, it gets parked. This thing is almost as frustrating(and ridiculous) as trying to R&R the alternator. To add more to the fun, I looked in the Honda Shop Manual in chapter 19 which covers replacing all the various bulbs on the Std., Tourer, and I/S...except there's nothing on replacing the headlight bulb on the I/S. Covers all the rest of the lights though. Ain't that just precious? 

[3W-lonerider]

if you have LED lights. you need to go on amazon and buy a bag of rfi chokes. and install them on every LED light. those LED lights are causing the interference. i installed rfi chokes on each side of the black box thats inline with the LED headlight. on my new trike i have LED tailights and i had to install those on each. to remove the interference.

[John Schmidt]

if you have LED lights. you need to go on amazon and buy a bag of rfi chokes. and install them on every LED light. those LED lights are causing the interference. i installed rfi chokes on each side of the black box thats inline with the LED headlight. on my new trike i have LED tailights and i had to install those on each. to remove the interference.

Guess that's next, but to do it the fairing has to come off. I have the Signal Boss installed and there's simply no room to reach in there due to additional wiring harness. I love the Boss but it has added more "stuff" in the way of the back of the light box. Was hoping to make it to the Quad State gathering next weekend but looks like chances are slim now if I have to order stuff and put it all back together. I'm hoping to catch myself in the zipper soon, I need something to relieve the stress and make me feel better by taking my mind off this.  

OK...just ordered a 20 pack of 3mm snap-on chokes. Since my turns are all LED plus the headlights, I'll have some left over for when I change over the lights on the trunk. Said delivery this Sunday, guess I'll see how that works out.

[The emperor has no clothes]

if you have LED lights. you need to go on amazon and buy a bag of rfi chokes. and install them on every LED light. those LED lights are causing the interference. i installed rfi chokes on each side of the black box thats inline with the LED headlight. on my new trike i have LED tailights and i had to install those on each. to remove the interference.

Guess that's next, but to do it the fairing has to come off. I have the Signal Boss installed and there's simply no room to reach in there due to additional wiring harness. I love the Boss but it has added more "stuff" in the way of the back of the light box. Was hoping to make it to the Quad State gathering next weekend but looks like chances are slim now if I have to order stuff and put it all back together. I'm hoping to catch myself in the zipper soon, I need something to relieve the stress and make me feel better by taking my mind off this.  

OK...just ordered a 20 pack of 3mm snap-on chokes. Since my turns are all LED plus the headlights, I'll have some left over for when I change over the lights on the trunk. Said delivery this Sunday, guess I'll see how that works out.

Just don't listen to the radio on the way to the Quad State Ride.

[Valkorado]

John when you R&R'd your alternator, do you recall if the square black plastic box was attached to the alternator?  It's actually an electrical noise filter for Interstates models, about 1" x 1" in size.  The Tourer and Standard models do not have the filter attached on their alternators.  I've heard that the Interstate stereo will exhibit similar issues to what you're experiencing when the filter is not on or if the wiring from it has come loose from the bike's plug.   Just a shot in the dark.

[3W-lonerider]

if you have LED lights. you need to go on amazon and buy a bag of rfi chokes. and install them on every LED light. those LED lights are causing the interference. i installed rfi chokes on each side of the black box thats inline with the LED headlight. on my new trike i have LED tailights and i had to install those on each. to remove the interference.

Guess that's next, but to do it the fairing has to come off. I have the Signal Boss installed and there's simply no room to reach in there due to additional wiring harness. I love the Boss but it has added more "stuff" in the way of the back of the light box. Was hoping to make it to the Quad State gathering next weekend but looks like chances are slim now if I have to order stuff and put it all back together. I'm hoping to catch myself in the zipper soon, I need something to relieve the stress and make me feel better by taking my mind off this.  

OK...just ordered a 20 pack of 3mm snap-on chokes. Since my turns are all LED plus the headlights, I'll have some left over for when I change over the lights on the trunk. Said delivery this Sunday, guess I'll see how that works out.

shouldn't have to take the fairing off. removing the speaker panels should give you enough access to the headlight wires to snap those chokes on. as far as the alternator interfering with the radio without the black box on it.. yes it will but you will get a whine that increases and decreases with engine speed. it would not interfere without the engine running and the key turned on.

[John Schmidt]

if you have LED lights. you need to go on amazon and buy a bag of rfi chokes. and install them on every LED light. those LED lights are causing the interference. i installed rfi chokes on each side of the black box thats inline with the LED headlight. on my new trike i have LED tailights and i had to install those on each. to remove the interference.

Guess that's next, but to do it the fairing has to come off. I have the Signal Boss installed and there's simply no room to reach in there due to additional wiring harness. I love the Boss but it has added more "stuff" in the way of the back of the light box. Was hoping to make it to the Quad State gathering next weekend but looks like chances are slim now if I have to order stuff and put it all back together. I'm hoping to catch myself in the zipper soon, I need something to relieve the stress and make me feel better by taking my mind off this.  

OK...just ordered a 20 pack of 3mm snap-on chokes. Since my turns are all LED plus the headlights, I'll have some left over for when I change over the lights on the trunk. Said delivery this Sunday, guess I'll see how that works out.

shouldn't have to take the fairing off. removing the speaker panels should give you enough access to the headlight wires to snap those chokes on. as far as the alternator interfering with the radio without the black box on it.. yes it will but you will get a whine that increases and decreases with engine speed. it would not interfere without the engine running and the key turned on.

3W...with the Signal Boss in there with the extra connectors, wiring, etc., there isn't enough room for me to get my hand in there. Plus, removing the apparent burned out left LED bulb takes it one step further. The grommet slips down over the heat sink which in turn screws onto the base of the bulb. It's real fine thread and over an inch long so you have to reach in, remove the grommet from the out perimeter, then unscrew the heat sink...which takes forever, if not longer.

[Bagger John - #3785]

if you have LED lights. you need to go on amazon and buy a bag of rfi chokes. and install them on every LED light. those LED lights are causing the interference. i installed rfi chokes on each side of the black box thats inline with the LED headlight. on my new trike i have LED tailights and i had to install those on each. to remove the interference.

You only need to do this if the lights use Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) technology as an intensity/duty-cycle control.

Many "replacement" LED headlights and spots (H3/H4) do, and all of the Clearwater driving lights do as well.

Most resistive-style 1156/1157 and similar LED replacements don't need choking, as they don't emit RFI. Their intensities are set by a current-limiting resistor inside the assembly and thus no wide-spectrum noise is generated.

I'm going to install a set of OEM Harley projector spots and headlight on my Tourer, which is heavily radio-equipped. Bag 'o chokes will be standing by but I doubt I'll need them.

[Pluggy]

I did some looking.  Here's an article about LED lights and radio frequency emissions that may interfere with radio reception.  With certain versions of LED lights, the power wires act as antennas and the lights are little transmitters.

https://blog.betterautomotivelighting.com/how-to-remove-radio-interference-using-ferrite-coils-for-hid-and-led-headlights

If you try the ferrite "beads" and the noise is reduced, the antenna effect has been reduced.

John, those ferrites may be useful.

[John Schmidt]

I did some looking.  Here's an article about LED lights and radio frequency emissions that may interfere with radio reception.  With certain versions of LED lights, the power wires act as antennas and the lights are little transmitters.

https://blog.betterautomotivelighting.com/how-to-remove-radio-interference-using-ferrite-coils-for-hid-and-led-headlights

If you try the ferrite "beads" and the noise is reduced, the antenna effect has been reduced.

John, those ferrites may be useful.

Stu, tomorrow I'm going to try the radio test we talked about. If I can't get rid of the interference I'll simply go back to halogen bulbs, just install the brightest & whitest available. Let you know the results.

PS: I ate too much at dinner tonight with the kids, had to do the "plop, plop, fizz, fizz" thing when I got home. 

[John Schmidt]

Before I could do the portable radio test I discussed with Pluggy, I had to put the bike back together. That meant mounting the fairing so I could reconnect everything. Prior to doing that, since I had received the ferrite doodads a day early I went ahead and added two on each headlight line...one on either side of the little box that is in line and preceeds the bulb. Once it was all hooked up I turned on the radio in the run position...lo and behold...the ferrite beads made no difference. I'll live with it for the time being but unless I can come up with a cure, I'll probably pull the LED headlight bulbs and go back to halogen. Since I don't use the radio while riding it's not a big issue, but does make it difficult to use the GPS and be able to understand what is being said. I'm open to any suggestions.

[3W-lonerider]

got a question. did you by any chance buy LED headlights with fans on them. i tried them and couldn't get rid of the fan interference. went with bulbs that did not have the fan and all was well with the rfi chokes. if you have bulbs without the fan then i'm surprised the rfi chokes are not working.

[-mike-]

Just get quality LED bulbs with proper driving units (running on 2MHz)  that don't interfere with radio reception or play havoc with other circuitry like ICM modules.

I've been there, too. On Valk and on my car.

FWIW and as far as I can see, even the praised American made LED inserts often are built around the cheaper 500kHz Chinese units.

[Pluggy]

Well John, one last idea and you may have already tried it.  Take that portable radio and check if any other LED's on the bike could be noise generators.  On mine, the front turn signal-running lights emit an interference.  The tail-brake light does not.  

If these items are suspect, remove them (or pull the fuse) and check the results.  And... If you have extra ferrite cylinders, you could try them at those locations.  A longshot.

My bike has LED's I obtained online from various sources, and I get different results from each.  With no radio on the bike, I never paid much attention to it.

Best of luck with it.

[SCain]

John,
Don't you have aftermarket sparkplug wires on your trike, I know you had them on your two wheel bike but I seem to recall you having them on the trike I saw at Inzane, could the wires have something to do with the issue. Just a thought.

[John Schmidt]

Cain, yes I do have different plug wires. They're 7mm solid core like the OEM, made by Accel, and have the original factory plug caps with the resistor, et al.  As Pluggy stated, I get the noise on the portable radio and bike radio regardless of whether the motor is running or not. Note...I don't get the interference when I have the key on accessory 'cuz the lights aren't on.

[SCain]

I missed that part of the bike not running, just throwing something out there.