Where is the best position to combat RFI

sometimes that noise is hard to rid.

First if you try the device on a different circuit does it stop the noise? If so then its in the ballast. If not, then you're in trouble! ;) In most cases its the ballast and I've found using a 1:1 transformer works the best.. If you don't want to do that, you can use a common mode filter or maybe the X,Y caps have gone bad in the ballast or they don't have any!

Jamie

On a sunny day (Sun, 19 Nov 2017 10:11:58 -0600) it happened amdx wrote in :

At the source, else the wire acts as antenna.

Are those edison type bubs? Those should not cause any interference, or is it the related electronics that does that?

Ya, I'm done with the florescents, I'm working on the incandescent IR control yard lights. (no Ballast) Just a noise control circuit. Mikek

Yes Edison type, the noise is from the IR control circuitry. I may need to open the wall to have room for the line filter. I have a bunch of line rated caps, any chance one of those across the line will do anything. Line to neutral, line to ground? Mikek

Whoa, line rated cap across the line makes the noise worse.

On a sunny day (Sun, 19 Nov 2017 10:45:25 -0600) it happened amdx wrote in :

The one I used is using earth wire and 3 mains wires, see figure 6 here:

That was indeed an expensive filter, and I did install that in my neighbors garage heater that used a spark plug sort of thing that killed the whole band up to maybe half a GHz...

Maybe something simpler will work just a well in your case, just try it.

the two

st

ed

rce at

I do it

ay

s the

try a C-R-C filter.

combo

Your best bet is to replace the triac PIRs with relay ones. Or you could ju st try your filters.

NT

Hey I tried a line filter from Qualtek, between the line and the light fixture.

It eliminated the noise at the radio, and circuit breaker box. I still have the other light, but I think I have the solution. This was the major source of noise. Thanks, Mikek

I've had mixed luck with filters. I would install a filter, which fixes the problem, only to have the noise re-appear when something changes, like temperature, load, type of load, power wire length, position of the moon, etc. I'm never quite sure if I'm filtering out the noise, or moving a noise peak to some other frequency.

So, my latest approach, which seems to be working well, is to replace the noisy fixture. I'm not adverse to throwing money at the problem. When my neighbors garden path LED lights were found to be have internal switchers, I simply replaced them with similar bulbs that didn't have internal switchers: Notice the switcher near the pins.

So, what manner of yard lights are you using? Do they have an FCC sticker? If you're looked inside, any ferrite beads on the power leads? If not, it might be both better and easier to just buy something better, and donate the old noise maker to your worst enemy.

Yes. If you leave too much wire between the noise source and the filter, the wire in between acts something like an antenna. You could theoretically move a clamp on ferrite bead up and down the power line to hopefully tune out the noise, but whenever I try that, it increases the noise at some other frequency. Best to get rid of the noise at the source.

Dig through these articles for anything with RFI in the title: For example: "Power Line Filters"

Good luck.

Cheap, Chinese-made LED lights are notorious for causing radiated interfere nce (and possibly conducted too, although I've never had the pleasure...)

Some fluorescent ballasts also radiate noise. Most notably: certain produc tion date models of GE's "UltraMax" high efficiency ballasts. These are kn own to cause problem in the 800 MHz cellular uplink bands, but GE opted far short of a outright recall. They will replace the ballast on a case-by-ca se basis, but won't pay any of the associated labor costs.

I added a box and put the line filter in it.

I'll standby for a change in frequency of my noise, but so far I'm a happy camper. I put two lights on it, one light has about 14ft of wire before the filter, but it also produced the least noise of the two. Now that the the low frequency buzz is gone, I can walk through the house with my radio tuned to 520 kHz and hear all the high frequency noise from the TV, two touch lamps, two different battery chargers, my internet radio, computer, two monitors and a light dimmer. Before the fix the buzz hid all this. Luckily all these are low level and getting a foot away eliminates the noise, the TV is 4 or 5 ft. My antenna is 40ft from the house and 24ft high, and as much as people have said how useless active antennas are, I'm quite happy with it. I'm getting beacons down to 202kHz, Listened to Chicago , Cincinati and Detroit last night on the AM band, 80M, 40M, 10M, and CBers on 28 MHz. For someone not interested in putting up wire antennas, this is great. Not that I won't get around to putting some wire in the air.

Mikek

Probably should have added I'm in the Panhandle of Florida. Mikek