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Sony Car Radio loses power intermittently.


Richard10002

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Fitted the Sony MEX BT3900U car radio in my boat 5 years ago, and it has worked fined until a week or so ago. I leave it connected 24/7, including the continuous power supply required for memory, and it has retained it's memory for all these years, (except when I deliberately disrupt the power supply, perhaps when topping up or changing batteries, or similar).

The symptom is that it looses power for a fraction of a second, thus turning off and on. When this happens it looses all the memorized settings and channels, thus requiring me to retune, and re select all the channels I want memorised. - hope that makes sense.

I've checked all the connections, and remade those that I can, and they all seem to be fine. Other things on the same supply circuit, (TV, charging iphone, iPad, Bose speaker), continue working without interruption when the radio loses its power, so I don't think it is an interruption in the power to the radio. Given that it's intermittent, and momentary, it doesnt seem to be as simple as connecting a meter up and seeing what happens.

I guess it could be a low voltage issue, but the voltage has been occasionally very low, (11.5V or so), during the 5 years its been fitted without issue, and it hasnt been that low when the thing loses power over the past week or so.

Whilst there are other things I could spend the money on, if it's a problem with the radio, I'm quite happy to buy a new one, and would actually like one a bit more intuitive. However, I'm wondering if it's more likely to be a problem with the radio itself, or with the power supply, (or earthing, grounding, etc... ).

If I buy and fit a new one, I'll know pretty quickly whether it was an issue with the radio or the supply, but it seems a bit drastic to spend a hundred quid to diagnose.

Any thoughts and pointers welcomed...

Many Thanks

Richard

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My opinion, based on what you’ve said above, is that the radio is faulty. Almost anything within it could be failing (capacitor, semiconductor, even a resistor) which could cause a glitch on the power rail and cause the faults described. 

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It could be the radio. Has anything else electrical on the boat been changed since it started cutting out?

if the voltage on the batteries can get as low as 11.5v and then a water pump is activated, the voltage at the radio (depending how far it is from the battery and how thick the wires are) could drop below 10.5v and cause it to cut out. 

I recently replaced a Shurflo pump with a Jabsco. The Jabsco seems to draw more current when activated and hence cause a bigger voltage drop.

 

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Nothing has changed electrically during the time, and it doesn't happen when the pump or anything else drawing big power kicks in. The 11.5v is something that hasn't happened for a long time, and I quoted it as a level that ha been reached without affecting the radio.

Given what Wotever and you are saying, ( and my own judgement), I'm leaning towards something in the radio being at fault and looking for a good replacement. 12v car radio with Bluetooth and a remote control.

Ill give it a test with the pump running, and perhaps use the Nespresso to make a coffee - that draws about 80A briefly, so should drop the voltage more than the norm.

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1 minute ago, Richard10002 said:

Nothing has changed electrically during the time, and it doesn't happen when the pump or anything else drawing big power kicks in. The 11.5v is something that hasn't happened for a long time, and I quoted it as a level that ha been reached without affecting the radio.

Given what Wotever and you are saying, ( and my own judgement), I'm leaning towards something in the radio being at fault and looking for a good replacement. 12v car radio with Bluetooth and a remote control.

Ill give it a test with the pump running, and perhaps use the Nespresso to make a coffee - that draws about 80A briefly, so should drop the voltage more than the norm.

I had a problem with my old radio on the boat and used it as an excuse to switch to a new Bluetooth one with DAB. I bought a little DAB mag mount aerial and it seems to pull in stations far better than my old FM one.

I have an app on my phone for it which lets you control it via Bluetooth and play Spotify music. The old CD changer has gone!

Go on, you know you want to! ;)

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39 minutes ago, rowland al said:

I had a problem with my old radio on the boat and used it as an excuse to switch to a new Bluetooth one with DAB. I bought a little DAB mag mount aerial and it seems to pull in stations far better than my old FM one.

Snip

Ditto and mine was also a Sony. Mine would loose decent reception and hiss a lot. Replaced it with a "cheap" Pioneer DAB and it works well on a £10 Halfords mag mount aerial. No Bluetooth though in my case.

 

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Actually I have five radio sets on my boat, plus radio stations on the TV. I have Tokai self contained tractor radio in the lounge, a Nikkai radio CD also in the lounge. A Roberts didgital in the galley. The Radiomobile in the bedroom and a portable Ranger wind up for working outside.  I have sextraphonic sound when they're all switched on at the same time and tuned in to the same station.

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4 hours ago, rowland al said:

I had a problem with my old radio on the boat and used it as an excuse to switch to a new Bluetooth one with DAB. I bought a little DAB mag mount aerial and it seems to pull in stations far better than my old FM one.

I have an app on my phone for it which lets you control it via Bluetooth and play Spotify music. The old CD changer has gone!

Go on, you know you want to! ;)

What make and model? Does it have a remote control or can you change channels etc. with the phone app?

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2 hours ago, Pete of Ebor said:

Does the radio have any removable panels ? Some older ones used to have a removable facia for security - I had a similar sounding problem with one in my car. Vibration had caused there to be a poor intermittent contact with the front panel. Cleaned all the contacts and the problem went away.

No removeable panels. I think I've narrowed it down to happening when the unit gets warmed up. When I first turned it on this morning it ran for about half an hour before turning off and on. During that time I tried big loads on the circuit to see if reduced voltage would cause it, but it carried on. Once it had turned off and on once, it did it at regular short intervals until I got fed up and turned it off.

Decided on a new one :)

Hard to find one with a remote control, (I want Bluetooth music streaming).

Any suggestions welcomed. I'd guess the budget is up to about £150 or so. 

Thanks for all the input:

Decided on a new one :)

Hard to find one with a remote control, (I want Bluetooth music streaming).

Any suggestions welcomed. I'd guess the budget is up to about £150 or so. 

Edited by Richard10002
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On 15/10/2017 at 15:22, rowland al said:

Pioneer DEH-X7800DAB Car Stereo

No remote but download Pioneer ARC app to control everything.

Bought and fitted today. Can only get the ARC app to play music off the phone. Cant find any options to control the head unit, e.g. Source, radio stations, volume, etc..

 

HELP!!

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16 minutes ago, Richard10002 said:

Bought and fitted today. Can only get the ARC app to play music off the phone. Cant find any options to control the head unit, e.g. Source, radio stations, volume, etc..

 

HELP!!

I see it does everything but volume.

 

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Sorted!! Turned everything off, phone and head unit, turned both back on, and there it all is... including Volume :)

and the unit has been running for a couple of hours now without cutting out, so the original problem must have been inside the Sony head unit.

Thanks to all for the input.

  • Happy 1
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  • 11 months later...
On 19/10/2017 at 17:00, Richard10002 said:

Bought and fitted today. Can only get the ARC app to play music off the phone. Cant find any options to control the head unit, e.g. Source, radio stations, volume, etc..

 

HELP!!

A bit of an update on this Pioneer DAB radio head, and the Pioneer ARC app.

 

1) from time to time, the ARC app on the phone would fail to control the functions on the head unit, (radio channels, volume, etc.). I eventually discovered that other things on the boat had connectd by Bluetooth to the head unit, and were somehow interfering with the app on the phone. So I turned off all bluetooth on my laptop and ipad, and all worked fine.

 

2) A few weeks ago, the phone would not control the head unit at all. It would show as connected by bluetooth, but the ARC app would tell me it wasnt connected to the head unit. I'd almost given up and was considering another head unit when, after a last chance google, I found this:

 

https://androidforums.com/threads/bluetooth-problems-connecting-with-pioneer-car-stereo.618830/

 

"I have a tablet I use in the car, and was not pairing with my pioneer FH-X700BT. 

Here is my solution:

Pioneer Stereo
- menu > Clear Bluetooth Memory"

 

Paired phone and head unit, and all is now fine.

 

You would think that Pioneer would suggest this as a solution in an FAQ... but they do not seem to acknowledge that there is even the possibility of problems with their app.... which is not a surprise :(

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