New LEDs cause radio / TV interference

[polarlyse]

I recently decided to get some LED's for our '81 Excella. I also upgraded our converter to the IOTA. I was doing some interior work and replaced the old parallax unit. I got a couple of LED's for the aircraft type reading lights over the sofa in the front room. I also got a couple of the LED pads to replace the auto type incandescent's over the sink in the kitchen. They kitchen lights work well and no problem with interference. The reading lights are another story. They cause a lot of static in the radio and TV. It seems to be more on FM than on AM radio. I spoke with Dan ( at LED for RV's ) where I got the lights. He inquired if I had grounded the IOTA when I installed it. I had NOT grounded it. The old one was not grounded so I did not so he recommended installing a ground to see if things improved. Today I installed a ground and there was NO improvement in the radio. Still static. I did not try the TV today but I expect the same there too.

Has anyone ran into any such problems with their LED conversion's ?????

[casarodante]

Yes, I have noticed it also. Primarily with the radio. I have yet to fully test out the combinations of which lights do it more or less. It appears closer to the radio is worse. I will be watching this thread for the solution.

Here is a thread that talks about it also (haven't read it all yet): http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fu...d/23817984.cfm

(Roger in CA)

[Dan@LED4RV]

Originally Posted by polarlyse

I recently decided to get some LED's for our '81 Excella. I also upgraded our converter to the IOTA. I was doing some interior work and replaced the old parallax unit. I got a couple of LED's for the aircraft type reading lights over the sofa in the front room. I also got a couple of the LED pads to replace the auto type incandescent's over the sink in the kitchen. They kitchen lights work well and no problem with interference. The reading lights are another story. They cause a lot of static in the radio and TV. It seems to be more on FM than on AM radio. I spoke with Dan ( at LED for RV's ) where I got the lights. He inquired if I had grounded the IOTA when I installed it. I had NOT grounded it. The old one was not grounded so I did not so he recommended installing a ground to see if things improved. Today I installed a ground and there was NO improvement in the radio. Still static. I did not try the TV today but I expect the same there too.

Has anyone ran into any such problems with their LED conversion's ?????

If there is any way to get a 12 volt power source to drive the light that is not attached to the trailer in any way would tell you allot. Like get an 1156 socket (and the light) and attach it to a battery then set it near the radio. That would tell you if it is noise via the wires or air.
All the Iota converters I have worked with had noise filters on all the circuits. However, that would need to be checked as they may have changed their design to save money. They may only have one or two circuits with filters.

[RickDavis]

If you unhook from shore power and the noise goes away it would be the converter, not the LED lights. Also be sure any inverter you have is off when running these checks. Many of these devices generator RF noise

[polarlyse]

Thanks Rick. I will give that a try. I guess if I simply unplug the shore power and try the reading lights on 12v then I will be isolating the converter from the issue. Today when I tried it I'm not sure if the converter was plugged into the wall socket or not. I had unplugged it while I was installing the ground wire. I'll go through it again next time I get a chance. I do not have an inverter to further complicate this issue.

[CanoeStream]

I encountered this with some decisions I made with a recent bathroom remodel. An FM radio on the same circuit was fuzzed up significantly. Didn't trace things exactly but it seemed that the circuit close by but on a different breaker dis not have the interference at all.