Autocom Pro 7 Sport Woes

[TBear]

I have a Pro 7 Sport that I have used for over 30k miles with a radar detector, I-Pod and bike-to-bike radio inputs without issue. Now, a high-frequency, painfully loud and steady tone will be emitted at random intervals causing me to disconnect the DIN plug to my jacket harness. Reconnection after a period of an hour or more also yields random results. Sometimes the tone persists and other times normal function is restored. Interruption and restoration of power to the unit has no apparent effect. All connections have been checked and no changes to the installation have recently been completed. Any idea as to what might be causing this?

[CoarsegoldKid]

Low battery in the B2B unit.

[TBear]

That is powered by the bike rather than a battery. However, that points to the possibility that it is not the Autocom that is malfunctioning but one of the input devices. Previously,I've disconnected the I-Pod to determine if a low battery in that unit might be the culprit but that did not appear to be the case. My V1 was recently serviced so one would hope that it is functioning correctly.

[Autocom Matt]

Can you confirm whether or not the tone is present even when all inputs including GMRS are disconnected from Autocom?

 

How reliably can you reproduce this issue?

[Bernie]

I have the same problem. I can get the noise to stop by pushing the headset leads further into the helmet liner. I think there is some sort of short in the headset wiring. If I unplug the headset wire, put leave my ear plug speakers connected, the noise goes away. This leaves only the headset pigtail and/or the mic.

Do you have a passenger headset/helmet, see if that helps.

[Autocom Matt]

Bernie's on the right track. If you have ear speaker adapter that would be a great test.

 

You've got an Autocom dealer close by. See if she'll swap some cables around and let you try them. I've pointed her to this thread. If not, PM me.

[TBear]

Yes, I will discuss this with Lisa M.

 

Disconnecting the I-Pod did not eliminate the tone. I have not yet tried disconnecting the radio or the V1 but will do so individually.

 

I have been unable to reproduce the tone or to identify any pattern of occurrence except that it always painful and inconvenient.

 

I'm using Al Schibi's speaker plugs connected to a headset lead (Part No. 2129 I believe). When the tone occurs I have disconnected the lower end of the lead as it is LOUD and that is the only way to disconnect while moving. I have not tried disconnecting the headset lead from the headset but will do so to determine if the headset is at fault.

[TBear]

The source of the offending tone appears to be the BTB radio. While I was not able to reproduce a constant loud tone, I did detect a momentary tone (with the same pitch) emitted by the radio. The culprit might be the blade antenna. The wire that connects the antenna to the fitting was loose at the fitting. I replaced it with the original whip antenna. Now I need to road test it.

 

[autocompvb]

When you have multipull connections into your one Autocom device then its just a case of disconnecting one at a time till the offending device is found. If its all disconnected and still there, then a part of the Autocom is the culprit. Then its a case of substitution, plug into the passenger lead, and see if the noise is still there. If not then its probably the lead out of the box which is replaceable, if it is, then its probably the headset or extension lead, where once again substitution will determin which. I hope that helps

[Sidmariner]

I had exactly the same symptoms when trying to power Kenwood TK-3101 radios using Pro 7 and the PTT/Power harness. A second or so after pressing to talk the radio would admit a loud squeel. This completely disappeared when I ran the radios on a 9V battery.

 

I have several different models of Autocom and have discovered not all of them are capable of providing power to radios. I think my M1 did, but my Pro 7 Sport and some of the newer ones didn't.

[johnlt]

I went through similar issues a few years ago. My understanding is that only the Pro M1 and Super Pro AVI of the older series Autocoms can handle the current load of the Tk 3101 when powered through the autocom via the faux battery pack. Even though the connector fits, you need to power the radio via battery or seperate bike-power cable when using the other earlier versions of Autocom.

[Autocom Matt]

Sometimes radio programming can have a bit to do with it. The current "Autocom" radio is programmed to 1.5 watt TX to power through a battery eliminator. This doesn't harm range that bad since the antenna height is the major limitation.

[FlyingFinn]

Matt brings up a very good point.

 

The standard TX power of the TK-3101 is 2.0W with a 7.2V battery.

The Pre-2009 Autocom battery eliminator for TK-3101 doesn't have a voltage regulator and the radio runs from 9V supplied by the regulator in the Autocom unit.

 

That high batter voltage doesn't seem to harm the Kenwood radios but it does increase the TX power to close to 3W.

 

To remedy this I made my own battery eliminator that regulates the incoming 9V down to 7.2V.

Another option would be to program the TK-3101 to a lower TX power but unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a way to do that.

I've played with the TK-48 (?) programming SW and it makes it a breeze to change the channel frequencies, QT settings and other parameters but there is no function for programming the TX power.

 

The current Logic series Autocom units are smarter.

The power supplied by the unit itself to the bike-to-bike connector is unregulated 12V and in the battery eliminator there is a regulator that brings down the voltage to what ever is correct for exactly that radio type! Very smart.

 

I really wish there was a way to limit the TX power in TK-3101 to about 1W. These are excellent radios but the excessive power (due to elevated "battery" voltage) does put a strain on the system.

 

Another very critical little tidbit.

Never EVER use a Pre-2009 battery eliminator for the bike-to-bike with a Post-2009 Autocom! With no regulator in the batt eliminator, and 12V coming from the Autocom unit, that would almost certainly kill the bike-to-bike radio.

 

--

Mikko

[CoarsegoldKid]

I love plug 'n play.

 

[Autocom Matt]

Then buy a radio from whoever you buy your Autocom from or use batteries

 

Seriously, I tell anyone that asks me about the eliminator to consider there goals. They can buy a couple spare batteries and the regular interface for the price.

 

Autocom is very much plug and play if you get your dealer involved. Make them work for the sale. It is there responsibility to set it up. Many people get confused with the 70+ parts in the current catalog. The options are limitless, but it only takes 5 minutes for your dealer to come up with a bill of materials to do exactly what you wish.

 

I love plug 'n play.