Interference with Onix/Solix-2017 Terroval i pilot link

[Bunkkah]

Hello. I'm still strugeling finding way to get rid of interference in SI and DI as using i pilot link. My terrova using its own optima blue top and Solix is using its own. The trolling motor battery is in bow of the boat and Solix´s battery in console to minimize the lenght of the power wires. They even added extra ground to my trolling motor but it didnt solve it. I have tried connecting both grounds but it didnt help either. I have many many ferrite rings in use but those doesnt make the difference. There is zero interference when the link cable is not connected. I have heard many many many users have similar problems and i was wondering is there really is someone who hasnt any interference? It feel so wierd that these unit are sold to work together and the cost lost of money. I would love to get them work like a charm. Any ideas?

[tweakjr]

Where is the SI/DI transducer mounted?
Do you have an ethernet switch?

[Bunkkah]

Transducer is in transom. I just added the ethernet hub but havent got in water to test it. Could it be the solution for this?

[tweakjr]

I have a similar setup and also get some interference on SI/DI when the TM is at higher power settings.
It's not bad at lower trolling speeds under 6 or 7.
Some guys have had luck putting a ground wire on one of the ethernet posts but it didn't help me.
Others have put a larger fuse in the head of the TM but that didn't have any effect for me either.
How bad is the interference for you?

Mine looks like this when the TM is fighting wind:
I guess it's also there at more stable power settings, but more uniform and less noticeable.

[bobcoy]

Transducer is in transom. I just added the ethernet hub but havent got in water to test it. Could it be the solution for this?

Bunkkah It must be in the water when diagnosing interference. The water kills much of the RFI on it's own. Bob

[Bunkkah]

Bunkkah It must be in the water when diagnosing interference. The water kills much of the RFI on it's own. Bob

For me the the problem comes as the motor hits the water. I tried it on trailer as i did sink my transducer and trolling motor in waterbuckets. There was no interference, but the problems shows up as terrova has to move my boat. I think there was not enough "resistance" on trailer. From speeds 1-9 there is interference, when maxed its gone. I took transducer out and when there was only the black SI screen it is sure that interference comes through LINK cable, becouse interferance came still on the screen. I even added the extra ground on the link cable with my onix but it made only a tiny difference.

And yes, it looks just like tweakjr's.

[bobcoy]

Not sure it is relevant in your case but. You might want to make sure there is only one point of grounding to the water.(motor ground) Meaning nothing grounded to the hull. What you describe on the trolling motor is classic RFI. The motor uses PWM to conserve battery power. The only time the motor bypasses the PWM circuit is at full power. So no RFI then. I mention the grounding because you situation does not follow the norm. (with on in water being worse) It is possible you have a bad ilink cable. Any damage to the cable(pinched flattened or even too tight a radius around a corner or even a tightly cinched cable tie) will potentially allow noise to penetrate the shield. Have you checked the ground fuse inside the Terrova? Brown wire if I remember. Another situation could be induced noise(usually cable tied TM power cables to data carrying cables) but just touching will increase noise transmission. One thing at a time and good notes help in tracking down this problem. After much frustration for a long time I did these fixes then if unsuccessful(no positive change) I removed that "fix" and tried another. Found that some actually caused more problems. Good Luck Bob
Question: Did the Sonar filters in the unit menu's have any effect if you turned them on and up?

[SethRstein]

I also had an interference problem with my Terrova. I purchased some clip on ferite chokes from amazon. Placed like 3 on each transducer cable and it solved my issue. I had tried everything prior to that and nothing worked.

[hotrodelrod]

I also had an interference problem with my Terrova. I purchased some clip on ferite chokes from amazon. Placed like 3 on each transducer cable and it solved my issue. I had tried everything prior to that and nothing worked.

Are the ferite chokes usually installed on the ducer cable or power cable? I have been chasing my tail as well. My interference is much worse than the samples above and also clears up at 10 (full power) My moter is a Riptide Terrova 80 so no fuse in control head

[SethRstein]

Are the ferite chokes usually installed on the ducer cable or power cable? I have been chasing my tail as well. My interference is much worse than the samples above and also clears up at 10 (full power) My moter is a Riptide Terrova 80 so no fuse in control head

I actually put them on the power and the transducer cable. I think I put one on the network cables too. I bought like a 20 pack and just used them all. Now I have no interference.

[tweakjr]

I'm curious about the theory for proper grounding.
I verified I have a direct low resistance connection from the Ulterra motor case screw to the negative post of my TM batteries.
Currently I have the negative posts of both my TM battery network(24V (2x12V)) and cranking battery attached to my aluminum hull. When I initially did this, it did make an improvement to the SI/DI interference but did not completely eliminate it.
Without the jumper wires from the negative posts to boat hull, there was still continuity between battery negative posts through the 3 bank battery charger, incidentally removing the battery charger connections had no effect on interference.
I also verified that my boat's wire harness negative lead also finds its way to boat hull somewhere even when the negative connections to the batteries are removed.

Recently I installed a dedicated electronics battery with its own dedicated single bank charger.
I currently do not have that dedicated battery's negative post tied to the boat hull. I have yet to test this configuration out on the water but I suspect I'll also want to tie the negative post to the boat hull/other batteries.

I'll give the snap-on ferrite chokes a try.
I'll also try removing the few zip ties that are securing the two leads that come from the Ulterra head that pass through the curly cord. I put those on to keep the stress off of the smaller wires when the cord wraps itself around the Ulterra during spotlock.

Seems strange that in some of our installations, the interference disappears when the ethernet link is disconnected between the TM and switch.

Lot's of good suggestions here, keep them coming!

[TroyBoy30]

i always recommend the tmc1 first

https://www.humminbird.com/Products/TMC-1/

[tweakjr]

I'll give the TMC1 a try, thanks.

This has probably been shared here before, but I found this article informative.
I believe we're dealing with conducted interference but through the ethernet instead of power line of the graph.

http://www.crappie101.com/book/export/html/2537

[bobcoy]

Nice one page article for understanding electrical interference on a boat. Thanks

[TroyBoy30]

I'll give the TMC1 a try, thanks.

This has probably been shared here before, but I found this article informative.
I believe we're dealing with conducted interference but through the ethernet instead of power line of the graph.

http://www.crappie101.com/book/export/html/2537

humminbird has a good article as well. may have been posted already. i didnt go back to look

https://www.humminbird.com/faqDetail.aspx?id=3660

[tweakjr]

I'm curious about the theory for proper grounding.
I verified I have a direct low resistance connection from the Ulterra motor case screw to the negative post of my TM batteries.
Currently I have the negative posts of both my TM battery network(24V (2x12V)) and cranking battery attached to my aluminum hull. When I initially did this, it did make an improvement to the SI/DI interference but did not completely eliminate it.
Without the jumper wires from the negative posts to boat hull, there was still continuity between battery negative posts through the 3 bank battery charger, incidentally removing the battery charger connections had no effect on interference.
I also verified that my boat's wire harness negative lead also finds its way to boat hull somewhere even when the negative connections to the batteries are removed.

Recently I installed a dedicated electronics battery with its own dedicated single bank charger.
I currently do not have that dedicated battery's negative post tied to the boat hull. I have yet to test this configuration out on the water but I suspect I'll also want to tie the negative post to the boat hull/other batteries.

I'll give the snap-on ferrite chokes a try.
I'll also try removing the few zip ties that are securing the two leads that come from the Ulterra head that pass through the curly cord. I put those on to keep the stress off of the smaller wires when the cord wraps itself around the Ulterra during spotlock.

Seems strange that in some of our installations, the interference disappears when the ethernet link is disconnected between the TM and switch.

Lot's of good suggestions here, keep them coming!

Happy to report my interference issues are 100% resolved.

Bad news is I'm not certain what the specific solution was, as I did several changes since the above screenshot was taken.

1) Added a dedicated electronics battery with a single bank charger. The only components using this battery are both Helix units, ethernet switch, 360. Also the negative post of this battery is NOT connected to boat hull, TM battery negative post, or boat wire harness ground.
2) Ethernet cable from Ulterra wrapped around a 3" mix77 ferrite ring, about 6 or 7 turns.
3) Undid ground jumper wire from ethernet switch post. (Installed awhile back but was no help.)
4) Disconnected HB NMEA2k module from ethernet switch (afraid of ground loop through ethernet cable)

Previously the HB electronics were powered from cranking battery and all 12V accessories were sharing output from a single master switch.
Cranking and TM batteries share a 3 bank MK digital charger.
Now the dedicated battery powers only the HB electronics and ran new 8ga wiring from battery through a separate master electronics switch to separate fuse block. 10ga wiring to forward unit and another 10 ga back to 360 on transom.
All excess cabling figure 8 coiled.

I never did install the TMC1 choke or snap-on ferrites.
Also updated both Helix's to the 1.610 which incidentally worked flawless on the water all day.
X-press menu glitch was fixed too! Yay

[bobcoy]

Good for you! We can still benefit from your work. Every installation is different and there are many examples of what can be tried. Bob