Seneca Garmin system RF noise

[McGintys924]

Originally Posted by RVermont

Several people here have disconnected the side turn wires and just keep the unit on rear camera. The side cameras are pretty useless. The mirrors are very good and provide what I need.

Why does every video of a Seneca (or any other motorhome) hit on these cameras like it's a major selling point when there are virtually worthless on the road! I can honestly say I never look at that monitor when turning or changing lanes. The mirrors are just right if you use them both.

[Mark S]

Originally Posted by McGintys924

Why does every video of a Seneca (or any other motorhome) hit on these cameras like it's a major selling point when there are virtually worthless on the road! I can honestly say I never look at that monitor when turning or changing lanes. The mirrors are just right if you use them both.

I don't feel like taking my dash apart again right now, so I assingned my CNO (Chief Navigational Officer) the task of viewing the camera screen whenever the turn signals are on. This I explained, is a level of safety redundancy.

Now, I understand that this does absolutely nothing, and I don't think she even pretends to look at the screen, but it does make make feel better about having this stupid feature.

Now the one question I have is, my dash was open for almost two weeks, why did you all decide to start this discussion the day I closed it up.

[Robbbyr]

Originally Posted by RVermont

Just completed this modification. Most difficult part was finding a location for the switch. I removed the ash tray and replaced it with a plastic cover. This allows me to shut off both side cameras. I have enough room in the cover to add a couple more switches. Thinking of adding side and rear lighting for after dark arrivals.

Robbbyr as always thanks for pointing out mods that I never knew I needed.


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Nice job! It has been helpful for me and I am sure it will be for you too.
Your leveler controls are in your dash aren't they? That eats up real estate I used for switches!

[WaltW]

There is another solution. If Jayco would install 2 separate units in the dash - one for the radio/gps and the second for the cameras. Many class A's do it this way. In my former class A I replaced the old B&W camera system with a color system that allowed a split view...I could watch the rear view and a side camera at the same time. I think we would get better radios in the process as well.

[Rustynuts]

We are on the way home from picking up our 2018.5 37RB and are getting the same annoying whine sound, we finally had to just turn the unit off! Anybody figure anything out on this problem?

[memphis02]

Did the whine change pitch with the RPM of the motor?

[Rustynuts]

Originally Posted by memphis02

Did the whine change pitch with the RPM of the motor?

Yes, it matches the rpm change. Tried with the motor not running and trying the fan blower for the heating and there is no noise. I believe it is all related terference from the motor.

[ralett]

Sorry for not posting this earlier, but I did fix the whining in my Garmin. As I suspected, it was a bad ground. I ran a new ground wire from a grounding point on the firewall (found one just to the left of the brake pedal) up to the Garmin base unit.

The black ground wire coming out of the Garmin base was connected to a white wire of a Jayco wiring harness. I clipped that black wire and connected it to the new ground...all whining was fixed!!!

Also, much of the "flakiness" of this unit was fixed by updating the software. The base unit and the remote unit both have upgradable software. You need to upgrade BOTH! It's not obvious but there are instruction on Garmin's website. It requires downloading Garmin Express to a PC, connecting the remote unit via USB to the PC, and then using a USB drive to download the base SW from the PC and the plgging the USB drive into the USB port on the base unit.

My dealer pulls all the Garmin remote units out of their RVs when they arrive to prevent theft. They don't keep track of which remote came from which base unit. I found that my base unit had newer software than the remote, and that did not work well. Once I upgraded both the base (SW V2.6) and the remote (SW V2.7), the unit now works fairly well. The rear camera stays on, the mic works, the unit no longer freezes up, I control music volume without the camera turning off, etc. etc.

The dealer had no clue about how to fix this so it will likely be a DIY project.

Let me know if I can help further.

[memphis02]

Originally Posted by Rustynuts

Yes, it matches the rpm change. Tried with the motor not running and trying the fan blower for the heating and there is no noise. I believe it is all related terference from the motor.

You can start with re-grounding the unit either with a better cable or better grounding location -OR- install a device called a "ground loop isolator" which will run you less than $30 if re-grounding doesn't solve the problem.

[Rustynuts]

Thanks I will first try running a new ground first. Can you just remove the base to get to the wiring or open up the dash? If you have open the dash any pointers of how to go about it? I also have a rattle/vibration in the dash at certain ramps that needs looking into.

[memphis02]

The dash is way more intimidating than it is difficult to get out. The only booger is getting the parking air brake button off; it will require a very small pin punch to drive out its retaining pin so it can slide off, then there's about a dozen torqs screws (if I remember correctly) that will have to come out and the dash will be off.

[RVermont]

You might be in luck with the new chassis. On some of the newer chassis the air brake switch just unscrews. Not that the other way takes that long it is just a pain not to lose the pin.


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[ralett]

On my unit (S2RV chassis), all I needed to do is remove the face plate of the dash by taking out the 10 or so torx screws. That exposed the Garmin base screws. Remove those screws and you can pull the Garmin base unit out. I did not need to remove the parking brake controls or any other dash controls to get to the Garmin wiring. Took maybe 5 minutes to get the Garmin wiring.

[TrippMueller]

When we have seen this on Seneca's the whistling noise you are hearing is wind noise coming through the rear camera's microphone. if you pull the radio out, there will be a White RCA jack. Pull it out. You will lose all sound from the backup camera but the whistling noise will be gone. That is the only solution we know of at this moment.

[kndspd]

We had noise in our 2018 Seneca Garmin system too. Had dealer install filter on audio lines. Works fine now.

[Rustynuts]

Originally Posted by kndspd

We had noise in our 2018 Seneca Garmin system too. Had dealer install filter on audio lines. Works fine now.

Do you know what they used? Wired in unit, Ferrite? I changed the ground on mine and that fixed some of it, the whine no longer goes up and down to match the ENGINE rpm. Now we just get a high pitch feedback that you hear when audio is off or volume low.

[kndspd]

Sorry Rustynuts - don't know what they used, but we have no noise at all at any rpm or any situation now. You could call Fretz RV in Souderton, PA 215-723-3121 and ask what they used. I think our technician was Roy and they did the install in mid-January 2018.

[rmjr70]

for anyone that has same problem, i have a 2018.5 Seneca , radio interference is horrible. so first i re grounded unit , did nothing , i used a ground loop did nothing , so finally i unplugged the rca and yellow cable that would play sound for tv in ceiling and dash speakers , sound is now gone 100 % . so if you don't care about tv playing through dash & celling speakers unplug them . i put sound bar and sub in anyway . my guess is that because they used rca to 3mm aux jack to play sound is where it comes from , don't understand why they just didn't run rca from tv to back of tv , lazy or not to tech advanced . i didn't try that to see if it would work because after i seen the noise was gone i didn't care to find out , just put dash back and happy not to hear that noise anymore , hope this helps some

[Rustynuts]

Originally Posted by rmjr70

for anyone that has same problem, i have a 2018.5 Seneca , radio interference is horrible. so first i re grounded unit , did nothing , i used a ground loop did nothing , so finally i unplugged the rca and yellow cable that would play sound for tv in ceiling and dash speakers , sound is now gone 100 % . so if you don't care about tv playing through dash & celling speakers unplug them . i put sound bar and sub in anyway . my guess is that because they used rca to 3mm aux jack to play sound is where it comes from , don't understand why they just didn't run rca from tv to back of tv , lazy or not to tech advanced . i didn't try that to see if it would work because after i seen the noise was gone i didn't care to find out , just put dash back and happy not to hear that noise anymore , hope this helps some

I havent had time to mess with mine again yet but thanks for the info. I will try this as we do not use the radio for tv play. If you dont mind, what sound bar did you put in and do you have any pictures of the install?

[chfraser01]

I had the noise coming through my speakers on my 2018 Seneca. The noise was coming from the dash A/C fan motor. So I took it in to the dealer for some issues and they worked on this issue. They moved the radio ground to a different location and installed a filter. I picked up and started down the interstate and now I was getting a much worse noise. After about 1 hour, I realized the the noise got worse when a car or truck was coming around me. The louder the vehicle, the louder the noise. I remembered reading on this site about the rear camera having a microphone. When I got home, I read up on the camera and figured out how to turn off the mic from the radio. I guess when they were working on the radio unit, they must have turned the mic on. Well that was an easy fix. Thanks to what I learn from this site.