Interference with TV reception

[fasteddy]

You shouldn't have to replace them all, you may just have a couple of power supplies emitting interference and need to find out which ones are the culprits

 

[Kitman]

You shouldn't have to replace them all, you may just have a couple of power supplies emitting interference and need to find out which ones are the culprits

It seems to be all of them causing the issue, with the control boxes powered on with no lights connected there is no issues, however as soon as 1 string of lights is connected then it causes issues right away even without any sequence running.

All of the power supplies are a few years old now except the reindeer ones that were only used last year.

Is there any way to add filtering at the output of the power supply? like adding something like a cap or something else to remove the interference?

I am more than happy to replace all of my power supplies with Meanwell supplies, I am just looking for some quick fix until I can get some power supplies so my neighbour isn't affected, I don't care about my reception.

 

[Kitman]

I have just ordered some meanwell power supplies from Arrow so that I can swap out the cheap Chinese ones to see if that makes a difference. Est delivery is the 10th so not much I can do till then. I guess I could cover my house with tinfoil to try and stop the interference from getting to the neighbour's antenna hahaha will keep this updated with the outcome.

 

[battle79]

That might not be as silly as it sounds.
If you wrap up one of the control boxes in foil and then earth the foil, you could determine if the interference is coming from within the box or from the cable/pixels of the string.
Don't know if that will help resolve issue, but at least you'll know.

 

[David_AVD]

If it's affecting the neighbour's TV reception then it's most likely the power supply radiating shed loads of EMI via the DC cables (pixels, etc). Filtering at the PSU may help, but swapping to a better quality PSU may be the only real solution.

 

[QLDKing(Brad)]

I guess I could cover my house with tinfoil to try and stop the interference from getting to the neighbour's antenna hahaha will keep this updated with the outcome.

Shout your neighbour Netflix and Stan for the month.
Interested to see what the problem is with this one.

 

[Nuzzy]

Our reception is the same but we haven’t had any neighbours complain about theirs yet. I have a couple of new props this year so set about last night testing which one it was.

I thought it would be my new flat tree but when I tested it last night it wasn’t. The only other new prop was the roof outline, it was ok with the power supply on but once the lights lit up then the tv went dead.

I moved the power supply from on the roof to under the eaves and now it only interferes at the brighter colours (white, yellows etc) so going to re-route some cables today and hopefully fix it up.

 

[Kitman]

Shout your neighbour Netflix and Stan for the month.
Interested to see what the problem is with this one.

They already have Netflix and have resorted to watching Netflix every night after 8pm lol. There is however only so much that you can watch on Netflix before running out of Netflix. Perhaps I should shout them a VPN so they can get the US Netflix which would make them happier.

Our reception is the same but we haven’t had any neighbours complain about theirs yet. I have a couple of new props this year so set about last night testing which one it was.

Your neighbours may not have put 2 and 2 together yet, mine didn't for a few days they just thought it was something wrong with the TV or antenna then they started to notice it was every day at the exact same time which is when they asked me. Depending how close your neighbours house is depends if it will be affected and if their antenna is pointing at your house, my neighbours antenna points right at my sleigh on my roof so that certainly won't help, I am going to have to try moving my sleigh power supply etc from on the roof to under the eaves but that may involve a rewire of the sleigh since the cables will need to be quite long and I may then have other issues.

 

[the grinch]

Hey mate
Sorry to hear about your troubles just found this post!
As myself always always trying not to upset neighbors and neighborhood in anyway shape or form! For obvious reasons.
But interfernce with television reception not a good thing !
I personally would never have power supplies and controllers on my roof ever! Sounds definitely more than likely you're problem, I know obviously convenient to be close to your display element but not that difficult to keep controllers and psu's on the ground and run a few wires . also a lot more convenient to maintain and monitor . And can keep your business side of stuff cooler roof gets too hot. Myself at one point in time had 90 metres of 240v rope lights on my roof to outline looked awesome and did last a season or two maybe but they caught on fire ! Due to being ropes and 40 degree days etc . After that no high voltage on my roof ever again !
Except for solar panels !
Good luck mate hopefully you can keep the neighbors happy
Merry xmas

 

[djgra79]

Did you get to the bottom of the issue @Kitman ?

 

[Kitman]

Did you get to the bottom of the issue @Kitman ?

Well it turns out my neighbours TV antenna was stuffed so they got a new one. However, I haven't asked them if that has fixed the issue when my lights turn on.

I did get my power supplies and I have swapped over the power supply in my pixicle box but the weather has been too bad to get on the roof and swap over the power supply for my sleigh so I am hoping to do that in the next few days and then do some testing.

 

[Kitman]

Well it turns out that the new TV antenna that the neighbours put up has fixed their issue, TV reception is fine with the lights turned on or off. For me I have not done a full test yet and still have to replace 1 power supply, however, I am pretty sure my issue is low signal to start with and it is being blocked by a big tree in my yard I will do the final testing when I start to pack up and report back.

 

[jojos circus]

Curiosity question how did you go with an end result last year .As I am having the same issue .Did you work out if it was the power supplies that were the underlying cause.

 

[Kitman]

Sorry for the late reply, I purchased myself a brand new TV since my old TV was having other issues as well, wouldn't you know it my problem is now solved, seems that the tuner in my old TV was also having an issue. I can still notice some interference from time to time and replacing power supplies seems to have made no difference. I am thinking that it could be just the way the icicle lights are wired up that is causing the issue. I do want to try running a negative and attaching it to the end of the string to see if perhaps that will cancel out anything but since I am not having major issues it can wait for now.

 

[scamper]

Do you have earths on the power supplies? Are you running 3 core mains cables or just 2?
Are these power supplies running from the same circuit in your mains? If so, try switching to a different cct and see if that helps.
You may have inadvertently stumbled on a poor earth in your electrical wiring of your house.