Parrot installed - whine noise
 

Can use some advise from the audio experts.
Installed a Parrot 9000 in the usual way; original mic and cable from mirror to the centre box, Parrot in the box, and wire from the box under the rear seat to the CD player. Butchered the CD player.

Music streaming works perfect without the engine, but I get an annoying alternator whine once the engine runs.

Power to the Parrot from the phone connector, mute not connected, audio through a 3meter long tv / video cable to the boot. Used 1 connector in this cable in the boot.

In the proces repaired the original audio cables which were butchered by the previous owner for a dvd and nav player.
The shielding is missing though (2x2 inch).

What should I check or change?

Thanks, Eric

Add a ground loop isolator on the audio leads and a 12 volt power line filter on the Parrot power feed. These are available online or from a car stereo shop. Also make sure the Parrot and filter ground lead is short and connected firmly to the chassis.

Thanks for your reply, appreciated.
I was just wondering what can be the possible 'cause' for this, and fix that, before going into filters as a last resort.

1) I installed the Parrot in 2 stages, and had it connected to the (mono) phone leads for the last 2 weeks.
That worked perfect without a whine, which makes me believe it might not be the power feed of the Parrot? Or is this too simply thought?

2) As also mentioned before, I added a simple wire connector in the booth (in the wire from Parrot to CD player). Can this be a reason for interference pick-up?

3) I had to repair the original wires from the CD player to the headset, and had to use some wire-inserts as they were too short.
I tried my best to separate inner and outer wiring, but what if there is slight contact?

4) I was not able to repair the coax protection cover where the cable was cut before, can this be a reason for the whine?

Eric

I find that when my stereo is on phone and I turn up the radio for increased call volume I start to get a bit of a whine. My fix is to turn up the phone bluetooth level to max and turn down the radio during a call. Hope this helps

Often these issues are additive, and it is hard to point to a single smoking gun. Additionally the quality of the shielding on any audio cables you add can be a factor. The filters are inexpensive and may save a lot of time experimenting to track down the problem, and you might even still need them even if the wiring was perfect.

Thanks again!
It will be slightly cooler this weekend, and I decided I will re-do the wire.

I am not sure I did a good job (was too hot, and I wanted to finish it), but I am not happy with myself, and I know that will be bother me every time I will step in the car :).

If the whine remains after that, I will follow your advise and add the filters.

Eric

Well, as mentioned, did some soul-searching, prepared better, and had all work of last week step by step reversed, then re-done.

As I have a standard sound system, also concluded that the cable from the CD player should go from the boot under the rear seat to the head unit, which it does.
So finally it was a very easy job: just a short cable from center-box under the carpet to the rear seat, and cut / spliced there.
No wires to the boot, nothing.

Whine is completely gone, sound is great, thank you WhiteXKR, your advise helped in the soul searching, and the final result!