Squeezebox Radio connects and the freezes after about 1 minute

[doobre]

Boom/Radio is not safe from a microwave

Hi there
After some further testing I can say that if your Boom or Radio player is within 4m of a microwave oven, the signal will be interrupted and stop the unit playing back. Whether it's local streaming or remote makes no difference, whether it's on wifi or ethernet again, no diff, all are interrupted and need to reboot. The microwave oven I use is a P*nasonic, it only takes about 30 seconds at full power to cause this problem..

BTW - The metal tape doesn't provide enough screening for a microwave, but the metal tape trick still does the job IF the unit is not too close to the source of the interference (distance unknown) and of course now not within 4m of a microwave.

just my 2pence
cheers CD

[slartibartfast]

Hi there
After some further testing I can say that if your Boom or Radio player is within 4m of a microwave oven, the signal will be interrupted and stop the unit playing back. Whether it's local streaming or remote makes no difference, whether it's on wifi or ethernet again, no diff, all are interrupted and need to reboot. The microwave oven I use is a P*nasonic, it only takes about 30 seconds at full power to cause this problem..

BTW - The metal tape doesn't provide enough screening for a microwave, but the metal tape trick still does the job IF the unit is not too close to the source of the interference (distance unknown) and of course now not within 4m of a microwave.

just my 2pence
cheers CD

Changing the WiFi channel can help in the case of microwave interference.

Sent from my Pixel 3a using Tapatalk

[doobre]

I'll try that again, did a bit of that when I was having constant rebuffering issues, which turned out to be caused by the incoming connectio from ISP.
cheers CD

[doobre]

Update on Microwave interference

Well I didn't find any wifi channel on the router that avoided the interference by the mWave, within that distance..

And, I found that my Radio connected to ethernet is much less affected by the mWave than the Boom on the same connection..

The shielding in the Boom must be less than the Radio's.
cheers CD

[slartibartfast]

Well I didn't find any wifi channel on the router that avoided the interference by the mWave, within that distance..

And, I found that my Radio connected to ethernet is much less affected by the mWave than the Boom on the same connection..

The shielding in the Boom must be less than the Radio's.
cheers CD

I am surprised ethernet is affected at all.

Sent from my Pixel 3a using Tapatalk

[doobre]

Yep me too..! bumma

[Redrum]

I am surprised ethernet is affected at all.

Sent from my Pixel 3a using Tapatalk

Me too. That seems like allot of RFI...

@doobre -

I hate to suggest this, but have you considered trying a different microwave? A newer one? Maybe take your radio to a friend's and connect to mysb.com. A well designed microwave should not have that much "leak power" at 4m/12ft, but, an older one, the seals wear, etc.

Also, I have been interested in these shielding experiments you guys have been conduction, but not tried one. However, In my experience, the shields need to be grounded (e.g. like a good faraday cage). I was not the RF guy, by used to work at a company where we had a big faraday cage for testing, and if there was ever a problem with the cage, it was due to improper grounds. If you can, run a wire from your shield to the ground lug on your outlet (as a test). If your power supply has a ground lug, perhaps the DC out (barrel) is also ground.

Also (disclaimer - I have no experience) - If you get a wifi dongle to ethernet that runs on 5GHz, that is out of the microwave frequency band. I know the sb will not run on 5GHz, but maybe there is a dongle that can?

Jim

[mrw]

After some further testing I can say that if your Boom or Radio player is within 4m of a microwave oven, the signal will be interrupted and stop the unit playing back.

Perhaps your microwave oven is leaking.
I have never noticed a problem. Radio plays fine within 50cm of oven, whether on or off.

[doobre]

Microwave leak.!

It's a good 'name brand' oven, so it shouldn't be leaking, but who knows these days. It's six years old, so not a relic. And the door seals are still good condition.

Anyone know of some way of measuring this radiation.? As it's in the 2.4 band, is there an app for this, I wonder..!

cheers CD

[Paul Webster]

You can try the old "mobile phone in the oven" test ... DO NOT TURN THE OVEN ON!!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ot4_jVFXxUU

[doobre]

5Ghz wifi extender

Me too. That seems like allot of RFI...

@doobre -

I hate to suggest this, but have you considered trying a different microwave? A newer one? Maybe take your radio to a friend's and connect to mysb.com. A well designed microwave should not have that much "leak power" at 4m/12ft, but, an older one, the seals wear, etc.

Also, I have been interested in these shielding experiments you guys have been conduction, but not tried one. However, In my experience, the shields need to be grounded (e.g. like a good faraday cage). I was not the RF guy, by used to work at a company where we had a big faraday cage for testing, and if there was ever a problem with the cage, it was due to improper grounds. If you can, run a wire from your shield to the ground lug on your outlet (as a test). If your power supply has a ground lug, perhaps the DC out (barrel) is also ground.

Also (disclaimer - I have no experience) - If you get a wifi dongle to ethernet that runs on 5GHz, that is out of the microwave frequency band. I know the sb will not run on 5GHz, but maybe there is a dongle that can?

Jim

Hey Redrum
I tried a wire from the earth pin of the wall socket to the metal tape.. The mWave blasted straight through..
but
Yes a 5Ghz extender with an ethernet output does do the job, no interference at all... But that shouldn't be necessary.
seems like the mWave is the likely culprit..
cheers CD

[doobre]

mWave tested

You can try the old "mobile phone in the oven" test ... DO NOT TURN THE OVEN ON!!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ot4_jVFXxUU

Yep my phone rings when inside my mWave.. what a neat trick..

P.S. Also a whatsapp call

[Redrum]

Anyone know of some way of measuring this radiation.? As it's in the 2.4 band, is there an app for this, I wonder..!

You can use a Spectrum Analyzer, and since you don't care about harmonics, it would just have to be up to, say 10GHz. Back when I was working, they were a lot of $$. But, back they O-scopes were a lot too, and now you can get PC/handheld scopes. But I imagine the probes/antennas would still be costly, even if someone figured out how to run it on a desktop or other.

You could also take it to an EMI/FCC certification lab, also $$

Of course, all of these are totally unreasonable options, who wants to spend the $ testing a cheap microwave? Maybe complain to the manufacturer, them them your face feels irritated and your sb radio stops when you use the oven, maybe they will send you another

I just poked around and found this: https://www.wikihow.com/Check-a-Microwave-for-Leaks

Jim

[doobre]

Thanks Jim

My ex has exactly the same mWave, I'll see how that one behaves.. that will be interesting..

Thanks for the tips Jim..

[doobre]

A quick update to this thread....

Thanks Redrum for all the suggestions

Couldn't find a mWave leakage detector in Auckland..

The same model of P**asonic mWave at my ex's place behaves the same way..

I bought another mWave, same brand, that one has no effect on the SQBox Boom as long as it's on ethernet.. if on wifi the same old issue occurs... so that is a gain for me..
[btw the door is much easier to open and close than the older one, even though they both dont appear to be loose or move once closed...]

anyway, I have the Boom back in its rightful place now..
cheers CD