AM Radio interference?

This afternoon I did the usual open the shop up enjoy the cool breeze and start a new build. The radio was on and tuned to AM radio. I started up the my X Carve and noticed a hissing. I initially thought it was one of the motors however I figured it out that it was the controller. When I would turn off the controller the station would come in crystal clear. Turn it on and there was static and interference.

Any body else having this problem.

I don’t think anyone else listens to AM radio. :grinning:

WOW guess I’m really showing my age huh Dohhh

lol I dont think I have really ever listened to am radio in my entire life for longer than 5 min (lol i am 26)

but if you want talk radio there are some good stations on there i have heard

but anywhoo to your question so you were getting feedback into the radio from the X-carve? so how close is your radio to your machine and how much of the shielded cable do you have exposed on the 3 wires going into the controller?

I will break out a little handheld radio and see if mine does the same

My first post didn’t go quite as planned, so let me try that again. :smiley:

I’m curious to know - is the radio plugged into the wall, or running on batteries? If it’s plugged in, it’s probably picking up electrical noise from the house/shop wiring. That type of interference is super common. You don’t experience it much these days with new electronics, because everything is all fancy and shielded and filtered and whatnot, but a bog-standard AM radio is going to pick up a lot of noise from a busy electrical line - especially one that’s got a motor running on it. Run a circular saw and tube (CRT) television on the same circuit and watch the interference happen in real time! :smiley:

If you’re just on batteries, it’s probably picking up stray RF energy generated by either the steppers or (far more likely) the spindle, especially if you’re running a router instead of the DC spindle. Not much you can do about that, unless you want to build a Faraday cage around the X-Carve. :slight_smile:

If you’re set on listening to an AM station you might be able to tune in to a streaming signal online. Google the station’s call sign and you might find it, usually on the station’s home page. Most of my local stations do this.

Oh yeah AM is going to pick up interference from the XC. The cooling motor, steppers and spindle all sources of RF interference.
Especially if it is a cheep boom box / clock radio.
If you can move the radio farther away. Put it on a separate AC circuit. See if that helps.
(I have a old component stereo in my garage, in my case I would just move the receiver and run longer speaker cables.)

Radio is about 25 feet from work station pluged into it’s own plug and only does it on am. Not that this is a huge deal just wanted to know if there was anyone else experiencing this.

As for the the AM listing I feel I can get a better rounded view of world policies and whats going on.