RandyKnight
Active Member
So I've got an interesting noise issue in the new house. Unforutanately it seems to be mostly affecting the section of the house that has the Server Room so it's a pretty big deal.
I mentioned in another thread that I had a minor issue with Insteon and PowerHome auto-discovery which I solved by moving the PLC to another room for discovery. Now that all the devices are known the PLC is working fine in the Server Room.
The big issue I'm having with it is with noise interfering on my component video signals. I have a 42" plasma wall mounted in the master bedroom, connected to a satellite receiver in the server room via MuxLabs baluns over Cat5. Everything works great excep there is a rolling line and some discoloration in the plasma. I spent several days troubleshooting and finally figured out that the source of the line was the power in the server room. I determined this by using a very long Cat 5 cable and 100' extension cord and moving the satellite receiver around. What I discovered is I could put the receiver pretty much anywhere and if the extension cord was plugged in in the server room, I got the noise. And the opposite is also true. I currently have the satellite receiver mounted in the rack with everything else, and the rack power supply plugged into the extension cord, which runs out of that room across the house to the master bedroom. Everything is fine at this point.
So clearly I have a noise issue on those circuits. It's odd because I have a dedicated subpanel for the server room. I suspect the electrician may have put some other things on it ... need to figure that out. He still owes me a trip back for punchout so we'll see.
Here's my question though. I know noise filters are typically used at the source of the noise. But is there any reason I couldn't put one between the sat receiver and the wall and filter out the noise that way? Ideally, I'd put it between the rack and the wall, thus filtering the noise from anything in the rack.
Am I off base here?
I mentioned in another thread that I had a minor issue with Insteon and PowerHome auto-discovery which I solved by moving the PLC to another room for discovery. Now that all the devices are known the PLC is working fine in the Server Room.
The big issue I'm having with it is with noise interfering on my component video signals. I have a 42" plasma wall mounted in the master bedroom, connected to a satellite receiver in the server room via MuxLabs baluns over Cat5. Everything works great excep there is a rolling line and some discoloration in the plasma. I spent several days troubleshooting and finally figured out that the source of the line was the power in the server room. I determined this by using a very long Cat 5 cable and 100' extension cord and moving the satellite receiver around. What I discovered is I could put the receiver pretty much anywhere and if the extension cord was plugged in in the server room, I got the noise. And the opposite is also true. I currently have the satellite receiver mounted in the rack with everything else, and the rack power supply plugged into the extension cord, which runs out of that room across the house to the master bedroom. Everything is fine at this point.
So clearly I have a noise issue on those circuits. It's odd because I have a dedicated subpanel for the server room. I suspect the electrician may have put some other things on it ... need to figure that out. He still owes me a trip back for punchout so we'll see.
Here's my question though. I know noise filters are typically used at the source of the noise. But is there any reason I couldn't put one between the sat receiver and the wall and filter out the noise that way? Ideally, I'd put it between the rack and the wall, thus filtering the noise from anything in the rack.
Am I off base here?