Electrical Noise in Action Cam
 

Hello All,
I have been flying the RV-12 for about a month now and am really enjoying it. I have a Garmin Virb Ultra 30 action cam that I use to record my flights. I plug the Cam into the aircraft intercom through the usual means. A headset patch cord.
When I listen to the video clips I get a lot of alternator noise, especially when I load up the system with strobes and flashing landing light. So far, I have been dealing with the issue by using an Equalizer to filter out most of the noise during the editing of my video clips. I am not very good at that and the results are kind of poor.
The odd thing is that while flying I do not hear the noise in my headsets. I am using noise canceling headsets.
Here is my question. Have any of you out there experienced the same problem? What were your solutions?
Here is my latest video from my YouTube channel. Jump to the end where I am approaching KTIW with lights and strobes. You will see what I am dealing with. https://youtu.be/upiV3Rh2f2o
Thanks a bunch,
Art

I had some annoying noise in my headset coming from my iPad after changing intercoms. I totally solved it by putting one of these in line between the intercom and the iPad:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Cheap, effective, easy and it may work for you.

FYI, I use a small lapel mic that I shove into my headset to record audio. It's kind rigged up but it's cheap, it works, and there is no noise. Here is an example from one of my videos. You can see the wire coming out of my right ear cup:

https://youtu.be/J1rcdaqEAhs

I use a patch cord that fits into the headset plug and a mini usb input to my Garmin Cam. To use the noise filter you are suggesting would require some adapters. I am wondering if the patch plug is exposed to some radio freq noise in the aircraft. Im tempted to wrap some aluminum foil around the inline plug. How stupid is that? Anyway some kind of Faraday cage for the plug.

Can you put a magnetic toroid clamp on the power cord that charges the camera and the patch cord? Try one that loops twice. Same as used to come with camcorders.

Mossepileit, is this what you are talking about? https://www.amazon.com/eBoot-Pieces-...46WT27SSSYJQMV Do you just clamp them on to the cable? Seems like a good idea.

Yes. I loop the cable so it passes through the clamp 2x at least.

Those ferrite chokes work best at radio frequencies. For audio frequencies, a "ground loop isolator" is worth a try, available on Amazon and eBay.

I went flying yesterday and the noise in the video was reduced. Still there but much less annoying. I am thinking that routing of my patch cable may be part of the issue. In the past I took the cable aft along the floor and then up to the Cam. Next time I fly I will take some tape with me and route it up along the roll bar and then aft to the cam. That way I put some distance from the cable to the wiring going out to the landing light and strobes.

This combined with the magnetic toroid clamp may go a long ways to solving the problem.

Glad it helps. I think, reading this, not running near or parallel to any noise-inducing cables, crossing at 90 degrees is the key. Less noise to ground isolate or magnetically choke.

I went flying last week and routed the patch cord up the roll bar and aft to the cam. There was no change. Same alternator load noise.

I have seen another youtube video of an RV12 flight that had the same noise in it. So I am pretty sure that this is not unique to my aircraft.

I have ordered a pack of ferrite ring cores from Amazon. I will let you all know how that works out.
https://www.amazon.com/eBoot-Pieces-...G5VZR1004VWTP3