Radio interference from LED battens.

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pidgeonpost

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Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire
After buying a couple of 240v 30W 3' LED batten lights in October I'm finally getting round to fitting them. A quick-and-dirty test is very promising as far as light levels go, but the interference on my workshop FM radio (e.g. BBCR4) is horrendous. Luckily the test coincided with 'The Archers' so not the end of the world, but I wonder if anyone has experienced similar and can suggest a suitable cheap filter please? Thanks.
 
Unfortunately, it is often the case for cheap ones that their power supplies are RF noisy, and there really isn't much that can be done without major work internally on them...

Sometimes, fitting ferrite cores to the incoming mains leads can reduce it (if the cables are acting as radiators ie bloody long antennas lol) but in a lot of cases its the PSU itself thats doing the radiating...

And to fix that means opening it up (not always even possible) and adding the missing components- to a PCB likely not made to accommodate them...

Look for the clipon ferrite cores, you will need two (one fitted over the active at the lights terminal connections, one fitted over the neutral)- usually look something like this
1737410961974.png

Check the specs on them- there are a LOT of different types out there that all look visually the same- you want something that covers the 100Mhz to 1Ghz range at least

They are quite cheap, about $5 Au each here- and they 'may' reduce or even fix the problem if the power cables are indeed radiating the interference- if its coming from the driver itself, they won't do much unfortunately...

A 'common mode noise filter' will also work (a bit better than the two individual ferrites even) but again- more expensive (about $30 Au), harder to accommodate (although in a batten there may be space inside the fitting) and again, if it is the driver PCB itself that is radiating, won't stop it entirely (but may reduce it)
1737412490076.png

Commonly available at RS, Mouser etc (that 10A one is just a little oversized for a single batten LED lol- but it had a pic...)

In both cases, you want them as close to the lights driver as is possible...
 
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