Parasitic draw

[JR51]

Both speakers in rv are emitting a low volume high pitched squeal even after disconnecting the start battery. It seems to vary in intensity at times. Before I begin to trouble shoot looking for suggestions. Bad ground? Speakers hooked into house batts? Thanks in advance...........

[opnspaces]

Hey JR51, I was going back through all the suggestions and I realized by the range of answers that we really are unsure what we're actually dealing with.

Can you take a brief moment to answer a few questions that might help us make better suggestions? The more information you can give us, the better we can help. It's okay if you don't have an answer, just say so and we'll either move on from that point or if it is really important we'll try to suggest an easy way to get the information.

What's the year make and model? I actually dislike automatically asking this, but a system built in 1985 will possibly have different issues than something built in 2015 and someone might have the same and already fixed this?

Is is a class A, class B, class C or something else?

Does the RV have solar?
If solar do you know what type of solar controller?If you disconnect the solar does the noise stop?

Is there an inverter?
If you disconnect the inverter does the noise stop?

When do you hear this noise? All the time, only when hooked up, only when running on batteries,only when the engine is running etc

Which speakers are we talking about, dash speakers, or speakers in the living area or both?

Is there more than one entertainment system in the coach? If yes do they both exhibit the same symptoms?

If multiple systems, do they share the same speakers?

Are there any speakers that do not make noise? If yes where are they, what are they for in the coach?

You said you have a knife switch to protect the starter battery from draining in storage. If you open the knife switch does the noise stop?

If you turn off the house main circuit breaker does the noise stop?

Yes it's a lot of questions, but the more information we can get the better we can help.

[MrWizard]

.002 amps ? 2 milli-amps

Or
.002 Voltage Drop ?

that sound like wire length voltage drop, thats only 2 milli-volt

i can get that measuring a battery cable

[JR51]

sound from speakers happens periodically. Have a bayonet switch on start battery to avoid parasitic drain so all power should be off in dash radio system. Tried turning off main power to converter and sound continued from speakers. Measured speaker power draw and its .002 volts. Not a major concern but it sort of does drive me a bit crazy seeking the source.

[MrWizard]

speakers don't connect to the batteries
unless they ARE ALSO the amplifier ?
speakers Normally connect to the output of your audio device/radio or the output of an amplifier being fed the a audio signal

disconnecting the battery removes AN 'ELECTRICAL NOISE FILTER', from the audio circuit

try the 'stereo' ? with NO 120v input, unplug from shore power, turn off inverter, or generator

does t hum all the time, even when not using any tv/music/radio etc..
then it could be powerline interfernce
the speaker wires acting like an antenna

[2manytoyz]

The sound you described sounds a lot like when my TT power converter was failing. With all loads switched off, the converter would "hiss". Tun on any light, it would immediately go away.

A couple of months later, it died during a camping trip. I replaced it with an Iota 55W converter, never had another issue.

When you hear the noise, try turning on a load, see if it goes away. Easy enough to troubleshoot if this is the problem.

Good luck, I hate chasing gremlins!

[shastagary]

your speakers are connected to either the in dash radio or the rv entertainment dvd player system that is where the noise is coming from i would check them.
it could be caused by very noisy power supplying them but it should not make noise if they are turned off.

[JR51]

LED lights not on when it happens. Not a constant draw but periodic. Guess I can start by turning things off and on. Next time I hear it will check if converter is problem

[1492]

Moved from Forum Technical Support

[opnspaces]

LED lights or a failing converter. Does the hum happen with all lights turned off? If all lights are off and the hum still occurs try flipping off the converter/charger circuit breaker. Does the hum stop, or did the breaker just kill all the power to the speakers?

[Dick_B]

LED lights?

[Sam_Spade]

JR51 wrote:
Speakers hooked into house batts?

Mine certainly is.