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Fitting a DABMotion radio adapter and antenna

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Old Sep 17th, 2018, 18:41   #1
andyg
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Default Fitting a DABMotion radio adapter and antenna

Thought I would pass on my experience of trying various configurations, fitting and antenna options etc, for the DABMotion adapter. (Currently £99 on Amazon.uk) My main aim was to get a working solution that is relatively cheap and also very discrete.

The small DABMotion controller unit can go anywhere in the car, but I hide it inside the sliding armrest cubby (pix 1 & 2). That controller is powered by an easily replaceable button-type battery that seems to last much more than a year. It communicates with the black box DAB radio unit wirelessly. Thus that DAB radio unit can go just about anywhere in the car where there is power and where it is within radio range of the controller. I chose to tuck the radio unit inside the top panel of the boot (pix 3). This has several advantages. It is relatively easy to get an ignition switched feed from behind the rear cabin 12v socket (pix 4). A switched feed is essential if you want to avoid power drain when the car is not running that can throw up low battery voltage messages and also confuse start/stop systems. That position also allows the coax cable from a rear mounted external DAB antenna to be routed in underneath the boot lid rubber seal. The DAB unit is also quite close to the driver's position so has a good wireless signal with the controller unit.

By far the most difficult thing to find was a discrete DAB antenna that actually worked! Modern cars with amplified VHF antennas do not like coax splitters so I did not try them. Internal stick-onto-glass antennas only work in very high DAB signal areas like towns or cities. On the open road they are useless, including those that claim to be amplified. External magnetic mount rods work very well indeed, but you are left with an obvious extra antenna and a coax cable run outside the car that can look untidy. Rods also whistle quite loud at speeds above 50mph so are hardly discrete! In the end I used the Kinetic STIC T DSA 3005 found here.... https://www.dabonwheels.co.uk/produc...dab-car-aerial
On my S80 that antenna fits neatly at the base of the rear window, out of sight when the boot is closed. It gives a strong DAB signal on motorways, A-roads and on cross country runs (pix 5, 6 & 7). Be careful that as the car boot lid closes it does not bear on the central T-piece of the antenna or there could be some expensive damage to the glass! Also, make sure that the 2 antenna rods are well screwed in because they can vibrate loose over time.

With this solution I mainly use DAB for BBC Radio 5, so I have the DAB radio paired to pre-set number 5 on my car VHF radio and everything works fine. The only disadvantage I can think of is that the controller unit buttons are not lit, so at night it is safer to choose what DAB station you want to listen to before driving off.

Hope all that helps some folks!
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Old Sep 18th, 2018, 13:14   #2
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Would like to see how the text would display on the 2007 radio screen.

How are you finding the signal and how do you find stations, just keep scrolling?
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Old Sep 18th, 2018, 16:29   #3
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Default It shows standard RDS onto your car VHF radio display

Hi there. The DABMotion transmits onto a selectable empty VHF channel that you pick up on your car's VHF radio. It then displays the same RDS information on your car's radio display as any normal VHF channel. I leave it to show the name of the station, like "R5L" or "R2". There are other display options (that I don't bother with), eg. you can scroll through DAB signal strength and a few other things.

When you first set up the DABMotion there is a search function that finds all the available DAB stations. With a decent antenna it will find and memorise all of them. You can then select them as pre-sets on buttons 1-4 on the DABMotion controller (see pix 2). Or you can scroll through them all with the rotary knob, but that is a bit slow and laborious. For me 4 pre-set DAB stations is enough. When you change DAB stations on the DABMotion controller there is nothing else to do, it just sends the new DAB station to the same channel on your car's VHF radio.

If you want to know more the DABMotion user instructions are here... http://www.armournordic.se/dokument/...L%20latest.pdf

Hope that helps,

Andy
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Old Sep 18th, 2018, 17:20   #4
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You could have installed the antenna inside the rear window

The extra few mm of distance would make no discernible difference to antenna performance.
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Old Sep 18th, 2018, 20:31   #5
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Default Did try that...

Thanks for the suggestion SwissXC90. As it happens I did try that position. By which I think you mean inside the cabin at the base of the rear window where it meets the parcel shelf, away from the car's rear window heater element and VHF antenna. Based upon the trial drives I did any antenna mounted inside the glass reduced the signal strength considerably compared to a position that is outside. I think the glass itself is a considerable barrier to the UHF DAB signal? Even if the H/V polarisation is not ideal, such as the location I ended up with, external antenna positions absolutely trumped any internal mounting. That was my experience anyway. Cheers.
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Old Sep 18th, 2018, 22:04   #6
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What's the wire running through the car? Is it power?

Is there no switched live in boot fuse boxes?
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Old Sep 18th, 2018, 22:44   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by andyg View Post
Thanks for the suggestion SwissXC90. As it happens I did try that position. By which I think you mean inside the cabin at the base of the rear window where it meets the parcel shelf, away from the car's rear window heater element and VHF antenna. Based upon the trial drives I did any antenna mounted inside the glass reduced the signal strength considerably compared to a position that is outside. I think the glass itself is a considerable barrier to the UHF DAB signal? Even if the H/V polarisation is not ideal, such as the location I ended up with, external antenna positions absolutely trumped any internal mounting. That was my experience anyway. Cheers.
UK DAB is band III (174 MHz to 240 MHz), which is VHF, not UHF
The actual UK frequencies used are 222 MHz to 227 MHz

Tune the DAB dipole antenna to the mid frequency, 225 MHz, for maximum reception. Dipole length will be 0.64m for each element (side)

And DAB is transmitted in the UK in vertical polarization, so a vertical antenna will work much better than horizontal.

So a vertical 1/4 wave vertical antenna of 0.32m long will provide optimum performance

(I used to fit antennas for VHF and UHF radio transmitters to police vehicles, taxis, and everyone else using good old VHF and UHF radios 30 years ago)
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Old Sep 18th, 2018, 22:57   #8
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Originally Posted by Waynedance View Post
What's the wire running through the car? Is it power?

Is there no switched live in boot fuse boxes?
That is the power lead. I knew for certain that the rear cabin socket was ignition switched so used that. (I could have routed it out of sight under the carpet I guess.) I could not find one in the rear fuse boxes but almost certainly there is one somewhere!
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Old Sep 19th, 2018, 13:12   #9
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Over the years I have had a number of cars with factory fitted DAB radios. Without exception, the reception has been patchy as I drive around the UK. So much so that I never use DAB anymore and stick to FM.
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