120VAC Load - Digital Audio Cuts Out

[dohanc]

I posted this on another forum not thinking audioholics would have been the proper place for this type of question.

I have a problem with the digital audio from a DVD cutting out on a receiver I setup for someone when they use an iron/steamer. The DVD player is connected via coax digital output to a Yamaha RX-V661 receiver. I do not know if the cable box does the same thing. The audio equipment is all connected to the same outlet. It is hooked up to a TV about 20 feet away on the same breaker.

A 12/3 cable feeds the room, wth one 20A breaker for the audio equipment and one for the TV. The other 12/3 leg feeds the room outlets from a seperate 20A breaker. Therefore the two circuits share a neutral. Not sure if that matters. The iron is plugged into one of the room's outlets. I think when the iron is cycling on and off and fluctuating the load, the digital signal drops out.

Is there anyway to fix this? Could an optical cable fix this? Any techincal information on why this occurs is helpful. I really need a solution for this, so please offer any suggestions.

Thanks!

 

[trnqk7]

For sure try the optical cable-that way, if there is a grounding issue of some sorts, at least it won't affect the optical cable...other than that, dunno. Cheap solution to try though.

 

[Rickster71]

If this was a job I was doing; I would lose the shared neutral with any electronic equipment.
Do that, by running a dedicated 20A circuit to the HT equipment.

 

[dohanc]

Here's an update on this problem:

I connected the steamer/iron to the same circuit as the audio line (to test if combining the two hot legs to balance the 12/3 would work). Same problem. I then moved the steamer/iron to a completely seperate circuit in the house (physically nearby). Same problem, but happened a little less.

The audio did not cut out when listening to the Radio (with the receiver). It's only from the digital audio coax lines from the DVD player and cable box, which makes me suspect some sort of grounding imbalance. All components are plugged into the same power strip. All components including receiver do not have a ground leg on the power cord. I changed the coax to optical which will give electrical isolation between the receiver and dvd player. This fixed the problem for the DVD player. The cable box does not have optical digital out, so the problem remains for the cable box.

I'm wondering if the components should be grounded to a common ground point somehow. There are no ground terminals and no easy way to ground these together.

Any further suggestions welcome.

 

[trnqk7]

Don't suppose you can upgrade your cable box to one with HDMI or at least a optical out? Probably not, but something to look into maybe with a quick phone call...otw, I'm unsure of what you should do. You could ground all the chassis of the different components together by putting conductive straps across all of them and tying to a central location that gives a path to ground, but that's a little annoying to do (obviously, you would want to go to a metal part of the chassis...but some of these things might be made completely of plastic casings). That is something you might want to do a little more research on.

 

[Rickster71]

The cable should have a barrel connector ground before it enters the house, and be tied into the ground rod or a water pipe. (and their connections checked)