10 August 2009

Minor EMC issue


At 3600 miles, I finally found a complaint, however minor.

The rear window defogger can wipe out radio reception. Specifically, driving from Princeton to Hopewell NJ and listening to 88.1 or 90.9 works only when the rear window defogger is off.

I have not run into this in other cars, although a colleague with long automotive experience has.

If this is the worst of the problems, it only reinforces what an excellent job they have done on this prototype vehicle.

And Electro Magnetic Compatibility issues like this can be pretty easy to fix. Or not. I have seen issues that take down the entire CAN communication bus, now that was serious. But there was a very simple fix.

I have other comments about the radio but I want to limit this blog to observations that are specific to the electric only version, and I suspect the radio is common with the piston versions of the Mini. Plus, I have not read the manual for the radio yet and I don't want to make a fool out of myself. Yet.

UPDATE:  It seems the EMI from the defroster is intermittent, maybe there is a loose wire and not a design issue.  This is not worth a trip to the dealer, certainly not in warm weather.  The occassional fog lately is something I can live with without using the defroster.  When we go on vacation I'll drop it off for them to look into.

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