RPI3 interference with GPS receiver integrated inside VHF

[thmou]

Hello,

I was about to test my open plotter setup, and found that as soon as the RPI3 is powered on the GPS receiver integrated inside my VHF Icom 434G  loose the position fix and loose GPS tracking.

I removed all hardware add-on on the Pi3 board, and disable the Wifi, but I have the same issue, the issue clearly occur about 5-10s after that I plug power cord on the Rpi3. So same issue when Rpi is running alone.
I have an othe VHF with integrated GPS, Icom 323G, and I got the issue with this one too.
I tried with a completly seperated power supply, as I was using a basic car 5v USB adaptor to power the board for the boat battery, so I tried with a 5V 240VAC adaptor on shore supply, but the issue is the same.
I need to leave a distance of about more that 1.5m from the RPi to the VHF to have the GPS working properly.

does one of you already faced interference issue with Rpi ? do I need to use a batter casing ? (I use a simple plastic casing.

thank you for your feedback

Thierry

[thmou]

hello,

I did some more testing, and I think it can be useful for other users

- I have tested the GPS of my Samsung smartphone close to the RPI3, when RPI is running the smartphone loose the position fix as satellites signal drops down suddenly. As soon as th Rpi is turned OFF, even without unplugging it, the satellite signal grows up and position fix come back.

- I have a GPS board hat for the RPI3, it is a Microstack GPS board with integrated antenna. I was not able to make it working properly, usually it was not giving GPS fix, I was able to have GPS fix only few minutes.
There is a red led on the board that flash when it gets GPS position fix
I tested it again and found that when Rpi is running I do not have GPS fix, then when I shutdown the Rpi, but leave it connected, the GPS board stay powered and get the GPS fix as I can see the red led flashing.
( found also a comment from someone else who bought this gps board, was not able to track satellites too with this board, and was about to test it with an external GPS antenna as there is a rf socket for an external antenna on this board)

So my opinion is that we should probably be really careful with the Rpi location and casing, as it can intefere with the GPS signal, but maybe also to some other frequencies (VHF...). A metallic casing could probably solve the problem

regards

Thierry