VXDAS Dual Phones Charging Pad causing issues with DAB/FM radio - beware

[pgh69]

Hi All,

I eventually got around to have Tesla come and look at a few minor things on my car yesterday (I'v had it 6 months and with covid and being busy only just got around to sorting it) and by far the most annoying to me was the totally rubbish DAB/FM radio signal that I get.

So after 6 months of listening to spotify and pod cast I was over joyed when the Tesla technical told me that it was the VXDAS dual charging pad that was causing an issue with the firmware. He unplugged it and amazingly I have a great radio signal!!

Apparently it is a know issue with charging pads and this one in particular.

Has anybody else had the same issue with this particular charging pad??

Does anybody have a recommendation for a charging pad that doesn't interfere with the radio signal?

Just a side point - the 2 Tesla mobile mechanics that came where great and great service!!

 

[Jason71]

how exactly does it interfere? you said "issue with the firmware" but that seems unlikely since all it is doing is drawing power. Bearing in mind the entire purpose of a charging pad it to generate a magnetic field and radio waves are are an EM field I could see how a badly designed on could maybe cause a problem that way? Personally I have a cheap £20 one from Ebay and have never noticed an issue with DAB being bad. Next time I am having reception issues in a weak signal area maybe I will unplug it and see if it helps but if mine is having an effect it is clearly minimal. I wonder if lining the back of it with foil would help?

 

[bhav]

To be honest I'm not sure why people bother with a charging pad - just wire in an actual cable and slot your phone in each time you get in the car. It will charge faster, not move around when driving, not interfere or cause other issues (e.g. with sentry mode, your radio issues etc)... So seems a no-brainer to me just to avoid all these hubs and things.

 

[pgh69]

how exactly does it interfere? you said "issue with the firmware" but that seems unlikely since all it is doing is drawing power. Bearing in mind the entire purpose of a charging pad it to generate a magnetic field and radio waves are are an EM field I could see how a badly designed on could maybe cause a problem that way? Personally I have a cheap £20 one from Ebay and have never noticed an issue with DAB being bad. Next time I am having reception issues in a weak signal area maybe I will unplug it and see if it helps but if mine is having an effect it is clearly minimal. I wonder if lining the back of it with foil would help?

Hi Jason, Honestly I have absolutely no idea and only replaying what that the Tesla Tech told me.
When I went back to look at the reviews of this pad on amazon other people have experienced the same problem (I cant verify if its a problem with the particular brand or a more general issue?)

The only station I could consistently listen to was radio 1 but this was because it was continually switching between dab & fm, other nationals like 5 live, talk sport etc kept dropping out (in a 5 mine car journey i would lose reception 5 times).
On my 30 mile journey to work this morning I checked multiple national and local dab stations and all worked and even had 5 bars of signal (previously the max I had was 2 listening to radio 1)

 

[rincewind]

Very strange. I have the VXDAS (slightly older version) dual woreless changer and have no issues. This is the one I have

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07SSC9T1K/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[Jeeves]

I have one of the VXDAS Qi chargers too. Following a software update, my DAB stopped working after months of trouble-free operation with that charger plugged in.

It was some sort of configuration fault on the car that was fixed at a service centre. The charger continues to work fine with it.

DAB is susceptible to interference from surprising things. For example, cheap LED light bulbs made the audio on my kitchen DAB radio awful. It wouldn’t surprise me if emissions from the transformer in a charger weren’t properly suppressed and caused interference, but that isn’t the same as stopping it working altogether. My symptom in the Model 3 was getting a never ending spinner whilst trying to select a favourite and inability to see any of the stations available.

 

[MrBadger]

To be honest I'm not sure why people bother with a charging pad - just wire in an actual cable and slot your phone in each time you get in the car. It will charge faster, not move around when driving, not interfere or cause other issues (e.g. with sentry mode, your radio issues etc)... So seems a no-brainer to me just to avoid all these hubs and things.

Many phones in cases do not fit with the official cabled method. The exit of the 90degree cable is too low and no flexibility in height adjustment, so if phone is thicker than normal, its likely to be too high to mate with the connector. Apart from taking the case off, you can sometimes get away with removing the cable cover.

 

[Durzel]

No issues with DAB with my Jeda pad.

As to wireless benefits, meh - if it keeps the phone topped up then that's good enough for me.

 

[Jeeves]

To be honest I'm not sure why people bother with a charging pad - just wire in an actual cable and slot your phone in each time you get in the car. It will charge faster, not move around when driving, not interfere or cause other issues (e.g. with sentry mode, your radio issues etc)... So seems a no-brainer to me just to avoid all these hubs and things.

Each to their own. I find the charging pad much more convenient than cables that I hate fiddling with. I don’t find the phone moves around when driving or cause any other issues.

You’re right about the cable charging faster of course, but that doesn’t really matter for my type of use.

 

[fancealot]

I've had some issues with DAB on my Mazda 6 (soon hopefully to be replaced with an M3) it is interfered with by the rear windscreen wiper of all things so it shows that it can be anything that creates an EM field (wiper motor) could affect the DAB radio (perhaps the aerial connection in the dash is close proximity to the charging area?)

Is the pad a two or three coil setup? does it still interfere switching the phone to a different pad or does it affect the DAB when plugged in and not charging? IIRC someone else noted that thier charger did the same a little while ago, although others didn't have the same issue with the same charger, might be poor quality control on some of the cheaper chargers out there.

I'm going to wait and see if my (hopefully) August delivery will have the built in mat if not i'll probably get a Nomad charger as people have sworn by them.

 

[Sparkeur]

To be honest I'm not sure why people bother with a charging pad - just wire in an actual cable and slot your phone in each time you get in the car. It will charge faster, not move around when driving, not interfere or cause other issues (e.g. with sentry mode, your radio issues etc)... So seems a no-brainer to me just to avoid all these hubs and things.

I agree - the pad is slow but my phone won't fit in the space provided portrait and trying to get the cable in landscape is a faff...so landscape wireless it has to be.

 

[bhav]

I agree - the pad is slow but my phone won't fit in the space provided portrait and trying to get the cable in landscape is a faff...so landscape wireless it has to be.

Ah fair point, you're right that getting my Pixel 4XL into the space is a bit of a squeeze but thankfully it slots in. Can understand that others with bigger phones might end up with having cables dangling around.

 

[bitmanEV]

No issues here with the VXDAS

 

[Rustybkts]

Yep, same issue here. Had a couple of months of rubbish DAB with the weaker signals until I saw someone on here mention it. I went outside and unplugged it to glorious Planet Rock.
I'm sure it is that model, also from Amazon. It has been ditched and a Taptes one ordered on the slow train.