Electrical accessory problems

Use a ground loop isolator and filter on the power supply.

Tom

 

The ground loop isolator is in reference to noise when playing back music from a portable music player w/it powered. See http://priuschat.com/forums/prius-m...6-prius-owner-bunch-questions.html#post205090.

Toyota came out w/a TSB after the fact for this. See http://priuschat.com/forums/toyota-prius-service-bulletins-tsbs/46700-noise-aux-port-06-08-a.html. I got the TSB done and no longer need the ground loop isolator.

I don't know anything about "frying" gate openers. Are you talking about garage door openers? I've never seen one that could be plugged into any power source.

 

I suspect the gate opener thing is a red herring.

Tom

 

We are pretty good at trouble shooting, but it helps if you give us even a tiny little bit of information. Mind reading tends to lengthen the process and reduce accuracy.

Let's talk about the gate opener. We can do this the twenty questions way since you have not offered any data:

1) What does it do?

2) Is it powered by an internal battery, or does it plug into the Prius?

3) Why do you think the failure is Prius related, other than the circumstantial nature of it being in the Prius when it failed?

In regard to my tone, if it sounds short I apologize. I'm not really a hard nice person, but it gets very frustrating when people come in looking for help but act like a hostile witness in a criminal trial. We often can help, but we need data.

Tom

 

I can't think of any likely way a Prius could do that, nor any way that keeping it on a chain could protect it. There is such a thing as co-incidence... Where do you keep the remote when not in use, and is that different with the Prius than it was with the Mini?

 

Hmmm gated community. Is it an RFID or an actual "clicker?"

I'm wondering if the sks is causing interference?

 

There is no possible way that the Prius is related to the death of your gate opener. It simply doesn't emit harmful fields that could influence that device. Chalk it up to coincidence.

As for the mp3 player, you need an isolator. That will get rid of the electrical noise in the 12V power coming from the Prius power plug.

Tom

 

Jagram, is it possible that the way the remote attached to the visor could have kept the remote's button pushed when the visor was folded up? Otherwise, I like jayman's suggestion of turning off the smart key system as a test.

Does anyone know of remotes that use two-way communication?

 

All remotes that I know of use a simple one way transmission, initiated by a button push. High RF fields could cause a failure, but these simply don't exist in the Prius, even with the SKS.

As an engineer I'm obligated to admit that there is a small chance that the relationship is causal, but I would guess that the odds are down into the 0.001% range.

Tom

 

Door King makes a wide variety of openers, for many different markets. It would be helpful to know the model number of the opener

Some of the very older Door King units may be close enough in frequency to the SKS that interference could be possible. The newer Door Kings appear to use more robust RF ranges and rolling codes

At this point it does sound as if the clicker itself is defective. I've had dead and bum Chamberlain clickers in the past

Note: I would never depend on an RF clicker to operate a gated community. Most of them are *not* rolling code, and very easy to clone. A modern RFID tag system is very easy to control access, if the RFID is lost or stolen, its easy to delete it from the database

RFID's can be cloned if you are conversant in that technology, and the system uses a simpler protocol. I did notice when DHS sent my new Nexus card, it came in a security sleeve that denies casual snorting/sniffing

 

RFID also allows for logging, which can be useful for security purposes.

Tom

 

Then we're agreed: Jagram's landlord should definitely replace the gating system :_>

 

Out of curiosity, does that gate opener still work near the gate but not from the car, say if you walked up to the gate on a walk or held it outside the window? What happens when you turn off the car's remote entry system, does the gate opener work?
Or, it just died, like really dead.

 

I assumed when the OP said "fried" he meant totally dead.

Tom

 

It's not the car. From what you describe, it can't be the car, unless you are driving over the remote.

Tom