Help - Autotune Failed - Barrett 910

Tony. I'm more familiar with the Codan stuff, but here goes. There are 2 main sources of problems with this kind of aerial, earthing and RF power. (lack thereof). Check your aerial cable to see if there's a short. More than likely you have a poor earth connection somewhere. Make sure all aerial earth points are clean and making good contact. Don't rely on the thing just being there.
You can check to see if its the aerial by listening on the auto to a shortwave broadcast station. Then pull the coax out and plug a long piece of wire in instead. If its louder with the wire its definately the aerial.
Hope this helps.

Had the same on mine a year or so back - had to send it back to the factory for some warranty work. They are very (very) complex inside - lots of widgets in there - they are a very reliable item of technology but on occasions issues can develop of course. Mine had moisture inside - this can be an issue with the earlier cases - the new blue cases are heavier/stronger - they old ones can get a hairline crack at the top (as the antenna drags under trees etc) and temperature changes can suck the moisture in. Your symptoms were exactly what I had - poor TX and RX - failing to tune properly. Anthony Benbow at the factory in WA is right up on it - he fixed mine in a trice - being a second owner you may be out of warranty - even so, it might not costs heaps - whatever the cause, a module or two soldered in might fix it - freight via Aust Post is cost efficient for this size of pacel - as you say, it would be good to test the radio with another antenna, to make sure that the 910 is the snag.

My brand new one did the same and it was not easily repairable...
If you have all the connections right then you are most probably stuffed....

Sounds like an antenna failure or problem with the radio unit. It is unlikely a problem with leads, cables or power.

Having installed dozens of them I suspect that it may be an antenna problem. If it were an earthing problem it would probably only play up on a few freqs.
Mind you I would be checking that everything is earthed correctly especially the bullbar or whatever you have it mounted on is earthed to the chassis. Physically remove a couple of bolts from the mounts, file to shiny metal and re-install.
It is really surprising how many bars etc are not earthed!!

Mine started out ok but developed auto tune fail. The cause My poor instlation, the cable wore through the insulation causing a short between the coaxil & 1 of the other 4 wires. I stuck elec tape to it then got plug from Barret & shortened the cable. I say you definitly have a short. Do you have an extention cable? if you can remove it just temp & plug the short cable into the box try again. Also ALL joins need to be soldered to get the best contact.

If all else fails Ring barrets in WA.

We use to get a similar problem with the Codan auto tune in our work trucks. After looking for the obvious shorts etc as mentioned above we used to do a complete power down, go outside and lightly tap the the aerial as the tuning slug that winds up the core used to get stuck. Go back into vehicle power up again and pick the lowest frequency and get aerial to tune to it. Then pick a high frequency and tune to it. Wrks the slug up and down the winding - may work in this case if not an electrical fault - Cheers

Also check the radio is set to use the autotune antenna rather than other types of aerials.

Thanks all for your input. Tried everything without any luck. Am now in email contact with Barrett and they are trying to help. Looks like a trip to one of their agents to get it fixed. Antenna is only 2yrs & 3 mnths old. Am heading to CSR next month so a quick repair is vital.
Thanks again,
Tony J

Had a similar problem with my Codan after some years of use. It turned out to be a short in the RG58 cable. Once I confirmed the short I started cutting back the cable till I found it. The inner was kinked and held in place by the dialectric. Years of use suddenly caused a short between the outer and inner conductors.

All electric problems are simple shorts or opens or somewhere in between, once you do all the hard parts it's easy.

Try checking the options on the menu. The Radio Unit must be correctly configured to work with the Autotune antenna.

If the radio unit thinks there is something other than an autotune connected (e.g. a seperate RF power-amplifier) then you will get auto-tune failure each time.

Sorry - I cannot remember the correct sequence - something like "options" or "accessories" in one of the LCD menu items.

I discovered this while playing with the radio trying to find hidden menu options and thought I had stuffed the unit. Fortunately I retraced my steps and got the radio to recognise the antenna once again.

Hope this may be of use...

Rob

Hi Tony

I had a similar problem with a brand new antenna that I had professionally installed a couple of years ago. We checked absolutely everything, connections, the works and to no avail.

We then exhanged the antenna for another new one with a similar batch number and had the same problem. Finally we changed it for another with a a completely different batch number. I have not had a problem since.

The auto-tune failed (on the original) after a short period of time and appeared to be a heat problem. We pointed this out to the factory at the time and sent the original unit back to them. I suspect there was a component that was possibly faulty in a particular batch series that was sensitve to overheating.

I posted a report at the time, however I cannot locate it as it was some time ago.

As a follow up to my previous post. The serial number of my original 910 antenna was S/N 5632. The second one we tested was within 100 of this number and it failed also. The systgem was purchased in February 2003.

The one I now have (without one problem) is now-where near these serial numbers.

Check your serial numbers if you have had a problem.....

Regards

Hi Tony, are you there. Can you hearme. Have you got your HF fixed and have you left on holidays yet. What was the problem?

Skinny