Killing your phone's GSM buzz with ferrite beads
By Joshua Fruhlinger 
posted August 2nd 2008 7:20PM
posted August 2nd 2008 7:20PM
[Via Make]
posted August 2nd 2008 7:20PM
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Yes, I have spaghetti and a flying monster in my spaghetti drawer. How did you guess?!??!
And shadowfox952, you're a troll.
flying spaghetti monster... south park reference, or am i stretching it here?
The Flying Spaghetti Monster "argument" is used when someone is trying to debate against the existence of God.
what the hell is a spaghetti drawer? i mean... i get it but seriously?
I keep magnetic horse shoes and some spelt for the invisible pink unicorn in my spaghetti drawer.
huh... i didn't know unicorns liked heirloom grains
Negative Ghost Rider, Nextel use's iDEN
That would be "negative GhostWRITER." Ghostrider is a comic book character.
With a pretty sweet motorcycle!
He missuses "use's" and you correct "Ghost Rider" usage?
Adam...*palms face*
I'm glad (really, this isn't sarcasm) that there are actually people on the Internet that know proper grammar usage and spelling. Sometimes reading comments on Weblogs, Inc blogs, forums, etc. I get so frustrated at what we've come to. This has been refreshing.
Also: his "ghostrider" references the movie, 'Top Gun.' When Tom 'Thetan' Cruise's character requests a fly-by, the tower responds, "negative, Ghostrider. The pattern is full." Where 'ghostrider' refers to an unknown aircraft, or anonymous/general aircraft, as in his and Goose's, since it was just a training thing at Miramar.
That was longer than I'd have liked. Sorry.
I always noticed this buzz in my high school classrooms. Each room had a single speaker/mic installed in the ceiling for communication with the front office, as well as for daily announcements.
We always knew when someone with a T-Mobile or Cingular phone was about to get a text or call when the speaker "mysteriously" started buzzing.
I tried this after reading about this solution a few weeks ago. It did nothing for me. A complete waste of time. Others have failed too:
http://kten.mytexoma.com/kickapps/_Red-Bull-Can-radio-interference-shield-busted-as-a-hoax/video/245565/21876.html
While using a redbull can is a hoax, using magnets as ferrite beads is not. In fact, using magnets for shielding and interference has been a common practice in electronics for a long time.
Did you try exactly what's suggested in this article? Wrapping an aluminium sheet around your cell phone is not the same thing, and I'm not suprised it doesn't fix anything...
This didn't work for me either. I will be replacing my current Klipsch speakers for cheaper Logitech ones that seem immune to this.
In many cases the RFI is happening inside the amplifier electronics of the speaker. The best that ferrite beads could do in this case is prevent RFI from entering via audio or power connections. It might be enough to help in some cases though depending on how the RFI is getting into the circuit...
what about portable phones?
I have one that does the "flash" thing and switches over to the other line, whenever it catches strong GSM buzz.... quite annoying
How do they turn the ferrets into beads, and why?
Haha, They compress them and mix them with dried fairies to make magnetic beads.
One time I got pissed when my clock radio buzzed at like 3 am so I threw it against the wall. My mom walks in to my room that morning and sees a mangled pile of plastic and wires on the floor and is like wtf lol
yes. YES!!!!
wtf does this have to do with ferrite beads?
Nicroz... everything. It's so intertwined the full scope can't be placed in a simple comment. Also, it might cause widespread panic.
You admit you live with your mother in a public forum. This confuses me.
It affects the sound quality, ..........
what a trade off
Ferrite is iron, how is a lump of iron affecting sound quality?
I only wish there was a way to stop this from the phone, or better yet, reconfigure gsm so that it doesnt do that. I work at a Tv station and its a nuisance having to turn off my phone every time I walk into the control room. Everyone with Verizon and Sprint keeps on texting a surfing away and I have to be stuck with a phone turned off. Oh well, atleast this helps alot at home. Thanks.
Maybe there's a reason it comes with your TV, so you'll use them, not have extra lying around?
I have been dealing with this at work. I'm in the business of digitizing 16mm film. Problem is, our digitizer does not capture audio as well, so we are using another projector to capture audio, then sync the two together. Problem is, the 16mm projector we use for audio receives that GSM buzz from somewhere outside our office. I found the article on lifehacker that talked about this, but the problem is, even if I attached it to the speaker cables, the GSM buzz still comes through the audio output (unbalanced 1/4"). There are no cables that go to the output, it is wired directly into the sound board inside the projector. In a desperate attempt, I attached the ferrite beads to the cable coming out of the projector, but it didn't help. If anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear them.
ferrite beads I have found are so so, best results I have are with 470pf ceramic caps between the DC- earth and the positive connecting terminal. As an EE design engineer if it's buzzing in this day and age with mobiles being around for years I would say it has been poorly designed. I would question the quality of any product that produces buzzing around mobiles today. Yes I have designed audio equipment that doesnt buzz with a mobile phone antenna within 5cm of the motherboard, its just a matter of research and know how.
You're right of course, but its pretty wide-spread. My desktop Bose speakers buzz. My Acura TL speakers buzz. My Plantronics 900MHz phone headset buzzes, the Sony clock radio I had in my last hotel room buzzes, the speaker that came with my two-year old Dell desktop buzzes...
dirk-dirka-dirk--dirka-dirka-dirka-dirk
Dumb question... but how do those devices get past the infamous Part 15 of the FCC rules... the one on everything that says how it can't interfere with other devices? Or are cellphones exempt from that? Working in TV it annoys me to know people are walking around with these things that interfere with our wired and wireless headsets and mics...
the same way every bully passes a test. they cheat.
where the shit is my spaghetti drawer that sounds awesome!
This solution is going to affect the frequency response of your speakers, much like turning on an equalizer.
I tried this set up this morning... The cell phone popping noise is the bane of my speakers existence. So much so, that I don't use them much. After liberating three ferrite beads from a couple monitor cables, I wrapped the speaker wire through the beads close to the speaker which didn't help, and then tried them close to the sub where the amp is. I noticed absolutely no change at all. Then I realized this article talks about GSM. My interference is from my blackberry. That's GPRS and/or EDGE, right? Should this not block that interference as well?
Will this stop noise from florescent lights and dimmer switches?
Also, I've heard that its always best to run audio cables and power cables separately - will these negate the need to do so?
the ferrite beads dont work. i just tried it and it made no difference. it is either a hoax or works 1% of the time. i have yet to see anyone confirm that it has worked for them. my only hope is that a 3g signal shows up at my house soon, no buzzing then.......
Nice. Works very well.
I like the other option buried inside the comments of this article:
Slide iphone into an anti-static bag and voila!
Take a look at www.stopthebuzzin.com This site has another solution
to shield or dissapate the rf that causes the buzz and it dosen't
require you to scavange for ferrite beads in your spaghetti drawer.