I recently bought the HomeAssistant Yellow and I don’t know if I have this „issue“ since the beginning but I recently noticed that my Home Assistant Yellow PoE is making sizzling noises. Especially when the load increases. It’s totally not load - you have to stand directly next to the Yellow to hear it but I was wondering if this is normal?
I already checked the DC power adapter and replaced it. The power adapter is not getting warm and is silent.
Bonus question: is it a problem that I screwed the Raspberry CM4 to the Yellow board with the included screws?
Based on my reading of another thread, screwing in the CM4 shouldn’t be a problem. It’s the CM5 that has a slightly different layout, and you can damage it if you screw it in.
You mentioned trying a different DC power adaptor, and I see you say you have the PoE version of the Yellow. Are you able to try it with PoE power? That might tell you if the issue is in the DC power input on the Yellow.
It could be due to the inductors in your power supply vibrating as the power demand increases. Rarely causes issues. Search the internet for “coil whine”.
It’s more like a sizzeling noise and not a high pitched tone or anything. It’s definitely coming from the Yellow and not the power adapter. Do you mean by power supply the internal parts on the board?
Yeah there will be different power supply rails generated on the board. Nothing high enough voltage to actually make arcs though. Can almost guarantee it is magnetic vibration of the inductors.
Attached you will find a video… you can hear the sizzeling if you turn the volume up. Please ignore the constant humming of the fan from the server nearby.
Also thank you for your answer! I looked it up and it seems like this could really be the „issue“ but just in a very small scale. However, do I understand it correctly that this is still just a me problem and in Gerbera the home assistant should be quite?
I had to max out the volume on my speaker to try hear anything but I cannot, at least nothing that is of significance or of issue.
What you may be hearing is yes possibly related to coil whine at a particular pitch that you are sensitive to, this is not always a defect but just something that some people are prone to hear more than others.
It is usually caused by the vibrations of the power/voltage regulators in most devices and the usual solution is to use hotglue on the issue ones to dampen these sounds bleeding out where you can hear them.
In my case my entire family hear it (and complain). It’s hard to record this, because smart phones is too smart to suppress it, here’s the best I can: iCloud Photos - Apple iCloud
Hey,
sorry, for the late reply. After my post or more like parallel to my post, I also contacted the NabuCasa support. They confirmed that several devices are making these noises especially the PoE-edition. However the supporter told me that he is running his home assistant yellow already more than two years with the coil whine and that he has no issues so far.
For now, with the answers here and from the support I don’t worry that much anymore. However, if the noise is too loud I would try to replace the power plug first and if this doesn’t help maybe contact your reseller and replace it.