I have the dimmer problem on my Empeg - where the dimmer level fluctuates when I turn my headlights on/off.

I want it at 100% all the time.

If I just cut my dimmer wire, would that break anything else, other than the Empeg no longer being able to auto-dim when the lights come on (which I do not want anyway).

(I don't want to be without my Empeg for 1-2 weeks while it is repaired, so if I can fix it by just cutting the wire, I'll do it.)

Thanks,
John

Yeah. Just disconnect it. Try to keep it neat and make sure also that it doesn't short out anything else.

- Trevor

Okay, thanks.

No need to cut it. Try and set the dimmer to 100% for both on and off levels and you'll never see the difference.

The player has no concept of whether the line is active. It merely sets the dimmer to one level when high and another level when low. By setting them both to 100% it will never dim.

Of course this relies on it not going on and off real quickly while you set it.

Does the player not bother to change dimmer setting if it's at the right level anyway? I don't have the dimmer wire connected myself so I don't know. It's if it doesn't and will try to set it to 100% again then there might be a problem if the dimmer fix hasn't been installed. *shrug*

- Trevor

I think the player will always try to set the dimmer on power up and whenever it senses a change in the dimmer level. I am quite sure it doesn't remember "the dimmer's already at 100% I don't need to change it". Before the dimmer mod, repeatedly setting 100% would cause the dimmer to be set to different values due to that problem.

None of the suggestions so far will get around the dimmer problem though.

> No need to cut it. Try and set the dimmer to 100% for both
> on and off levels and you'll never see the difference.


I've done that. But the player has a bug where the dimmer level will change to other than what you have set. I can easily get it to happen by flipping my lights on and off a few times. On one of those times the level will go down signifantly, and then it might go down again after flipping the lights on/off some more.

John

just to be clear, this isn't a player bug, it's a hardware problem. the correct way to fix it is to have a capacitor installed on the display board, as outlined in the FAQ.

if you cut the dimmer wire, you will still suffer from the random brightness setting when the empeg powers on. you would be immune to problems when turning on and off your lights, though. if you think it would be less annoying to deal with the problem only once each time the machine boots, go ahead and disconnect the wire, but i think you're going to want to get the problem solved fully. the only way to do that is to get the capacitor installed.

there are people here on the board who offer the service of installing this capacitor for a modest fee, if you're uncomfortable soldering small parts.

good luck,
--dan.

Yep what dan is saying is correct. The only fix you can do is the capacitor dimmer fix.

What happens is that when you turn your lights on or off, the empeg tries to set the dimmer to 100% no matter whether it's high or low. Because of this hardware bug, it doesn't correctly set to 100% all the time.

If you are willing to give up dimmer control, disconnecting the wire will prevent the empeg from detecting the headlight line and it will not keep setting the dimmer brightness. However on powerup you will get random brightness since the empeg sets the dimmer on powerup.

Okay thanks for everyone's help.

I'll think about doing the soldering job myself, but I really don't want to take a chance of turning my Empeg into a doorstop. I'll watch the video and read the information on the soldering again.

Get in touch with Stu at Eutronix and see if they will do the dimmer fix for you. i just had them replace my A/C sensor switch and they did a great job. His board name is maczrool and the website is www.eutronix.com.