The problem this post refer to is as follows:

When switching the car ignition off, instead of going into standby the car player powers down completely. In doing so it may lose it's current status, and/or cause a thump from the speakers.

If you believe you are suffering from this problem, please answer the following questions and EMAIL the answers to [email protected] at your earliest convenience. You can post them here as well if you like.

1. Make/Model/Year of car
2. Where has the permanant 12V feed been tapped (e.g. radio loom, battery etc)
3. Where has the switched 12V feed been tapped
4. If you have another head unit or other ICE head (e.g. navigation) provide details
5. Describe the exact sequence that causes the fault to manifest itself
6. Is the above repeatable every time?
7. Have you connected the phone mute and/or headlight dim connections?
8. Please provide any other details you feel are relevent (e.g. attempted fixes)

Thanks

Rob

Three emails so far - I guess this problem isn't too widespread!

Nonetheless, people are working very hard here to diagnose the problem (which doesn't appear to be related to the vehicle make and model) and come up with a fix or work around. We don't think it's a design problem with the empeg, rather, we think some vehicles are doing very strange things with their power lines. Other stereos may not be affected by this problem as other stereos tend to just switch off in a rather binary way. The car player does a number of groovey things at that stage, mostly behind the scenes.

Rob

Just curious what the status on this is. I am one of the people with this problem and the last email I got from Mike Crowe made it sound like there would be a recommended empeg fix for this (probably a diode on the accessory line to be sure it is not going to a negative state). If that is the official fix what are the specs for the diode?

Thanks,
Mike

A diode fixes the problem for those that are experiencing it. It's very rare, happening only in cars that generate a huge negative spike on their switched power line when the ignition is turned off. By huge, I mean around -50V for several milliseconds.

We've ordered some male->female ISO cables which we're going to build the diode into so it will be a simple plug-in fix. I'll mailshot owners soon to establish who's affected.

Rob

Hey Rob, what is that status on these? Are they going to be available sometime soon or should I just build my own?

Thanks,
Mike

Look here

One of the few remaining Mk1 owners... #00015

The adapters are available now - we'll be sending them out tomorrow to people that have reported this problem.

Rob

An old thread but thought I would just throw this in ---

After getting the *(& scared out of me the first time I turned off my Jeep after installing the empeg, I asked rob for one of the plug-in diodes to see if it would solve the problem. I've had three head units in with the same setup and never once had a problem.
However, received the plug-in cable yesterday and have to say that everything works perfectly now! No thump, properly sleeps and wakes up, etc. etc.
So those having this problem I would definatly ask Rob for the cable and you should be set!

hoping to see one soon...

Frank van Gestel