I'm trying to figure out how to obtain a switch signal (or pref. a power line) which changes between off and standby/on - the reason is I want to power a 802.11 wireless lan/ethernet convertor, but only when EMPEG is on or in standby. The amp. switch line is only on when powered up so I can't use that.
Btw I have made the ethernet connection dockable using a simple metal bracket, a screw/nut and a cable tie...

I poked about in the tuner connector and found a signal which /seems/ to do the job: 5V when on/standby and 0v when powered off. Is there any information anywhere about the pin-out of the tuner connector?
Would it be safe to use this signal to operate a relay or something? In fact the 802.11/ethernet convertor I'm planning to use actually requires a 5V supply - any chance this could be used directly to power the device - it needs about ~<500mA.

Also noticed that there is no power on pin 4 on the docked RS232 port of my unit (Mk2, bought new last week). I read the other postings about this and thought that apart from some early MK2 units, pin 4 should be 12V(?). Serial number is 090000935.

S

Also noticed that there is no power on pin 4 on the docked RS232 port of my unit (Mk2, bought new last week). I read the other postings about this and thought that apart from some early MK2 units, pin 4 should be 12V(?). Serial number is 090000935.

IIRC, "early" in this case meant "one of the first 1000".

Borislav

Don't know if you can power your device or even a relay with that line but it's probably a safe bet to control a MOSFET transistor with that line which could switch your relay or even power the device.

Alex Lear

I'm planning on doing the same thing. So I was curious what 802.11 equipment you are using. Orinoco has an adapter to go from the RJ45 to one of their wireless cards, but the sucker costs about $250. Then you still have to buy a PC card or about $150. That's a little steep just to get a wireless client. I don't like the idea of putting the access point in the car and putting the client in my desktop. If you do it that way, then you only have access from the few machines that are wireless clients. Besides, some leg of the network is close to the parking lot, but my office is not within range.

The other thing I'm going to do is to rig a seperate battery to run the empeg while the car is off (so I don't completely drain the main battery). With the display server software installed, I can just park outside and my entire library is available to stream to any computer in the house or office. Too cool for words.

All I need now is for that Tuner Module to be released so I can install the empeg. I just gotta have my traffic, news talk, and groovy new songs on the radio.

Steve Bates

Don't use this line to switch a relay; it's a serial port line going to the tuner module. If you had a mosfet, you could use the signal to drive that, which would then switch the relay (or just switch the actual power with a high-side driver hooked to this line). It can't do more than about 10ma.

Hugo

I'm in the same boat, would like wireless connectivity from the car, but would rather have the wireless bridge in the house. Anyone found any hardware for doing this ?

- --
Rod, UK Mk2 64gig Red S/No.341

>I'm in the same boat, would like wireless connectivity from the car, but would rather have the wireless bridge in Rod,

>the house. Anyone found
>any hardware for doing this ?

I'm planning on using Lucent's wireless/ethernet convertor (EC) (http://www.wavelan.com), it is slightly cheaper than an access point (eg RG-1000) and is more compact. It will apparantly work either in conjunction with an access point or using the ad-hoc/peer to peer mode - I already use the latter mode at home - as it avoids having to buy an access point. I actually use an old PC running LINUX that acts as a router/gateway for both wired and wireless devices.

S

Is this the product :

ORiNOCO/EC

The Ethernet Converter provides connection between an Ethernet Client and the ORiNOCO network. The unit comes without the ORiNOCO PC Card, offering you the flexibility to choose any ORiNOCO PC Card (SILVER or GOLD) and comes with a 5V-power supply applicable for the specific country.

The ORiNOCO/EC kit includes the following parts:

ORiNOCO/EC (with 10BaseT connection)
EC Manager (Windows based configuration tool on disk)
Manual
5VDC/1Amp Power
Mounting bracket
ORiNOCO/EC-S


- --
Rod, UK Mk2 64gig Red S/No.341

Is this the product :

ORiNOCO/EC

That's the one I was talking about. I think we are looking at about $400 just to get a single wireless client. You still need an access point or at least another wireless client. In my case I need the Access Point because I have other things I want to go wireless with. Anyway, the ORiNOCO EC is the ONLY 10BaseT to wireless adapter/converter I could find.
LinkSys has an Access Point for about $260. I know that it is compatible with the ORiNOCO equipment, and a whole lot cheaper that the ORiNOCO Access Point. I'm sure the LinkSys unit is somehow limited comepared to the ORiNOCO, but I have a few LinkSys network gizmos that work great so I have no reason to doubt their wireless stuff. If I could just fool one into acting like a client I would be in business, but I could not find any good info on it. Just the basic specs.

Steve Bates

(journeyman)
08/01/01 11:04 PM
Re: Tuner pinout or switched off/standby connection? [re: ssummer]


|Is this the product :
|ORiNOCO/EC
|
|The Ethernet Converter provides connection between an Ethernet Client and the ORiNOCO network. The unit comes

Yes that's the one.

S

Have you thought about just wiring a relay to your ignition sense wire?

From what I'm understanding, the only way it won't do what you want is if you shut off the car and turn the empeg back on with the car still off. Which, now that I think about it, is probably what you want to do. Just a thought...

Bill B.
Mk.2 SN 080000183 - 38 GB / Green

What I want to be able to do is within a window of time (eg a couple of hours) after I leave the car, is to still be able to access the empeg remotely - eg to upload new music that I just bought - from my flat. The empeg unit partially has this support through the "power off timeout" setting - however I also need to provide power to the wireless/ethernet convertor for the same duration of time. I could implement my own timer circuit triggered by the ignition being switched off and holding the power to the convertor for a fixed period of time - but it'd be neater to link it to the empeg's built in timer. The signal on the tuner connector I mentioned before seems to change state exactly when I need it to.

S

What I want to be able to do is within a window of time (eg a couple of hours) after I leave the car, is to still be able to access the empeg remotely - eg to upload new music that I just bought - from my flat.

Seems to me like you're unnaturally limiting yourself in this case. What if you wanted to upload the songs in the middle of the night? Shouldn't you just power the wireless ethernet device 100 percent of the time? How much current does it draw if it's not transmitting?

I seem to recall Hugo discussing an idea that the Empeg might be able to do a brief wake-up every X seconds to look for ethernet packets, for just this sort of eventuality. Anyone have that thread link handy?

___________
Tony Fabris

This looks like it...

Bill B.
Mk.2 SN 080000183 - 38 GB / Green

This looks like it...

Another mention here

tanstaafl.

"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"

|Seems to me like you're unnaturally limiting yourself in this case. What if you wanted to upload the songs in the |middle of the night?

I know what your saying...that'd be the ideal case I agree.

|Shouldn't you just power the wireless ethernet device 100 percent of the time?

There's not much point if the EMPEG is turned off - unless it implements 'wake on LAN' or something similar (how feasible is that?).

|How much current does it draw if it's not transmitting?

According to the manual it's 30mA in standby, plus a bit more as I'd need to convert 12V to 5V, which I admit doesn't sound like a lot. However I don't use the car daily and the my type of car is notorious for flattened batteries even after only a few weeks as it (the alarm?), so I'm a bit paranoid about leaving anything on permanently.
As someone else said an auxiliary battery could be fitted, separate but charged by the car - if that went flat then at least the car would still be usable.

|I seem to recall Hugo discussing an idea that the Empeg might be able to do a brief wake-up every X seconds to look for ethernet
|packets, for just this sort of eventuality. Anyone have that thread link handy?

That sounds very interesting I'd like to know more about that...is this actually in the current software? If so how do I control it? Additional support in emplode would be useful too - ie to be able to wait until empeg wakes up and to keep the empeg awake while emplode is running - which doesn't seem to happen at the moment.

In this case though it would still make sense to link the power of the wireless convertor to when the empeg is operating (ie in this minimal wake up state).

S

I seem to recall Hugo discussing an idea that the Empeg might be able to do a brief wake-up every X seconds to look for ethernet packets, for just this sort of eventuality. Anyone have that thread link handy?

That sounds very interesting I'd like to know more about that...is this actually in the current software? If so how do I control it? Additional support in emplode would be useful too - ie to be able to wait until empeg wakes up and to keep the empeg awake while emplode is running - which doesn't seem to happen at the moment.

The mk2 has a new power control PIC which enables this functionality. There's no software for it at the moment. I don't know whether it would be possible to implement Wake-On-LAN functionality using it, though.




Roger - not necessarily speaking for empeg