I recieved my Empeg unit last week, and have been using it at home. I've installed 4G of music already, and have enjoyed playing it on my home amp.

I just had it installed today in my 2000 4-Runner, and it won't power up. The blue light blinks, but it won't power up when I hit the buttons. I plugged the unit back in AC, and it powered up fine

I had the unit professionally installed, and they were stumped. They triple checked power, ground, and ignition connections. They did find that the 3A fuse was blown, and replaced it. Any ideas?

I hate to say this, but the fact that it was professionally installed doesnt mean much. Did you actually check all the connections yourself? One of the wires may be loose where the wires go into the docking connector. The wires in the connector pull out really easily. If that is the case, either fix it or email support and they will send you a new wiring harness. Are any of the wires in the dash exposed and touching the metal inside the dash? Look inside the docking bay from the front and make sure all the gold contacts are pulled all the way forward to the front of the connector. I also read that someone had a miswired ISO connector a while back, but havent heard of anyone else having the same problem since.

Sean

Definitely contact empeg/rio support, they can help walk you through the diagnostic process.

Odds are that it's a wiring problem. The blown fuse should be a clue. If that's the case, support should be able to help you track down which wires are miswired.

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Tony Fabris

The 3A fuse doesn't blow for no reason - the player doesn't take anything like that much power during normal operation. Given that the home power input is almost wired in line with the car power, it is far more likely that there is a wiring problem than a faulty player.

Of course, a wiring mistake may well have blown the fuse and damaged the player as well - fuses don't guarantee protection and sometimes you can be unlucky. I daresay [email protected] will help you track this down, or get your player in for repair. Whether Rio or your installers pay for the repair will depend what fault we find!

Rob

Greetings!

One interesting thing is that it sounds like the standby light is still working, and that it boots and runs outside of the sled. When in the car, do you get the boot logo? Anything (other than the standby light)? Also, you might want to see if there is someone with an empeg near you, and test it in their sled before thinking there is something up with the unit itself. At least you will eliminate one variable from the equation...


Paul G.
SN# 090000587 (40GB Green)

In the car, I do not get the boot logo, just the standby light. I don't know anyone else with an empeg, so I can't try that. Unless someone reading who lives near San Jose wants to help.

I'll contact the customer support email next...

My email to [email protected] bounced.

550 ... User unknown

Is this the right email, or are their servers down?

Oooh, that's not good. Try [email protected].

If that doesn't work, I'll give you Rob's home phone number.

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Tony Fabris

Have you tried applying an upgrade? No logo is the sign of no kernel running - try applying one of the upgrades on the CD (or better still, v1.02 from the website).

San Jose is crawling with empeg users :)

Hugo

I believe it's [email protected], or just [email protected]

Hugo

Have you tried applying an upgrade? No logo is the sign of no kernel running

Except he said it works fine with the AC adapter.

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Tony Fabris

We have now added this as an alias, however the published address is:

[email protected]

Rob

Question: Do you have customized logos for the car or home??? If so, could your car logo be corrupt / overwritten something important?

Paul G.
SN# 090000587 (40GB Green)

There's no executable code in the logo area. Even if it were random data in the logo area, all you'd see is random pixels. I don't think that corrupt logo data could lock the software.

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Tony Fabris

Hmm... I am just trying to think of reasons / ways you could hose the car environment at the boot level and still run outside the sled. Other than the car wiring or hardware issue, that is...

What kind of symptoms would you see that would give you the standby light without allowing a boot? Since the standby light is software controlled (if I remember correctly), you would have to have some kernel there...

I don't suppose that there is a laptop available to hook up to the serial while in the sled and watch a boot log? Also, have you run any diagnostics while out of sled?

Paul G.
SN# 090000587 (40GB Green)

Does anyone have a pin assignment for the connector between the cage and the player?

I've probed it with a multimeter and got power on pin 1, dimmer on pin 10, ground on pin 13, and ignition on pin 14. That should be all it needs to power up, assuming these are the correct locations.

BTW, I can hear the hard drive spinning when I plug it in. The blue LED is on. But nothing on the display, no logo, no response to any buttons. Everything still works fine plugged into AC.

Does anyone have a pin assignment for the connector between the cage and the player?

Yes.

Hope you manage to sort this out...

Borislav

I think I’ve isolated the problem. I covered up pin 2 on the connector (amp remote) and plugged the unit in. It powered up correctly and begun playing some tracks (of course, I couldn’t hear it because the amp didn’t power up).

So it’s got something to do with the amp remote line. Is there a positive/negative thing that could be causing this problem?

--len

Have you got a multimeter? Disconnect the amp remote line at the amp end, plug the empeg in. Wait until it's playing music, then put the meter on current and see how much current your amp is pulling through the remote wire.

The amp remote wire is internally fused (resettable solid state fuse) at 1.25A. This line also powers the display (hence why the display is off). If your amp is drawing anything more than about 200mA, I suspect something is funny with your amp - the remote wire usally just switches a relay inside the amp to turn on the main power supply.

Make sure you're not trying to actually *power* the amp off the remote line, this will definitely not work (and would explain the blown 3A fuse, too). The amp should have 3 power connections: ground (to the nearest bit of metalwork in the car), +12v (via a thick bit of wire direct to the battery, with a fuse as near the battery as possible), and REM/remote/control, generally a smaller terminal, which goes to the blue wire on the empeg harness.

Hugo

I think I’ve isolated the problem. I covered up pin 2 on the connector (amp remote) and plugged the unit in. It powered up correctly and begun playing some tracks

Wow, that's good diagnostic work. Sounds like you could have handled installing the thing yourself. And perhaps done it right in the first place.

Yeah, do what Hugo said. Make sure that the amplifier's main power is connected directly to your car battery (via a fuse of course), and that the only thing the Amp Remote line is connected to is the amp's remote-turn-on lead. Check and make sure the Amp Remote line isn't grounding somewhere accidentally (kinked under the upholstery and rubbing against a metal edge, for instance).

If these so-called "professional installers" tried to power your amp off of the amp-remote line, we'd like to know their name so that we can can recommend avoiding them in the future.

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Tony Fabris

Id like to know the name of the installer too. I dropped by a local installer this week to ask something and mentioned the empeg. He claimed he had installed 5 empegs. Are there really 5 people in Plano, Tx who have an empeg? He also said that someone bought one in that had tried installing it themselves and blew the empeg up - do the fuses on the inside smell bad when they have blown?

Sean

Plano Texas? Holy-a-smokes, you are right down the road from me. I am in Lewisville myself. And here I thought that I was the cats meow all by myself in the Dallas area.

Lucky for me, I am not one the fabled five mentioned by your installer. I had my unit installed here and am quite pleased with their work. I will use them for my tuner install when it becomes available.

I do find it hard to belive that there are that many of us in this area but I guess its entirely possible. You would think that more people would have spoken up on this BBS!

Carl

080000506 12gb-green

Plano Texas?


I end having to fly out there a fair amount of time.... We have offices there.... and Clueless users..

Does that count?

So..... How does everyone ELSE deal with not being able to side the EMPEG into the Rental Car slot????????

Personally... I'm thinking, make sure you have the insurance, then hack a spare harness into the wires.... Oh... No amps... Hmmm.

How does everyone ELSE deal with not being able to side the EMPEG into the Rental Car slot

Cassette tape adapter + Cigarette lighter plug for power.

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Tony Fabris

Cassette tape adapter + Cigarette lighter plug for power.

Alternatively.... walkman-style headphones connected to the empeg's line-out RCAs in place of the cassette tape adapter, you'll probably get better sound quality than the factory speakers in a rental car would give you. In some states it is illegal to drive with headphones on, though, so...

tanstaafl.

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

In some states it is illegal to drive with headphones on, though, so...

Heh. The empeg on full volume is probably even worse... I sometimes worry if I'd hear an ambulance or fire engine in time to pull over safely.

Borislav

Problem solved. For some reason, the remote line was not getting to the amp. It must have been mis-wired/shorted somewhere. We cheated, and powered the amp remote from the ignition, so it's always on when the engine is on. I didn't feel like ripping into the dash again to fix this. I'll do that when the tuner module is ready.

This should have been an easy problem to debug. But the thing that misled us was that the Empeg display did not go on in this situation. So I assumed the problem was with the Empeg unit, not the amp. If the Empeg display had worked, then I would have immediately deduced the problem on the amp side.

BTW, the power to the amp is wired correctly: directly from the battery.

We cheated, and powered the amp remote from the ignition, so it's always on when the engine is on.

Okay, that's pretty messed up. But what's strange is your description of the empeg's behavior when you covered pin 2. If you were powering the amp off of the ignition wire, then Pin 2 wasn't connected to anything and it shouldn't have mattered whether pin 2 was covered or not. You'd get awful pops when you turned off the car or unplugged the empeg, but you'd have an otherwise normally-functioning system.

Unless...

Somehow you had the empeg's amp remote wire connected to the car's ignition wire. That would explain the behavior, but Jesus H. Christ, why would you do something like THAT? You're lucky you didn't melt the empeg. You sure you don't want to take it to a professional and have them re-do the wiring properly?

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Tony Fabris

The amp remote line was initially powered off pjn 2 (with some miswiring by the professional installers of some sort). That's when the Empeg would not start up. After the installers changed the amp remote line to be powered off the ignition, everything works.

I'll debug where the line 2 really went next time the dash is taken apart (when the tuner ships). I'll let you guys know where it was really connected by my professional installers.

I don't get awful pops. I do hear faint pops sometimes. When starting the car. But I don't pull the empeg out or in unless the ignition is off.