me again

having just discovered that my empeg won't fit where i planned, i was thinking about one of the display extenders, i've done some searches and found some info on the for sale sections but with over 80 pages of seaches it might take a while,

does the kit come with a display or, do i have to use the display from the unit itself?

how long a cable comes with it?

what exactly does the kit do, which i could not do by simply making a panel to support the face (or, dare i say it, even butchering another empeg) and using about 3ft of cable from the glove box to the display in the dash? i could have the empeg body within about 12" of whee the face is going, requiring only a short cable,

or, is it far more complicated than that and
A, better for my to scrimp and save for a populated kit,
B, just cut the dash and wang it in there

Hugh

No the extender doesn't come with a display, you use the existing front panel.

I can't remember exactly how long the cable is, but long enough to reach from the front to the rear of a car.

Your DIY option would not work. The signalling between the CPU and the display would fail. That is why the extender is needed.

thank you Andy, might just remodel the dash for now then but, future, more modern cars may be another matter so perhaps i'd better get saving for a kit after my holiday!

As Andy stated, you normally would supply your own display. We have others if you need one.


Standard length cable included is 20 feet, but we can terminate one to any length you request.



The kit buffers the many timing signals which quickly degrade over cable due to capacitance since they come directly out of the CPU. I believe the drivers on board also offer a degree of ESD protection in case the extender ribbon encounters a static discharge somewhere. If you want to extend it 3 feet, you will need to buffer the cable in some way, so again as Andy said, B will not work.

I think there is still an extender kit for sale in the FS forum if you need one. We also have a couple remaining.

Stu

Thank you Stu,

after my hols i'll try and scrape some cash together and get one if it looks like option C is gonna be a real pain.

cheers,
Hugh.

ok, we're in the dash, well almost, just got to actually put it all back together now it's been made to fit on the bench!

i have just one concern.....

i've slid the empeg underneath the old panasonic junk (cd radio) which i was planning to slave into the empeg for radio or cd's not yet on the peg, my concern is whether or not the empeg will overheat, the radio was still quite hot when i took it out, even after 5 mins or mso it was pretty warm.

the empeg sit pretty tight against the unit above it (no room to do anything else) and as such, the vent for the empeg has little to no space to vent heat, combined with the heat from the top unit (though i guess this will be less once it's no longer driving speakers) will make it overheat,

any suggestions?

my only answer short term is to simply remove the top unit and go empeg only.

i could switch them so the empeg is on top and can vent but, the heat from underneath will surely be worse than from above?

would appreciate a quick response if poss!
cheers,
Hugh

When doubling up stereos like that, heat is definitely going to be worse than it would be if it was just the 'peg.

If it were me, I'd make sure you've got a cooling fan in the 'peg.

The over/under order is good, with the 'peg on the bottom. If there's enough of a gap above the 'peg so that the cooling fan can exhaust, you're good. Check for that.

thank you Tony,

there is very little room between the two players, maybe 4-5mm if i can wedge something between them to raise the back of the radio, maybe i'll just remove it and install the radio either in the glove box or even under the ashtray, i guess it won't be used much once the peg is installed anyways,

as i've gone to the trouble of setting it all up already (bastardising the connecting harness to suit both radios and speaker config) is it worth trying out to see if it gets too hot? the heater vent is not very close to either radio.

will the cd get very warm now it's not driving speakers?

ps, what's the thin pink wire for on the back of the peg? it's the only one not labelled and not mentioned in the manual!

thanks again,
Hugh

It's a level signal for the tuner.

Stu

ah right, thank you.

re the cd player, i'm gonna tri them both how i envisaged but, i'm gonna drill some holes in the top plate of the tuner to help the heat escape quicker, just been feeding all the wiring through and there's loads of space behind the dash so hopefully it'll be ok!

Hugh

Well... maybe. It's going to depend a lot on total air circulation through that section of the dash. If (as is likely) that area is a stagnant air pocket, then all you're doing with the empeg fan is collecting hot air and blowing it through the insides of the player. I think in my ShoWagon that the fan actually exacerbates the problem when the defrosters are on, because much more heat radiates from the defroster ducting which passes near the empeg than the empeg itself produces, and the fan is sucking in air that is hotter than the inside of the empeg.

Unless you can contrive to furnish cool air to that portion of the dash, the fan may prove to be less effective than you might think.

tanstaafl.

It seems to me that this particular issue is where SSD or CF really shines.
Usually people talk about boot speed, but I imagine the empeg will run much cooler with flash-based memory.

I don't know if it would *run* much cooler, but it would likely *tolerate* more extreme temperatures.

Hmm- I thought the disk(s) were a significant heat source.
In any case, I think you are right, Tony.

well, she's in (are empegs female?), the big space behind the peg and head unit is now not so big with all the associated wiring for two units, to get it all in neatly i had to remove all the climate controls and the black dash panel which runs from one side of the car to the other, i could then get my hands in and move the wiring out of the way and neatly move it evenly around the space available,

I checked it powered up and that it received the signal from the head unit (which it did) before finally connecting up the amp and playing a large range of music genre to try and find a happy medium on the sounds from the amp.

sounds great! put the dash back together and job done!

the amp did cut out a couple of times -maybe a second or so- at too high a volume, otherwise my only concern was how hot the amp was getting / got after about half hour of play, will measure surface temp later and see what it giving off, i wonder if it's because i'm initially running the amp (2/1 channel 300w and through a kenwood 3 way crossover) on 2ohm -fr +rr making one channel each side-, the amp specs say it's fine but perhaps this is making it work harder and therefore get hotter..

if i go with another amp for the front speakers, as planned at some stage, would i be better to run a seperate battery? also, i see mentioned somewhere, the use of a capacitor to buffer high demand of Voltage, would this be necessary on 2 amps?

cheers,
Hugh

ps, my only worrying moment was when the winking led continued to flash after i turned off the ignition, thought i'd wired it wrong and was going to have to pull the dash apart again!

Looks very nice!

They are a heat source, true, but in most dash installations, heat from the sun, heater vents, and co-located CD players will be much more significant.

thanks Robotic, it's not perfect but, it works!

was worried i'd have to pull the whole dash out again after i lost the right side speakers on a drive earlier, i tested the amp, crossover and leads before doing that, turned out one of the terminals in the crossover had a dry-joint, resoldered that and another looking iffy (this has sat in a box for at least ten yeas!), put it all back in and it works a treat again,

need to sort out the music / equalizer levels better but, i guess in time that will come!

thanks everyone for abswering my usually daft questions!

Hugh

oh yeah.. checked temps cos i thought the amp was getting too hot, after about 45 mins of rather loud play and often skipping tracks / playlists etc...

external amp shell temp 48°c
external empeg sled 37°c
empeg chassis / internal 32 & 29°c respectively, so some heat is getting to the chassis but not really affecting the player,