Hi,

I renamed 6 sub-playlists in emplode and hit the sync button. It looked everything went well, but in the end got a "Operation not permitted" error during stage 12 (checking disk space). Although running emplode for the second time and playing some tunes everything looked fine. There's nothing in the Unattached list.

While the temperature is rising during the day, I suspect the empeg gets hotter than the rated 55deg Celsius. To measure the actual value I installed displayserver 1.1 and looked into it with Explorer. It showed 56deg!!! The player was hotter on the bottom than on the top.

Does anyone have any clue how to cool down the unit. I don't have airconditioning in the car. I was thinking of adding a fan, the type you find on graphics cards. Would that help? Is it easy to make some sort of temperature measuring gadget? Like a two-digit display with a serial interface, connected to the empeg. Or simply a led that turns red, when the temperature is near 55deg Celsius... Ideas anyone?

Edwin de Vaan
mk2 rev.7 Trillian # 080000263 6+20Gb blue/red

The temperature sensor overreads by at least 3 degrees (sometimes more like 5), as far as I can work out.

If your unit is getting overly hot, the first thing you will notice is either (a) stuttering in tunes (caused by the discs retrying bad reads) or (b) intermittent player reboots due to (a) - the actual player will run much higher than 55, but the hard disks tend to get upset. I suspect the operation not permitted error was unrelated to any temperature issue.

A couple of users have placed 12v fans above the sled, blowing into the top slots of the unit - this will keep the temperature down. Not all cars have room above the unit though, though a fan underneath will also help a bit. Some cars are worse than others for heating issues, depending on what else is around the DIN slot and if there are any air gaps.

Hugo

Also, since stage 12 is after the changes have been uploaded, it's not critical if an error occurs at this stage, w.r.t. music database integrity.


Roger - not necessarily speaking for empeg

Is it easy to make some sort of temperature measuring gadget? Like a two-digit display with a serial interface, connected to the empeg. Or simply a led that turns red, when the temperature is near 55deg Celsius... Ideas anyone?

I think you could use the clock-display hack. modify the program to add the temp after the clock (or replace it).

Frank van Gestel

Does anybody know whether the temperature will be available in one regular display modes in version 1.1? Without having to hack the software, I mean...


Taym
______________________________
MK II BLUE 12GB 090000923

In reply to:

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Some cars are worse than others for heating issues

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The DIN slot on my golf is directly above the central air vents. In winter the unit gets VERY hot (almost too hot to touch) and in summer it gets VERY cold. Probably won't do the Empeg much good in the long run. Oh well.

Nicholas.

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18GB red s/n 080000299, original pos'n 8724. Reproduction of this post is not permitted.

Put a fan in the unit making use of the pre cut out pattern in the top cover. This will void the warranty, but your $1200 plus dollar investment will be much happier and will live allot longer as excessive heat will kill and reduce the lifespan of all electrical components. I added a fan to the inside of my unit after it would reboot\lock up on hot summer days. the unit was so hot when I pulled it out, the case was too hot to touch or hold in your hand. the fan draws hot air out the top and my Empeg has never been happier or has run as cool.

The Empeg now runs no hotter than 5 deg above ambient. I am still unsure why the Empeg folks did not do this to begin with. The answer that "the unit will tolerate temperatures above 55C" are very bad recommendations, the Empeg may in fact tolerate higher temperatures but at the cost of MTBF numbers. (mean time between failures) I know quite a bit about thermodynamics and I can tell you that in any car parked out in the sunshine, temperatures in your car can soar above the Empeg maximums. Empeg should make the added fan at least an option so as not to penalize the folks who live in warmer climates like me. (central Florida)
Will we ever see this?

12Gb MKII 080000516 Blue

I'll go try and put a fan in then... I actually haven't had any problems regarding stuttering or rebooting (yet). I also don't like the statement that the empeg will handle temperatures above 55deg Celsius, but the drives kinda get upset. Heat is one of the few things you really don't want any electronics to have to cope with. But we'll see if the fan will do fine.

Edwin de Vaan
mk2 rev.7 Trillian # 080000263 6+20Gb blue/red

I expect they simply didn't think temperatures wouldn't get so high. I seem to remember that the fan fittings are there because they orgininally thought they would need a fan, but then decided towards the end of the design phase that it wasn't needed. At least the holes are there ready to fit a fan...

I went and did a search, Rob said (in a somewhat heated conversation):

"The fan mounting point is historical - the original metalwork was designed before we even had any production circuit boards and it seemed sensible to arrange the ventilation holes in a fan formal just incase one was needed. In fact it wasnt needed, but there was no point producing new CAD for the metalwork.

Why don't we fit a fan anyway? Apart from the fact that you're the only person that ever had a problem, the fan significantly reduces the height of drive that can be accommodated without the two colliding when the shock mounts flex.

The figure of 55 degrees is quoted in line with the drive manufacturers spec sheet. For the same reason you can't operate a laptop under the same conditions, or a portable hard drive based MP3 player either. The operating tolerance for a CD head is usually similar or even lower. In practice, of course, people do use all of these items in a hot environment - but if you regularly drive your car with a cabin temperature over 130F then you're taking risks with your health. In practice, of course, you most likely switch on the AC and the cabin temperature drops to a comfortable 70F - 90F very quickly. If you're comfortable, your empeg will be comfortable.

You don't leave it parked in the sun do you? Without AC? If you run your empeg in an oven for four hours then, yes, it will get hot! We publish an operating temperature limit of 55 degrees as you know, but a truck left in the sun can easily reach or exceed that temperature (as you also know)."


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Unit serial number 47 (was 330 in the queue)...

Edited by andy on 07/07/01 01:33 PM.

reading througha search.. anything youw ant to tackle, making a temp readout ? :) pretty pelase :)