I read some previous posts about using 802.11b access points connected to the ethernet port on the Empeg. I love this idea.

Someone else had this idea, but the thread died so I want to bring it up again in hope of some help.

You set the Empeg standby time to 10 minutes. You leave your car with the Empeg in it. You go to your computer, you send songs to the Empeg (for the 10 minutes minus time it takes you to walk to the computer). The Empeg then shuts off and sends a command out of the serial port to cut power to the access point.

I read all of the previous posts on this. Someone mentioned a mosfet transistor. I have no idea how to do this. I found some pages on it but couldn't understand anything and it didn't seem they would work with this design.

I wouldn't want to power the access point from the serial port. That wouldn't provide enough power.

If anyone has any ideas I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks.

Tom

I was thingking about this today. I'd use an Orinoco EC or EC/S (with serial) (Ethernet Converter) you'll need a PCMCI wireless adpter too. THe EC is just a small box for retro-fitting 10baseT equipment to be wireless. Be prepared to spend some $$$

You can then power it off the car battery.

Yeap, you'd need a MOSFET transistor. Works like a regular transistor but work off voltages. Power & heat dissipation should not be a problem.

If you wanted to do it proper, you'd have to come up with a way to turn it on when you turned the car off and then keep it on until the player turns off.

if (~car_on & rio_on) have EC on.

Any EEs out there?
I'll try to remember to ask one at work tomorrow

Sorry if I'm missing something here, but why can't you just get an access point? Wouldn't that be a lot cheaper. And there's no PCMCIA card needed then.

Another addition the idea I found at dashpc.com is use a sync program Then you wouldn't have to worry about copying the files all the time. They are using rsync at dashpc.com.

I just need to know how to build a circuit that cuts power when a certain serial port command is given. Is this possible without microprocessors?

Tom

Rsync, sync, and other programs of the like won't work with the empeg. The built in file system uses a database for the songs ... it's not something that you will be able to sync to without an empeg specific sync tool.

A good question is just how much power does the wireless access point (or EC) actually draw from your 12V battery? Do they actually go into a power saving sleep mode when not used for a period of time?

The real answer to all of this doesn't really involve the serial port at all, save that for the GPS device. Use the wire that was meant to do what you guys are talking about ... The amp-turn-on lead ... Even if the car is off, if the empeg is on, so is the amp turn-on-lead.

I wouldn't run the power straight off of that line, but I'd hook up a simple relay (I'm no EE, but they're easy enough to use) to listen to that line, when it goes dead, cut the 12V power going to your access point.

Greg

I've been doing this for a while now. Its great.
I use a hawking wireless access point for my truck, it has an RJ45 socket and takes 5v DC. I bought a cigeratte adaptor. Inside I use a PCMCIA card to either my laptop or my desktop machine (through a PCMCIA adaptor). Its pretty cool being able to type "ping truck" at the command prompt.

I got the wireless gear from frys. ~$250 all up.

I had been leaving the access point on all the time (at least when the vehicle was stopped (don't want to grow any more tumors), but there is a bug in the 2.0b3 and higher versions of emplode /player that causes the player to die abruptly if the timeout is too high. I was using 20,000 seconds and I havent found the new max value yet.

Good luck
Peter