Might be a silly suggestion, but...

For those occasions where you need some noise in the car, but then have
to park it somewhere "dodgy", and it's not feasible to pull out and carry
the empeg.

How about a really cheap FM radio that plugs straight into the empeg's
slide bay in the dash? Nothing fancy, just something (almost) disposable
in case of theft. Hell, you could even make it look like the real thing,
so that thieves don't even know whether they're going to get something
worthwhile when they see what looks like an empeg equipped car.

If nothing else, it could be useful in two car (one empeg) households,
so that the loser in the fight for the empeg gets at least something
to listen to!

Jim.

I had an idea along similar lines.... a blanking plate, pocket, cupboard, or whatever that fits into the Empeg cradle so that when it isn't in the car (such as when it's in another car or simply left at home for security) you don't have a big ugly hole in the dash.

'Tis that hole that's making me think that the Empeg cradle in my other car needs to be in the boot rather than in the dash as the Empeg won't spend much time in that car and I don't want a hole in the dash.

Cheers,

Mark.

A blanking plate was my initial idea too!

However, as the costs of say an FM radio chip, a couple of buttons
to drive it and maybe a display are going to be less than the cost
of the box it goes in. I figured that for a few pence extra, you
might as well make the blanking plate semi-functional.

I don't want anything fancy, maybe just one tuning button (search up?),
just something really minimalist! The cost in electronics is only going
to be a couple of quid, the connectors and box will probably cost the most!

Jim.

What do you think about a door that folds up inside the docking bay when the empeg is placed in the dash. When you take it out, the door will flop down and you can make it look like part of the dash... either a nice finished veneer or a small piece of plastic colored to match the car interior.

This way, when the unit is out, the hole disappears. :)

Thoughts? comments?



-CHiP

Jim -

You're overlooking one important thing here. You do NOT want the substitute empeg to "...look like the real thing". The cost of replacing your empeg is small compared to the literally thousands of dollars damage that a determined thief can do to your car attempting to remove it. That's why I am still uncertain about how I will handle security on my unit. Fortunately, being #8741 in the waiting queue, I still have a lot of time to make up my mind! ;-(

I do plan to use a solenoid lock on my unit, so that it can only be removed or replaced with the ignition switched ON. I will also investigate the possibility of preparing a dash plate to cover the unit when the car is unattended with the empeg unit installed. As a last resort, I am going to try and replace the screws securing the handle to the empeg unit with "breakaway" screws made out of plastic, so a good tug on the handle will yield only a handle - not an empeg.

I do like the really cheap radio idea, though I don't think that I, personally, will ever be in the position of leaving my car where I wouldn't be comfortable leaving the empeg in it as well. Hell, in Alaska it'll be years before anybody besides me even knows what an empeg is!

tanstaafl.



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

To ensure that the unit stays DIN-sized, which is essential if you want it to fit most cars, then either the flap would have to be very thin or you'd have to lose part of the Empeg unit to make room for the flap within the DIN-sized cradle.

I think a slot in or over bit is more feasible. Nice idea though. :)

Cheers,

Mark.
(Now with 63 CDs loaded onto a 4Gb unit leaving 812Mb free, which is still on target for about 80CDs on the smallest/cheapest unit)

I have at least 83 complete albums encoded @ 128/44.1 on my hard drive waiting for the frickin' empeg!!!!
I have much more music but I trimmed stuff off of other albums.
Here is my Winamp Playlist:

Jake
sorry all the forms I have my list in are way over 10k
If you want it leave me a message.

How much hard-drive space do they take up on your PC? Not that knowing that will help too much as the block size on the PC filesystem may well be different from that on the Empeg.

Bear in mind that the 4Gb Empeg unit has 3910Mb of space for tunes, or at least that's how much Empeg's Emplode (Windows tune uploader) says there is.

Cheers,

Mark.

My total mp3 collection is ~4.74gb it has 1172 tracks and is 83hours 22minutes 40seconds long. I'm sorry but I probably couldn't tell you just how much those 83 albums are.

Jake

Heh. Heh. I live in AK. atleast Im moving back there in about 2 weeks. ill keep an eye out for an empeg. ;}

(just kidding)