Thanks so much for that detailed information! That's really super helpful.



I ruled this out even before starting any design. It was my first question when starting research. When I googled about this, my results turned up answers that fell into two camps:

- Amateurs like myself who said "the specs say an Arduino should be able to take 12v so you should be fine".

-People more experienced with Arduinos, warning specifically against connecting an Arduino directly to car voltage, because they know that car voltage varies widely, and can spend long periods of time at 13v or higher, and can spike even higher at times.

The Arduino's voltage regulator lists 12v as its upper limit, and the more credible-sounding search results cautioned against exceeding that. In all cases, they recommended using a separate power supply, which is where I started on my path of trying to find a good one. My initial attempts at using a 7805 regulator with caps and heatsinks was from sites with schematics of how to power an Arduino correctly off of a 12v source.

One saving grace would be if the Empeg somehow already regulated that amp remote wire, the place where the power is coming in to the molex tuner connector we're using. If the Empeg prevents that line from going above actual 12 volts, maybe it would be safe to use it. I made an assumption that, since the Amp Remote wire is 12 volts, that when it was on, it would be just delivering the same car voltage as was coming into the player in the first place. I didn't think it would be going through another voltage regulator.

But now that I think about it, that assumption might be completely incorrect. I seem to recall asking about how much current I can draw off of that wire before, and I vaguely remember being told there were some amperage limits on that wire. That would mean that it does indeed go through some kind of voltage regulator. Do you happen to know if it limits the voltage on that line?

I'll look into this. It would simplify the design and construction quite a bit if I could do this.



Extra heat concerns me of course, since my design is intended to get stuffed into wiring bundles in dasboards and trunks and such. So I'd have to see just how much extra heat really occurs, with a touchy-feely test. Of course, the empeg gets warm in spots too, and seems to do fine most of the time.

Thanks again!