As promised, here's my report of meeting Hugo and seeing the Mk2 prototype. I'm doing this completely from memory, and as I was running on very little sleep at the time, my memory may be hazy. Hugo, please correct me if I present any incorrect data here.
Hugo was in San Jose, CA during the week before Memorial Day Weekend. He was there doing FCC testing on the Mk2 prototype (which passed the tests, of course). When Hugo mentioned this fact on the BBS, I realized that I would be in San Jose during the same period, attending
Bay Con 2000.
A couple of e-mails and a visit to MapBlast.com later, I discovered that not only would a meeting be feasible, it would be positively easy since Hugo's hotel was only two blocks away from mine. Talk about luck.
I also got in touch with Mike Comb from this BBS, who expressed an interest in being there, too. I tried to get in touch with "eternalsun", but he didn't respond to my BBS messages when I was trying to set things up. (Calvin, where'd you go? We missed you.) I arranged for Mike and I to meet Hugo at his hotel room and see the Empeg. Hugo called me, I called Mike, and we were underway. It was a beautiful morning (a bit windy, though), and I walked over to the hotel.
When Mike and I arrived (about five minutes apart), Hugo had the Mk2 prototype playing through some computer speakers. It was wearing a Mk1 faceplate, but it was made from the new red color instead of the currently-available green/blue/amber. He also had a blue face there. Both faces had an extra hole drilled for the new volume knob (which was just the potentiometer shaft, not the full-treatment knob yet).
Hugo was very nice, and does not seem nearly as short in person as he does in
Mike's photo.
(L-R: Me, Mike, Hugo). I took some photos, too, but they were taken with a conventional camera. The odds of me getting to the store and getting them developed before the Mk2's start shipping are pretty slim. So you probably won't see my photos on the web. Overall, Hugo seemed to like showing off the Mk2, and was very patient with us and our questions. Nice guy, although there is a disturbing number of Hanson, NSync, and Britney Spears tracks stored on his unit.
Physically, the unit was quite different from the Mark 1. As you can see from
Mike's picture of the back of the unit, the plug layout has changed completely. The new feature which surprised me was the slot for a laptop-style security connector which you could use to chain the unit to a desk when it was removed from the car. Also, I noticed that the power connector is in a much easier-to-reach position.
The casing of the unit is much more simplified. The metalwork is now designed with more folds and fewer welds and screws. There are no screws protruding from the top or bottom of the unit (although the drive-tray screws on the sides are still present). To open the top of the case, you remove the faceplate, then slide the top of the case forward to disengage it from the new tab-and-groove assembly which holds it in place. This is all done as one-piece metalwork which was stamped and folded from sheet metal. It obviously simplifies the whole assembly process for the unit.
Inside the unit, it's a model of simplicity. Unlike the Mk1 board which had some "outrigger" boards for certain parts, the Mk2 is just a single main PCB. The new display board in front is much simplified, with the back side being completely smooth save for a couple of large capacitors. What this adds up to is that the drive tray now has a lot more wiggle room, making the shock-mount system much more effective. The rubber shock mounts themselves were still from the Mk1, but Hugo assures me that there will be a newer, even more reliable set of mounts on the final Mk2 units.
The drives now connect via a single IDE cable, with both drives being on the same IDE controller as primary/secondary. The cable folds neatly over the top of the drives and is pre-folded so that you can add a second drive quite easily if you choose to do so.
Interesting story: The screws on the side of the prototype (the ones that hold the drive tray) were actually a bit higher than they were supposed to be. The CAD people were supposed to lower the holes a bit in one of the revisions to the design, but they went the wrong direction and raised them instead. So it's possible that, once the final design is done, we could fit even taller drives into the tray. Empeg hasn't tried it yet, so we don't know.
Hugo showed us some neat features on the main board. There are spaces for chips and components that aren't even filled yet. For example, there's a place for a certain kind of controller chip that would (if such a controller were soldered in and the software were written to take advantage of it) allow an SPDIF output.
As we all know, the audio circuitry has been completely reworked so that the noise floor and floating ground issues are gone, but Hugo also told us that for those who
wanted a floating ground system, there are two resistors that you could clip to make it into a floating-ground system. The power supply has been reworked, as well, and the whole system consumes significantly less power than it used to. Hugo says it'll keep running on as little as 6 volts now. Very useful for folks with high-drain starter motors like mine.
The new volume knob was pretty cool. It is just as Rob described it: A very positive, clicky feel. All of its software functions had not yet been determined, but it was certainly doing the volume nicely at this stage. As far as the pushbutton feature of the knob goes, for now, pressing the knob enters the menu structure, and once there, you can twirl the knob to make your selections. I asked about push-for-bass/treble controls and Hugo said it hadn't been implemented even though it's possible to do so in the DSP. I briefly and gently made my case for adding such a feature, but didn't harass him about it.
He demonstrated the new variable brightness on the display. It worked marvelously, allowing 256 levels of brightness, but control for it was not yet implemented in the Empeg menus. He had to telnet into the unit from his laptop and manually modify the values in order to demo the feature. For those who were wondering: The dimmer-control input wire on the Empeg will not allow the display to vary in brightness along with your dashboard lights. It will simply activate the menu-adjustable brightness level when you turn on your dash lights.
We discussed the visuals a little bit, and talked about the levels of gray that are available to the graphics. There is a possibility that they might be able to implement one more shade of gray into the palette, allowing slightly better visuals. It hasn't been finalized, though, so no promises. Hugo did point out that Toby is already doing some time-dithering with the existing visuals to fake more shades of gray than what's already there. Funny, I hadn't noticed until he pointed it out to me, and I'm usually very observant about these things. Oh, and the Hula Hoops bug is supposed to be fixed: Does anyone know if that's gotten into pre-11? I haven't downloaded it yet... I intend to do that once I get done with this update.
Hugo showed us one of the resin-cast parts used for testing the new front panel, and fitted it in place to show us what it looked like. It wasn't the black part of the face (hugo didn't have that with him), but rather, it was the clear part that goes behind the front face and makes up the colored part of the display. To my surprise, it still spans the entire length of the face of the unit. It tucks behind the black part of the face, so it looks like color-changes will still be very easy to do. I expected it to be smaller, only taking up the transparent portions of the face. The reason it's full-length is because it's still the part that's responsible for keeping the RF emissions contained inside the unit. Although now, instead of an embedded wire mesh doing the work, it's a new kind of transparent-but-conductive spray coating that goes on the back side of the unit. I wasn't clear on whether that was a permanent change or whether they did it that way just for the FCC testing. Oh, and while on the subject of the face, the "standby mode" LED on the face is much smaller now, and not quite as obtrusively bright as the original one. It still does that really cool pulsing thing. Heh.
I asked him about the possibility of being able to upgrade my Mk1 to this new face. He pointed out that I'd have to file down some bits of the metalwork in order to make it fit. Since I'd have no trouble doing that (I am, after all, a whiz with a dremel tool), I'll see about badgering Rob into sending me the parts once their inventory is stable later this summer.
Hugo also revealed that they're in the process of getting a custom remote made. It would be the same kind of credit-card remote as they currently supply (there are many companies which use that platform by the way, Kenwood's not the only remote that comes in that casing), only it would have Empeg-specific commands printed on the keypad, and it would use Empeg's own custom set of IR signals rather than the Kenwood ones. Although they won't be ready by the Mk2 initial ship date, the ball is rolling on it. I didn't think to ask whether both remotes would be interoperable with both the Mk1's and the Mk2's, perhaps we'll catch Hugo on that one elsewhere on the BBS.
Since the hotel where Hugo was staying was a high-tech place, it had a broadband internet connection with ethernet plugs in the rooms. Hugo used his laptop to download the new user manual for the Empeg and show it to us in Acrobat. I was very impressed. The manual is incredibly detailed, and gives you everything you need to know about the unit. There are lots of screens shots, both of Emplode and the Empeg's screen. Every conceivable keystroke and button press is laid out for you. I'm pretty sure that it was geared towards the Kenwood remote, though, I dunno what they're going to do when the new remote is available.
He also used VPN to poke around the Empeg intranet while we were there, and showed us some of the stuff there, including a preview of the new web site (very cool- nice work, Rob). Then he showed us a web site with a special kind of third-party microphone designed for in-car voice recognition. This nifty mic is mounted on your car's sun visor, and it's actually four mics arranged into a rod that extends across the edge of the visor. It includes its own DSP circuitry to reject noise and improve voice recognition. Unfortunately, the mic is not cheap: it's about $150.00.
Hugo didn't have a docking sleeve or a mic in San Jose, so he couldn't demo the voice recognition
, but here's the deal on the VR as it stands right now: They want to get rid of the need for pressing a button to enter voice commands. Right now, the only way to get around that is via keyword activation ("Empeg!"). They are working with the VR software vendor, who is supplying them with a new version pretty soon, which may allow this sort of thing. They also need to get around the fact that cars are just too damn noisy for really good VR, and it is hoped that products like that third-party mic will allow this. We'll just have to see.
Oh, and there's no mic plug on the unit for in-home use. The only mic connector available is on the docking sleeve.
Finally, Hugo showed us a web site promoting their new OEM project. I'm not sure if I can say who it is or not. Basically, I can get to their web site right now and look at the page, so the
product isn't a secret. I'm just not sure whether Empeg is allowed to publicize the fact that it's really their product with an OEM's name on it. Basically, Empeg co-designed the electronics and is writing the software for it, while the OEM is manufacturing, marketing, and selling the unit. Perhaps Hugo will chime in here with the link to the web site, provided he's allowed to talk about it. It looks really nifty.
Well, that's about all I can remember for now. Hugo or Mike, is there anything else you want to chime in with?
___________
Tony Fabris
Previous Topic
Index
