I'm one of the lucky mk II owners. I went to put it in, and noticed that there is a plug on the end of the sled harness with the ground, constant, switched, antenna, etc. No big deal, I look in the box for the other end of the plug - except there isn't one! I did finally see one line in the manual mentioning they use a "standard" ISO plug on the end of their harness that is easily available at any auto stereo shop. This plug may be available in the UK, but its nowhere to be found in GA. I know I can cut the plug off and straight wire the harness into my car, which is what I'm about to do - but I loathe cutting anything on a brand spanking new unit. I mean, they started including something as ubiquitous as a 8pin to 25pin serial adapter in the box, but don't include a part that is necessary for any installation (if you don't want to cut the sled harness) and one you would have to visit a specialty shop for! Anyway, just a quick heads up to empeg on this item I think ya'll need to include in future shipments, at least to the US.

Ben
mk II 0000006

I don't know what car you have. But most cars have an ISO - connector for Radio/Tape/CD-decks. Did you already check the connections of your car?

TeeMcBee

Erm no, we're not going to provide the other side of the connector. The point is that ISO connectors are built in to most modern cars, and if they're not then you need a specific adapter to mate with the non-standard connector in your car.

This isn't a UK standard, it's a world wide automotive standard. Of course it wouldn't surprise me if US manufacturers are not complying, but Ford certainly do (along with most other manufacturers who buy ancilliaries from Visteon), and imported brands are likely to as well.

I'm not at all convinced that you can't buy the connectors from car audio suppliers in the US - practically every after market head unit uses them. Crutchfield even have a picture of one on the front page of their car products section:



Those two connectors on the right hand side are an ISO connector, and the empeg car uses only one of them (the other one is for amplified speaker signals). It seems that Cruthfield sell these for practically every US car (that doesn't use them as standard) under the sun. If you can't get an adapter for your car, just buy any adapter and chop off the non-ISO end to get bare cables - or chop the connector off the empeg docking cage, whichever you prefer.

Rob

I have a 92 infiniti g20, and no it doesn't have that connector, it uses a nissan type connector that is not quite the same. No US car manufactured before around 95 or so does carry that connector. I don't think it unreasonable to include the mate to that connector; ya'll include a serial plug adapter that's certainly unnecessary, Most anyone with a fairly new computer will have 2 of the smaller type serial ports. I don't know about anyone else, but I certainly upgrade my computer more often than I do my car. :) I imagine more of your US customers, especially those with older non-ISO compliant cars would appreciate the mating end of the sled rather than a serial plug adapter.

Assuming that most people will have their empeg installed by some car stereo shop, it's not that much of an issue (Although it sounds like lots of them will hack the plugs off anyway. =)

I'd rather get the ISO convertor for my car than to hack off part of the car's wiring to put an ISO connector on it. Convertors are cheap, replacing bits of wiring loom aren't.

I do agree that the serial convertor is a waste for most people, but as it's so important to be able to upgrade the software via serial, it's probably a wise precaution.

Jazz
(List 112, Mk2 12 gig #40. Mk1 for sale 4 gig #30, apply within)

Of course getting a connector is better than just cutting the car's cable.

But on the other side - if you've installed the empeg once - would you ever install any other unit instead till you sell the car? And even if you do - most after market car-hifi's also use the ISO-connector.

TeeMcBee

We can't supply the other end of the cable because it's different for every vehicle! You just said that you have a Nissan type connector - and there must be 20 or 30 other types of non standard connectors on older vehicles.

If all you want are bare ends then just chop the connector off - that's how the Mark 1 was supplied anyway. We put the ISO connector on there for the convenience of many (probably most) of our clients, not realising we'd get complaints about it!

By the way, we supply a 25 to 9 way serial adapter because we have thousands of the things in stock. Nobody seems to be sure why we have them in stock, though!

Rob

Hi Grymm

I've just installed my Empeg2 in a BMW: take Rob's advise and get your hands on any Euro converter cable you can find. Chop off the part that's supposed to connect to that other car, and hack the wires into your infiniti.

As the next owner is most likely to also need a Euro connect, he won't mind the hack. At the same time, Mark2 remains untouched so you'll be able to move it into the replacement vehicle (that most likel will already have a Euro conncector) easily.

Those converter cables should be inexpensive. I paid US$ 10 to an acredited BMW workshop for a BMW branded cable, including 17.5% sales tax (yes, this is Europe)

PS: How come you have a Mark2 with the same serial number as mine?
Mine is a 6GB unit. The tag says 060000006. What's yours??

Henno
mark2 nr: 006

Henno,

060000006 is registered to you, he must have something different. I can't check because I have no idea who he is :)

Rob

Actually, I had the same concern. It wasn't really a complaint, it was more confusion. I have a new ('98) Jeep Wrangler, which is made by Chrysler (A pretty big car manufacturer). My Jeep *DID* have two "Connectors" for the stock radio that came with it, one for power, one for speakers. Car stereo places had mating connectors for THOSE connections, but they are *not* the "standard" ISO connector that was mentioned.

It would be a pipe dream to expect them to have a ISO<->Jeep Connector converter, so I ended up stripping the wires a bit above the ISO connector and soldering my connections there.

What I think grymm was wanting, was just a "male" end of the ISO connector that just has the other end cut off, and the wires labeled. I imagine that a great majority of US customers do NOT own cars that have this ISO connector, and this would definitely be a plus to those of us who don't.

Once again, not a complaint.. I've got mine installed. 8)

(O|||||O)

ack!

make that 060000004

:)

rob,

Someone else said it, I just wanted a female ISO plug with bare labeled wires, so I wouldn't have to cut the wires on my sled. From another of your posts I saw it looks like my dream has come true! I really wasn't trying to be a bitch or anything, it just struck me as ironic to include something like the db9 to db25 serial adapter, and not include something that most americans wouldn't have or would have to order (if they didn't want to cut their sled harness). Anyway, I installed mine this morning, cut the harness. It didn't hurt anywhere near as bad as I thought it would! I was just in the mentality, that I had a new baby empeg and didn't want to butcher it! It really was a minor bitch, but I thought it was something ya'll might need to be aware of in the UK. Again thanks for a GREAT product and listening to your customer(s). I don't think I've EVER bought anything and bitched about something this minor and got results; your customer support and service staff is by far the best I've ever been in contact with!

Cheers!

Ben Johnson
grymm
060000004 <--- corrected!

Alternatively folks, you get an ISO to a connector with suitably sized pins on the other end in what ever plug suits, use a small paper clip to poke them out of the connector, plug them into the appropriate socket on the car's harness and tape it up tight.

** Check the pins function *thoroughly* before doing pluging anything in and powering up.
** Ensure that no pins are touching each other (use small heatshrink or tape to cover exposed parts.
** Don't try it if you're not confident with the whole idea.
** Don't blame me if you blow fuses, set off air bags or fry the electronic ignition. It's your car, be careful.

____________________________
Murray