i was thinking about a nice quick way to 'Hush' the playback. in the emplode config, you can select what happens when the interrupt wire is triggered (when input is either 0 or 12 volts) by a phone ringing for example. i dont have a phone but what if i connected a wire to that lead on the riocar and added a switch to act as a phone ringing to trigger the automatic 'hush' mode? what woulld be the best way to acheive this? i thought about remapping a button on the player but i'd rather use those buttons for other functions.

Seems to me that if you put a switch between the constant power and the mute line, then that switch would work as a mute, or whatever you configured it for.

BTW, I think that you should definitely use something like this:

What a great switch. I can think of several places to use one. You sort of expect that others will duck as you reach for it!

Greetings!

Now that is what I call a switch!!! I would certainly duck if I saw that one in a car. It would be great if you could trigger a custom visual or animation when it was turned on... a countdown comes immediately to mind...

oh i have one of those switches on my lawnmower! it has the protective 'sleeve' around the switch so the blades aren't activated by mistake. as for the switch, i was thinking more along the lines of using an OEM type of switch that won't clash with my interior.

so if i do this, which wire would be the best to connect to the interrupt lead on the sled? isn't constant power 'low' voltage for the clock to remember the time n' stuff? or am i just going bananas...

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isn't constant power 'low' voltage for the clock to remember the time n' stuff? or am i just going bananas...

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It's 12 volt, same as the main power. But it's a low-current supply (you don't want to be draining the battery all the time...). That shouldn't cause problems for the mute input, as that will draw virtually no current.

In short, it's okay AFAIK to connect your switch to the constant supply. You'll probably want a pull-down resistor, too - or a double-pole switch.

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In short, it's okay AFAIK to connect your switch to the constant supply. You'll probably want a pull-down resistor, too - or a double-pole switch.

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AFAIK? never seen this one before. whats a pull-down resistor???

AFAIK = "as far as I know" i.e. I think this is the case, but I could be wrong ("BICBW").

Pull-down resistor: if you have a simple switch connecting the mute input to 12V, then you'll get 12V when you close the switch, but when the switch is open, you could get anything. So you put a large resistor (100K, say) between the input and 0V, which pulls the input down to 0V when the switch is open. Or, you can switch the input to 0V and have a pull-up resistor to supply 12V when the switch is open.

The alternative is to use the kind of switch (double-pole? double-throw? I can never remember) that selects either of two inputs, and provide 0V on one and 12V on t'other, with the "common" terminal connected to the players Mute input.

Okay, I'm an idiot when it comes to electronics stuff, but (and?) I don't understand why you'd need a pull-down resistor here. If you've just got a SPST switch between the mute and 12v lines, there should be no difference between when it's open and if it were just unconnected altogether, which is how I imagine most empeg installs are, including mine, and I don't get random things happening to me.

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If you've just got a SPST switch between the mute and 12v lines, there should be no difference between when it's open and if it were just unconnected altogether, which is how I imagine most empeg installs are, including mine, and I don't get random things happening to me.

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Good point

But I note that the player has settings for both active-high and active-low mute lines; only one of these would work with a normally-open switch and no pull-up/pull-down. And the default player behaviour is to ignore the mute line, isn't it? Which means that I wouldn't expect you to get random things happening to you. Well, not as a result of the Mute input, anyway.

Another good point.

All this just goes further to steel my intention to buy a good book on basic-to-intermediate electronics.

I am not sure about this, but I would think that the player probably has an internal pull down resistor. And about the player ignoring the mute line by default, you could easily test this. Set the player to mute on a high input, and leave it disconnected for awhile.

I think I'd rather leave it in a stable state. I'd probably set it up and nothing would happen, and then months down the road it would, having mysteriously reset to the high-input mute, and I'd freak out trying to find what's gone wrong with my precious empeg.