Power to the empeg

Finally attempted to hook up the kit to the car, and it all seems ok. Tuner works a treat (I even get scrolling newsflashes on RDS stations), even the dimmer thing works! I feel like a kid in a sweetshop with 1000's of sweets to choose from.

I'm not too sure of the power switching off. When I plug the unit into the car (without ignition) the unit is dead as you would expect. Turn the ignition and the unit fires up, perfect, good tunes all round. When I turn off the ignition, the unit switches off but I can still see the standby light is on. Worse still when I press play, the unit springs back to life with music thumping out of the speakers. Never mind, I pull the unit out (not going to leave it in the car, am I?). When I return to the car and plug the unit back in the unit is dead again, until I turn on the ignition and all is well. Except, this time I notice a battery icon in the top left of the empeg for a few seconds.

I'm at a loss as to what this indicates, apart from somewhere I fecked up. However I'm using the standard ISO connections and can confirm that this wiring worked ok for my retired Sony MD player which switched off whenever the ignition was off.

You are describing the same behavior that I get in my Honda.

The amount of time for it to be in "standby" after ignition-off is configurable. Please see the FAQ entry on this subject.

I also get the "thump" if I turn my ignition off then start the car again while it's still in standby. Reduce your timeout to a very short time period (say, a second or two) and this problem will go away I think.

When I turn off the ignition, the unit switches off but I can still see the standby light is on. Worse still when I press play, the unit springs back to life with music thumping out of the speakers.

This is a feature. When you turn ignition off, the unit is still powered through permanent power (there are two, permanant and 'switched', which follows ignition; the unit is actually powered through permenent one, other is just a signal). It goes to sleep (blinking stand-by LED), but gives you a chance to turn it back on and listen to some music while waiting for your wife to return form... wherever. If you fail to turn the empeg on after emplode-configurable interval (I think that default is 30s, or perhaps 120s), it turns itself off for good (no stand-by light), and you can turn it on again only by switching the ignition on.

As far as battery icon is concerned, probably your voltage indeed is on the low side after cranking. Nothing to worry about as long as it stays on just for few seconds.

Thanks Tony. It was set at it's default of 60 seconds, so I've reduced it to 2 secs. Is there any reason why I shouldn't just reduce it to 0 secs?

Also, what's the significance of the battery icon on the unit? Or am I being really thick?

I think the shutdown time is personal choice. I left mine at 5 seconds so it cooresponds with the time is takes for my sony to shutoff and fold up.
The battery icon comes on when there is a power problem such as lack of power. I got it when i tried to power my sony deck and my empeg off them same power source in my dash. I guess that little wire just couldn't handle all the power, so i ran an 18GA wire from my battery to my empeg.

-Greg

Is there any reason why I shouldn't just reduce it to 0 secs?

I don't know if zero means "always on standby" or "never on standby". Never tried it.

Give it a shot, let us know how it does for you. Personally, I like to be able to shut off the ignition but then still be able to turn the volume knob to wake up the player so that I can listen to it without the key in the ignition. I think mine is at 5 seconds or something.

Also, what's the significance of the battery icon on the unit?

It means the voltage has dipped to a certain level. I think the battery icon appears when the voltage drops to something like 10v.

It doesn't necessarily indicate something is wrong, because there are times you would expect your car's voltage to dip. Starting the engine, for instance, in some cars will do this.

I put my standby on about an hour, because it doesn't take much battery, and its quite common for me to turn off the car for just short periods of time (i.e. less than an hour). this means it does not have to boot back up when it was on standby.