RioCar won't power up in the car, but will with AC

Posted by: monkeyboy

RioCar won't power up in the car, but will with AC - 13/01/2002 01:06

I have been uploading songs to my RioCar for the past few days, and it has been working fine with the AC adapter. I tried to install it today, and I can't get it to power up in the car.

So far I have connected the memory, ignition, ground and dimmer. It turns out my multi-meter is not working (that took a while to figure out), so I had to make do with a LED. Here is what I get.
memory to ground, LED lights up with car off, and on.
ignition to ground, LED is off when car is off, and on when car is on.
dimmer to ground, LED is off when dimmer is at it's brightest, and gets brighter as I move the dimmer to it's dimmest.

So it seems to me that everything is working the way it should be. I checked all of these connections at the connector on the inside of the pullout cage (at the same point RioCar would connect.

Am I missing something? I haven't wired up the remote line yet, as I wanted to make sure the RioCar works first, but I doubt that would change anything. I don't have the mute connected, and I don't plan to.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Posted by: monkeyboy

Re: RioCar won't power up in the car, but will with AC - 13/01/2002 10:14

Ok, I figured it out. I didn't have the chasis of the pullout cage grounded. Once I installed it, the screws grounded the chasis, and it works.

I still have a question though. When I dim the interior lights, the RioCar display stays at the same brightness. Is this the correct behavior? Thanks.
Posted by: drakino

Re: RioCar won't power up in the car, but will with AC - 13/01/2002 10:33

When I dim the interior lights, the RioCar display stays at the same brightness. Is this the correct behavior?

Keep in mind it's a headlight sense and not dimmer sense. As long as there is a difference in the voltage when your headlights are on and off on the current wiring, it should be fine. To adjust it, open the settings menu, pick dimmer, and set it. Once finished, turn on your headlignts and do the same thing. Once you have it set, turning on and off your headlights should switch between the two settings.
Posted by: monkeyboy

Re: RioCar won't power up in the car, but will with AC - 13/01/2002 12:59

Ok, I guess I thought that my dimmers should dim the RioCar. So that brings up another question. My factory connections has a headlight connection, and a dimmer connections. I am currently using the dimmer connection. Should I be using the headlight connection?
Thanks.
Posted by: mtempsch

Re: RioCar won't power up in the car, but will with AC - 13/01/2002 14:20

Depends on what you want it to do... Change when you change the interior dimming level or when you turn on the lights, both have merit.

The headlight connection is probably more distinct 0V or 12V (which the empeg likes) while the dimmer line probably is continous 0-12V (or part of that range). The empeg wont do anything when you change the dimming - until you pass the threshold value where it thinks dimming is in effect (or not) - then it'll dim/undim.
If you have the dimmer right at the border, dimming might flip on / off as your cars voltage fluctuates slighthly - don't know if the empeg guys built in any hysterisis into the circuit.

/Michael