Power weirdness + questions

I could have sworn I'd seen this before, but I couldn't find it in an hour of searching. Yesterday I turned off my car, but sat in it for a few minutes, (maybe 3-5?) after the empeg had gone into standby. Then randomly, it came out of standby and started playing! Could I have hit something on the remote maybe? I hope that my car won't randomly start playing when I'm not there, that sure would attract attention. Any thoughts?

I think that there is some weirdness in the way I hooked up the Illumination wire because if I set the dimmer to less then 100 then the display will flip back and forth between 100 and the low value (mostly at 100, occationaly dimming to set lights-on value) when the illumination is on. I fix this by putting both dimmers at 100, so I see no change. Its like the empeg thinks that I am constantly toggling my lighting. Must double-check wiring.

Question 3: does it matter if the grounds of the rca plugs (speaker channels) touch each other or the car chassis? It sounds ok, but am I losing some quality there?

Also, my old radio dimmed up and down with the dash lighting with a dimmer on the dash. I think the Illumination line is a sliding voltage (guess, not checked) instead of a 0/+12 thing. I think thats fairly common in cars, could/should the empeg take advantage of that?

Thanks,

John

P.S. By the way guys @ empeg, this thing is by far the coolest piece of electronics I have ever purchased, thank you.

30 GB - Mk2a (Rio Car) - BLUE

I had almost the same thing happen to me last night. I turned off my truck, and was listening to the end of a song (my S10 doesn't cut power to the stereo until you open the door.) I opened the door to get out for a second, and as an afterthought, I turned the volume down as it was powering down. The volume decreased, but the empeg kept playing, with my keys in hand, and the door open.

I just powered it off by the front panel, but it was strange.

-Trevor

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Mk 2, Green 12GB 080000349

Then randomly, it came out of standby and started playing! Could I have hit something on the remote maybe?

This is the most logical assumption. Any signal from the remote will wake up the empeg from standby mode.

The other thing that would do it is if there was something wrong with the ignition wiring or the car's ignition switch. If the empeg senses voltage on the ignition wire, it will wake up.

It's also possible it got some sort of a negative spike on the ignition wire, causing the empeg to wake up. Do you need the diode adapter? See the FAQ section of this BBS for the relevant entries on power on/off/standby oddities.

I set the dimmer to less then 100 then the display will flip back and forth between 100 and the low value (mostly at 100, occationaly dimming to set lights-on value) when the illumination is on.

Yes, this sounds like a wiring problem. Check your wiring. Use a voltmeter to determine what the light-sense line is doing when you turn your lights on and off.

Also make sure you are running the latest version of the empeg player software. The earliest releases had some bugs in that area.

does it matter if the grounds of the rca plugs (speaker channels) touch each other or the car chassis?

Yes, it matters. Grounding the audio channels can result in a ground loop, causing unwanted voltage to flow backwards through the audio lines. This can cause alternator whine and other noises to come out of your amplifiers. It also could possibly cause some of the other problems you're describing, although I've never heard of those specific problems being caused by grounded RCA shrouds.

Also, my old radio dimmed up and down with the dash lighting with a dimmer on the dash. I think the Illumination line is a sliding voltage (guess, not checked) instead of a 0/+12 thing. I think thats fairly common in cars, could/should the empeg take advantage of that?

Since modern cars have different ways of implementing this feature (some do a sliding voltage, others do pulse modulation, etc), it's hard for third-party stereos to implement it properly. The on/off with adjustable dimness is the catch-all solution.

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Tony Fabris

I turned the volume down as it was powering down. The volume decreased, but the empeg kept playing, with my keys in hand, and the door open.

This behavior is by design. The empeg goes into standby mode when you turn off the ignition. When it's in standby, you can turn the volume knob or press any key to wake it up.

This allows you to shut it off with the ignition (like most radios), but still allow you to use it with the key off if you have a special need to do so.

If you don't wake it up after turning off the ignition, it will eventually go into full-power-off mode. The amount of timeout is configurable in the Emplode software.

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Tony Fabris

I have this occationally. I'll leave the car and come back to find it pumping out music. I don't know how soon after I left that it woke up or what caused it but it is irritating and quite concerning.

If I had onw of my long playlists or the root playlist activated, I could come back to find the battery dead. Mind you this would take a while as I've found that I lose bass first, then the empeg starts slipping in and out of consciousness as the bass pulsates the battery voltage. But I am still able to start the car!

I would really like to know what sets it off.

Murray 06000047
I don't think, therefore I am not.

I don't know how soon after I left that it woke up or what caused it but it is irritating and quite concerning.

This calls for a quick'n'dirty solution: put the empeg in pause mode and turn of the ignition....

Edwin de Vaan
mk2 rev.7 # 080000263 (queue 1232) 6+20Gb blue/red