OK, so I know this is a very old thread, but I suddenly care about this.

Hugo said:
The first 1000 units have unfortunately not got power or ground on the serial connector - somehow, this escaped me when I drew the wiring diagrams.

OK, no power is one thing, but if there's no ground, then the serial port can't work, right?

And to think I was revelling in the elegance of actually powering the GPS unit from the power on pin 4. Garmins use a single four-pin connector with +12V, GND, TD and RD, which, had I a properly wired sled, should have been a single cable from the empeg serial port.

Is this something I'm likely to be able to fix at the back of the sled? any problems with just connecting the appropriate wires in the serial cable to the right points on the docking connector?

And while we're on the subject, am I correct in assuming that the amp turn-on lead, the tuner power supply (and therefore the power antenna lead from the tuner module), and the pin4 power connection are in fact all the same 1A output from the empeg?

Given that, how much current does the tuner draw? The worst-case for the GPS is 4.3W, or about 380mA at 12V. (and this is a StreetPilot ColorMap!) I'm making a WAG that the BMW antenna preamp draws 100-200mA, and that the amps are a fairly high impedance input. This leaves ~400mA for the tuner. Am I asking for trouble?

A further digression: Is the tuner powered up all the time, or does the PIC turn off the tuner module when the empeg isn't listening to it? And the power antenna lead, I'm guessing is only active when the tuner is in use. I don't know because I don't have a power antenna, though I am using the blue wire off the tuner for the factory preamp.


-Zandr
Mk.I #0150 10GB
RioCar #010101243 10GB (96GB here I come...)