The design was the expensive part. This is a complicated design and could only be done with inside knowledge from the empeg crew. This computer attaches to the EIDE header with pass through control for the drives, yet it gets data for the display via the EIDE header as well. This required a fair amount of software effort from Patrick and Toby.

I think that Patrick worked on this full time for several weeks which turned into months. Patrick built a couple under a microscope and each one took 30-40 hours of tedious assembly time. Just take Patrick's rate times 40 hours and you get an idea on how much the first prototypes cost just to build. There was probably an extra 8 hours a week of me calling Patrick to ask "Is it done yet?" My memory is a little fuzzy from 5-6 years ago and I don't have the original invoice handy, so I can't remember the exact price to manufacture, but I remember it seeming like a very good deal.

One of my requirements was to allow the empeg to be removed from the sled without having to mess with a video cable. We hacked the left rear audio jack on the rear sled connector inside the player for video out.

Overall it was pretty cool and saved a ton of money on various installations - especially as later cars provided inputs for navigation systems.

Mark