I finally have my little box up and running!

drool.... [drool]

Took the box apart, hooked up the drive cable and voila... I have pictures of the guts as well.. they will be posted somewhere soon.

Oh yeah... ethernet works like a charm! A helluva lot faster then serial I guarantee you!

Later and thanks empeg!

#170... I got SN: 080000101 12 gig Blue!

...and as soon as I get back from the store with the correct size hex wrenches, I'll be right behind you, ShadowMan.

Does anyone know what exact size those hex bolts are that hold the fascia on?

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Reg #57xx, Ser #080000141, Rec'd Aug.11/00

They're M3 bolts which I THINK use a 2mm key (but it could be 2.5mm - I don't have the specs at home with me). If you're in the USA this won't be of much use, but there is an imperial equivalent so I suggest you take the whole player to the hardware store.

Rob

...ended up doing just that. I was disappointed that nobody asked what it was...maybe thats good. Not attract TOO much attention.

Best fit I could find was 2.5mm.

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Reg #57xx, Ser #080000141, Rec'd Aug.11/00

If you're in the USA this won't be of much use

Ahahahah, you imply that we don't have metric tools in the states. That is so cute.

Reminds me of the scene in "Doc Hollywood" where his Porsche breaks down in the deep south. The redneck auto mechanics can see that the city boy is nervous about leaving his expensive European car with them, so they start having fun. After they act confused about the location of the engine, they say "You know, I always wanted to get me a set of metric tools."

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Tony Fabris

When I went on a hunt for a null modem cable I checked with the computer store. They finally asked what the box I was plugging it into was. After I told them they didn't even care. It made me mad. I'm not to hurt though because they were morons. They told me there was no such thing as a non-25 pin null modem serial cable.

Alex Lear

I'd have to say that I haven't noticed much use of metric whenever I've been in the USA.

Rob

I'd have to say that I haven't noticed much use of metric whenever I've been in the USA.

True, most of the stuff we do is with imperial measurements. But there was a period in recent history where a big "move to metric" push was on. It fizzled, but we still have some leftovers from that period: 2-liter soda bottles, for example. So we're not complete knuckle-dragging troglodytes, we're reasonably familiar with metric measurements.

But metric tools have never been a problem because such a huge percentage of our cars and electronics come from overseas. It's just as easy to buy metric tools here as it is to buy imperial-measurement tools.

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Tony Fabris

I'm not too hurt though because they were morons. They told me there was no such thing as a non-25 pin null modem serial cable.

Oh my God. Make sure not to ever go into that store again. You're right, they were morons.

Not only because they don't know anything about cables, but because they didn't care you had an Empeg. They should have been falling all over each other trying to get a look at the thing.

Q: What's the difference between a car salesman and a computer salesman?
A: The car salesman knows when he's lying.

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Tony Fabris

I tried both Standard and Metric, nothing I had would fit perfectly. I did manage to get one out of my Shadow 750s tool kit that did the job. A little too small, but with the bubble gum wrapper in it it never slipped a bit.

Kinda scary though. :)

I was lucky though, at least I received the proper upgrade cable!

And I have one Britney song on mine... but mainly beacuae... well it's Britney after all... ummmm....,,,,mmmmmmm...... slurpppp......

#170... I got SN: 080000101 12 gig Blue!

Our use of metric and imperial systems over here is really confusing. With the military, depending on what you are talking about it is in either metric or imperial. For instance, dimensions on a vehicle is in imperial, but range limits for sensors are in metric. It gets really confusing when you start talking to somebody who isn't familiar with both systems :)

Range for vehicles is is in imperial, range for weapons are in metric... etc, etc :)

Ha. no such thing as a non 25 pin null modem cable? I used to have the coolest thing. it was a null modem cable with both a 9 and 25 pin connecter at both ends. and it was bright orange.

Laplink used to be bundled with that cable. They're pretty common, and very handy!

Ha. no such thing as a non 25 pin null modem cable? I used to have the coolest thing. it was a null modem cable with both a 9 and 25 pin connecter at both ends. and it was bright orange.

One can have still more fun: I have an old Mini Cooper, built by Innocenti of Italy. So the engine uses imperial bolts and nuts (because they got the whole engine from the UK), whereas the body, interior and everything else that's different from the English variant is metric. I guess one must be Italian to not get mad with such a car.

Daniel



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"My software never has bugs. It just develops random features."

I LOVE mini's! It's strange that I love big minivans and something like the mini, but those things are just so darn cute and cool looking! When I was in England I took a close look at every mini I saw. Those cars are great! Did they stop making them? Why?

DiGNAN
13653

I saw a couple of the Mini's at a British Car Show last month. The Woody one was great looking and one of them did some drag racing. I can't remember the exact times it ran but it was respectable. I was impressed.

Laura

I live to launch.

We are getting a bit off-topic here, I'm afraid. Anyway...

No, Minis are still being made, for more than 40 years now. Not for very much longer though - the Mini is the one thing BMW kept when they sold Austin Rover again, and they plan to bring out a new Mini version soon - probably already this year, I've been told. The old one has much more style, of course. The difference between the old and the new is much the same difference as the one between the old Bug/Beetle and the new one. (Yes, I did read that thread! ).

DiGNAN17: if you like minivans, you'd probably very much like my other car as well - it's a Citroen CX Break, one of the biggest European station wagons ever. It first appeared in the mid-70s, long before Renault invented the first minivan (the Espace). The CX and the Mini are in many respects as different as cars can be, but similar in one thing that they also share with the empeg: all three are full of clever, unconventional, new ideas, and made by people with a vision. That's why I love all three of them... .

PS: André Citroen, Sir Alec Issigonis, Hugo Fiennes... anybody thinks one of the three names doesn't belong there? Nah...



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"My software never has bugs. It just develops random features."

Oy! I'm not a car designer (and I don't think I deserve to be listed alongside geniuses like that!)

How about a CX turbo 2? There's one down the road from me - I hear these were quite frightening...

Hugo

How about a CX turbo 2? There's one down the road from me - I hear these were quite frightening...

Frightening in which sense? Too fast for the average driver? :-) Anyway, at the moment I'm after a Series I GTI Turbo, having the most powerful engine of all CX sold in Germany - 168 hp. Not much by modern standards, but 16 years ago, quite good.



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"My software never has bugs. It just develops random features."

This has always bothered me. Here Renault is claiming the first minivan. In the US, Chrysler claims to have invented the minivan.
So what has VW been building all these years? That sure looks like a minivan to me.

If you mean the VW Bus/Transporter - no, that's not a mini van. Too big, no bonnet. But... the first mini van was neither the Espace nor a Chrysler, at least according to my definition. The first mini van in fact was a VW, although very few people know it. Ever heard of the VW Fridolin? It appeared first in 1964. When did Chrysler build their first mini van? :-)

Daniel




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"My software never has bugs. It just develops random features."

Well, the concept helps: a fiberglass body, a small but powerful engine, and a car that weighs some six hundreds kilos... you've got a winning combo, easy. I saw once a drag between a Civic VTi, a Suzuki GTI and a Mini Cooper... the japs were no contest for the Cooper. I was impressed too.

If you love Minis, then here's FlYp with the empeg installed. The car now has 5-way sound, and in my humble opinion, sounds quite decent . Why? I hear you ask. Because it could be done, I answer

They haven't stopped making them yet. However, they die the final death on the 23rd of September. A day that will live in infamy. The new, BMW (spit) instigated design will be built from January next year with an undetermined release date.

Not only Innocenti Minis had the weird combination of Metric/Imperial fittings and bolts. A significant number of Brits were manufactured between '74 and '80 (the TR 7, MG B GT, Jag Xj6, many others) which inevitably had metric brake fittings (Girling and Lucas had to supply a world market which was predominantly metric), imperial body fittings (since all the local suppliers were still on imperial to around 1977) and then on engines - whoa!! - catalogue of horrors. There is one famous Xj6 4.2 head where the original valves and guides were imperial but with metric OD sizes (meaning the head guide holes were drilled for metric dimensions), the ancilliary fittings (pump and other sundry bits) were Imperial, and the exhaust manifold bolts were metric! Yuk.

One of the few remaining Mk1 owners... #00015

Well, if you consider minivans to be just that, small vans, than Fridolin is probably the first (I am not sure about those early Citroens, though), and Chrysler started to make them really popular. But, if one considers Espace a real example of the concept (Renault calls it 'monovolume car', i.e. car without distinct engine, people and luggage compartments, and has it in three sizes: Espace, Scenic and Twingo), then the distinction of the inventor goes to Fiat and its 1955 Multipla (see, for example, here). Fiat is so proud of it it called its latest monovolume contraption after it.

BTW, the main difference between two schools is that Chrysler and others consider minivans to be small, car-like apointed trucks, while Renault thinks they are cars with as large interior space per meter ot total length as possible. I thing that current (read Japanese) trend goes toward the later; these days everybody tries to produce something like Renault Scenic or Twingo.

Dragi "Bonzi" Raos
Zagreb, Croatia
#5196, waiting for TNT to admit where is my empeg

Edited by bonzi on 22/8/00 10:11 PM.