Does weatherband work in the UK? If not, I'd happily swap at a later date for a tuner with lw/sw capability. These would benefit me more here.

In case you are collecting evidence of further demand for tuner kits -

Although currently tunerless, I was happily waiting until the rush had died down a bit and credit card payment was available, plus I was wanting more than one kit anyway. You can therefore count on another order for 2 kits as soon as that is allowed and once credit card payment is up and running.

Being in the UK I would prefer the ones with SW / MW / LW capability just in case the additional bands become supported by future software versions.

You can therefore count on another order for 2 kits as soon as that is allowed and once credit card payment is up and running

You can pay him by PayPal - no charges for sending to another UK user either.

Gareth

Greetings!

Actually, was the billing / payment information ever sent out for the second wave of tuners (26-50)?

....I'm number 30 and haven't seen it yet...

Bitt,
Gotta agree with you there.. except for some of the college stations in Raleigh or Chapel Hill...

Sean in NC

I am kinda late coming in on this post, but I am in the usa and I just want a tuner... wb or not... wb would be nice but doesn't really mater. My order # is 105 so I will take it either way

I'm from Germany/Europe and I would be glad to get the SW-Module instead of the weatherband. So if it would be possible in the future to get this work (software) I would be more interested in SW/MW/LW than in weatherband. So I would be more interested in the "european" version, so it's absolutely no problem for me.

And if LW/MW/SW will never be implemented but weatherband, I would leave the weatherband-tuner for one who will need it more than me.

regards,
Rolf

Living in the same area, I have to agree with you there. I only just ordered mine (#148) when I heard about the weather band feature. Personally I'd rather have WB than AM/FM in this area.. Having just MP3's is great for me, but my friends don't really have the same taste in music all the time, so I'm jumping on this opportunity.

well I was planning on getting one as soon as I get
a) Free time
b) Free money

but if you need pre-orders so you can get the batch, then I'm sure I can scrounge up something.

Yeah ... unfortunately I have had a bad experience with Paypal in the past and won't go near them with mine or anybody else's bargepole again.

I could easily send a cheque really, although the goods would be insured if I bought them on my credit card - which is useful if they get lost or damaged in the post, etc.

Really it's more just a matter of waiting until I can order two kits because I'll be sending them to someone else for assembly and it just seems simpler to send them both at the same time.

Thanks anyway.

First let me say that I would prefer weather band, but would take either.
My question is, if your supplier only has ~100 modules of the 131 type in stock, will the remaining ~100 modules they need to supply you be of that type also, or are they allowing a split model type order of 131's and 197's ? I would think they are locking you to one model for the minimum order, which could put 197 types (weather band) out, chronologically speaking, for quite some time.
Is it time to allow multible tuners per person ?
Thank you Patrick for all your effort !

Probably. We can read the setup EEPROM inside the tuner, and I would guess that it's just zero'ed out for bands it doesn't support.

Not tried this, so it's only a guess though!

Hugo

I'll be moving back to Europe by the end of the year, so I won't need the weatherband either.

Björn

Unfortunately, the 100 3x0131 modules I have ordered don't count towards the 200 minimum order for the next batch. The things seem to be built to order, and there is no real reason not to get 3x0197 modules as the normal part. In fact, they are rather cheaper then the 0131 part, the only reason I'm getting the other modules at the same price is that I whinged a lot

Anyway, the end result is that I will soon have enough modules to fulfill all the orders I have as of today, but after that I need (a) enough orders to make acquiring 200 modules worthwhile, and (b) patient customers due to the 12 weeks I'm being quoted for delivery of the modules.

Point (b) may change for the better when the money is actually handed over, this is fairly common in the industry, but I wouldn't count on it.

pca

I can wait 12 weeks if needed order No 150 i think

So we should put our orders in now to help reach the 200 for the next batch? Can we now order 2 tuners as this would help rech our goal more quickly.

We'll probably put weatherband support into the next trunk release (i.e. post 2.0).

(Hey, I'm still employed!....and what is money anyway?)

Patrick, I'll find a place *somewhere* in my dash for a WX tuner...that is, if you'll have me!

Personally, I'll take either (I'm in NA). I've had WB receivers in two of my cars and never found it useful. The times I've tried to use it I was out in the boonies along the coast and could barely pick up the station. All I want is FM for one radio station - KPIG in Freedom, CA! I'd say 10% of the music in my Empeg are from artists KPIG introduced me to over the years.

I've only ordered one tuner, per the web-pages instructions. I will be ordering a second tuner to mate with my other Empeg player, once we're told it's OK for folks to order a 2nd unit. Lack of a tuner is what is keeping me from installing my 2nd Empeg in my other car.

Thanks for putting the Tuner kits out
K^2 - #120 on the tuner list.

which are replaced with LW and SW AM modes for european usage

What does the european mean in there? Does that mean that there are no LW and SW transmitters elsewhere in the world or that only Europeans use LW and SW bands?

Is there anyone out there that can answer this question? And just to make sure, here, SW stands for Short Wave, correct? I kind of like the thought of having a SW radio so I can get a non-American media view of the world.

The SW and LW bands are used by a lot of countries around the world, but not US America. However, these bands can and do propagate worldwide and some stations can be heard in the US. I had an old Volvo with a Becker in it with these bands and I listened to them a lot. Now I have a Yaesu FT-100 in the car and still listen to the SW stuff.

There was a SW station in Utah which surprised me. I don't know if it was legal or not, but it was there for years.

Okay, i FINALLY finished the tuner last night. That Coax situation is hairy man... there has to be a better way. I futzed with that part alone forever.... and it showed today when i plugged the tuner into the car. Green light... *phew*... it works! Empeg recognized it... that's good at least.

Reception is horrible though. When i push in on the coax cable from outside the box, the signal dissappears completely. I've checked and rechecked for shorts between the shield and the inner wire. There has to be a better place to ground the shield to. I'm gonna take the box apart tonight and see if i can find a better way. Anyone else found a better solution for the coax hookup to the board? Any suggestions?

I'm just happy it works at all at this point. I've never built a kit, much less one that "big". Now i just gotta get better reception. As a side note... it seems like the few stations i could get full meter on (on the empeg display) still sounded fuzzy and not really clear. What would cause this?

As a side note... it seems like the few stations i could get full meter on (on the empeg display) still sounded fuzzy and not really clear. What would cause this?

Last guy that reported this discovered it was pinout errors on the tuner connector, if I recall correctly.

I'd have a good read of GeoffT's thread, he had good go at getting his tuner going, plenty of things to check.

http://empeg.comms.net/php/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=empeg_general&Number=141468&page=2&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=0&fpart=

But first,

chip orientation
signal/AGC wires
ariel grounding

In reply to:

---

Last guy that reported this discovered it was pinout errors on the tuner connector, if I recall correctly.

---

I think he had a chip in the wrong way round.

I grounded mine to the side of the tuner module. This was much more satisfactory, although it requires a decent soldering iron as the module will act as a pretty decent heatsink. Very important to melt some solder onto the module first.

Paul

i think i'm gonna take it apart, unsolder the Coax, cut it, restrip it, and solder it back better. I had one hell of a time getting that shield wire soldered, as you said, the case of the tuner is one hell of a heat sink. I'm pretty sure that's where my problem lies.

Did you guys zip tie the cable to the post as suggested? I think i'm just going to forego that for some hot glue on the exterior hole for the coax... should hold it securely without all the interior tension.

[quote]As a side note... it seems like the few stations i could get full meter on (on the empeg display) still sounded fuzzy and not really clear. What would cause this?[/quote]

I have the same behaviour. Even though I get full meter on the empeg display, the sound is sometimes very poor. Also the switching between alternative frequencies of one station is done less frequent than with the original tuner module. I think this is because the empeg thinks the reception is better than it really is.
The rds data reception is always interrupted even with full meter on the display (RDS sign on display disappear). I think it was better with the original tuner, but I'm not 100% sure.

The sound quality of station with good signal is great.

But never mind, the new empeg software version is coming soon, and the rds part has changed a lot in there. Let's see....

In the first unit I assembled, I soldered the outer coax sheath to one of the folded tabs of the tuner module, where it passes through a large hole on the PCB. BUT THEN, I added another wire (cut off lead from a resistor) from the originally coax ground point, up and around the coax sheath. This stabilizes things considerably.

Excellent reception with just a screwdriver for an antenna.

-ml

from the originally coax ground point

eh? I don't follow. You soldered a lead from where to where? Sounds like a good tip, i wanna make sure i get it right.

Also... where did you route the sheild cable to get it to the tab hole of the tuner module? Did you go around the outside through the top of the board or through the bottom...?