Hi,

Over time my volume control has become more and more of a pain. Sometimes the volume goes down when I'm trying to turn it up, sometimes it doesn't move in speed with my adjustment, and lately it adjusts itself while driving (from vibration I guess).

Does anyone have more information on the component that adjusts volume, specifically what the component is called? I know it's not a potentiometer.

Does anyone know if it'd be possible to replace the rotary control with a pair of up/down buttons to adjust volume? (disregarding the necessary changes to the fascia)


Thanks,
Aragon

I believe it is called a rotary encoder. I suffer from the first of the problems you listed, sometimes when I turn the knob only a couple of notches the setting goes the wrong way.

I sometimes see the second issue, with the volume/menu taking a while to catch up with my movements. I put that down to the player being busy accessing the disk to cache the next chunk of the current track.

Yes, the component is a rotary encoder, made by Alps. I believe it is of the incremental varity. You probably could implement a push button interface, but it would almost certainly require a code rewrite in the player software. Most incremental rotary encoders send out pulses on 2 different channels per rotation with one being 90 degrees out of phase with the other, resulting in a quadrature signal. They output their pulses at a set pattern, which allows the MCU or whatever is interpreting the pulses to determine direction of rotation. It is definitely different from what a push button generates.

If anyone cares to clarify/ poke fun of my explanation please feel free .

Stu

I suffer from the first of the problems you listed, sometimes when I turn the knob only a couple of notches the setting goes the wrong way

Same here.

I sometimes see the second issue, with the volume/menu taking a while to catch up with my movements.

I see that also sometimes, and I've got a Mk2a so slipping shouldn't be the cause. Actually I have never seen one of the two issues on my Mk2, but I havn't used my Mk2 much since I have the Mk2a.

While we're on the subject, bring back the volume increments of 2.0b11!!! I severely dislike having to turn the knob 3 revolutions to gain considerable volume.

"I severely dislike having to turn the knob 3 revolutions to gain considerable volume"
I agree with that. As for the vol. encoder, it's the same prob that pots. have when they get "scratchy" if you can get a drop of WD-40 in the encoder then move it around it will solve the problem. Hey you can believe it or not but thats what I have used for 12 years on vcr "mode switches" which is nothing but a flat encoder, the WD-40 lubes as well as cleans just don't go crazy with it

Hi,

I was poking around and found reference to Caig DeoxIT (http://www.caig.com/) for cleaning them. Apparently also works well!


Regards,
Aragon

While we're on the subject, bring back the volume increments of 2.0b11!!! I severely dislike having to turn the knob 3 revolutions to gain considerable volume.

I don't remember there being any change in the volume adjustment between b11 and b13. But if there was, I prefer tight granularity as opposed to speed in changing the volume.

I'd suggest, MRHJr, that you could fix this by putting in a Hijack button mapping.

The proper solution to this would be to adjust acceleration in the volume knob. The faster it's turned, the faster the volume goes up. The slower it's turned, the more granularity you have. As long as I can adjust the volume with the same precision I have now, anything is fine.

One of the unexpected benefits of the empeg was how precisely I could change the volume. On other stereos, I often found that the proper volume was in between two clicks, and I've never had that problem with the empeg.

BOTH of my MK2a's have had the first issues (reducing volume, or not moving much) since they were new. I figured this was just an artifact of the control.

On another note, my backup empeg has kept correct time (only adding one minute) for a MONTH!

Speaking of time, both of my empegs keep the correct time as long as I don't use them in the car, figure that one out.

Speaking of time, both of my empegs keep the correct time as long as I don't use them in the car, figure that one out.

This wouldn't happen to be your car, would it?

The proper solution to this would be to adjust acceleration in the volume knob. The faster it's turned, the faster the volume goes up

I think that is how it works now.

tanstaafl.

Hey, thats pretty good I love those cars. Lets not forget about Christian's

I can't say for sure, it was either between beta 7 to 11 or 11 to 13.
There was a patch made by the empeg boys to handle flaky volume control. It was this patch I believe made it into b11, but was changed back in b13.
My history: problems before patch, no problems after patch, problems again after change in beta 13. Of couse I could be talking out my rear.

I am having problems with this too. I am running 2.0 Final and the latest hijack. Any ideas on a way to correct this? I am tired of turning the volume "down" and having the empeg BLAST it way up.
Thanks,

I've had this problem for a long time too... and the only real solution is to replace the rotary controller. Apparently Support has a few dozen replacements, but i haven't recieved a response for weeks. There's a discussion of the part number in this thread, but no difinitive answer has been given as to the part number... just the manufacturer.

I'm also looking for a replacement. In fact maybe two to be safe. Have also mailed support.

Interesting ....

For all the glories of the empeg user interface, for me the volume control is one of the unsung heroes.

I can jump 50+ dB just by the briefest-single-gesture spin of the dial. Rarely do I have to make any fine adjustments beyond that to get the volume just-so. Being in a RH drive car may help though

Shame the tuner volume control is not so intuitive

I received a reply to my support email from Rob. He has spares but asked for money via Paypal. Paypal doesn't work from my country. Anyone know of alternatives?

I thought anyone could pay via PayPal using a credit card?

Rob

No, it is restricted to certain countries only.. or rather to credit cards issued by financial institutes in certain countries only.

International postal money order, perhaps

If you don't mind my asking, how much are we talking about? $10? $100? $1,000? It might be far easier just to arrange for some kind of trade with someone who has a paypal account they can send from.

Thanks. I will ask Rob S. when he replies to my last mail.

I think they're $10 each and I'd like to try get two.

I think they're $10 each and I'd like to try get two.

<AOL mode> Me too! </AOL mode>

I definately need at least one. I'm sick of trying to turn something down and getting blasted out of the seat.

Count me in as well... mine is acting simply freakish..

I'm wondering if additional software corrections could compensate for the problems some of us are having with the volume knob.

Mine usually behaves itself just fine, except when I'm trying to turn it very slowly and carefully exactly one click louder. Then, a tiny bit of noise from the contact, and the player shoots from -20db all the way up to 0db in an instant. That can't be right, we should be able to debounce that in software.

Anyone?

My only problem is that sometimes the physical clicks become disconnected from the logical clicks. The most common occurance of this is when I'm trying to go one click up slowly and nothing happens, so I move it another click and two occur at once, and the speed with which those two happen often throws it into acceleration mode, and the logical change will be well more than one. This happens most often in the menus and not in volume, but that's probably just because I'm attempting to be precise in the menus more often.