I've noticed that sometimes when I turn my car on the empeg's screen is a bit dim, so I turn the car off again and it's okay, but a little battery sign comes on.

Should I be worrie if this happens every once and a while? Will this damage my player?

DiGNAN

I haven't noticed that the screen is dim on mine. The battery light I have seen when I turn the ignition on and off before the empeg has had a chance to shut down. I think the battery light is normal.

Sean

Empeg 12 gig green 080000078

I had the same thing one mine. (Battery sign comming up.)
Checked the battery fluid, it was low. Topped it, and charged the
battery. It went away.

TommyE

I get the battery sign every time after I start the car. More specifically: when I start the engine, the empeg stops playing and the display goes blank. Then the display comes back on with the battery sign up, still silent. Then it starts playing. A few seconds later the battery sign disappears.

I too would like to know if this is normal.

Thanks,
Borislav

That sounds very normal. Although I didn't find anything about the battery sign in the manual, I guess it's fair to assume that it was designed to come up whenever the input voltage drops below a certain threshold. :-) And that's exactly what happens: when you start the engine, the starter motor draws a huge current (up to 100 A on my Diesel) which makes the battery voltage drop by some volts. I see the exactly same behaviour in my car as you in yours.

In most cars that I know of, though, the ACC line (to which the empeg is connected in most cases) is wired so that it goes to 0V when you start the engine (to relief the battery from the additional load of all the accessories), so that the empeg just goes off and comes back on again, without showing the battery sign. That's why most empeg users never see it, I guess. Our cars seem to be wired differently. Mine at least is - it's ignition switch doesn't have an ACC position...

Daniel


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

In most cars that I know of, though, the ACC line (to which the empeg is connected in most cases) is wired so that it goes to 0V when you start the engine (to relief the battery from the additional load of all the accessories), so that the empeg just goes off and comes back on again, without showing the battery sign. That's why most empeg users never see it, I guess. Our cars seem to be wired differently. Mine at least is - it's ignition switch doesn't have an ACC position...

Good point, sounds reasonable. My car is a 1990 Volvo, so I can imagine it's missing some of the latest tweaks that may be standard with current cars.

Thanks,
Borislav

I've got a 2000 volvo and I am experiencing the same symptoms. I also had the shutdown power-off thump ( still waiting for a voltage regulator... )
In my case the acc-line goes down, the empeg's display switches off and comes back with the battery icon displayed. It will go away after 3 seconds or so...


Frank van Gestel

I remember reading another post somewhere that Rob stated this was completly normal -- that if the empeg was playing without having the engine on (as from the acc lead), and then you go to start the car the empeg will blank out, then come back on with the battery signal.

The battery signal was just an idication that a low-level of voltage was detected on the power line, and was a signal to the owner that it is possible the battery could be drained or about drained, that there was a problem with the alternator in supplying voltage, or something amiss with the electrical wiring in the car.

(man I wish I could find that post..... dOH!)

--verteggio

Whaddya know, the empeg even functions as another instrument gauge free of charge!

--verteggio

That's what I was thinking! Cool

So the bottom line is, this low-voltage is not something that will hurt the empeg, and the only time I should be worried when the symbol comes up is while driving or something, and only then I only have to worry about the battery, not the empeg.

DiGNAN

So the bottom line is, this low-voltage is not something that will hurt the empeg

Actually, if the empeg gets too many of those low-voltage messages in a row, it'll drop back to a sort of "installation defaults" state and forget all of your sound presets.

___________
Tony Fabris