The front panel buttons on my lucite-box prototype Jupiter unit haven't been working for a long time now. I've done all I can in terms of fiddling with the ribbon cables and circuit boards, and I'm at the point where pretty much the only way to repair it would be to replace the circuit boards. But the Cambridge folks have basically told me I'm SOL since the final production button boards are different from the prototypes.

Honestly, I can live with the current situation (using the remote only) except for the fact that there's no "Eject" function on the remote, at least not that I can see. At the current time, the only way to get the CD tray open is to tell it to begin recording in multiple CD mode. Only then does it pop the tray.

I even tried drilling a hole in the front so I could get to the eject button that's built into the CD-ROM drive itself (with a paperclip), and even that button doesn't pop the tray.

Usually, even the "multiple CD mode" workaround isn't an issue. It only becomes an issue when I wanna burn a mix CD. In that case I have to do some hoop-jumping to get a blank CD in there (tell it to do multiple-CD record to feed it the blank, and only after that do I go in and tell it to burn a disc). It's starting to get annoying.

Anyway, what I want to know is... Will all my prayers be answerd if I simply bought a USB keyboard? Is there a key function on the keyboard that will eject the CD?

And while I'm here, can anyone recommend a good inexpensive miniature USB keyboard that would nicely compliment the Jupiter on my shelf?

Sorry, Tony....I plugged in my keyboard and tried every possible keypad combination I could think of and nothing would make the tray eject....Like you said, you can use the trick about recording multiple CDs, but nothing flat out makes the tray come out.....I tried for ya.....Sorry....

Randy

Randy, thanks for trying that for me.

Hey, Cambridge gang. Any ideas?

Can't you get a command prompt on the screen somehow with the USB keybaord?

If you can, try typing eject. This little program that comes with every flavor of Linux I've used in the past few years exists only to eject the CD-ROM drive. If it's not installed, maybe there is someway you can get it on there.

Here's a link to a Debian binary of 'eject'.

Mine has a hole that looks like it should be a manual eject but I don't think there is anything behind it. I tried shoving a paper clip in there.

Can't you get a command prompt on the screen somehow with the USB keybaord?

Yeah, ctrl-alt-del.

I suppose that would be one way to do it. It's almost as tricky as telling it to record in multi-CD mode to get it to open the tray, but there are times it would be useful, I agree. Thanks for that information.

One thing I wanted to be able to do was show my wife how to burn Mix CDs, and the lack of an Eject button got in the way. I'm not sure dropping to the shell prompt would impress her too much.

For what it's worth, I dropped to the shell prompt with my USB keyboard and tried the EJECT command. It didn't work and I tried looking around in different directories for the command and couldn't find it....Anyone else have any luck?
Thanks, Randy