Equipment:

1 empeg-car (a 2Gb development unit)
1 remote control
1 Honda Civic 3dr LSi with standard stereo
1 Tandy (Radio Shack) tape adapter
1 Maplin audio input selector
1 cigar lighter cable
1 Rucksack
1 small aubergine

Method:

Facing a three hour(ish) drive home with the prospect of both traffic queues on the M25 and congestion due to the International Air Tattoo I really needed an alternative to the radio and tapes. My development empeg-car contains a certain amount of music for testing and downloading some more gave me around 250 tracks - plenty for the journey.

Unfortunately, I've been spending so much time working on the empeg-car software that I haven't had a chance to fit an amplifier in my car. The standard Honda-provided unit has no line-in capability so somewhat reluctantly I was forced to buy a tape adaptor for £9.99 from Tandy (Radio Shack) and hope for the best. This device looks like a tape but contains a device similar to a tape recording head that is used to mimic the magnetic field of a tape. It has a 3.5mm stereo jack plug for connection to a CD player or similar. Since the empeg-car has phono outputs I made use of the Maplin input selector to convert from phono to 3.5mm socket.

The cigar lighter socket provided power for the unit through a simple cable that was previously used for testing.

To ensure that the display could be seen from the driver's seat and that the IR receiver was pointing in roughly the right direction I sat the empeg-car in the passenger footwell leant up against the centre tunnel - it was then held in place with the rucksack to stop it falling over.[1]

Results:

I wasn't expecting to be impressed by the audio quality. Having heard the Infinity Kappa speakers in Hugo's CRX nothing could get close. However, the quality was rather better than expected - certainly better than playing a tape with the added advantage of not having to find another one after ninety minutes.

The M25 was congested as usual but I wasn't stationary for long enough to get the laptop out and do some hacking on the player software :-)

[1] On the way back I mistakenly omitted the rucksack and the roundabouts round Milton Keynes caused it to fall over.

--
Mike Crowe
I may not be speaking on behalf of empeg above :-)

Hi Mac,
Could you give me the references of your cig. lighter adaptor, I wanna buy one.
Tnx.
David.

If you can't find anything premade, it is quite simple to make your own; just straight wiring from a cig. adapter plug to a properly sized power plug (I think it's 5.5mm OD / 2.1mm ID) Wire it center to center, ring to ring.

/Michael

ok, but voltage? 12v I suppose.
Any other parameters?
2 U know an online store where I can find this stuff?
Tnx.
David.

Yep 12V DC (nominal, whatever you actually get in the lighter socket will probably be fine)

As to online sources for the parts, I have no resources at hand, but it shouldn't be very hard to source these things in any semi-large western city
The cig.adapter plug should be available at any auto parts store, and the plug that fits the empeg in any electronics store that sells parts (like Radio Shack for instance).
Cable - just about any two-conductor somewhere 2x0.75 to 2x2.5 mm2

I'm utterly unfamiliar with the Belgian situation though.

/Michael

ok many thanks Mike.