I just received the 20G Rio Car I ordered when the price plumetted, dumped some songs into it quickly and plugged it into the car dock that's been there for about a year and a half from when I got my Mk2 Empeg. It does absolutely nothing - no startup screen, no noise, not even the little blinky LED in the corner. The Empeg, however, still works fine if I plug it in. Both units work fine when plugged into the AC adapter.

What kind of wiring problem would cause this symptom where the original Mk2 ermpeg works in the car but the new Rio Car does not? (And just as important, if I get the Rio Car working, does that mean the Empeg will stop working?)

If it makes any difference, the Empeg is one of the very first Mk2's off the line, serial number 080000083, complete with slippy version of the volume knob (although I don't have problems with it) and startup "thump" noise.

The sleds are supposed to be compatible between the Rio Car and the Mark 2. So if you're wondering whether the pinouts were changed, no, they shouldn't be.

The next step is to be sure, by temporarily connecting the new Rio's ignition and constant power sled wires to a 12v power source and seeing if the player boots that way. If not, then it's got something wrong internally that needs to be repaired.

Heap big wierdness i got a Mk2a and a mk2 and they swap over no probs all i could think of is some internal fault.

Unless you wiring in the car has no permant 12v and only has a switched 12v i think the mk2 will run off the switched 12v only where as the Mk2a won't run unless the permant 12v and switched 12 v are present on start up.

To test this stick the mk2 in the car start it up and once it is booted shut off the car and then you should get the blinky led and then if you hit the top button should start it up again with the keys out the ignition. If it dies with no flashing led that might be your prob or you have set your standby time from emplode real short like 1 or 2 seconds.

next step is get in the car with a meter and check out your wiring. you should have one permatly live (red i think) and one switched with the ignition (yellow i think)

if all of above is as expect shout on support from empeg folk.

Check the fuse in the yellow wire. An empeg-car will work from the current on the orange (ignition) wire, the rio-car won't.

Hugo

Hey, now that's interesting!

Thanks to everyone's suggestions, and against my better judgement, I crawled behind the dahsboard and found that a yellow wire was connected to a red wire, and a red wire was connected to a yellow wire. So I cut both wires, and reconnected them so that red went to red and yellow went to yellow. Now the Empeg comes on and stays on all the time, and when I start the ignition, a little "battery" icon appears in the top left corner, and the Rio Car still doesn't come on. I'm going to try to get to the fuse next and see what that looks like.

I'm really regretting where I took the thing to get installed now.

The fuse had blown, so I replaced it.

Now the empeg comes on and stays on permanently, as in it never goes off. The Rio Car now starts up, but as soon as it boots up, it powers off.

This is a '92 Tercel I'm trying to get everything working in. (Yeah, my stereo is worth more than the car. At the time I was looking at new cars when I had money, then the market went south, etc.)

Try putting the wires back the way they were maybe? Dunno. It sounds like some kind of a wiring problem. Do you know how to check and make sure the wires are all connected properly?

Unfortunately, I don't have any way of telling which wire is actually which. The installation place put an adapter on the car wiring connectior, so I have to assume that the red and yellow wires coming off of that are correctly colored. I don't have a meter to check power coming off of either one of them. I'm really hoping that the symptoms are enough for someone to say, "This is the problem." :P

I suspect that the wires may have been round the right way before, but the fuse was blown. Tried swapping them back?

The yellow wire, with fuse, should be permanently 12v. The orange wire should be 12v only when the ignition is on.

Hugo

I did a google search and found www.installdr.com with wiring diagrams for all sorts of cars, including mine. Indeed the correct wires are plugged into the correct places now. Ignition is going to ignition, battery is going to battery, ground is going to ground (the only wires that my car has) and the fuse is good after having been replaced.

The Empeg comes on and stays on permanently, the Rio Car comes on and when it finishes booting up, powers itself off. The amp also apparently stays on permanently, as I can hear my Empeg with the keys out of the ignition.

Obviously the best solution is to just buy a new car.

The amp should go on & off with the screen of the empeg (screen off, amp off).

If it doesn't then the wiring of the blue wire (amp remote) is bad; it may be *very* bad, which could account for the blown fuse and some strangeness. The blue wire from the empeg should only go to the "remote" terminal on the amp - nothing else.

Hugo

I swapped the wires back to the way they were originally, and now the Empeg goes off when the key is taken out, but the Rio Car still boots up and then immediately powers itself off.

I *really* wish I had a meter.

Your mention of the blue wire from the empeg set off bells since I didn't see a blue wire back there.

It looks like the jerks who did the install didn't use the supplied adapter, and used their own, which doesn't *have* a blue wire. In fact, the red and yellow wires are also swapped around when compared to the docking connector. So I need to pull that funky connector off and use the one that came with my new Rio Car and re-wire it, this time with the yellow and red wires being actually the yellow and red wires, and then also connect up the blue "amp remote" wire.

But that still doesn't affect that the Rio Car comes on and then turns itself off when I have the battery/ignition wires in the appropriate places, even if they're backwards on the connector that's in there now.

These guys really f**ked up my car...

Hugo, that last comment of yours seemed to have tipped the scales in my favor.

I pulled off the bogus adapter they put on there and plugged the one supplied with the Rio and connected up the appropriate wires (ground, ignition, battery and amp-remote) and now both the Empeg and Rio Car are working as intended.

I'm really kind of shocked now because my Empeg has apparently NEVER worked properly, as far as power goes, so it's nice to see it power on when its supposed to and go off when its supposed to and more than anything else, with the amp plugged in as its supposed to, I no longer get that annoying "POP" when I plug the empeg in with the car running, or when the Empeg boots up if its plugged in when the car is turned on!

So you can't see me, but right now I'm doing the Happy Dance that it's all working correctly finally!

Congrat's on solving this one!

I'd have a word (or two ) with the people that did that installation...

/Michael

I'd *love* to have a "word" or two with the people who did that installation, but if I had the kinds of words I'd like (i.e. "with the flat side of a cricket bat") I think I'd probably get into some trouble.

I think I'll just let it off and give Hugo the credit for preventing premeditated homicide.

Wouldn't the thin side be more efficient? More energy/surface area... Oh well, probably a moot point if you have a decent swing

/Michael