My Empeg rebooted last night when I flashed my high beams at a slower moving car. It only happened twice since installing it in September. Any suggestions on how to prevent this from happening? Capacitor on the 12VDC line to the Empeg? What would be a good capacitance?

I do have a very demanding amplifier which can draw up to 140 amps. Plus it was night so between the Xenon HIDs and the heater running (36 Degrees in NYC) there was a significant demand on the car's electrical system.

It takes a big voltage drop to cause a reboot - down to about 10V I would expect a power warning symbol, screen blank, then resume without reboot. I think you would be dropping under 8V to get an instant reboot - or, perhaps, the problem is actually a spike caused by the main beam relay.

If your amp is really drawing up to 140A you should definitely have a big cap on there - 1F or so. A small cap on the 12V line might solve your reboot problem, but I would investigate the cause of the problem before doing that.

Rob

Yup... The amplifier has a 1.5 farad cap hooked up to it. The amplifier is a McIntosh MC4000M (1000 watts total across 6 channels). The spec sheet says it draws 7.5 at idle, 140 at the rated power. It is a lot of juice but even when the volume is turned up (which I rarely do), the charge LEDs on the cap never drop below the 2/3rd mark.

I was thinking it may be a voltage drop because Valentine One radar dectector owners who hardwire their detectors into E36 BMWs (previous generation 3 series) run into the same issue - flash of the high beams causes the detectors to power cycle. In fact, V1 will install a cap into the detector for E36 owners for free. They always claimed it to be a voltage drop.

Hmm... I'll have to hook up a multimeter and get some readings. Don't think my Fluke DMM will catch it though. I'll have to get an analog MM and some warm weather! Hopefully it won't happen very often until then. So far it only happened twice in 4 months. Thanks for the tip on the voltages...

Two suggestions:

1) Can the wattage a little... We don't need to hear the system from 10 blocks away.

2) Stop being a nuisance on the road and let people drive how they will drive. Flashing high beams doesn't help.

Think someone is trying to give you a hint

And to think that I was getting ready to congratulate him on the proper use of his high beams. Too many people around here drive slow in the fast lane.

Three suggestions:

1) Don't ASSume that I crank up the music just because there is a 1000 watt amplifier in my trunk. I may turn it up a little on the highway but never in residential neighborhoods. I strive for quality and not SPL levels. My home theater system has 1800 watts of power. Should I throw it all out because YOU think it's too much?

2) Don't drive in the left lane if you're not going to pass. I don't and I always yield to faster traffic if someone comes up behind me. I expect the same courtesy to be extended to me.

3) If you don't have any anything constructive to say, don't say it at all.

Think someone is trying to give you a hint?

Ahhhhh, don't get sucked into disgruntled circular arguments. Waste of time. In many places its the law for slower traffic to yield to the right. If they choose to go 14 mph in the left lane, *sigh*, what can I say??

Anyhow, how's the M3 running? What year is it? Got any pics?
--Andrew

I hate people that won't get out of the left lane. In Texas, where I live, they have a mentality that if I paid taxes for the left lane then I will stay in the left lane. Most people in America know knowing about precision driving. If people would drive with some pride in their skills there would be much less traffic and accidents. Just my 2 cents.

Steve

Agreed. I noticed that about Texas. I bought my car from a friend in Houston and drove it back to SF. Man, I had a hell of a time fighting traffic while driving out of Houston. Traffic jam almost as far as El Paso!! Well, not quite but almost. :-)))

I guess that's why my friend gets his frustrations out at TWS on weekends.
--Andrew

Keep in mind that Sean's 1000W amp is only going to be 3db louder than a 500W amp and 6db louder than a 250W amp. He may also be using high end component speakers which sound great, but have a lower SPL and need the extra power. Don't assume that high wattage = earthquake force sound.

Now to get back on track of Sean's original post; good greif -140A!!! . I am assuming that is peak power and since these are McIntosh amps they have clipping protection that shuts them down momentarly if they exceed their rated power. As someone who's done multiple amp systems for the past 15 years, I'd first check your alternator's specs and find out what continous current it is capable of supplying. I've had to upgrade to higher current alternators in the past. Rob is correct about the high current capacitors and that would be my next suggestion. It sounds like your cap is working fine, but it may be robbing your other devices of current. Go to an empty grocery store parking lot with your fluke DVM and monitor the voltage to the empeg unit. Most Fluke DVMs have a analog LCD meter below the digital readout that is updated more frequently than the digit display and simulates an analog meter just fine. While the engine is idling, turn on your high beam lights, wipers, rear window defroster, seat heaters (if you have them) and vent fans on high. Add anything else that you can think of that will exercise your alternator. Next put on some Drum&Bass, Trip Hop, or 1812 Overture with the cannons or anything else that will exercise your subs. See if you can duplicate the problem while parked and see what the voltage drops to. This should give you an idea of whether you simply need to add a cap to the empeg power line or do an alternator upgrade.

Let us know how it worked out for you.
Cheers!
Dave

If the player reboots when you flash the high beams, I would suspect some kind of a wiring fault or a problem with the voltage level in your car. Alternator, battery, voltage regulator, amps drawing too much current, wiring too thin for the juice that's on the wire, that sort of thing.

Also make sure your player has the correct power going to the correct wires (constant 12v to yellow, switched 12v to orange, no blown fuses, etc.).

Regarding the left-lane blockers: Hear, hear.

I have just spent the last 10 minutes lying on the floor roaring with laughter. I am still wiping the tears away as I type, so excuse the smeary typing.

I think the best solution is a compact thermo-nuclear reactor which should keep the voltage up when you draw over 250A simultaneously from your charge system. Make sure you use enough lead shielding: Crutchfield do a range of economy stick on shield packs, and they throw in a film-based exposure badge for free with each pack You will need to remember to change the film every 24 hours and keep an eye on your daily microRAD count.

Alternatively, a Mr. Fusion compact reactor unit with a flux capacitor may suffice - it does give you the added benefit of time travel as well, but they've been having QA problems recently so make sure you get the extended warranty and don't travel (back) too far.

Alternatively you can shoe horn in a Dinan supercharger (www.dinan.com) under the hood, and you're set. Time travel guaranteed. Same end result w/o the nuclear waste disposal problem. :-)))

Dinan + Empeg = match made in heaven

--Andrew

This is why I absolutly hated driving in TX. I saw so many people passing on the right, it was insane.

And of course so many people from TX are moving here, and bringing their driving style with them. Thank god I-25 between here and Denver is going to be 3 lanes. Then they at least stay in the middle lane.

Methinks you meant http://www.dinanbmw.com/

The other one seems to be an insurance company.

yup, thanks for the correction.
--Andrew

About driving slow in a fast lane: technically, here in Croatia on open highway all lanes except the rightmost one are meant for overtaking (and so, theoretically, one could be fined for driving in left lane if not faster than those in the right one, or if the right lane is empty). One is certainly expected to move to the right if a faster car is seen in the rearview mirror. Overtaking from the right is strictly forbidden. OTOH, in the city all lanes of a multilane street are treated equally.

I think that using a high beam on left lane hoggers is legitimate and should not be punished by rebooting one's empeg

In reply to:

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Anyhow, how's the M3 running? What year is it? Got any pics?

---

She's running fine, although snowed in . I have a Boston Green 97 M3 Sedan. Dinan Stage 2 suspension, X-Brace, strut bars, Euro Ellipsoid headlamps with Xenon HIDs, euro clear corners/sidemarkers, electrochromatic rearview mirror and euro wiper control. I think that's it... Oh and a set of Fikse FM/5 wheels for the summer! No pics on the web but I think I have some saved somewhere... Gotta look for them.

In California you can overtake on the right if there is no other choice.

Calvin

Overtaking from the right is strictly forbidden.

As it should be. But what happens when you've got some idiot driving 5(units)ph slower than the limit in the left lane and you're actually overtaking him in the right lane? I've spent hours commuting observing and thinking about this problem. Your rule would seem to indicate that you should pull into the left lane behind him, slowing down to do so, and start flashing your lights and honking until he pulls his head out of his ass and moves to the right. In a perfect world, this wouldn't need to happen, but I, for one, don't live in a perfect world. I live in one that contains a load of idiots with their heads up their asses.

I used to do what I just described, as it is really the logically best thing to do, as it will occasionally happen that someone is passing and just goes absent-minded for a second and forget to move back to the right lane when he's done. But in 99% of the cases where I've done that, the idiot just gets mad, not realizing that he's the one causing a disturbance or that making me pass him on the right is dangerous.

This all probably has to do with the remarkably lax requirements for getting a driver's license here in the US. My written test had more questions about what would happen if I used a fake license to buy alcohol than about driving. Oh, well. Enough rant.

slowing down to do so, and start flashing your lights and honking until he pulls his head out of his ass and moves to the right.

In this country it's just as likely that instead of pulling his head out of his ass he'll pull his gun out of his glove compartment.

Don't antagonize them. Just quietly wait your chance and then go around on the right. It's safer.

tanstaafl.