None of my friends even vaguely like the footie (although some of their wives do!) - I need a sail or engine to keep me interested.

Two upsides of the World Cup - the parking in town was great whenever a match was on, and meetings were very short so folk could rush off and watch a game:-)

Luckily I'm scottish so we have no need to support a team anyway

Luckily I'm scottish so we have no need to support a team anyway

The token Pict at Empeg solved this problem by the simple measure of supporting whoever was playing England...

Peter

That option does always amuse - some of my clients are fervently nationalistic and actually buy Brazil/Germany/whoever is playing England tops.

I always enjoy going to the pub during rugby matches - the Scots go to get drunk. If we lose, we party with the winners. If we win, we're astonished and get horribly drunk partying with the losers.

All pretty sociable really, but not so good for our livers.

i'm kinda confused by this thread. are they are the tuners available?

Not yet.

Edit: Well, the original tuners were available, but have sold out, and if you can find one ``used'', it's likely to be outrageously priced. The ones in this thread are 3rd-party/hobbyist* tuners and are not yet available.

* Albeit a hobbyist who has more than the average amount of insider knowledge.

Is there a webpage or a list somewhere I can sign up on to be in the first 100 order?

I'm happy to pre-pay.

....or even the first 500!

Is there a webpage or a list somewhere I can sign up on to be in the first 100 order?

Not yet. Keep an eye on this thread - you're sure to read about a signup page (or whatever) here first.

Ah rugby, now there's a game

Hi.

Still waiting for parts, I'm afraid. Coming soon, watch this space!

In the meantime. I believe I may not have posted any pictures of the built tuner prototype. So, here's one.

Pca

And here's another.

pca

Wow. Is it just the photo angle, or did that turn out to be almost exactly the same size as the original tuner module?

Very, very close. The original is 82mm x 82mm x 35mm, and my one is 82mm x 80mm x 55mm.

pca

Wow.

I mean, just.... Wow.

And Tony, if you'd been in Amersfoort you could have seen it in real life! and if you were really really lucky you might have even been able to touch it!

Actually not *all* the bits were soldered in by then, but most were. Patrick has done well, especially considering they went and made the tuner module itself bigger - it's a good bit bigger than the one in the SonicBlue tuners.

...and I hope it wont be that big so it would not fit into my car ;-)
Well I think pca didn't make it higher than the empeg itself - otherwise you would have a problem putting it through your car-stereo-hole...

can't wait to order the parts - my iron is hot already :-)

I'm sooooooo excited!

Oh, dear. We have to solder all those little itty-bitty parts? Spending $600 for a tuner an ebay is starting to look like a good option now...

Send me a kit and $200, and I'll put it together for you

I don't think you have a strong grasp on the concept of itty-bitty. Check out Brian's Lighted Buttons' resistor pack.

Yeah, I read those threads, and some of the links that were posted. I've seen the guts of plenty of clock radios, so I'm quite well aware that this is Brobdingnagian in comparison... but still... my fingers have a hard enough time poking wires into a breadboard.

Lovely offer, but I think I'll ask around the engineers at work. They have to repair all the video gear and stuff. If they just send it out of house to do that, you may find yourself $200 richer...

BUMP DAMN IT!!!

I'm looking for one for my 325i. Since I'm pretty sure I'm not going to put the empeg in my '7 I now need a tuner. (only 1 Din.)

i dont know if you or others mite be serious about this offer - i will be buying a tuner but i have no way to put it together myself. as it is i will have to hunt around for places here in NZ willing to perform the button hack for me. but i dont want to go thru that for this tuner as well - so would anyone be willing to help me assemble a kit for a small fee...? as in, i'd buy the unit, send it to u, then u assemble, and send to me.

or something?

my soldering iron tip is the size of my toe.

We can assemble it for you. If you don't mind sending the kit all the way to the US. We are well geared to assemble those kits because of our little business building the digital out boards for the Empeg.

Stu

I was joking at the time. But I am thinking about offering such a service anyway. I think that $200 is probably overkill though. Patrick has gone to the effort and expense of creating such a kit for the good of the community, at great financial risk to himself, and the last thing that I want to do is profit from his efforts..That being said, if I can find a way to earn the cost of a couple of kits by assembling a few for other people, then it'll keep my wife happy. At this stage, I can't really set a realistic figure though, as I don't know how long it's going to take me to assemble each kit...My guess is that if they were to take ~2 hours, then $100 would be fair - and in line with what Mark does the button LED hack for.

Patrick - Do you have a guesstimate of assembly time? Are you okay with this?

This doesn't look as tough as the lighted knob hack, can anyone say whether this will require "extra-ordinary" soldering capabilities. I have assembled kits and done pcb stuff, does this have SMC stuff??

No, it isn't as (dextrously) tough as the LED hack. Patrick decided early on to create a though-hole kit, and not to use SMC, so as to make it possible for the hobbyist (as opposed to the professional/fanaticist )...so it sounds like you should be ok. I still wouldn't recommend it as a first kit for the complete novice though (practice your skills on something cheaper and easier!).

Um, I think some SMC stuff did manage to sneak in there, but nothing really really really small. You'll have to check with PCA on the details though

Do you have a guesstimate of assembly time?

What, for me? Or mere humans?

The prototype took about three hours to build, but I was doing it in stages and testing as I went. Also, it was with a portasol butane soldering iron, since my main solder station was on a ferry to Holland, and that was all I had in my pocket toolkit.

I would think that with experience of both soldering and building this particular kit, a compentent solderist could put one together in about 45 minutes or so.

I don't have any real problem with people making money off other people to build the kits, as long as it's a reasonable charge. It would seem a little unfair to charge as much as the kit for building it, for instance. A friend of mine in the UK has offered to put them together for people also in the UK, and I have had similar offers from various people around the world.

It should be possible to set things up so that a kit is sold to person A, sent to person B who assembles it, then forwards it to person A and charges them for the build. That would seem to be the most efficient method.

pca