Trying both IE6, and Flashget download manager I got around 30KB/Sec on my 1MBit SDSL line. Not too bad I think.

TommyE

One comment; you're taking power from the 5v *analogue* supply. This is there to supply the analogue side of various chips and is not intended to drive digital circuitry - you may be inducing some noise into the analogue outputs from your digital board (though it will probably only be slight).

I suggest the other 5v jumpers (dual jumper pair) near the PSU inductors, which is the digital 5v supply.

Hugo

Thanks! 30 KB/sec? Yeah that's not too bad, although our line is capable of more than that by quite a bit.

Stu

Thanks for the suggestion. I wondered about that. I wish they were labeled as such on the board. I've been using my Empeg for over a month now with the board inside, and haven't heard ANY noise on the analog outputs of Empeg, so whatever it is adding must be slight. Connecting to the analog CD inputs on my home stereo and turning the volume up all the way while the player is paused, I don't hear any digital noise. The analog outputs work as well as they ever did. Regardless, I will try to relocate the power source. They use a different size jumper than the analog supply jumper, so I will have to resolder a different jumper to the supply wire.

Stu

Does the Empeg have a separate digital ground I should be using?

Thanks,

Stu

The ground on the I2S pins is the digital ground. The analogue groundplane can be seen if you hold the main board up to the light - basically, from the DSP to half-way through the 4231 to the leftmost 10-way internal connector (for the docking sled) is analogue territory. Any GND you get from there is analogue ground.

Both are linked (obviously) but the idea is that it's fairly self-contained, ie no high-current digital loads draw from that plane which keeps it quiet.

Hugo

Well, the final production PCBs are in. I managed to assemble one tonight. It looks rather nice I think. It worked on the first try . Anyway, I will be contacting the people in our database to take official orders. Here is what they look like.



Stu

Well, the final production PCBs are in. I managed to assemble one tonight.

Well, I am definitely going to get a coax-only for home use. I read your manual. Looks great. I have, like, two questions/thoughts....

The board is attached with double-sided tape. I wonder how this will fare over several years in the oft-warm Empeg environment? It looks like there could be room to add 2 small (homebrew?) nylon retaining clips to hold the edges of the board. Thoughts?

The idea of using the "Mic" line as-is to route the coax output sounds appealing. Reduce the Dremel factor. Any issue with the distance that signal travels over an unshielded pair to make the connection to the Mic output? How long before the 0s turn square and the 1s get short?

Soldering wimp that I am, I will probably take this to a local electronics shop for the attachment of the interface cable...

In reply to:

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The board is attached with double-sided tape. I wonder how this will fare over several years in the oft-warm Empeg environment? It looks like there could be room to add 2 small (homebrew?) nylon retaining clips to hold the edges of the board. Thoughts?

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I think the tape should hold up. We have had some double sided tape in place outdoors for 7 years in the hot, humid New Orleans weather and it is still holding just fine. There may be room for clips, but I don't know where they would be secured to the Empeg. Anyone purchasing the boards is welcome to install anyway they want. The manual only showcases how we do it.

As for the signal routing, we run a 6 inch unshielded pair to the RCA jack. It works fine and drives a 12 foot (shielded) digital cable very well. My guess is that it will take more like 7-8 inches to reach the connector in the opposite corner, but I don't anticipate this being a problem. Due to the extremely cramped quarters in the back of the Empeg, there really is no choice but to use unshielded cabling.

For those of you waiting, we appologize for the extended wait. We are assembling them now. At roughly 45 minutes each, it will be a while.

Stu

Even minature coax like RG174? That's quite small but it is a pain to solder properly.

- Trevor

Aside from RG174 being 50 ohms, it is fundamentally impossible to supply an installable RCA harness with shielded cable of any kind. The two conductors would prevent the two halves, center and shell, from separating as is necessary to get the connector installed in the back of the Empeg. By using two entirely separate conductors, it is easy to disassemble the harness. With an RG174 based harness, one would first have half of to unsolder the cable from the RCA jack or would have to receive an unassembled assembly from the start. I suspect either avenue would displease a few folks.

Stu

For any in doubt, here is a pic of the first batch of boards during testing. Four of these are no longer for sale.

Stu

Erm. RG176 then
I see your point about it being a pain to assemble though. It's such a short length anyway that using unshielded cable isn't going to matter very much if at all. Just ignore my ramblings

- Trevor

I plan to buy a module, but I am only really interested in the optical output. I plan to use the optical connection both in my car and in my home. Therefore, I would like to have the connection dockable.

I have never used Toslink cables before; does anyone think that it could be reliably docked like people have done with their Ethernet cables?

I wouldn't mind giving up some connections on the docking port in order to route the wires to the optical connector through the docking port. Could I run wires from the output board to the docking connector and then attach some short wires to the port on the docking sled and connect them to the optical transmitter? That way, I could just buy an extra transmitter and attach one to the car sled and one to the home sled, and I wouldn't have to disconnect/reconnect the optical cables. Is this feasible?

So, as I understand your post, you would like to run the TTL signals coming from the IC chip on the digital out board through the docking connectors on the back of the Empeg and sled. Novel approach! It even sounds like it would work. The current design has these three signals feeding into the optical module- digital ground, +5 volts, and signal. So,it would require that you give up three signal paths on the docking connector. Since the mic in line is unused, you would only need to snag one more line from somewhere else.

The other approach, docking ala ethernet, should also work. If you get the alignment right on your sled, there shouldn't be any problem. Dust is unlikely to be a problem. The current modules have a shutter, that should wipe off dust as the connector is inserted. I think that you would need to remove the locking tabs on your cable so that the Empeg could be easily removed from the sled following insertion. See my other thoughts here.

Stu

Since the mic in line is unused, you would only need to snag one more line from somewhere else.

Couldn't the serial connector on the wire loom be removed for this purpose? Wouldn't that provide enough free pins ?
I wouldn't want to give up the mic connector. Who knows, someday VR might become a possibility still (I'm still hoping), and I would hate it if I lost that possibility then just because I disconnected the mic connector at one time.
The serial connector however, from that one I'm SURE I'll never use it in the car anyway.

Or, if using the serial cable pins and MIC pins are not an option - I remember someone on this board was taking orders for additional sled plugs. It might be overkill - but you could install a 2nd sled connector in the empeg, and modify the plug in the sled.

I wonder if you can get smaller plugs that work in the same manner as the existing sled plug, but have less pins.

I too was thinking of sacrificing the 2 mic pins for my digital out in the car.

So what amplifiers for the car are available with TOSLINK or otherwise digital inputs?

Greg

I was looking at the Alpine PXA-H510 - it is a processor that accepts optical inputs. It produces the analog signal which is carried a very short distance to the amp.

This processor is best suited for dvd/video installations, and since I had no future plans for putting a screen/DVD in my car, I decided against it.

I've not ever seen or looked for an amp that will do the D/A conversion but there are tons of processors that you can get that do.

I still want the sound card though - my receiver at home accepts both coax and optical digital inputs - and I plan to build a home component sled for my empeg at some point.

EDIT: I meant to refer to my home install rather than my car in my previous post... oh well...

I read earlier in this thread that installing the optical connector inside the empeg prevents the installation of a second hard drive. Is this still the case with the final version of the design?

If so, I will plan to route the signal through the docking port.

and I would hate it if I lost that possibility then just because I disconnected the mic connector at one time.
The serial connector however, from that one I'm SURE I'll never use it in the car anyway.

But you'd have to reterminate those serial wires inside the Empeg as well, wouldn't you? ....If that were the case then you wouldn't have serial capability *anywhere*, true? Or are you saying you would steal some of the wires that share the serial connector?

I debated this myself. Ultimately I decided that VR and the uncertain prospect thereof wasn't important enough to me, so I will use those two wires for coax digital.

No, I was actually talking about removing the serial connector alltogether. But if a serial connector doesn't use all it's pins and it would be possible to use two free pins of that one, I would consider that an option too.
As you may have noticed I don't know anything about electronics. So what I'm suggesting might not be feasible at all.

But I don't see why removing the pins from the docking connector would require me to terminate them ? If the player is in "home mode" and a serial cable is connected to the player, then those pins in the docking connector are also not terminated (I think), and it still works. Or am I completely wrong here?

But I don't see why removing the pins from the docking connector would require me to terminate them ? If the player is in "home mode" and a serial cable is connected to the player, then those pins in the docking connector are also not terminated (I think), and it still works. Or am I completely wrong here?

Fear not, for I perceive that it is I, Jim, who is suffering from the dreaded brain fart!

Yes, no reason why you couldn't preserve the serial connection on the back of the unit. I was just in a mental muddle.

I thought about subverting the serial connector pins for digital output but then decided for some reason that I still want permanent serial connector on home docking station and a connector for GPS whil in car...

In reply to:

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I read earlier in this thread that installing the optical connector inside the empeg prevents the installation of a second hard drive. Is this still the case with the final version of the design?

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No that was only a problem with trying to fit a PCB mount optical module in there. The panel mount version leaves plenty of room.

Stu

Anyone interested in a mobile DAC? I am considering making one. I have an idea of what I want to do with it. It would be very high quality with jitter reduction circuitry, upsampling, and oversampling and would be 24 bit 192 kHz internally and 24 bit 96 kHz externally. It would also have optical, coaxial, and possibly I2S inputs and a 4/8 volt output. This is a ways off, but after I finish up on the sub out board, I will be pursuing this for my own use if nothing else.

I'd be interested. How much do you think it would cost? At some point hopefully I will find a job to pay for it :-D

Calvin

Count me in on the DAC

Is this something that I should change on my my MK2 that I bought about a year and a half ago??

" The stereo separation problem was due to a 100 ohm being stuffed in the car output circuit instead of 0 ohm - again, this was fixed on the production line & any units that came back to us had it done as a FCO. "

Is there a public posting of service updates that may be needed on older units. I had to install the cap so that my dimmer will work correctly...

I'd be curious to know this one as well. Perhaps something for David to make another video of.

I have installed this module in my player and it works great, I don't see any problems with a second hard drive...

I just have one comment for people who are doing this themselves (it is realllllllllly worth paying to have it done). If you think this is a "soldering project", think again. It takes about 7 minutes to actually solder the wiring inside your player. It takes about 2 and a half hours to cut the case and install the connectors (My dad helped me and he does this kind of thing for a living).

I see that eutronix is offering installation of the product for $99.99 or $124.99. If you don't have a dremel tool and a square file, or don't have patience, make sure you let them install it.

I think it is a great product and I love it, but if you are not capable of drilling and filing and cleaning out your housing once you have drilled and filed it ( i used a painbrush and an air comperssor), DONT INSTALL THIS YOURSELF. It is hard to do.