Hello,

I have a PCAT tuner module. Reception is excellent. I was having problems with RDS not working properly. I discovered that whenever I am able to get the battery icon to come up, RDS works perfectly. For example: Turn the key to accessory, let Empeg boot up, then crank car. The battery icon appears briefly and RDS info comes in fine. RDS will work every single time with this method! If i just start the car up normally, i can get an RDS to show up on the radio (but not all rds channels will show the RDS), won't get any artist/title, can sometimes get station name, and can usually get a clock to show.

I have repeated the above to confirm at least 10 times since last night when I discovered the method. When i first discovered this method, i had set the dimmer to about 40% in the car because it was to bright. When the battery icon came up and everything was working well, it hit me that the dimmer was at 100% again. I have never had the auto light dimmer work on the empeg.

I'm using 2.0 beta 13 and 2.0 final and both with and without hijack. Hijack, I believe, is not an issue in this case. I do not have a power antenna.

Car is a '94 mercury grand marquis that doesn't have any problems i know of. The empeg/amp have always played fine.

Can anyone come up with an explanation for this odd behavior?

Thanks,
woops

First off: I would like to see someone try repeating this with a factory module for comparison.

If I read this right, I reckon this means that something is not getting initialised properly in hardware with a rapid startup. The slow startup gives sufficient time.

Encoded RDS data is streamed to the DSP on the empeg, where it is recovered and decoded into useful info. The data stream itself is picked up by the tuner and passed, unprocessed, to the DSP.

If the empeg is started in AUX, then the motor is started after a delay and this makes RDS apparently work correctly, whereas an instant start screws up RDS, then either the control PIC in the tuner is not being given time to setup the tuner properly due to some race condition, or the DSP in the empeg is at fault due to some timing issue.

In either case, it will take some serious detective work on the hardware to investigate this.

I suspect you are out of luck if you are looking for this to be solved: however, if your start method is repeatable with all PCATS and RIO tuner units, you wil have made some big friends on this board

Instead of the method you have discovered, what happens when you do it this way:

(1) start car normally. RDS fails (right?).
(2) press the SOURCE button on the remote to select MP3 mode.
(3) wait 3 seconds, then press TUNER to get back to the radio.

Any RDS now?

Curious..

Schofiel,

I used your antenna hookup method. Thanks!

woops

Mark,

I followed the sequence and it does not work. However, if i then turn car key from running engine to accessory, it works.

BTW, Thank You So Much For HIJACK! I use it in various ways all the time.

Woops

A little more information:
It seems that there are two ways a radio station can transmit rds song information. The best way, in my opinion, is when the empeg interprets it to have the station call sign on the top line and the artist/song title scrolling on the bottom line. A good station will even have the commercial sponser's name. Some stations it seems will only transmit one and only one line of information no matter what song plays.
The next method, and apparently the more frequent method is for the station call sign, artist, song title and sometimes freqruency to be displayed - in parts about maybe 8 to 10 characters long - all on the first line. Very clunky.
So anyway, i can get the clunky method by just starting the car up normally (and i am near these types of stations). I am lucky to be in a town that transmits best formatted and most informational rds information. However, for me to receive this type of rds information, i have to use the battery icon startup method described in above post.

woops