If I started building home docking stations......

I am going to start building some home docking stations. I was just wondering what people would want for connections on the back, if they would want a switch on front, how much people would be willing to pay for them, and how I should sell them. I live in Illinois and these would be shipped worldwide with payment most likely by Paypal, can't forget the UK boys. I am tooling up for the prototype right now and should have it done in a couple of weeks. It will look a little different and much cleaner than the one on my Riocar.org gallery, silamanajik's JGC and Docking station, but will still be black. So I pose the question, would you buy it? Please post in this thread so everybody can comment. Thanks.

Questions:

- Do you intend to have them pre-wired with you supplying the sled and powersupply? Or would we have to supply the sled and powersupply?

- Do you intend to do docked ethernet and docked AC power in these sleds?

Oh, and of course...

- How much?

They will be completely wired inside for home AC, ethernet, maybe USB and I am trying to figure out a way to get the higher voltage outputs setup to use instead of the RCA's on the back of the player. I emailed Mr. Moss about sleds, looms and other extra parts but it made the price of the completed station to much so I decided to put my engineering to work and make everything from scratch. I will be manufacturing the sled as part of the unit. As for the serial port, if the user wants to upgrade to player version he will just unplug his power supply from the back and bring it over to his computer and hook up. But I will probably try the first one with all the connections. We'll see how it goes. The only thing the buyer will need is the power supply that came with their empeg. I have to wait on the price until after I get the prototype done to figure my parts and labor into it. It won't be more than a weeks pay.... just kidding... if you can afford an empeg or riocar you will be able to afford this.

I'd like to see the final product and what it will cost. Then I will let you know if I would buy it. But it sounds cool.

Well I would pay a decent amount ($150? $200?) for a well-built home component box for my Empeg, as long as it was exactly to my specifications. BBS user Loren built one that would be *perfect* for me for about $80 (that doesn't include the cost of the car mount he used on it though.) I wouldn't be using a car mount to hold mine inside, ideally. But I love the idea of using a rack mount box as he did.

I don't care about a switch on the front. The things that would be important to me would be being able to just plug in my Empeg and have it connect to power, serial, Ethernet, and the home RCA jacks. I realize this isn't elementary to do without the car mount's help, but it's the way I would want it.

The design of your box is okay, but I would really want something rack mountable, as that's where I've got my stereo equipment.

Oh yes, elementary my dear yn0t_, maybe some optional rackmount ears, or an extended faceplate? That would be kewl...

Yeah, as long as the rack mounts were standard width (17 inches and some change if I remember right, but it's gotta be pretty exact) I wouldn't care *too much* about the height. I think the hardest part of a component box is locating all of the connections so you can easily snap your Empeg in without reaching back to plug in everything. People have gotten it right, but it took a lot of tweaking. I think a lot of people chose to just use the car mount connector to make things easier, but that generally involves hacking up a sled, and those aren't cheap.

I have solved all those problems, I'll be dancin a jig, if ya know what I mean. As for the rack mount I am a musician so I can match it up to my guitar rack for the correct spacing.

Count me in for a docking station - pending a reasonable cost of course

I am definitely interested in a home enclosure for my player. I assume you can produce a nicer looking unit than I can so I am willing to pay a reasonable price and buy one or two. I like the idea that it would not require the use of my docking unit. I do not particularly need a power switch on the front panel especially if it would result in a bigger unit. I would definitely like Ethernet and USB would be nice.

Because I am not using a 19" rack for my stereo equipment and tend to favor simplicity in my audio gear I would like the enclosure to be as small as possible consistent with the player thermal requirements. I would concur with an earlier suggestion that adapter ears for rack mounting satisfy the rack mount requirements. Vertical units in a rack are 1.75". The player would not fit in a 1U space so 2U or 3.5" becomes the minimum rack space. Perhaps the unit without rack adapter could be a lesser height and the rack mount adaptor could also fill in the extra vertical space. The EIA RS310C 19" Rack Mount Specification is available at www.eia.org.

I am looking forward to seeing your product. Good luck.

I decided to put my engineering to work and make everything from scratch

Are you planning to make the docking connector from scratch or do you expect to be able to buy some?

Rob

The first on I make will make all the connections without the docking connector. If the regular RCA connection is not satisfactory I will make some thing that will connect to the higher output RCA pins on the back of the empeg when it is slid into the dock.

I would definately be interested too.

Connections : Ethernet, and the Phono and Power Connections, using the supplied adapter to plug into the back of the docking station would be ideal.

If the price was reasonable and the unit was well made I would definitely buy one. I am very interested to see how this will progress.

Count me in. . . (for the right price)

-Jeff

I would be interested also. Please keep us updated.

If the regular RCA connection is not satisfactory I will make some thing that will connect to the higher output RCA pins on the back of the empeg when it is slid into the dock.

I briefly considered bypassing the sled connector, but I had a couple of concerns. One was that the the RCAs have relatively high insertion/removal force, and I wondered if they were rated for as many insertions as the docking connector. The same concern about rating for the DB-9/serial was true, along with the concern that it would be exceedingly difficult to build my own female DB-9 dock that would not (eventually) damage the male DB-9 in the Empeg. This is complicated by the fact that the projection of the power/ethernet connectors into the sled opening would be to a different depth than the RCA/DB-9, making alignment along the axis of insertion even more critical.

Fabbing a whole new sled seems like a lot of work, too. In your shoes, if it was my sense that most potential customers already had a sled they could devote to this installation, I'd consider basing the design on that.

FWIW, I have no problems using the external, lower-voltage RCA outputs with my home stereo. I am lucky now in that all 3 of my installs use some sort of AUX input (no empeg-->amp setup) so I just set Hijack to limit Volume to 0 and leave my Volume set at maximum at all times.

Me too - ideally, I'd have one at home using the docking connector for audio and the power plug for power (so it knows it's on AC), and one at work with serial and Ethernet in addition.

Both with AC switched on player insertion (so I'm not wasting energy running the transformer when the sled is empty). No need for a separate power switch. I'm assuming a 120/240V switched or autoswitched input with an ordinary IEC connector so I can get a lead for any country.

It'd be nice to be able to set the Mute and Dimmer inputs, and I imagine some may find it handy to have the amp control line exposed.

Tuner connector? If so, I might add myself to the tuner preorder list...

You know what would be the ultimate bad ass feature of a docking station? If you could make some sort of contraption out of lenses and mirrors so that when the empeg is in the dock, the perceived size of the vfd is much bigger. That way you could read it from across the room.

"Tuner connector? If so, I might add myself to the tuner preorder list... "

Is there a list?

A "must" for my docking-station is line-in.
I guess I have to make it myself...

Marius (escort Cab + Mark II)

In reply to:

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Is there a [tuner preorder] list?

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Not yet, I think.

I'd be willing considering prive, of course...
also, I think it'd be good to use the dock, maybe have people send them to you, but I think you would be able to make use of more of the connections then are on the back of an empeg...and less things to worry about making sure they are plugged in properly...I also like the idea of serial if possible...
I'd probaly by two, one for home, one for work...

My idea so far is: Using a double rack size housing, to hinge the front cover down, insert empeg face first into an alignment slot, connect RCAs, pwr and ethernet; raise front cover. There will be a minature CCD camera mounted in front of the Empeg along with an IR extender. The face will have an Empeg logo and an IR receiver in it, you veiw the unit on a TV/monitor at a 30 frame per second refresh rate (live).

I'm picturing a toaster oven.

Calvin

Wouldn't know what that is, beings as how I don't cook. I have girls carry my food to me

I was thinking of having Playboy models hand deliver the finished units....hehe I said unit...

ow..change my order to three right now

Sweet. Sounds cool. The only thing is you might want to build it to where you can still use the front panel buttons.

Count me in. . . if at a reasonable price!

I would definately be in. Keep us updated!

Hey everybody, just to let you know it will be a little while before I get the first one done because I lost my job. My company went belly up so I am spending all my free time trying to get working again. I will post again when it is done. Thanks for the design input Y'all....

"...I lost my job. My company went belly up..."

Bummer. . . Believe me I know how you feel.

-Jeff

I'm going through the same thing. Good Luck!!!

yah well add me to the list, it has been 5 months! the Arizona job market is TERRIBLE.

Heh, maybe we should all get together and start our own company . . . Any investors out there?

-Jeff

Heh, maybe we should all get together and start our own company . . .

And do what?

Reminds me of a parable in the Robert Heinlein book "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress". (Anybody who knows that book knows where my signature line came from!)

A man worked for years in a job that was really a sinecure, but they kept him on because it didn't cost much, and everybody liked him. His only job was to go out on the courthouse lawn and polish the brass cannon every morning. Finally one day, he announced he was quitting. "Are you going to retire?" people asked him. "Heck no," he said. "I've been saving my money, and I'm gonna buy my own cannon and go into business for myself."



tanstaafl.

"And do what?"

Details, Details, Details.

-Jeff

Details, Details, Details.

OH so a cleaning cars company huh.

Count me in.....if the price is reasonable. I'd really go for one that was rack-mountable.

Now that I'm putting together a real rack mountable stereo system, I would order one too if the price is right.

The AIWA all-in-one system I have gets to go into the garbage next week.

I'm pulling up this old thread because of course, the docking sleds are no longer available and as time goes on, there will be a lot more interest in these. Any progress on this silimanjik? Found work yet?

Hear-hear! Definitely interested and quite curious how this would work without an Empeg store and sleds.

I bought an extra sled last week just in case these get built.

Things are looking better for me but it will be a couple of months yet.

I also bought a extra sled before the stored closed just in case I could get someone to build me one to.