PCATS Tuner Not Recognized by Empeg

Well, I *thought* I did a good job soldering this thing together and double checking (visually) to see if I had any shorts but my Rio Car is not recognising the tuner module at all. I'm running V2.00 of the software and not running HiJack.

Symptoms:
1. Cold boot of Rio Car the green light on the tuner comes on.
2. Soft boot and the green light does not come on.
3. Push the tuner button on the remote control and I only get a beep.
4. Rio Car works fine (except I did notice that the clock reset to 12:00).

Any help would be appreciated. Pictures are here: http://www.rgns.com/empeg_tuner_kit_pics.htm

Thanks

I can only get the picture of the bottom of the top board to load. I've built four of these tuners and they all worked the first time. If I could see the other pictures I might be able to spot something (no promises).

Stu

Check to make doubly certain that none of the legs on the PIC have missed the socket hole and got bent underneath the body of the IC.

You should be able to hold the board flat at eye level and look into the gap between the socket and the PIC to check this.

Here are the separate links:
http://www.rgns.com/2003/Grasshoppers%20011.jpg
http://www.rgns.com/2003/Grasshoppers%20012.jpg
http://www.rgns.com/2003/Grasshoppers%20015.jpg
http://www.rgns.com/2003/Grasshoppers%20016.jpg
http://www.rgns.com/2003/Grasshoppers%20017.jpg

All of the legs of IC4 are correctly inserted into the Socket for IC4.

Any other suggestions?

IC's 10 & 11 on the bottom PCB are incorrectly fitted. You need to turn them through 180 degrees so that all 5 legs go through the PCB and the large metal area of the tab is closest to the edge of the PCB (manual P.14).

I don't know if there's much chance that you've damaged them by installing them this way around, anyone?

You know, I thought those looked funny mounted like that. I guess I misunderstood the manual (since it said to insert the two devices until the three bent leads "touch" the top "side" of the PCB and I didn't see any white lines going to the holes).

Thanks!

Well, I flipped those around and tried it again and it still doesn't work. I do get the "starting radio module" message on a cold boot and the led lights up but with a warm boot the led doesn't light up.

Are you running the Empeg in DC mode? That is what I did to test the four I built. I never tried running from a warm boot since it's always best to connect things with the power off. It worked everytime from a cold boot.

Stu

I've never had any trouble getting the tuner to work in AC mode. I don't think it's required that the player be in DC mode for the tuner to work.

I've got the empeg hanging out of the dashboard right now so I just go to the truck, set the module on the dash and plug it in.

Any chance I blew anything up when I installed IC10 and IC11 backwards by only two leads? I'm going through everything once again and ohming out each resister.

Any tips on what readings I should get on various places on the board?

(yeah, I know I definately should have had it sent to you to build... $75.00 is definately a deal to get one built)

Thanks for your help.

I don't recall how mine behaves WRT the LED. Ignoring that for a moment, have you set Source -> Radio on the empeg to see if there's any reception?

With mine anyway, it wouldn't allow me to choose the radio as source in AC mode. It found the tuner okay at startup and the green LED came on, but I wasn't able to access the tuner. While in DC it worked fine. At least that's how I remember it. All the kits are gone now, so I can't verify the exact behavior.

I don't have any voltages to look for, since they all worked, I didn't try to find any. I guess it would be helpful to have some testpoints pointed out to us in the manaul, other than the 5 and 9 volts at the regulators.

Yeah and the $75 turns out to be too good a deal for me to offer. The tuners just take too long to assemble. Much longer than I thought. I think I will be raising the price shortly.

Check out the datasheet on the IC10 and 11 that you put in wrong. If you reversed the polarity, there's a good chance they got damaged.

Stu

I don't have the option Source -> Radio only Source -> Auxillary - Player

Well boyz, I reckon I'm doing well - 5 hours per tuner, capped at E 60 (about $60). If the price goes up, shipping from Europe will be competitive!!!

You're probably okay with IC10 and 11. I had a look at the datasheet and it looks like both of the pins originally installed are voltage inputs of sorts, so you would not have reversed the polarity. I guess it's possible you damaged something else though.

Stu

I have a tuner in my home dock, running on AC, with a plug in the AC-Power socket of the empeg. Works fine.

Cheers

but with a warm boot the led doesn't light up.

What do you actually mean with a warm boot? Getting a shell prompt over the serial port and restarting the player, going into standby, or some hijack forced reboot? And can you select the tuner as the input source after the cold boot when the led lights up?

When I hold in the round button for several seconds on the front of the player and the screen goes off the LED on the tuner goes off (I guess technically it's standby mode?). When I press the button again the player comes back on but the LED on the tuner stays off. I guess it probably doesn't technically "reboot".

No I cannot select the tuner as the input source after the cold boot when the led lights up. It is not an option only "player" or "auxillary". However upon a cold boot the "radio starting" (or something to that affect) displays while booting up.

Thanks for your input.

When I hold in the round button for several seconds on the front of the player and the screen goes off the LED on the tuner goes off (I guess technically it's standby mode?).

Hmmm.... Are you using a power antenna or a signal booster? Is it running off of the amp remote line (the line that also powers the tuner module)? What is running off of the amp remote line in your car? I'm wondering about this...

What does (the newest) Hijack say at boot time?

There should be a message line somewhere on the serial port like this:

ttyS00 at 0xf8010000 (irq = 15) is a SA1100 UART
ttyS01 at 0xf8050000 (irq = 17) is a SA1100 UART
ttyS02 at 0xf8030000 (irq = 16) is a SA1100 UART
Signature is 67706d65 'empg'
Tuner: loopback=0, ID=3
Scheduling custom logo.
empeg display initialised.
empeg dsp audio initialised
empeg dsp mixer initialised

I don't have hijack loaded. I did, but when I loaded the final realease of 2.0 it did away with the hijack (or did it) and I never re-installed hijack.

Do you recommend I install the latest version, lug the laptop to the truck, rip out the sled so I can access the serial port and monitor the serial port while the tuner is connected?

Thanks!

Thanks for the suggestions... surely the guys at Circuit City would have connected everything properly? I think that I'll wait for the Tuner I just bought from meatballman to arrive and plug it up so I can isolate the problem easier since this one definately works.

I figured worst case, I'll have an extra tuner which I would like to incorporate into the Darkstorm box with a rob-sled so I can have a choice of radio or any cd in my collection while I'm at the office.

OK, I found a part in the pcb that I scraped a little too hard so I added a jumper to bridge it back and the thing seems to work for the most part anyway. Problem now is the FM stations have a little static and are a bit lower than AM750 which seems very loud. Also the signal bars are all dim so it appears to be some sort of coax issue. Beat me though, it's as if it can't tell the antennae is connected.

I tried a factory tuner and it works perfectly and everything is loud and clear so evidently I have a few minor bugs still. I think someone else mentioned a similar problem with static so I'll do a search.

Thanks.

If the strength bars are dim, this will affect audio quality (and volume) as the DSP "fades" the audio out, assuming that the lack of signal strength will be resulting in noise.

Check the 8-way tuner connector wiring, and sled wiring too (I think this is in the FAQ)

Hugo

Check the 8-way tuner connector wiring, and sled wiring too (I think this is in the FAQ)

Yeah, the entry is here. It describes the problem only as related to the factory tuner, though. Still, worth double-checking.

Although in the case described in the FAQ, the problem is that the signal strenth meter is bright instead of dim yet the reception is bad.

I still remember clearly the day you guys discovered the root of that particular problem, standing in the parking lot in Santa Clara with Zandr, poking and prodding at his M3 installation. That was a fun day.

standing in the parking lot in Santa Clara with Zandr,

Hey -- don't forget me, I was there too with my somewhat crippled ShoWagon, running on five cylinders and a power steering pump so noisy it was frightening.

tanstaafl.

Yes, I remember that fondly. It was a fun ride down to Santa Clara in the ShoWagon.

Thanks for the tips there Hugo... I haven't messed with it any further yet (since I acquired a factory tuner) but will report back when I do.

Cheers!