Tuner interface details

Does anyone have any technical details on how the tuner interfaces with the empeg? I'm interested in how the empeg communicates with the tuner (i.e. tells it how to select stations, receives RDS information etc.) and also how the audio is moved from the tuner box to the empeg (analog or digital?)

I have contact with a DAB tuner module designer, and would be interested in how easy it would be to hook a DAB module up to the empeg tuner interface, ideally performing any necessary conversion in hardware, so that no software modifications were required.

I assume you've seen this?

Putting a DAB module through the FM interface would be pointless, there are far too many variables to control, kinda like controlling an MP3 player through a CD changer interface

Audio is MPX which the empeg decodes into audio and RDS. So your module will have to modulate baseband audio and generate an RDS carrier. Far too much effort. My solution is dead simple, just hang on and wait until I have some time to develop it.

Hmm, yes, audio definitely seems too much like hard work - I was hoping it would use I2S really

Control-wise though, it's no big deal - you only need four functions to make a fully controllable solution - scan for new stations, scroll up, scroll down, and select. I was hoping it would be possible to simply send the display feedback as RDS-type signals, but it seems that wouldn't be the case.

I'll keep an eye on your thread for developments.

Yeah, I'm up to my eyes in it at the moment, just been outsourced and the new management are tightening the screws, bastards. I'd like to think it's a weekend's worth of work. The only real issue is quantity. The radioscape guy says 100 but I'm wondering if I can knock him down to 50. That's still a lot of money, although a drop in the ocean compared to their other customers.

I would have thought you would be better off going the other way - negotiate on price. You've prooved the concept and now want 100 for a limited prototype run

Back to reality for a moment - You would be able to shift 100, wouldn't you? You can put me down for a total of 3. Perhaps time for a poll?

The cool thing is I want to make it stand-alone from the empeg. So you could control it with anything that's got a serial port. I'll try and make the protocol nice and simple. Probably ASCII so you control it from a terminal session. The more uses it has and the easier it is to interface the better, especially if I want to sell loads of them!