MK1 Antenna

Hi Guys,

I recently purchased a MK1 :) and it rocks.
But i was looking for a way to tell my power antenna to go up when the tuner is selected and down when its not.

any ideas would be appreciated :)

There is no way to do that exact thing on the Mark 1, as there isn't a separate control line for the power antenna.

The Mark 2 has that ability, so I guess the real answer to your question is "buy a mark 2".

For the mark 1, most people tie their antenna control into the amplifier remote activation wire. This powers your antenna whenever the player is powered up at all. It's not exactly the same thing, but it's close.

Is there any way i could acheive this using the serial port ?
eg a small relay hooked upto the serial port ??
I've got a 12V relay here that might do it ( 5ma trigger ).

In reply to:

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The Mark 2 has that ability

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Okay, I looked in the FAQ and didn't see this. Can you expound, please?

The 'remote on', 'amp on', whatever... that comes from the MkII cradle behaves like the one on the MkI, ie on whenever the display is on.

But the tuner module for the MkII has its own 'remote on' which, AFAIK, is on only when you have the tuner selected. Can for instance be used to feed the antenna amplifier (via adapter) in newer VW, Audi, Seat etc.
To power a motorized antenna you'll probably need a relay, unless one is built into the antenna and it has a separate, constant +12V feed too.

If you go to http://www.tempsch.org and click on the empeg MkII link in Contents, you'll find a pic of the tuner module remote line connected to a VW antenna adapter.

/Michael

Powered antennas always have a permanent connection as well as a "control" line - otherwise, they wouldn't have the power to motor themselves down when you turned the radio off :)

Hugo

Oops... makes sense

Hmmmm... I do seem to recall a unit with spring return... quite ancient though. Can't remember brand or what type of car it came from, but probably a car that was ~15-20 years old, 20 or so years ago.

Let me make it more generic - make sure whatever you connect the line to doesn't pull more current than the line can supply...

/Michael

The line has overcurrent protection and switch off. It even actually sends a packet to the empeg telling it that it went overcurrent, but we don't display anything at the moment :)

Hugo