Posted by: rsgalloway
Power interrupts or Loose connections. Please help. - 07/10/2004 16:21
Well, I finally got my riocar installed last night.. after having the thing sitting in my closet for like 8 months (rebuilding my car, don't ask). I was really excited about having it working finally.
The reason I am posting is because I'm having an issue with the power. I have it hooked up to my receiver/CD player via the RCA cables and have a constant 12V connected to the yellow wire and an ignition signal connected to the orange wire. Here's the problem: every little bump in the road causes the riocar to reboot, i.e. the power gets interrupted. Now, I'm 99.9% certain that my wiring is solid, not loose or anything like that. I noticed that if I push on the face slightly the power goes out as well. Perhaps there's a loose connection on the sled? I haven't had time to investigate this in depth yet.. I was hoping someone here might have seen this before and can offer some advice. I really hope I don't need a new sled.
Thanks.
Posted by: Daria
Re: Power interrupts or Loose connections. Please help. - 07/10/2004 16:47
Do you have a sled whose top edge is not bent? If so, it's probably not sliding all the way into the docking connector.
Posted by: wfaulk
Re: Power interrupts or Loose connections. Please help. - 07/10/2004 16:53
Actually, it probably is; there's a lucky coincidence that there's a slot in the fascia that lines up with the unbent lip, and all the unbent ones I've seen allow the empeg to slide all the way in anyway.
I'd suspect the wiring inside the sled's connector. Apparently many of the MkIIa sleds' connectors' pins weren't crimped well. I'd take it apart and try to fix that wiring. There's a FAQ that details how to take it apart and solder the wires to the pins.
Posted by: mtempsch
Re: Power interrupts or Loose connections. Please help. - 07/10/2004 16:54
Check the connectors on the empeg and the sled. I've had a pin in the sled connector come loose as well as a wire working itself out of the crimp. See
this FAQ
Posted by: pgrzelak
Re: Power interrupts or Loose connections. Please help. - 07/10/2004 17:01
Greetings!
The first thing is to verify that the empeg is completely seated in the sled. That is the question about the
bent sled. If it is a wiring issue, there are ways the sled can be removed easily, usually with a thin metal strip inserted on each side to push the bent tabs back into place.
Posted by: Daria
Re: Power interrupts or Loose connections. Please help. - 07/10/2004 17:06
You can try.
If not, you can probably buy one from the Sleds link at the top of the page, or try to find someone who can bend the edge for you (or just trim the metal back; somewhere my father has a nibbler...)
Posted by: pgrzelak
Re: Power interrupts or Loose connections. Please help. - 07/10/2004 17:14
Gravity could be working against you, but only if the empeg is not fully seated. The handle is spring loaded and the player locks into place. It usually takes a bit of force (accident, etc.) to get it to pop out of the sled without lifting the handle.
Thanks for all your help. Here's a quick update:
I just went out to examine the riocar and sled again. The sled _does_ have a lip on all four sides.
Moreover, I noticed that it only takes a very light touch to interrupt the power. There's maybe a 3 mm gap between the exterior lip/edge of the sled and the mounting dock of the car (which is made of metal, btw). When I push on the sled/riocar and the sled's lip/edge come into contact with the mounting dock, the power goes out. This little push is too insignificant to loosen any connections in the sled's main connector, IMO. It is seriously a very short distance, like I said maybe 3 mm and doesn't seem like enough of a movement to cause any disconnections.
Does the sled require a ground connection? I don't have one, just on my receiver. Could that be it?
Posted by: wfaulk
Re: Update - 07/10/2004 18:30
ISTR someone having a problem like this before and fixing via a ground somewhere. But don't take my word for it. Try a search here on the BBS.
Posted by: pgrzelak
Re: Update - 07/10/2004 19:53
Question: you explicitly mention the yellow and orange wire. What did you tie the other wires to? It certainly sounds like a grounding or shorting issue.
Posted by: pgrzelak
Re: Update - 07/10/2004 20:22
Tony, while I was
checking the FAQ for the wiring diagram, I saw a great table of the signals with no reference to the color of the wires along with a great color diagram with no label of the functions. Can these somehow be combined so that the connector pinout table will have some indication as to the connector / wire color?
Edit: Nevermind. I opened the two side by side, and you can cross reference them. Still, it would be easier if there was another column on that table...
Posted by: Daria
Re: Update - 07/10/2004 20:46
It is. After some ground loop problems I tied the one coming off the sled in my van with 6 gauge stranded(!) to the chassis. Of course, that didn't fix it either, but I've had no grounding issues since then in that vehicle. The loop problem needed isolators, and then went into remission.
Posted by: rsgalloway
Re: Update - 08/10/2004 14:42
Just wanted to report that it was in fact the missing ground connection that was causing my power problems. It seems to be fixed now. Although it did reboot after a particularly nasty bump in the road this morning.