Oh and finally: have you tried metering the mute line against the 12V line? (I think it's safe to do this, meters are high impedance, right?)

-brendan

PS - I've had Lucero on my empeg constantly the past few days. My sister is thinking of trying to guilt them into swinging by the DC area, not sure tour planning works that way, though.

Nope, no hijack remaps, and the mute wire goes only to the empeg. I did meter the 12V against mute, but don't remember what it was saying... that would give me the voltage drop across the resistor. I seem to recall it reading 0V, but i'm not sure.

The Lucero show sunday night was as amazing as saturday. If you can see them live... you've gotta go. SO good. I'm having withdrawel from those two shows... i need another!

How about attempting something like wiring up a relay controlled by the mute line and connect the empeg to the output of the relay? If it's some sort of isolation issue, that might work around it.

-brendan

Alright, now i know something is screwy. Driving to work this morning i turned on my driving lights and the damn empeg paused. Off, unpaused. I think the wires on the back of the sled connector are coming loose and making contact... since the dimmer is right next to the mute wire on the sled connector. Tomorrow it all comes out ... again.

If checking all the lines doesn't work, I still recommend the relay:

The symptom you list is the exact same one I have. I'm still planning to isolate my mute line (my parrot is feeding both my head unit and empeg, currently in parallel).

As the car warms up (on trips > 1-2 hours), some sort of low level current or noise charge builds up, and I get pauses when more current is being pulled from the car's system (depressing voltage) such as: opening/closing windows, turning on compressor, hitting brakes, etc. all activate the mute until I stop pulling that current.

Over time (next hour), it just gets stuck permanatly on mute until I pull the empeg...then the headunit unmutes, and I can still use radio/CDs.

I've got the additions to my harness all put together, but I haven't bothered pulling it all out in the months since I put it together.

Seriously though: isolate the empeg's mute line with a relay, I bet it'd work...

-brendan

Well, if the Sony unit does indeed go from 0V to open circuit, i couldn't trip a relay with it could i? I still need to confirm if it does or not.

To operate a relay with a signal that switches between open circuit and 0V, you need to give it a (semi)permanent (on whenever you want to be able to use the mute functionality - for instance the ignition signal) +12V signal on one end of the coil and attach the kit at the other end of the coil. When the phone kit goes 0V the relay turns on, with the kit open circuit the relay is off.

With a SPDT (single pole double throw) relay you can then attach the common terminal (30 for a Bosch type relay) to the empeg mute input and put steady +12V and 0V signals on the switching terminals (87 and 87a) as required.

/Michael

Ah ha. Thanks for the explanation. When i return from the desert in a couple of weeks i'll do more delving.