I have an early Mk1 that for one reason or another never got installed in my car. Don't worry, it still gets used daily, just not in the car.

I am starting to think about finally installing it in the car, so today I tried to use it in the car. The problem is it didn't work.

I am powering it off an adapter plugged into the cigar lighter. If the empeg is plugged in and the car is not running I get nothing, no standby LED and no boot. If I then start the car I get the standby LED but no boot. If I then remove the power and apply it I get nothing again, no LED.

I have tested the adapter, it has a positive centre pin, the same as my mains adapters. The voltage when the car is not running is 11.84 volts, with the engine running it is 14.25 volts. The output from my mains adapter is 15.10 volts.

Those voltages sound to me like they are within the acceptable range, so why isn't it working ?

The adapter by the way is very straight-forward. It has an LED to indicate that current is being drawn, there appears to be two resistors and what looks like a diode to provide the LED functionality.

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Unit serial number 47 (was 330 in the queue)...

It could be that the adaptor (if it's also a regulator like mine) does some form of current limiting. Check what the adaptor says regarding current delivery. If it's delivering 14.25V at no load, this may by dropping a lot as the empeg powers up and draws current, so see if you can measure the voltage output during boot.

You need to be able to deliver about 1A at boot to get the drives spun up.

One of the few remaining Mk1 owners... #00015

The adapter isn't that complicated, it has a LED, two resistors and either a diode or a capacitor (can't see the markings on it).

Anyway I opened up the adapter and removed the "electronics" (such as they are) so that it is now just a simple plug. It now works fine.

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Unit serial number 47 (was 330 in the queue)...