Just as a quick note, something I witnessed yesterday... n6mod already posted a reply on this subject, but I wanted to make sure it had its own header in the Bug Reports forum:

If your tuner's signal strength meter shows five bars, but the radio reception is terrible, you have received a defective (mis-wired) tuner extension plug.

Disconnect the extension plug and connect the tuner directly to the plug on the sled, and the situation should improve significantly.

There is one extra wire on the extension plug for the antenna remote line. If you need this wire, I'm guessing you can probably figure out how to steal the pin from the extension plug and insert it into the sled's plug (or something like that, Hugo, help me out here) in order to get this wire's functionality again.

Or you could just hook up your antenna control wire to your amp remote wire-- some people do this, it simply means the antenna will also extend (and/or be power-boosted, depending on the type of antenna) whenever you listen to MP3s.

If you're not good with wires, or if you still need the extension, then I'm sure you can get a properly-wired replacement if you contact support.

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Tony Fabris

Is it possible to repair the extension plug?

_~= Dearing =~_
"WAY too happy about having #99."

Is it possible to repair the extension plug?

Since I don't have a good one and a bad one in front of me to compare, I'm not certain. I would THINK that it should be brain-dead obvious how to fix it: Make sure Pin1 goes to Pin1, Pin2 to Pin2, etc. But I haven't looked closely at the extension plugs to be sure. There might be something about the way they're wired that's unusual. Anyone have a good one they want to look at closely and let us know?

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Tony Fabris

In reply to:

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I would THINK that it should be brain-dead obvious how to fix it: Make sure Pin1 goes to Pin1, Pin2 to Pin2, etc. But I haven't looked closely at the extension plugs to be sure.
There might be something about the way they're wired that's unusual. Anyone have a good one they want to look at closely and let us know?

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That's how my (new, unused, presumed good) one is wired. With the exception of pin 3 of course - that's the blue wire (antenna power) and is connected only at the plug (i.e. tuner) end.

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Toby Speight - 040103385

My extension cable was mis-wired in a completely different way - the ground was swapped with antenna control, preventing the module from working at all.

In short, if you have any kind of a problem with getting the tuner to work, the first thing is to check that the extension is wired straight through. If it isn't Support will send you another, or you can swap over the wires yourself if you prefer.

I don't believe this is a very widespread problem as it didn't show up in sample testing, but there are at least two confirmed cases so far..

Rob

I am still undecided if I have a broken tuner or did a bad install or missed something completely else.

My reception is ok to very good (3-5 bars all the time) but the sound is pretty cheap. There is hardly any real noise, but it almost always sounds as if you were trying to reach a station almost too far away when listening to FM.

Same with AM, there are not many stations around, but I do get some - again as if I'd be trying to listen from the other side of the globe.

I haven't used an antenna power wire before, my old head unit was only connected with the regular DIN connector... that is where my Empeg is now.

Till

In reply to:

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My reception is ok to very good (3-5 bars all the time) but the sound is pretty cheap

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I'll second that. It works, but I'm disappointed that it sounds like a £4.99 tranny radio. I have two main complaints:

1 - If I listen to radio (even at a full 5 bar reception strength) at a comfortable volume and then switch to MP3, I'm almost deafened - there's such a mismatch in levels.

2 - I thought that one of the ideas of RDS was that the radio stayed tuned to the strongest signal. I took a trip up to Leeds at the weekend:
a) Drive up, listened to Radio 4 all the way. Had to re-tune to a stronger signal twice as signal quality had degraded so far I couldn't make out what was being said. On both occasions, I retuned to a full five-bar signal.
b) Drive down, listened to Radio 2 for a bit, then switched to MP3. After an hour or so I switched back to the radio, but all I got was static. Selecting any of the presets (all national stations) which I would have expected to have found the station (the other car radios I have had all do this) just took me to the stored frequency and gave me no signal. I had to search for the correct frequency.

Nicholas.
(copied to support@empeg.com)

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18GB red s/n 080000299, original pos'n 8724. Reproduction of this post is not permitted.

I thought that one of the ideas of RDS was that the radio stayed tuned to the strongest signal

This is not yet implemented, the same way TA (switching to any channel that sends a traffic announce, then back to whatever channel you were listening to) is not yet implemented.

/Michael

As tfabris said, check your extension cable. Also, to confirm, the 8-way connector on the empeg sled is wired like this: (looking into the wire-end of the connector with the latch at the top):

blue, purple, red, brown
black, no wire, grey, pink

n6mod had the "bad extension" problem, and AM was ok-ish (but had alternator whine and was quiet) and FM sounded AWFUL and VERY quiet. With a correctly wired cable everything was back to how it should be. If you're wondering how the FM tuner should sound with a good station, it should sound *excellent*. At least as good as any other tuner you've heard :)

You may need antenna power, depending on your car. What is it? Some cars have antenna power on the DIN connector.

Hugo

If I listen to radio (even at a full 5 bar reception strength) at a comfortable volume and then switch to MP3, I'm almost deafened - there's such a mismatch in levels.

I have the same problem! Maybe we have to install an additional Amp for the Tuner. The quality is ok. But the volume power weakly.

bye

CrazyMelki

In reply to:

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As tfabris said, check your extension cable.

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I am not using the extension cable, but I will make sure that the tuner has the correct wiring tomorrow (too dark to do it right now).

In reply to:

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You may need antenna power, depending on your car. What is it? Some cars have antenna power on the DIN connector.

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I have a Seat Arosa, which is pretty much the same as a Volkswagon Lupo. My antenna has been replaced with one that combines cell phone and radio antenna (this was before I got the Empeg).

The tuner of the Empeg is not anywhere near the performance of my Kenwood unit that I was using before. I just hope that it's really only a wiring problem...

Also, I hope that the sled doesn't break if I pull it out once more. Oh well, it is at least an opportunity to get some install pics done. :)

Till

Remember that VWs need a special adapter for the power antenna. Check with your installer about it.

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Tony Fabris

Well the volume levels with mine are fine - very similar MP3 and tuner volume levels.

(list 6284, Mk1 S/N 00299 4GB blue [for sale]. Mk2 S/N 080000094 26GB blue)

Yes, the volume levels between the FM tuner and the MP3 files should be very comparable. If you have a severe difference in levels, I would say to check for a wiring problem.

Note that on my tuner the AM stations are a bit louder than the FM stations, but I think that's because the US broadcasters are different than the UK broadcasters in that respect. I'll bet the empeg guys tweaked the offsets based on UK stations.

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Tony Fabris

Hi Till.

My antenna has been replaced with one that combines cell phone and radio antenna (this was before I got the Empeg).

This kind of antenna almost always needs some sort of antenna amplifier. That is usually built in, but still needs power to work. Find out how to feed the antenna control line of the tuner module (or any other switched 12V source that is appropriate) to the +12V input of the antenna's amp.

cu,
sven

PS: In your case as well as in mine (with radio/GSM/GPS combo), I would suggest to use the ignition-switched 12V line.

proud MkII owner (12GB blue/green/smoked, was #080000113 is #090001010)

In reply to:

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This kind of antenna almost always needs some sort of antenna amplifier. That is usually built in, but still needs power to work.

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Hmm... I had this antenna (professionally) installed before I installed the Empeg and I didn't omit any connections on the DIN connector. I don't think I will be able to find a power line as all the wires are buried deeply inside the car.

Till

I have an Audi A3 (2000), so if sb having almost the same car has already installed the tuner, could you tell me how to deal with the power antena? My tuner is working but with no powered antena (no AM). Where is it? What it looks like, how to feed it??? tnx.

__________________________

David Clesse
Belgium/Luxembourg
Mk2-36g(full)-red-tuner-stick

Oups! sorry by powered antenna I would mean antena amplifier. If it's that, should I connect this amp to the blue tuner wire? If not where else?

__________________________

David Clesse
Belgium/Luxembourg
Mk2-36g(full)-red-tuner-stick

I have an Audi A3 (2000), so if sb having almost the same car has already installed the tuner, could you tell me how to deal with the power antena? My tuner is working but with no powered antena (no AM). Where is it? What it looks like, how to feed it??? tnx.


I just installed the MkIIa and tuner in my VW Polo '01 which I believe uses the same (type at least) antenna. I used the VW/Audi original part antenna adapter; it came with a thin tube with an antenna connector in one end and an antenna lead (with connector) and a +12V feed wire in the other end. The +12V wire was wired to a male ISO-connectors amp/antenna remote out. The kit had both a male and female ISO connector, so that you could plug one end into the stereo and the other to the cars ISO-connector - but it was only wired for power and illumination (pins 4,6,7,8 and a wire from pin 5 in the male connector to the adapter) so I snipped the flying lead and connected it to the blue wire from the tuner module, removing the ISO connectors from this kit totally

Seems to work nicely, reception normally at 4 or 5 bars but still good sound at the occations (passing through short tunnels) that I've been down at 2 bars... However, there's essentially no AM around here to test with - when I couldn't find any stations with the empeg I tried it with a friends car, which has a traditional radio and antenna and could find no AM broadcasters with that setup either...

So I can't really be sure if the antenna works as it should or if it just is good enough to work that well without the amplifier for FM...

/Michael

One of my two tuners displays exactly these symptoms but I don't use the extension plug so I guess something else is up.

My second tuner works fine.

-D

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reg. #10798 - blue 40gig MK2 #764

your description of your reception quality seems to be the same as mine... Are you sure your antenna amp is connected??? With my previous (cheap) car stereo, reception was much better than this.
There should be a solution !?!

__________________________

David Clesse
Belgium/Luxembourg
Mk2-36g(full)-red-tuner-stick

In reply to:

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...I'm disappointed that it sounds like a £4.99 tranny radio

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OK, OK, I'll take it all back.

I don't know what and I don't know why, but after upgrading to 2v0b3 the tuner sounds superb.

Nicholas.