"Dear Abby..."

I bought my Empeg car 18GB in August of 2000. Earliner this year, I upgraded it with another 18GB drive. About a month ago (after the warranty period expired, but that is moot since it's more than a year old) my poor baby slipped out of my hands onto a very unforgiving linoleum floor. The damages were amazingly few. The handle broke in half, the chassis was bent a little, but otherwise, everything is in perfect working order. Unbelievable. The VFD is pristine, the hard drives are fine... I am one lucky bastard!

Except... Well, soon thereafter when I went to replace the handle (thanks to David for getting me one!) and as I pulled the fascia and faceplate off, my "left" button fell off (not the gray plastic one, the actual button mechanism.) It had cracked in half during the fall, but was being held by the faceplate. Well, putting it all back together didn't do anything, and my left button is now permanently broken. David also sent me a set of buttons, but my soldering skills are just not good enough to put the button on.

So the $699 price drop came at a perfect time. I really shouldn't have spent it, but I did, because I'm doing enough hacking that I could use the 4 extra MB of RAM, and if anything should happen to my MkII, I've got a brand new one to use. Like others who bought a backup, I can't imaging driving without an Empeg in the car. Yes I'm addicted.

But now I'm thinking I want to use the MkIIa now and keep the MkII as the backup. The problem is by taking the drives out of my MkII and putting them into my brand new MkIIa, I'm throwing away an entire year of warranty coverage right out of the box. But I get a unit with more RAM, a working left button (not having it kind of sucks) etc But then again, if the MkIIa sits idle in my closet for a year, the warranty will also be void.

So I pose this question to you all... In this situation, what would you do? Sending my MkII across the pond for repairs will rip another $125 out of my pocket. $125 is WAY too much for a left button. I have friends with better soldering skills but it's a REAL small area! (Anyone with GOOD soldering skills and who lives in the USA want to make a few bucks???)

I really bought the MkIIa as a backup in case mine is stolen or experiences an unrecoverable death, not to get a left button. But now I'm torn between using the new one or leaving it alone. What should I do?

Signed,
Penniless in Pennsylvania

I'd find a friend who's good at soldering...

Heh, and while you're at it, you could have him do the backlit buttons hack for you...

I'd go ahead and swap the drives; zero hesitation.
But I wouldn't advertise that I'd done it.

Even before swapping drives, though, I'd heat up my soldering iron..

-ml

Yeah but have you seen the size of the button contacts? Them things is small. I've soldered electrical connections on 1/10th scale R/C cars, but on something this small, I just know I'd screw it up. I'm a software guy, the Radio Shack "100 in 1" electronics kit is about as hardware as I get. :)

As for "I wouldn't advertise that I'd done it" I'm not sure what you mean... Are you thinking I'd be able to claim warranty repairs after putting my drives into a MkIIa? Come on... The last and only time I sent my Empeg for repairs, Hugo did them himself (the AC adaptor plug issue.). You think they're not going to be able to tell it's been opened up? Besides they've already given me parts out of warranty for free.

There's always the USB clone tool.

I opened up my mk2a one week after I had bought it. Yes, it did void my warranty, but the Empeg guys are really cool about that. As long as you don't do anything blatantly stupid to your player they will still support you. They proved that to me by sending me a new harddisk cable after I damaged my first one while upgrading the player's hard disk, despite me having voided my warranty.

Greetings!

If you are really concerned about the warranty, you could always ship both overseas, have them transplant the drives and try the repair. If they are willing to do that, and you can stand being without the player for a while.

The FAQ states that they won't put in your drives for you. If you want them to do a drive upgrade, they supply the drives, too.

Greetings!

Understood. I thought I read in the first post that they were original 18GB drives...

Ah well. I'm just gonna do the transplant and take my chances with any warranty issues. The trusty ol' MkII will remain as a backup. That'll give me time to find someone to solder the button.

If you need a spare buttons, I gave some to David; he should be able to send you one. It's not hard to change a switch, you just need to be careful and to ensure the new switch is flat against the PCB when soldering it in - if not, the plastics can be misaligned and buttons may stick.

Hugo

David did send me buttons, I appreciate that greatly. I'll take your advice into consideration if I decide to do the solder job. Since I have the MkIIa now I might wait until one of my electrical engineer buddies can do it.

Heh, and while you're at it, you could have him do the backlit buttons hack for you...

Speaking of backlit buttons, what's the latest on that?

I saw a threads discussing the possibility of translucent buttons, and adding leds, but I haven't seen any info on anybody actually modding their unit this way.

This is one mod I desperately need, as my empeg is completely in the shadows at night, and almost impossible to control.

The last thread on the subject was here.

Thanks!

Those green buttons Alex made are TOO COOL! I need to get a set of those...

Hey Tony, did you ever bust out the backlit hack on your empeg?

No, I won't do the hack until I know I can get translucent buttons.

Alex, on the other hand, is waiting for folks to do the hack before he moves on making more buttons. So we're in a catch-22 I think.

I think i'm going to do the hack over the holidays... I'm heading to Boston, and my girlfriends mother and step-father run a PCB company of some sort... i think they mostly do surface mounting for government contracts. So, i KNOW they have the skills to do it. While they are at it i'm going to get them to replace my blown cap.

I won't do the hack until I know I can get translucent buttons.

Yeah... Same here.