Ok here is another one occasionally my display will dim for no reason like right now its dim not in the car. My car dimming is set to 100% so it shouldnt dim in the car even but its dim now but the boot sequence isnt dim only once the visuals start. Im gonna try loading it back in my car to see if that fixes it, but just pulling the power here doesnt work.

Contact support, there may be a fault in the player.

Ok its really weird, i just went out to my car but here is what happened. Set dimming to 100% the player is dim.........set dimming to 90% gets bright. Its really weird I dont want to send my player back dammit I just installed it yesterday. Oh yeah and if i dim it down to 0% i can still see the display leading me to believe this might be software oriented not hardware

i've had the same behavior on my mk2a. my nighttime dimmer setting is at 80%. when this bug occurs, if i go into the dimmer menu and scroll through the choices, 80% will always show the abnormally dim level, while higher or lower settings will be at their correct levels (so 70%, 60% etc are brighter than the 80% setting).

i thought i've noticed a correlation with powering up the mk2a when the lights are already on. in my installation, the empeg sits fairly low in the dash, and it's impossible to insert the unit while the shift selector is in park. so, i'll sometimes start up the car, move the shift selector, and then insert the empeg (i don't recommend this -- horrible speaker "pop" results). i think i've noticed that if i've also turned on the lights before inserting the unit, the "dim display bug" occurs. i'm not sure about this, and i'd have to do more research to confirm.

in any case, this certainly smells of a software problem to me, not hardware.

--dan.

I had the same issue as this, and it turned out to be a problem with the display board, I do recomend contacting support.

If the dimmer changes level (and 0% is just readable indoors) then it's not hardware; well, it's sort of hardware. The communication with the PIC on the display board is sometimes a bit flakey - especially if you're using the rotary control (use the buttons to go up/down levels, not the rotary) as the same pic does buttons as receives dim level setting commands from the main board.

Hugo

i'll sometimes start up the car, move the shift selector, and then insert the empeg (i don't recommend this -- horrible speaker "pop" results).

This activity should not result in a speaker pop if the amplifiers are correctly wired. The Amp Remote line should not go high until the empeg has finished booting. There should be no pop at all.

i thought screen on == amp remote line on, by definition. the pop happens while tux is waving.

--dan.

Is your amp running your speakers (IE, what you hear the pop from)? If so, does the pop happen when the amp turns on?

if i slide the empeg into the dock with the power off, i don't get any speaker pop. when i dock the empeg with the car powered up, the pop occurs. i don't get any pop on powerdown.

in my setup, i have the factory head and the empeg both feeding my amp (JL 300/4) via the sony XA39II switch. so, the factory head causes the amp power-on line to go high when i turn on the ignition, before the empeg is docked. even if i have the factory head powered off, and the amp remote is only driven from the empeg, i still get the pop if i dock it with the car powered on.

for now, i work around it by turning the key to accessory, putting the car in neutral, powering off, inserting the empeg, shifting to park, and powering on. ugh.

lesson learned: next time, swap the location of the factory head and the empeg. i actually thought this would be a nice feature, as the shift lever becomes a theft prevention tool of sorts for those (rare) occasions i leave the empeg in the car, but it's turned out to be more of a hassle than a benefit.

--dan.

It sounds like the empeg is sending a short signal out before turning on the amp signal. Since your amp is controlled by the headunit, the empeg can't prevent it from turning on. Just my guess..

Hmmm I also get this behaviour. Where for no reason the display will boot up and go to about 80%

Although when I check the dimmer setting it shows 100% turning it down then back up will make it go back up to 100%.

I will take your advice and use the buttons next time.

I've seen some strange behaviour with dimming as well.

The headlight sense line in my 2000 VW Passat is 0V when the light switch is off, then ranges from 2-12 volts, depending on the dash dimmer setting.

When I first installed the unit in my car, I thought I did something wrong because it was very dim all the time, regardless of whether my lights were on. I thought I must have accidently hooked it to the +12V or something.

Then I discovered the dimmer setting in the empeg and cranked it to 100% (it's not all that bright anyway)

Even at 100% it still dims a bit when I turn the lights on, which is fine. However, the strangeness is that it gets confused sometimes about what state it should be in.

Sometimes it won't dim, and sometimes it won't un-dim with the lights. I've actually seen it get brighter when I turned the lights on!

So, although there may be h/w at issue for you, I suspect there is a s/w bug too. It's probably a boolean flag that gets tripped when the voltage changes, but the circuit has a capacitor on it that is intended to keep it from getting tripped on small power spikes or drops.

Also, what state the rest of the player is in might play a part. For example, when a song is paused, I don't think it will switch modes. Not sure, but I think that's what I remember.

I can't speak to the 80% bug, though. I'll have to try it.

-Joe

I wonder if this is somehow a PWM problem?

Empeg guys, any comments?

Same thing here. As I was comming home my display was dimmed to where normally 80% would be even though I always have it at 100%. I stopped for gas and could only bear to put $5 before my hands froze. When I started up my car the display looked like it was at 0%-$10. I removed my empeg and put it back in and it went back to 100%. I thought it was the temperature but the empeg wasn't too cold. I tried playing with the dimmer but 60% would sometimes be brighter then 80% and somtimes 80% would be brigher then 100%, all randomly.
Anyone know whats going on?

-Greg

I have had exactly the same problem with the dimmer as the others describe here. Sometimes when I get in the car (lights off) the display comes on 100% brightness. Other times it seems to be at about 80% brightness. If I turn the car lights on and off it goes to 100%, but only sometimes. It seems random. If I go to the setting via the menu, it will show 100% when it's not, going down to 90% and back to 100% normally fixes it too, and I always use the buttons not the wheel.

I've not had time to investigate further, but It's only happened since:

I got a new 60GB model (replacing my 10GB which I sold)
Beta 7
I also run Hijack now (various versions) so it could be that?

I hope its Beta 7, and not a hardware fault, but I'm starting to wonder!

Anyone experiencing this problem... Does the same thing happen if you downgrade to 1.03?