I'm sorry if this has been asked before, but I wasn't able to find it.

First of all, for me and any new people, could someone clarify the power situation? Can the empeg operate like any stereo? Meaning can the unit be on, and if I turn the ignition off and on again, still be on? I remember problems with this on the Mark I so that's why I ask.

How does the empeg handle playback at startup and shutdown? If you are playing a song and you turn the player off, will the song start back in the same place it left off, or will it start back up in the place in the playlist? Will it remember the order a random playlist was generated, and what songs were played in that list already?

DiGNAN

You don't HAVE to wire the Empeg to the ignition at all. If you wire the Empeg power lead(s) to a line that is always on, the only thing you'll have to worry about is power drain from the starter itself. Depending on the car, you may or may not have a power drain big enough for the Empeg to notice. (What is the powerfail threshold for MkI/MkII?)

As for playlists, the player does remember the current playlist (including tracks you may have added with search results), and it's position in that playlist. When the power goes away, the Empeg has enough juice left over to quickly write it's current position (to Flash, I think).
Hugo, is the current playlist stored in Flash or on the HDD?
Jason

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

But what happens if you do connect the empeg to Ignition- or Battery- position of the keylock because you don't want to switch off the empeg manually each time you pull of the key to leave the car (please don't tell me that I have to pull the empeg out of the docking bay because of security-reasons!).
If you switch from Battery to Ignition some cars loose the ignition power between this switching. How is the empeg's behavior? Does it switch of and boot again or does it stay alive during such a short power-loss?

TeeMcBee

Hugo, is the current playlist stored in Flash or on the HDD?

The current playlist (in fact what we now call the "programme" and "running order") is stored on the hard disk since it doesn't change very often. With the new stuff in beta11pre it actually writes to disk lazily so if you've changed the playlist then leave it around ten seconds before you yank the power otherwise it will forget.

There isn't really enough room in the flash to store the playlist.

The position within the running order (both track and timecode) is what is saved to flash on powerfail.


--
Mike Crowe
I may not be speaking on behalf of empeg above :-)

Um, my question wasn't about wiring the empeg to the ignition, it was just whether or not it was okay to turn off the ignition while the empeg was playing -- I thought I remembered a problem with that in the Mark I -- and whether it would save the information when/if it shut it'self down at the ignition turn-off. But it's good to hear that it remembers position in the "created" playlist (or programme - or as we Americans call it, program ).

mac, when you say "timecode", you mean it does save the position in the current track?


DiGNAN

Normally it saves the current position in the track, although I've had it "forget", and start the track from the beginning (Very rare)...

Jazz
(List 112, S/N 00030, 4 gig blue)

Meaning can the unit be on, and if I turn the ignition off and on again, still be on?

Depends on how you hook it up. Personally, I hook mine up to always-on continuous power, so that it can run independently of the ignition. You could also wire it to the ignition-switched power if that's what you prefer (some people do).


I remember problems with this on the Mark I so that's why I ask.

My Mark 1 had no trouble wired that way when it was in my Volkswagen, but when I moved it to the Honda, its high-drain starter motor gave the Empeg fits. I solved the problem with some capacitors. The Mark 2 shouldn't have this problem, though, because it'll requires less juice and it'll run on much lower voltages than the Mark 1 did.


If you are playing a song and you turn the player off, will the song start back in the same place it left off, or will it start back up in the place in the playlist?

The song picks right up where it left off, right in the middle.

However, I've seen it get confused once or twice. I haven't been able to reproduce it, or even be sure that's what really happened, but I think I've seen it come up in at the previous shutdown's position marker. For instance. Let's say I come home at night and pull the unit out of the dash, while it's in the middle of playing "Tom Sawyer". When I go back out in the morning and plug it in, it starts up in the middle of "Tom Sawyer, right where it was the night before. Then I drive to work and it plays through a few songs. When I get to work, it's in the middle of playing "Limelight" when I yank it out of the dash. Then when I head out for lunch, I expect it to pick up in the middle of "Limelight" when I plug it in. But it's back playing "Tom Sawyer" again. Almost as if it didn't get a chance to save its state when I yanked it out of the dash when I got to work.

Like I said, this hasn't really happened to me very often, and when it does happen, I'm never 100 percent certain that I'm really witnessing a bug or not, because I might be hazy as to what exactly I did when I pulled out the unit a few hours earlier (did I rewind it to "Tom Sawyer"? I don't remember). So I haven't officially reported it.

Will it remember the order a random playlist was generated, and what songs were played in that list already?

Yes. Even if that bug happens, I've never seen a shuffled playlist get hosed.

___________
Tony Fabris

Woah, that's cool that you can have it on whith the ignition off. Sorry about the earlier confusion, I wasn't sure what the type of wiring had to do with my question, but now I understand.

So to be able to have the unit independant of my ignition, what do I tell the installer?

Also, I'm kinda worried about my own memory and how my brain will be functioning at certain times of the day (ie for an early class). I know that if music is playing I'll remember to turn the unit off, but if it isn't, how much of a drain on the battery will it be if the unit is on but not playing? Also, wouldn't the amp not work if the ignition were off? Thanks.

DiGNAN

So to be able to have the unit independant of my ignition, what do I tell the installer?

Tell him that you want the stereo to work whether the ignition is switched on or not. He'll know what to do. (But in case he's a knuckle-dragging mouth-breather and you still need to specify for him, tell him to wire both of the Empeg's power leads to the car's always-on power wire.)

I know that if music is playing I'll remember to turn the unit off, but if it isn't, how much of a drain on the battery will it be if the unit is on but not playing?

Well, if the unit's on, it's playing. Unless it's paused or it's hit the end of a non-repeating playlist. But for the most part, if it's on, it'll be playing music. This is the reason some people prefer to have their radios turn off from the ignition. If you're really forgetful, maybe you should wire it normally.

If you put it into "sleep" mode from the front panel, it'll drain very little juice and should be OK to leave in your dash. But I'd recommend pulling from your dash for security reasons whenever possible.

Also, wouldn't the amp not work if the ignition were off?

No, if properly wired, the amps will be connected directly to the battery using heavy-gauge wire. The Empeg controls whether the amps are switched on or not via its Amp Remote wire. When the Empeg is on, the amps will be on, regardless of the ignition.


___________
Tony Fabris

If you switch from Battery to Ignition some cars loose the ignition power between this switching. How is the empeg's behavior? Does it switch of and boot again or does it stay alive during such a short power-loss?

An excellent question, tee -- one that to the best of my knowledge has not been addressed in this bbs.

I, too, would really like to know the answer to this -- it will have considerable bearing on whether I wire my empeg ignition-dependent or always on.

tanstaafl.

"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"

If you switch from Battery to Ignition some cars loose the ignition power between this switching. How is the empeg's behavior? Does it switch of and boot again or does it stay alive during such a short power-loss?
An excellent question, tee -- one that to the best of my knowledge has not been addressed in this bbs.

It depends...

I'm not sure what you're talking about when you say "some cars lose the ignition power". I think what you're saying is: Some cars deliberately shut off the radio's ignition wire as part of the ignition-start cycle. And even the radio is wired to the always-on power, there's a power drain throughout the entire car's electrical system as the starter motor spins which might affect the radio.

If wired to the ignition, the Mark 2 will be able to handle this just fine as it's been designed for it. It will just go briefly dark during the startup, then keep playing just like any other car radio does. There won't be a reboot.

If wired to the always-on power, the Mark 2 should also handle it since it can operate at lower voltages than the Mark 1 did. Whether or not it goes dark or keeps playing right through the startup sequence is probably going to vary depending on how much drain the starter motor puts on the system. Every car's voltage will drop by a different amount during startup. If it drops too much, then the Empeg will reboot. My Mark 1 didn't reboot on my VW, it just went briefly dark during startup as it was supposed to. I only had problems after I moved it to my Honda.

___________
Tony Fabris

f you switch from Battery to Ignition some cars loose the ignition power between this switching.

Some cars deliberately shut off the radio's ignition wire as part of the ignition-start cycle.

No, what Tee was saying is that if you are listening to the empeg with the key in the accessory position, and then switch over to "ignition on" position (not engaging the starater), there is a brief hiatus during the switchover in which the stereo receives no power. Whether there is a further interruption of power when the starater is engaged is another issue -- that varies car to car.

What happens to the empeg when the power is interrupted very briefly -- like a quarter of a second or even less depending on how dextrous you are in turning the key?

tanstaafl.



"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"

Is there a matching interruption in the audio as well? I guess there'd have to be, unless there is enough energy stored in capacitors or whatever (would that be what is known as hysteresis? I don't know much about electronics...) to carry over the brief hiatus.

tanstaafl.

"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"

...there's a slight pause, but no more then your average stereo would produce..
-mark

...proud to have owned one of the first Mark I units

Blimey Tony, either you are incredibly rich or incredibly trusting of Human Nature. You are advocating he regularly leaves his $x-thousand empeg in the car?