Argh! It's still happening. After replacing the car battery, i thought it had gone away but it started up again yesterday afternoon. Seems to not happen at all withOUT the PCA tuner module, but the fact that it did happen once the other day with NO tuner attached is confusing the hell out of me. But i am willin' to chalk that up to my dead battery.

Okay, lets assume for a sec it IS the PCA tuner module. What exactly would cause this behavior?? What malfunction or shoddy solder joint on my part would cause this to happen?

I know this is a stretch.. but reading Roger's post I was wondering if having the serial cable on the sled exposed could cause this?

If not.. are the contacts on your battery cable good? Can you test the alternator?

forgot to mention that this happens to me on ac power

Alrighty folks... i've eliminated everything i can think of. I brought the tuner into my electronics class lab tonight and ran all sorts of power tests and checked for shorts everywhere. Even had my instructor look it over. Everything checks out.

So, it's definitely the tuner... OR a combination of the tuner and something wonky in my car. Could the extra current draw possibly cause something like this?? That's all i can think of.

My next step is to try it out in someone else's car i guess... but that's a tall order. I might just shelve it for a month until i get my WRX and worry about it then. ... yeah... that's what i'll do. THanks for all the ideas guys. I'll try again later.

just started noticing this error again once I upgraded to hijack v340 with 2.0 final software. Did this go away for anyone else?

*bump*

Any resolution on this Loren? I did a roadtrip to Vegas on Sunday, and spent an inordinate amount of time pressing the top button, trying to get the player out of standby. Symptoms are exactly as you've described above, with random "button" presses. At one point, when the remote was in my lap, face up (nothing pressing on the buttons), the player was flipping between info modes at a rate of about two modes/second. I have the latest 2.x final, along with the stock player kernel (i.e. no Hijack). I also have pcats' tuner module installed. I uninstalled the tuner module during a gas stop, and the problem went away. Unfortunately, so did all the power to the player, which apparantly was somehow wired through the tuner. When I plugged the tuner back in, both the power (:)) and the problem (:() came back.

There are no problems when the player is in mlord's dock (which, if I understand correctly, mimics the car install, minus the tuner).

Next step for me is to try (a) wiggling/taping the stalk input (as suggested in this, or another thread), and (b) disconnecting the stalk input completely (which is not in use, anyway).

I uninstalled the tuner module during a gas stop, and the problem went away. Unfortunately, so did all the power to the player, which apparantly was somehow wired through the tuner. When I plugged the tuner back in, both the power (:)) and the problem (:() came back.

I'll bet this is some kind of a ground loop going through the tuner. Your player is getting its ground through the antenna wire connected to the tuner instead of getting its ground from the ground wire on the sled.

The only way I can see that your player is getting random button presses is if there's noise on the serial and/or stalk inputs. I haven't scrolled back in the thread, but did you try disabling the stalk in the player configuration?

I'll bet this is some kind of a ground loop going through the tuner. Your player is getting its ground through the antenna wire connected to the tuner instead of getting its ground from the ground wire on the sled.

Quite possible. All I know is that the installer did some funky wiring. I noticed a few wires were cut that I didn't think should be cut.

The only way I can see that your player is getting random button presses is if there's noise on the serial

oooh, I hadn't thought of that. I'll check to make sure that the dust cap is still on the serial connector.

and/or stalk inputs.

This was my first guess.

I haven't scrolled back in the thread, but did you try disabling the stalk in the player configuration?

No, I didn't think about that, as I thought it was a hijack feature, which I don't have installed. On top of that, as luck would have it, my Java installation is currently fubar, so I can't check it out in JEmplode.

did you try disabling the stalk in the player configuration?

No, I didn't think about that, as I thought it was a hijack feature, which I don't have installed.

No, it's a standard player feature, visible in the "Configure Player" screen in emplode. It has three options: Righthand, Lefthand, and None. If you don't have access to emplode or Jemplode, you can edit the config.ini directly (via serial I suppose since you don't have hijack installed...).

I have also had this problem from day 1 with my Empeg. I have had it in my car for 8 months now and about 75% of the time the Empeg will boot up and immediately go to standby when powered on. This happens when in player mode, when the Empeg is in Aux mode it comes on most every time. I don't think it has ever failed to come on when in Aux mode, just intermittent when in player mode. My wiring is fine, and the player has had flawless operation when running. I am at some point going to try putting diodes on the power wires for isolation. Has anyone else ever had this problem?
I am running V2.0 and Hijack V3.80

*bump*

did you try disabling the stalk in the player configuration?

No, I didn't think about that, as I thought it was a hijack feature, which I don't have installed.

No, it's a standard player feature, visible in the "Configure Player" screen in emplode. It has three options: Righthand, Lefthand, and None.

So, I finally re-installed Hijack, and added the following to my config:

[controls]
stalk_side=none

To test it out, I took a three-plus hour drive up to the Kern River to go whitewater rafting. I didn't have any problems during that drive, but unfortunately, the next day while driving shuttle, I again started having the random dropping into standby. It was an intensely sunny day, so I tried to shield the IR a bit with my hand. It never dropped into standby while doing that. However, since I was driving down windy roads (i.e. I had to keep unshading to put my hand back on the wheel, not to mention watch the road), I wouldn't be able to conclusively say that it's "stray IR signals". Actually, now that I think a bit, it was happening on the drive home at night, too, so I'm ruling out the stray IR.

On the off chance that the capitalization of None matters, I've just corrected that. I'll report back again after a bit more testing.

If this still doesn't work, I think I have three options left:

0) Attempt to map all stalk input into innocuous button presses -- maybe previous/next visual.

1) Beg the Lord for a Hijack option to tell the player to ignore stalk input, whether in standby, or not. (I should be able to figure out the patch since most of this code already exists, but I don't know if my arm toolchain is currently operational for compiling/testing.)

2) Talk to pca to find out how to prevent the tuner module from sending stalk signals back to the empeg. I looked at the wiring harness details, but the tuner connecter wires were simply labelled "tuner, tuner, tuner, tuner", which, quite frankly, wasn't that helpful. (Wasn't there a thread/post about how to not wire stuff for the stalk, or was that just saying one could skip the stalk->tuner input connector?)

3) Uninstall the tuner.

I hate the thought of (3), and (2) would be a reasonable solution, if it's possible, but I'd rather not modify the tuner. My preferred solution, if this next test doesn't work, would be (1). Obviously, I'd rather not have random button presses occur, innocuous, or not, so I'd rather not go with (0).

Anyone see anything dumb in the above?

1) Beg the Lord for a Hijack option to tell the player to ignore stalk input, whether in standby, or not.

Hijack v385 (out shortly):

In config.ini:

[hijack]
stalk_enabled=0


Cheers

Amen, and hallelujah!

I was just about to report that capitalization doesn't seem to matter. I'll load up 385, and let you know if it solves the problem.

Danke,

Hmm... I didn't notice this last night when I loaded v385, but I'm getting a "hijack config error", now. My entire [hijack] section is as follows:

[hijack]
stalk_enabled=0

The player dropped into standby on my way home from work today.

There's something wrong in the config.ini somewhere. Post the actual file for us to look at.

-ml

[Options]
name=Sasquatch
[network]
Gateway=
Netmask=255.255.255.0
DHCP=0
IPAddress=192.168.1.2
[User Info]
name=Ammon Riley
phone=xxx.xxx.xxxx
email=xxxxx@xxxxxx.xxx
[sense]
mute=-1
[power]
off_timeout=60000
[display]
caching=0
visual_names=1
[kenwood]
disabled=0
[ramp]
disabled=0
[volumecap]
enabled=1
[hush]
hushpercent=30
[hijack]
stalk_enabled=0
[wendy]
flag0=vulgarities
flag_amount=1
[custom]
wendy=Sanitized,1,0

( just in case my cut-n-paste screwed something up, I've attached the actual file.)

The only thing I see in there that might cause some problems is that the Gateway isn't filled in. I tried it without that line, as well, and I still get the error.

Presumably you have Hijack v385 or newer installed? Double-check?

-ml

I just now took the file you posted, stuck it onto my player, and rebooted.

No config errors.

So, check the serial logs for a more specific error message.

-ml

Yep. v385, it is, as displayed on boot-up.

Just gave it a whirl with v391, as well, and it's no longer giving me the error. I added a comment to the end of the line, but that's about it. Gnomes, I tell ya. Since it seems to be working, I'll test it out over the next few days, and let you know if this does the trick.

I've had the option enabled for three weeks now, and not a single blip. I'm going to consider this problem solved. Thanks for all the fish.

<font color="orange">I'm still getting this... where the player will stop in the middle of a song and go to the blinking LED... am I the only one? </font>

This is the exact same problem I am having! Are there any solutions yet?

html doesnt work on these forums
in a 'Reply' window there will be a UBBCode in your posts link that explains valid tags
(note, my link is clickable)

This is the exact same problem I am having! Are there any solutions yet?

Yes, just read the posts immediately above yours in "Flat" mode.

-ml