I recently purchased an Orinoco WavLAN Ethernet Converter from one of the fine upstanding members of this board. I did this with the idea of installing it in my car so that I can sync from my office computer without bringing my empeg into the office (which we can assume for the sake of brevity, is forbidden.)

My dilemma is that I want to be able to sync at any point during the day without walking out to my car and turning the ignition on so that the player is on. In my thinking so far, I've only come up with two possibilities:

1. Have the player stay in standby mode all day
2. Hook up a RF remote by which I can remotely turn the player on.

WRT #1 - So far, I've not been able to find a setting that will make the player stay in standby mode indefinitely when the ACC power goes off. I'm aware of the setting to extend that time in emplode. Should I just enter in an insanely large number like 43,200? That should cover most of my work days as I usually don't work longer than 12 hrs. Also, is the power consumption such that I would have to worry about starting the car again after the player has been on standby for that period of time?

WRT #2 - If number 1 won't work due to battery consumption, any ideas on a good way to implement this? What comes to mind is those remote ignition kits...but how do those work?

If it's just a remote switch, I could just wire it to switch the acc wire on the sled between the permanent 12v line and the ACC line, but then I'd have to remember to turn it off every time (undesirable outcome). I would basically want it to reset to acc power every time the ignition was switched.

If it just sends a pulse down the line, I could have it send 12v down the acc line only while the remote button is pressed so that the player would turn on and immediately go into standby mode when the remote button is depressed. Then I could just have the standby time set to an hour or two.

I appreciate any thoughts or suggestions you can offer.

There is a limit to how high you can set the standby timeout value. That limit keeps changing with each software release, I don't know its current upper limit. Anyone?

You could always wire the player's ignition-sense wire to the constant power line. But like you said, that might be a battery drain issue if the player is left in the car for long periods, as it would never drop out of standby (and you'd get amplifier pops sometimes).

Then there's the theft protection question. Making the player stay in the car "by default" is asking for trouble.

Then there's the theft protection question. Making the player stay in the car "by default" is asking for trouble.

How did I know you were going to say that? If you saw where I work, you'd laugh about the security issue. I'm so far out in the middle of nowhere I have to use satellite for my internet connection. There are only four employees on location and all of them happen to strongly believe that theft is morally abhorrent. Not to mention that I can see my car from my window. I do have an empeg bag and I carry it with me when I'm in more populated areas.

Do you have a garage door opener? The one I have (Craftman Security+) has three buttons on it to open three different doors. Just go online and buy a garage door receiver. I think they run about 50 dollars US. These receivers provide a contact closure for the length of time you hold down the button on your garage door opener and they operate on 12 volts. Wire the receiver to provide a signal to the acc. power input of your Rio. When you pushed the button on the remote it would then put your Rio in standby. Would this work?

Good suggestion. I live in an apartment, so no garage door opener. I'll still check it out and see if it has merit over the remote car starter kit.

Keep 'em coming guys.

303 asked about a similar thing in another thread. Some alarm has a smaller module than a full remote starter kit - only gets a relay output. Press button to toggle between on/off state... if you're in alarm remote range and your alarm can support such a module

/Michael

If your car has remote door locking, you can pretty much do whatever you want with a few diodes.
You could hook the ign wire of the empeg up to both the ign and the + puls of the door lock, seperated by 2 gen purpose diodes (connect the banded side of both diodes to the empeg and the other side of each diode to each 'ign' wire) like a 1N4001 or similar (these have 1A limit so check how much current goes thourgh the ign wire).
Each time you push the lock button of the remote, the empeg will get a ign puls putting the unit in standby. If your remote has a seperate button for lock / unlock you don't even have to unlock the door first (safety issue, although it's only for a few secs)
If you find it too hard to find the + wire of the doors, you could use something else that turns on with the remote (like interior light, turn indicator, headlights etc). Shouldn't be hard to do.
If your car doesn't have a remote, you could get one of those universal remote controlled door locking relays and use that instead (heck, you can even hook it up to the doors at the same time).

Frank

Edit: I've never checked how long the puls has to be for the empeg to turn into standby. If the puls from the central locking isn't long enough, hook it up to a relay with a capacitor over the coil to keep the relay closed for a few secs.

Great suggestions.

mtempsch: I'll check at my local car stereo/alarm shop and see if they have anything that would work.

f_devocht: I drive an '89 Chevy S-10 Blazer though, so no remote for the car. Like you say, it would be nice to have the doors on remote anyway, so I'll check that out while I'm at the shop.

Of course it would carry the added bonus of never having to wait for the empeg to boot up, since it would always boot before I ever got to the car. Shweeet!

Anyone know the limit to how high you can set the standby timeout value? Roger?