I've done some searching on this BBS and haven't had any luck finding the pin-outs for the docking cage connector on the Mk. 2. Does anyone have this information, or could they point me in the right direction?

Thanks,
Oscar

It should be fairly easy to reverse-engineer the pinouts, provided that you've got the docking sleeve sitting loose on the table in front of you instead of installed in the car. That's what I did before installing my Mark 1.

If anyone does this, make sure to post them here, and also send them to the developer site- they've only got the Mark1 pinouts listed there right now.

___________
Tony Fabris

My empeg was just installed by a pro installer yesterday, and I'm trying to diagnose the infamous startup/shutdown thump problem, so I don't have easy access to do any reverse engineering. You're right: the only pin-outs I've seen so far are for the Mk. 1 -- I'm really surprised the new pin-outs aren't available on the geek site!

If you get the shutdown thump (ie, the unit does not go into standby when the ignition is turned off, but dies completely) then there is a fix available (no wiring required, it's an inline diode in a male-female iso lead so it simply plugs in). Contact rob@empeg.com if you are experiencing this problem.

Hugo

Hugo, I do hope the fix you have will take care of the problem, but that assumes the wiring is in fact correct, which I haven't yet verified. Can you give us the Mk. 2 connector pin-outs?

Thanks,
Oscar

I still haven't installed mine so I thought I might as well help with this. Here goes:

1 - permanent power input
2 - amp. remote
3 - tuner
4 - tuner
5 - tuner
6 - tuner
7 - tuner
8 - serial pin 2 (RD)
9 - serial pin 3 (TD)
10 - headlights sense input / serial pin 8 (CTS)
11 - tel. mute input / serial pin 1 (CD)
12 - microhone sleeve
13 - earth
14 - ignition sense input
15 - rear output right
16 - rear output ground
17 - rear output left
18 - front output right
19 - front output ground
20 - front output left
21 - aux input right
22 - aux input ground
23 - aux input left
24 - microphone tip

The wiring of the serial port confuses me, can anybody verify this?

Best,
Borislav

You can generally tell if the wiring is correct like this:

- Insert empeg with ignition switch off. empeg should *not* boot.
- Turn ignition key. empeg should boot. There should be no thump.

If the empeg boots as soon as you put it into the docking bay (ignition on or not) then you have permanent/switched (yellow/orange) wires swapped.

Hugo

That's great, Borislav, thanks!

Also make sure to submit this to the developer site, too (http://www.empeg.mars.org/).

One thing... The ground connections are sometimes tied together at the docking sleeve. Is there any way to indicate which ones are tied (or can you tell by looking)?

___________
Tony Fabris

The ground connections are sometimes tied together at the docking sleeve. Is there any way to indicate which ones are tied (or can you tell by looking)?

The ones that are tied together are pin 10 (headlight sense and serial pin 8) and pin 11 (tel mute and serial pin 1). These don't make sense at all. I also don't see any +12V power going to the serial connector. The manual says that there's 12V on serial pin 4, but there's nothing connected to mine. Am I missing something, or is my connector wired wrongly?

Thanks,
Borislav

The first 1000 units have unfortunately not got power or ground on the serial connector - somehow, this escaped me when I drew the wiring diagrams.

This isn't hard to fix in your wiring for an external device you'll connect to the port, though.

Hugo

But what about Borislav's assertion that the headlight sense and telephone mute are tied together? That doesn't make sense to me, either. Did he get something wrong?

___________
Tony Fabris

But what about Borislav's assertion that the headlight sense and telephone mute are tied together? That doesn't make sense to me, either. Did he get something wrong?

Wait, no, that's not what I meant. I meant that:
- the headlight sense wire and the wire going to serial pin 8 are tied together and both of them go to pin 10 on the docking connector;
- the telephone mute wire and the wire going to serial pin 1 are tied together and both of them go to pin 11 on the docking connector.

So the tel mute and headlight sense are NOT tied together, sorry about the confusion.

Borislav

The first 1000 units have unfortunately not got power or ground on the serial connector - somehow, this escaped me when I drew the wiring diagrams.

This isn't hard to fix in your wiring for an external device you'll connect to the port, though.

Thanks for the explanation, Hugo. You are right, as long as this is a known issue, it shouldn't be a problem.

Best,
Borislav

Ah, sorry, I misunderstood. Thanks for clearing that up.

___________
Tony Fabris

I am affraid Borislav is right, and that serial handshaking leads are indeed shared with headlight sense and mute inputs (presumably due to docking connector limitations), so one has to choose which one wants to use. In normal operation (say, if you want just to plug a terminal when in car) this is not a problem since empeg comm software only uses 3-wire serial (provided that your device and empeg share the ground :)

I think this was covered previously here.

Cheers!

Dragi "Bonzi" Raos
Zagreb, Croatia
Q#5196, MkII#80000376, 18GB green

OK, so I know this is a very old thread, but I suddenly care about this.

Hugo said:
The first 1000 units have unfortunately not got power or ground on the serial connector - somehow, this escaped me when I drew the wiring diagrams.

OK, no power is one thing, but if there's no ground, then the serial port can't work, right?

And to think I was revelling in the elegance of actually powering the GPS unit from the power on pin 4. Garmins use a single four-pin connector with +12V, GND, TD and RD, which, had I a properly wired sled, should have been a single cable from the empeg serial port.

Is this something I'm likely to be able to fix at the back of the sled? any problems with just connecting the appropriate wires in the serial cable to the right points on the docking connector?

And while we're on the subject, am I correct in assuming that the amp turn-on lead, the tuner power supply (and therefore the power antenna lead from the tuner module), and the pin4 power connection are in fact all the same 1A output from the empeg?

Given that, how much current does the tuner draw? The worst-case for the GPS is 4.3W, or about 380mA at 12V. (and this is a StreetPilot ColorMap!) I'm making a WAG that the BMW antenna preamp draws 100-200mA, and that the amps are a fairly high impedance input. This leaves ~400mA for the tuner. Am I asking for trouble?

A further digression: Is the tuner powered up all the time, or does the PIC turn off the tuner module when the empeg isn't listening to it? And the power antenna lead, I'm guessing is only active when the tuner is in use. I don't know because I don't have a power antenna, though I am using the blue wire off the tuner for the factory preamp.


-Zandr
Mk.I #0150 10GB
RioCar #010101243 10GB (96GB here I come...)

I posted here about the differences between the early and later MK2 serial cables. You could quite easily rewire it yourself, but you would need a new serial connector and cable as the existing one doesn't have enough wires in it.

(list 6284, Mk1 S/N 00299 4GB blue [for sale]. Mk2 S/N 080000094 26GB blue)

Thanks for the pointer. I'll probably just swap in my spare sled (which came with #1243...should be fine) for the moment, and worry about retrofitting the cable on the old sled later.

Thanks again,

-Zandr
Mk.I #0150 10GB
RioCar #010101243 10GB (96GB here I come...)